is means and finally reduced him from easy circumstances to the
greatest poverty. He was a very good draughtsman, as may be seen in our
book, not only from the drawing of the aforesaid story of the Preaching
which he painted in the Sistine Chapel, but also from many others made
with the style and in chiaroscuro. And in the said book we have his
portrait by the hand of Agnolo di Donnino, a painter who was much his
friend. This Agnolo showed great diligence in his works, as may be seen,
not to mention his drawings, in the loggia of the Hospital of Bonifazio,
where, upon the corbel of a vault, there is a Trinity in fresco by his
hand; and beside the door of the said hospital, where the foundlings now
live, there are certain beggars painted by the same man, with the
Director receiving them, all very well wrought, and likewise certain
women. This man spent his life labouring and wasting all his time over
drawings, without putting them into execution; and at length he died as
poor as he could well be. But to return to Cosimo; he left only one son,
who was a builder and a passing good architect.

[Illustration: CHRIST HEALING THE LEPER

(_Detail from the fresco by =Cosimo Rosselli=. Rome: Sistine Chapel_)

_Anderson_]

CECCA

CECCA

ENGINEER OF FLORENCE

If necessity had not forced men to exercise their ingenuity for their
own advantage and convenience, architecture would not have become so
excellent and so marvellous in the minds and in the works of those who
have practised it in order to acquire profit and fame, gaining that
great honour which is paid to them every day by all who have knowledge
of the good. It was necessity that first gave rise to buildings;
necessity that created ornaments for them; necessity that led to the
various Orders, the statues, the gardens, the baths, and all those other
sumptuous adjuncts which all desire but few possess; and it was
necessity that excited rivalry and competition in the minds of men with
regard not only to buildings, but also to their accessories. For this
reason craftsmen have been forced to display industry in inventing
appliances for traction, and in making engines of war, waterworks, and
all those devices and contrivances which, under the name of mechanical
and architectural inventions, confer beauty and convenience on the
world, discomfiting their enemies and assisting their friends. And
whenever a man has been able to make such things better than his
fe