eath a mantle and holds
it to its mouth. Logic has a serpent in her hand, and is veiled, with
Zeno Eleate at her feet reading. Arithmetic holds the table of the
Abacus, and under her sits Abraham, its inventor. Music has musical
instruments, with Tubal Cain beneath, beating with two hammers upon
an anvil, with his ears listening to the sound. Geometry has the
quadrant and sextant, with Euclid beneath. Astrology has the sphere
of the heavens in her hands, and Atlas under her feet. On the other
side sit the seven theological sciences, each one having beneath it a
person of an appropriate condition, pope, emperor, king, cardinal,
duke, bishop, marquis, etc., the pope being a portrait of Clement V.
In the middle, and occupying a higher place, is St Thomas Aquinas,
who was master of all these sciences, and certain heretics under his
feet, Arius, Sabellius, and Averroes. About him are Moses, Paul, John
the Evangelist, and some other figures with the four cardinal
virtues, and the three theological ones, in addition to an infinite
number of other ideas set forth by Taddeo with no small design and
grace, so that this may be considered the best devised and the most
finely preserved of all his works. In the same S. Maria Novello, over
the transept he did a St Jerome dressed as a cardinal. He held that
saint in reverence, choosing him as the protector of his house, and
after Taddeo's death his son Agnolo made a tomb for his descendants
covered with a marble slab adorned with the arms of the Gaddi under
this picture. For these descendants the cardinal Jerome, aided by
their merits and the goodness of Taddeo, has obtained from God most
distinguished places in the church, such as clerkships of the
chamber, bishoprics, cardinalates, provostships, and most honourable
knighthoods. The descendants of Taddeo have uniformly valued and
encouraged men of genius in painting and sculpture, assisting them to
the utmost of their power. At length when Taddeo had reached the age
of fifty years, he was seized with a severe fever and passed from
this life in the year 1350, leaving Agnolo his son and Giovanni to
carry on the painting, recommending them to Jacopo di Casentino for
their material well being, and to Giovanni da Milano for instruction
in art. This Giovanni, besides many other things, made a picture,
after Taddeo's death, which was placed in S. Croce at the altar of St
Gherardo da Villamagna, fourteen years after he had been left without