Larry Shenfield’s passion for art and history was fuelled when he was a young man serving in Italy during the war. He had been chief translator to the Head of Allied Control during World War II, a writer on the Herald Tribune magazine, and his country's Vice Consul to Italy.

Many decades later, having been a linguist, diplomat and hotelier he continued his journey of knowledge which at age 87 culminated in a PhD and the publication of his book in 2008: How Much of the Florence Baptistery is a Surviving Roman Building?: A re-evaluation of the archaeological, architectural and artistic evidence. Within it he undertakes a re-evaluation of the archaeological, architectural and artistic evidence for the building, and concludes that there is - as seems intrinsically likely - a Roman core to its structure. The memory within.