fellows who wish to have arms and found houses, and whose
antecedents have often been picked up at the foundling hospitals!

It is said that while Giotto was still a boy, and with Cimabue, he
once painted a fly on the nose of a figure which Cimabue had made, so
naturally that when his master turned round to go on with his work,
he more than once attempted to drive the fly away with his hand,
believing it to be real, before he became aware of his mistake. I
could tell many more of Giotto's practical jokes, and relate many of
his sharp retorts, but I wish to confine myself to the things which
concern the arts, and I must leave the rest to Franco and the others.

In conclusion, in order that Giotto should not be without a memorial,
in addition to the works which came from his hand, and to the notices
left by the writers of his day, since it was he who found once again
the true method of painting, which had been lost many years before
his time, it was decreed by public order that his bust in marble,
executed by Benedetto da Maiano, an Excellent sculptor, should be
placed in S. Maria del Fiore. This was due to the activity and zeal
displayed by Lorenzo dei Medici, the Magnificent, the elder, who
greatly admired Giotto's talents. The following verses by that divine
man, Messer Angelo Poliziano, were inscribed on the monument, so that
all men who excelled in any profession whatever, might hope to earn
such a memorial, which Giotto, for his part, had most richly deserved
and earned:

Ille ego sum, per quem pictura extincta revixit,
Cui quam recta manus. tam fuit et facilis.
Naturae deerat nostrae, quod defait arti:
Plus licuit nulli pingere, nec melius.
Miraris turrim egregiam sacro aere sonantem?
Haec quoque de modulo crevit ad astra meo.
Denique sum Jottus, quid opus fuit illa referre?
Hoc nomen longi carminis instar erit.

And in order that those who come after may see by Giotto's own
designs the nature of the excellence of this great man, there are
some magnificent specimens in my book, which I have collected with
great care as well as with much trouble and expense.

Agostino and Agnolo, Sculptors and Architects of Siena.

Among the others who worked in the school of the sculptors Giovanni
and Niccola Pisani were Agostino and Agnolo, sculptors of Siena,
whose lives we are now writing, and who achieved great success
according to the standard of the time. I have discove