sses of each of these two divisions there are
four courtyards surrounded by porticoes, loggie, and rooms for the use
of the director, the officials, the servants, and the nurses of the
hospital, all very commodious and useful. On one side there is a channel
with water continually running for the service of the hospital and for
grinding corn, with no small benefit and convenience for that place, as
all may imagine. Between the two divisions of the hospital there is a
cloister, 80 braccia in extent in one direction and 160 in the other,
in the middle of which is the church, so contrived as to serve for both
divisions. In a word, this place is so well built and designed, that I
do not believe that there is its like in Europe. According to the
account of Filarete himself, the first stone of this building was laid
with a solemn procession of the whole of the clergy of Milan, in the
presence of Duke Francesco Sforza, the Lady Bianca Maria, and all their
children, with the Marquis of Mantua, the Ambassador of King Alfonso of
Arragon, and many other lords. On the first stone which was laid in the
foundations, as well as on the medals, were these words:

FRANCISCUS SFORTIA DUX IV, QUI AMISSUM PER PRAECESSORUM OBITUM
URBIS IMPERIUM RECUPERAVIT, HOC MUNUS CHRISTI PAUPERIBUS DEDIT
FUNDAVITQUE MCCCCLVII, DIE XII APRIL.

These scenes were afterwards depicted on the portico by Maestro
Vincenzio di Zoppa, a Lombard, since no better master could be found in
those parts.

A work by the same Antonio, likewise, was the principal church of
Bergamo, which he built with no less diligence and judgment than he had
shown in the above-named hospital. And because he also took delight in
writing, the while that these works of his were in progress he wrote a
book divided into three parts. In the first he treats of the
measurements of all edifices, and of all that is necessary for the
purpose of building. In the second he speaks of the methods of building,
and of the manner wherein a most beautiful and most convenient city
might be laid out. In the third he invents new forms of buildings,
mingling the ancient with the modern. The whole work is divided into
twenty-four books, illustrated throughout by drawings from his own hand;
but, although there is something of the good to be found in it, it is
nevertheless mostly ridiculous, and perhaps the most stupid book that
was ever written. It was dedicated by him in the year 1464 to t