ct, as
he showed in many works in connection with the fitting up of houses,
such as the house of Apollonio Lapi, his kinsman, in the Canto de' Ciai,
towards the Mercato Vecchio, wherein he occupied himself greatly while
the other was having it built; and he did the same in the tower and in
the house of Petraia, at Castello without Florence. In the Palace that
was the habitation of the Signoria, he arranged and distributed all
those rooms wherein the officials of the Monte had their office, and he
made doors and windows there in the manner copied from the ancient,
which was then little used, for architecture was very rude in Tuscany.
In Florence, a little later, there was a statue of lime-wood to be made
for the Friars of S. Spirito, representing S. Mary Magdalene in
Penitence, to be placed in a chapel; and Filippo, who had wrought many
little things in sculpture, desiring to show that he was able to succeed
in large works as well, undertook to make the said figure, which, when
put into execution and finished, was held something very beautiful; but
it was destroyed afterwards, together with many other notable works, in
the year 1471, when that church was burnt down.

He gave much attention to perspective, which was then in a very evil
plight by reason of many errors that were made therein; and in this he
spent much time, until he found by himself a method whereby it might
become true and perfect--namely, that of tracing it with the ground-plan
and profile and by means of intersecting lines, which was something
truly most ingenious and useful to the art of design. In this he took so
great delight that he drew with his own hand the Piazza di S. Giovanni,
with all the compartments of black and white marble wherewith that
church was incrusted, which he foreshortened with singular grace; and he
drew, likewise, the building of the Misericordia, with the shops of the
Wafer-Makers and the Volta de' Pecori, and the column of S. Zanobi on
the other side. This work, bringing him praise from craftsmen and from
all who had judgment in that art, encouraged him so greatly that it was
not long before he put his hand to another and drew the Palace, the
Piazza, and the Loggia of the Signori, together with the roof of the
Pisani and all the buildings that are seen round that Piazza; and these
works were the means of arousing the minds of the other craftsmen, who
afterwards devoted themselves to this with great zeal. He taught it, in
partic