f Neri had lived, and had not died at the age of
thirty-six, he would have made more numerous and better works than did
Lorenzo, his father, whose Life, seeing that he was the last of the
masters of the old manner of Giotto, will also be the last of this First
Part, which with the aid of the blessed God we have brought to
conclusion.

THE SECOND PART OF THE LIVES OF THE SCULPTORS, PAINTERS, AND ARCHITECTS,
WHO HAVE LIVED FROM CIMABUE TO OUR OWN DAY. WRITTEN BY MESSER GIORGIO
VASARI, PAINTER AND ARCHITECT OF AREZZO

PREFACE TO THE SECOND PART

When first I undertook to write these Lives, it was not my intention to
make a list of the craftsmen, and an inventory, so to speak, of their
works, nor did I ever judge it a worthy end for these my labours--I will
not call them beautiful, but certainly long and fatiguing--to discover
their numbers, their names, and their countries, and to tell in what
cities, and in what places exactly in those cities, their pictures, or
sculptures, or buildings were now to be found; for this I could have
done with a simple table, without interposing my own judgment in any
part. But seeing that the writers of history--those of them who, by
common consent, are reputed to have written with the best judgment--have
not only refused to content themselves with the simple narration of the
succession of events, but, with all diligence and with the greatest
power of research at their disposal, have set about investigating the
methods, the means, and the ways that men of mark have used in the
management of their enterprises; and seeing that they have striven to
touch on their errors, and at the same time on their fine achievements
and on the expedients and resolutions sometimes wisely adopted in their
government of affairs, and on everything, in short, that these men have
effected therein, sagaciously or negligently, or with prudence, or
piety, or magnanimity; which these writers have done as men who knew
history to be truly the mirror of human life, not in order to make a
succinct narration of the events that befell a Prince or a Republic, but
in order to observe the judgments, the counsels, the resolutions, and
the intrigues of men, leading subsequently to fortunate and unfortunate
actions; for this is the true soul of history, and is that which truly
teaches men to live and makes them wise, and which, besides the pleasure
that comes from seeing past events as present, is the true end of t