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Octagonal churches, but not other octagonal buildings

This is not a monograph on the octagonal church of San Vitale in Ravenna, but rather a study of San Vitale and 34 other, earlier or contemporary, octagonal churches. The other 34 churches are treated in brief chapters of 2-3 pp., with the final, longer one dedicated to San Vitale itself, for a total of 35 chapters, which is quite a lot. Yet, as these chapters are clear, balanced and up-to-date, and well illustrated with photographs and drawings (many by M. J. Johnson himself), the book becomes an important and useful reference for the whole of this particular group of Early Christian churches. Of the 35, only three are still standing: San Vitale in Ravenna, SS. Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople, and St. George in Izraa (Syria). Alongside the more famous churches, the book also draws attention to many important but little known octagonal buildings. The author pays particular attention to the metrology and the use of the Roman and Byzantine foot in the planning. As the Byzantine foot began to replace the Roman one in the third decade of the 6th c., he uses the identification of the foot as an instrument also for the dating of buildings which have been poorly documented.