ed towards the point of equilibrium in the
centre, where there was a great ring of iron round which there radiated
the iron star that secured the planks of the half-globe. The whole mass
was upheld by a stout beam of pine-wood, well shod with iron, which lay
across the timbers of the roof; and to this beam was fastened the ring
that sustained and balanced the half-globe, which from the ground truly
appeared like a Heaven. At the foot of the inner edge it had certain
wooden brackets, large enough for one person to stand on and no more,
and at the height of one braccio there was also an iron fastening,
likewise on the inner edge; on each of these brackets there was placed a
boy about twelve years old, who was girt round with the iron fastening
one braccio and a half high, in such wise that he could not have fallen
down even if he had wanted to. These boys, who were twelve in all, were
placed on the brackets, as it has been said, and dressed like angels,
with gilded wings and hair made of gold thread; and when it was time
they took one another by the hand and waved their arms, so that they
appeared to be dancing, and the rather as the half-globe was ever moving
and turning round. Within it, above the heads of the angels, were three
circles or garlands of lights, contained in certain little lamps that
could not be overturned. From the ground these lights appeared like
stars, and the brackets, being covered with cotton-wool, appeared like
clouds. From the aforesaid ring there issued a very stout bar of iron,
which had at the end another ring, to which there was fastened a thin
rope reaching to the ground, as it will be told later. The said stout
bar of iron had eight arms, spreading out in an arc large enough to fill
the space within the hollow half-globe, and at the end of each arm there
was a stand about the size of a trencher; on each stand was a boy about
nine years old, well secured by an iron soldered on to the upper part of
the arm, but loosely enough to allow him to turn in every direction.
These eight angels, supported by the said iron, were lowered from the
space within the half-globe by means of a small windlass that was
unwound little by little, to a depth of eight braccia below the level of
the square beams that support the roof, in such a manner that they were
seen without concealing the view of the angels who were round the inner
edge of the half-globe. In the midst of this cluster of eight
angels--for so was it