was forced for the sake of his honour to accept
one of these tasks, and, although he did it very unwillingly, he
resolved to take the chain of ties, as being the easier, relying on the
advice of the masons and on the remembrance that in the vaulting of S.
Giovanni in Florence there was a chain of stone ties, wherefrom he might
take a part of the design, if not the whole. And so one put his hand to
the scaffoldings and the other to the ties, and each carried out his
work. The scaffoldings of Filippo were made with so great ingenuity and
industry, that the very opposite opinion was held in this matter to that
which many had previously conceived, for the builders stood on them,
working and drawing up weights, as securely as if they had been on the
surface of the ground; and the models of the said scaffoldings were
preserved in the Office of Works. Lorenzo had the chain of ties made on
one of the eight sides with the greatest difficulty; and when it was
finished, the Wardens caused Filippo to look at it. To them he said
nothing, but he discoursed thereon with some of his friends, saying that
it was necessary to have some form of fastening different from that one,
and to apply it in a better manner than had been done, and that it was
not strong enough to withstand the weight that was to be laid above, for
it did not bind the masonry together firmly enough; adding that the
supplies given to Lorenzo, as well as the chain that he had caused to be
made, had been simply thrown away. The opinion of Filippo became known,
and he was charged to show what was the best way of making such a
chain. Whereupon, having already made designs and models, he immediately
showed them, and when they had been seen by the Wardens and the other
masters, it was recognized into what great error they had fallen by
favouring Lorenzo; and wishing to atone for this error and to show that
they knew what was good, they made Filippo overseer and superintendent
of the whole fabric for life, saying that nothing should be done in that
work without his command. And as a proof of approbation they gave him
one hundred florins, decreed by the Consuls and Wardens under date of
August 13, 1423, by the hand of Lorenzo Paoli, notary to the Office of
Works, and under the name of Gherardo di Messer Filippo Corsini; and
they voted him an allowance of one hundred florins a year as a provision
for life. Wherefore, giving orders for the building to be pushed on, he
pursued it