d
suffered great discomfort in the heat of the day. Filippo therefore made
arrangements for eating-houses with kitchens to be opened on the cupola,
and for wine to be sold there, so that no one had to leave his labour
until the evening, which was convenient for the men and very
advantageous for the work. Seeing the work making great progress and
succeeding so happily, Filippo had grown so greatly in courage that he
was continually labouring, going in person to the furnaces where the
bricks were being shaped and demanding to see the clay and to feel its
consistency, and insisting on selecting them with his own hand when
baked, with the greatest diligence. When the stonecutters were working
at the stones, he would look at them to see if they showed flaws and if
they were hard, and he would give the men models in wood or wax, or[19]
made simply out of turnips; and he would also make iron tools for the
smiths. He invented hinges with heads, and hinge-hooks, and he did much
to facilitate architecture, which was certainly brought by him to a
perfection such as it probably had never enjoyed among the Tuscans.

[Footnote 19: To make this passage intelligible, the word "or" has been
added in the later editions.]

In the year 1423 the greatest possible happiness and rejoicing were
prevailing in Florence, when Filippo was chosen as one of the Signori
for the quarter of San Giovanni, for May and June, Lapo Niccolini being
chosen as Gonfalonier of Justice for the quarter of Santa Croce. And if
he is found registered in the Priorista as "Filippo di Ser Brunellesco
Lippi," no one need marvel, seeing that he was called thus after his
grandfather Lippo, and not "de' Lapi," as he should have been; which
method is seen from the said Priorista to have been used in innumerable
other cases, as is well known to all who have seen it or who know the
custom of those times. Filippo exercised that office and also other
magisterial functions that he obtained in his city, wherein he ever bore
himself with most profound judgment.

Seeing that the two vaults were beginning to close in on the round
window where the lantern was to rise, it now remained to Filippo (who
had made many models of clay and of wood for both the one and the other
in Rome and in Florence, without showing them) to make up his mind
finally which of these he would put into execution. Wherefore, having
determined to finish the gallery, he made diverse designs, which
remained afte