s were granted to Blessed Giovanni by the papal legate and
by the bishop of the city, they entered into possession and began to
live in that place on the last day of October 1221. But as this
church was rather small, with a western aspect and the entrance on
the old piazza, the friars, who had increased in numbers and who were
in great credit in the city, began to think of enlarging their church
and convent. So, having collected a great sum of money, and many
people of the city having promised every assistance, they began the
construction of a new church on St Luke's day, 1278, when the first
stone was laid with great ceremony by the Cardinal Latino degli
Orsini, legate of Pope Nicholas III. to the Florentines. The
architects of the church were fra Giovanni of Florence, and fra
Ristoro of Campi, lay brethren of the order, who had restored the
ponte alia Carraia, and that of S. Trinita, after their destruction
by the flood of October 1264. The greater part of the land covered by
the church and convent was given to the friars by the heirs of M.
Jacopo, de' Tornaquinci knight. The cost, as has been said, was
defrayed partly by alms, partly by the money of various persons who
gave assistance readily, but especially by the good offices of friar
Aldobrandino Cavalcanti, who was, afterwards bishop of Arezzo, and
who is buried over the gate of the Virgin. Besides other things this
friar is said to have collected by his industry all the labour and
materials required for the church. It was completed when fra Jacopo
Passavanti was prior of the convent, who thus deserved his marble
tomb which is on the left hand side in front of the principal chapel.
The church was consecrated by Pope Martin V. in the year 1470, as
appears by an inscription on marble on a pillar on the right of the
principal chapel, which runs:

Anno Domini 1420 die Septembris, Dominus Martinus divina
providentia Papa V personaliter hanc ecclesiam consecravit, et
magnas indulgentias contulit visitantibus eamdem.

All these things and many more are related in a chronicle of the
building of this church, which is in the possession of the fathers of
S. Maria Novella, as well as in the history of Giovanni Villani. I
did not wish to omit these few particulars, because the church is one
of the finest and most important in Florence, and also because it
contains many excellent works of the most famous artists of a later
time, as will be related hereafter.