hich is
esteemed very difficult among craftsmen, because it is the mean between
the flat surface of painting and the roundness of statuary. For this
reason there are seen many highly esteemed medals of great Princes by
his hand, made in a large form, and in the same proportions as that
reverse of the horse clad in armour that Guidi has sent me. Of these I
have that of the great King Alfonso with his hair long, with a captain's
helmet on the reverse; that of Pope Martin, with the arms of the house
of Colonna as the reverse; that of the Sultan Mahomet (who took
Constantinople), showing him on horseback in Turkish dress, with a
scourge in his hand; Sigismondo Malatesta, with Madonna Isotta of Rimini
on the reverse; and that of Niccolo Piccinino, wearing a large oblong
cap on his head, with the said reverse sent to me by Guidi, which I am
returning. Besides these, I have also a very beautiful medal of John
Palaeologus, Emperor of Constantinople, with that bizarre Greek cap
which the Emperors used to wear. This was made by Pisano in Florence, at
the time of the Council of Eugenius, at which the aforesaid Emperor was
present; and it has on the reverse the Cross of Christ, sustained by two
hands--namely, the Latin and the Greek."

[Illustration: VITTORE PISANELLO: THE VISION OF S. EUSTACE

(_London: National Gallery, 1436. Panel_)]

So far Giovio, and still further, Vittore also made medals with
portraits of Filippo de' Medici, Archbishop of Pisa, Braccio da Montone,
Giovan Galeazzo Visconti, Carlo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, Giovan
Caracciolo, Grand Seneschal of Naples, Borso and Ercole D'Este, and many
other nobles and men distinguished in arms and in letters.

By reason of his fame and reputation in that art, this master gained the
honour of being celebrated by very great men and rare writers; for,
besides what Biondo wrote of him, as has been said, he was much extolled
in a Latin poem by the elder Guerino, his compatriot and a very great
scholar and writer of those times; of which poem, called, from the
surname of its subject, "Il Pisano del Guerino," honourable mention is
made by Biondo. He was also celebrated by the elder Strozzi, Tito
Vespasiano, father of the other Strozzi, both of whom were very rare
poets in the Latin tongue. The father honoured the memory of Vittore
Pisano with a very beautiful epigram, which is in print with the others.
Such are the fruits that are borne by a worthy life.

Some say that when he