This series of papers shows that a group of monuments erected by the French Cistercian monks, and here for the first time fully described and illustrated, were the earliest structures in Italy in which the principles of transitional-Gothic architecture were carried out. The series covers monasteries at Fossanova, Al Cimino, Chiaravalle di Castagnola, and Arbona, including photographs, floorplans, and brief discussions of the history of each site. Frothingham dates these monasteries to the 12th and 13th centuries and proposes that these buildings – and not those of the Franciscans and Dominicans – were the first Gothic importations to Italy from the Ile-de-France. This series describes a unified Cistercian style of architecture and presents a convincing model for the transition to Gothic architecture in medieval Italy.