GEROLA, GIUSEPPE. - Archaeologist and art scholar, b. at Arsiero on 2 April 1877, d. at Trento on 21 September 1938.
He was responsible for some 600 publications on the history of Trentino, Venice, Ravenna, and Byzantium, and on the monuments of Italian civilization in Crete and the other islands of the Aegean. All his studies were consistently conducted with an analytical spirit, keen intuition, and truly exceptional passion, qualities that made him a meticulous and objective researcher and a conscientious restorer of monuments. He carried out much of his work as superintendent of monuments at Ravenna, and he was also responsible for founding the journal Felix Ravenna, which made a substantial contribution to the study of Christian antiquities. Among his studies, fundamental also because of its wide subsequent influence, remains that published by him in 1921 under the title Architettura d'eterobizantina in Ravenna; it opened new paths for the assessment and dating of a considerable number of churches in the city and countryside of Ravenna.