ted it to Cosimo de'
Medici, who gave Mariotto 500 crowns in return for it. Later, after
Cosimo had likewise bought from the Company of the Spirito Santo the
site where the choir now stands, the chapel, the tribune, and the choir
were built under the direction of Michelozzo, and completely furnished
in the year 1439. Afterwards the library was made, eighty braccia in
length and eighteen in breadth, and vaulted both above and below, with
sixty-four shelves of cypress wood filled with most beautiful books.
After this the dormitory was finished, being brought to a square shape;
and finally the cloister was completed, together with all the truly
commodious apartments of that convent, which is believed to be the best
designed, the most beautiful, and the most commodious that there is in
Italy, thanks to the talent and industry of Michelozzo, who delivered it
completely finished in the year 1452. It is said that Cosimo spent
36,000 ducats on this fabric, and that while it was building he gave the
monks 366 ducats every year for their maintenance. Of the construction
and consecration of this holy place we read in an inscription on marble
over the door that leads into the sacristy, in the following words:

CUM HOC TEMPLUM MARCO EVANGELISTAE DICATUM MAGNIFICIS SUMPTIBUS
CL. V. COSMI MEDICIS TANDEM ABSOLUTUM ESSET, EUGENIUS QUARTUS
ROMANUS PONTIFEX MAXIMA CARDINALIUM, ARCHIEPISCOPORUM, EPISCOPORUM,
ALIORUMQUE SACERDOTUM FREQUENTIA COMITATUS, ID CELEBERRIMO
EPIPHANIAE DIE, SOLEMNI MORE SERVATO, CONSECRAVIT. TUM
ETIAM QUOTANNIS OMNIBUS, QUI EODEM DIE FESTO ANNUAS STATASQUE
CONSECRATIONIS CEREMONIAS CASTE PIEQUE CELEBRARINT VISERINTVE,
TEMPORIS LUENDIS PECCATIS SUIS DEBITI SEPTEM ANNOS TOTIDEMQUE
QUADRAGESIMAS APOSTOLICA REMISIT AUCTORITATE, A. MCCCCXLII.

In like manner, Cosimo erected from the design of Michelozzo the
noviciate of S. Croce in Florence, with the chapel of the same, and the
entrance that leads from the church to the sacristy, to the said
noviciate, and to the staircase of the dormitory. These works are not
inferior in beauty, convenience, and adornment to any building
whatsoever of all those which the truly magnificent Cosimo de' Medici
caused to be erected, or which Michelozzo carried into execution; and
besides other parts, the door that leads from the church to the said
places, which he made of grey-stone, was much extolled in those times by
reason of its novelty and of its beautiful