he best master-carpenters, both
in squared-work and in carving, who were then working in Florence; and
in this car, among other things, no small praise is due to the wheels
below it, which are pivoted, in order that the structure may be able to
turn sharp corners, and may be managed in such a manner as to shake it
as little as possible, particularly for the sake of those who stand
fastened upon it.

The same man made a structure for the cleaning and restoration of the
mosaics in the tribune of S. Giovanni, which could be turned, raised,
lowered, and advanced at pleasure, and that with such ease that two men
could handle it; which invention gave Cecca very great repute.

When the Florentine army was besieging Piancaldoli, Cecca ingeniously
contrived to enable the soldiers to enter it by means of mines, without
striking a blow. Afterwards, continuing to follow the same army to
certain other strongholds, his evil fortune would have it that he should
be killed while attempting to measure certain heights at a difficult
point; for when he had put his head out beyond the wall in order to let
a plumb-line down, a priest who was with the enemy (who feared the
genius of Cecca more than the might of the whole camp) discharged a
catapult at him and fixed a great dart in his head, insomuch that the
poor fellow died on the spot. The fate and the loss of Cecca caused
great grief to the whole army and to his fellow-citizens; but since
there was no remedy, they sent him back in a coffin to Florence, where
his sisters gave him honourable burial in S. Piero Scheraggio; and below
his portrait in marble there was placed the following epitaph:

FABRUM MAGISTER CICCA, NATUS OPPIDIS VEL OBSIDENDIS VEL TUENDIS,
HIC JACET. VIXIT ANN. XXXXI, MENS. IV, DIES XIV. OBIIT PRO PATRIA
TELO ICTUS. PIAE SORORES MONUMENTUM FECERUNT MCCCCXCIX.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] See note on p. 57, Vol. I.

[21] The word in the Italian text is not "carro" but "cero," which is
obviously an error.

DON BARTOLOMMEO DELLA GATTA

DON BARTOLOMMEO DELLA GATTA, ABBOT OF S. CLEMENTE

ILLUMINATOR AND PAINTER

Rarely does it happen that a man of good character and exemplary life
fails to be provided by Heaven with the best of friends and with
honourable dwellings, or to be held in veneration when alive by reason
of the goodness of his ways, and very greatly regretted when dead by all
who knew him, as was Don Bartolommeo della Gatta, Abbot of S. Clement