order that his columns
might be known from the others, he made some of them at the corners with
eight sides, with capitals that have the foliage carved in the modern
fashion, and some round; and all are very easily distinguished from the
old columns that Arnolfo made formerly. Afterwards, by the advice of
Michelozzo, it was ordained by those who then governed the city that the
arches of those columns should be unburdened and relieved of the weight
of the walls that rested upon them; that the whole courtyard should be
rebuilt from the arches upwards, with a row of windows in modern
fashion, similar to those that he had made for Cosimo in the courtyard
of the Palace of the Medici; and that designs in rustic-work should be
carved on the walls, for the reception of those golden lilies that are
still seen there at the present day. All this Michelozzo did with great
promptitude; and on the second tier, directly above the windows of the
said courtyard, he made some round windows (so as to have them different
from the aforesaid windows), to give light to the rooms on that floor,
which are over those of the first floor, where there is now the Sala de'
Dugento. The third floor, where the Signori and the Gonfalonier lived,
he made more ornate, and on the side towards S. Piero Scheraggio he
arranged a series of apartments for the Signori, who had previously
slept all together in one and the same room. These apartments consisted
of eight for the Signori and a larger one for the Gonfalonier, and they
all opened on a corridor which had windows overlooking the courtyard.
Above this he made another series of commodious rooms for the household
of the Palace, in one of which, used to-day as the Treasury, there is a
portrait by the hand of Giotto of Charles, Duke of Calabria, son of King
Robert, kneeling before a Madonna. There, also, he made apartments for
the bailiffs, ushers, trumpeters, musicians, pipers, mace-bearers,
court-servants, and heralds, with all the other apartments that are
required in such a palace. On the upper part of the gallery, moreover,
he made a stone cornice that went right round the courtyard, and beside
it a water-cistern that was filled by the rains, to make some artificial
fountains play at certain times. Michelozzo also directed the
restoration of the chapel wherein Mass is heard, and beside it many
rooms, with very rich ceilings painted with golden lilies on a ground of
blue. He had other ceilings made both fo