its sides, likewise, must be
girt round with oaken ties. And it is necessary to think of the lights,
the staircases, and the conduits whereby the rain-water may be able to
run off; and not one of you has remembered that you must provide for the
raising of scaffoldings within, when the mosaics come to be made,
together with an infinite number of difficulties. But I, who see the
vaulting raised, know that there is no other method and no other way of
raising it than this that I am describing." And growing heated as he
spoke, the more he sought to expound his conception, to the end that
they might understand it and believe in it, the greater grew their
doubts about his proposal, so that they believed in him less and less,
and held him to be an ass and a babbler. Whereupon, having been
dismissed several times and finally refusing to go, he was carried away
bodily from the audience by their servants, being thought to be wholly
mad; and this affront was the reason that Filippo could afterwards say
that he did not dare to pass through any part of the city, for fear lest
someone might say: "There goes that madman."

The Consuls remained in the Audience Chamber all confused, both by the
difficult methods of the original masters and by this last method of
Filippo's, which they thought absurd, for it appeared to them that he
would ruin the work in two ways: first, by making the vaulting double,
which would have made it enormous and unwieldy in weight; and secondly,
by making it without a framework. On the other hand, Filippo, who had
spent so many years in study in order to obtain the commission, knew not
what to do and was often tempted to leave Florence. However, wishing to
prevail, he was forced to arm himself with patience, having insight
enough to know that the brains of the men of that city did not abide
very firmly by any one resolution. Filippo could have shown a little
model that he had in his possession, but he did not wish to show it,
having recognized the small intelligence of the Consuls, the envy of the
craftsmen, and the instability of the citizens, who favoured now one and
now another, according as it pleased each man best; and I do not marvel
at this, since every man in that city professes to know as much in these
matters as the experienced masters know, although those who truly
understand them are but few; and let this be said without offence to
those who have the knowledge. What Filippo, therefore, had not been ab