sel of that holy man, that the said action completely accomplished
what his preachings and threatenings had never been able to do, insomuch
that, becoming united among themselves no long time after, they governed
that city for many years afterwards with much peace and quiet for all.

But returning to Parri: after the said work, he painted in fresco in a
chapel of the Church and Hospital of S. Cristofano, beside the Company
of the Nunziata, for Mona Mattea de' Testi, wife of Carcascion
Florinaldi, who left a very good endowment to that little church; and
there he made Christ Crucified, with many angels round Him and above
Him, flying in a certain dark sky and weeping bitterly. At the foot of
the Cross, on one side, are the Magdalene and the other Maries, who are
holding the fainting Madonna in their arms; and on the other side are S.
James and S. Christopher. On the walls he painted S. Catherine, S.
Nicholas, the Annunciation, and Jesus Christ at the Column; and, in an
arch over the door of the said church, a Pieta, S. John, and Our Lady.
But the paintings within (save those of the chapel) have been spoilt,
and the arch was pulled down in the substituting of a modern door of
grey-stone, and in the making of a convent for one hundred nuns with the
revenues of that Company. For this convent Giorgio Vasari made a most
careful model, but it was afterwards altered, nay, reduced to the vilest
form, by those who most unworthily had charge of so great a fabric. For
it comes to pass very often that one stumbles against certain men, said
to be very learned, but for the most part ignorant, who, under pretence
of understanding, set themselves arrogantly many times to try to play
the architect and to superintend; and more often than not they spoil the
arrangements and the models of those who, having spent their lives in
the study and practice of building, can act with judgment in works of
architecture; and this brings harm to posterity, which is thus deprived
of the utility, convenience, beauty, ornament, and grandeur that are
requisite in buildings, and particularly in those that are to be used
for the public service.

In the Church of S. Bernardo, also, a monastery of the Monks of Monte
Oliveto, Parri painted two chapels, one on either side within the
principal door. In that which is on the right hand, dedicated to the
Trinity, he made a God the Father, who is supporting Christ Crucified in
His arms, and above there is the Dove of