ork remained unfinished, nor
will it ever be finished at all, for there are not wanting certain
malignant persons--as always happens with great works--who censure it,
striving to diminish the glory of others by their malignity and
evil-speaking, since they fail by a great measure to achieve similar
things with their own powers.

The same master built another gate at Verona, called the Porta di S.
Zeno, which is very beautiful; in any other place, indeed, it would be
marvellous, but in Verona its beauty and artistry are obscured by the
two others described above. A work of Michele's, likewise, is the
bastion, or rather rampart, that is near this gate, and also another
that is lower down, opposite to S. Bernardino, and another between
them, called Dell'Acquaio, which is opposite to the Campo Marzio; and
also that surpassing all the others in size, which is placed by the
Chain, where the Adige enters the city.

[Illustration: CAPPELLA DE' PELLEGRINI

(_After =Michele San Michele=. Verona: S. Bernardino_)

_Alinari_]

At Padua he built the bastion called the Cornaro, and likewise that of
S. Croce, which are both of marvellous size, and constructed in the
modern manner, according to the order invented by Michele himself. For
the method of making bastions with angles was the invention of
Michele, and before his day they were made round; and whereas that
kind of bastion was very difficult to defend, at the present day,
having an obtuse angle on the outer side, they can be defended with
ease, either from the cavalier erected between the two bastions and
near to them, or, indeed, from the other bastion, provided that it
be near the one attacked and the ditch wide. His invention, also, was
the method of making bastions with three platforms, whereby the two at
the sides guard and defend the ditch and the curtains, with their open
embrasures, and the merlon in the centre defends itself and attacks
the enemy in front. This method of fortification has since been
imitated by everyone, causing the abandonment of the ancient fashion
of subterranean embrasures, called casemates, in which, on account of
the smoke and other impediments, the artillery could not be well
handled; not to mention that they often weakened the foundations of
the towers and walls.

The same Michele built two very beautiful gates at Legnago. He
directed at Peschiera the work of the first foundation of that
fortress, and likewise many works at Brescia; and h