id by the Cardinal Legate of the Pope, in the presence not only of
many Bishops and of all the clergy, but of the Podesta as well, the
Captains, Priors, and other magistrates of the city, nay, of the whole
people of Florence, calling it S. Maria del Fiore. And because it was
estimated that the expenses of this fabric must be very great, as they
afterwards were, there was imposed a tax at the Chamber of the Commune
of four danari in the lira on everything that was put out at interest,
and two soldi per head per annum; not to mention that the Pope and the
Legate granted very great indulgences to those who should make them
offerings thereunto. I will not forbear to say, moreover, that besides
the foundations, very broad and fifteen braccia deep, much consideration
was shown in making those buttresses of masonry at every angle of the
eight sides, seeing that it was these afterwards that emboldened the
mind of Brunellesco to superimpose a much greater weight than that which
Arnolfo, perchance, had thought to impose thereon. It is said that while
the two first side-doors of S. Maria del Fiore were being begun in
marble Arnolfo caused some fig-leaves to be carved on a frieze, these
being the arms of himself and of Maestro Lapo, his father, and that
therefore it may be believed that from him the family of the Lapi had
its origin, to-day a noble family in Florence. Others say, likewise,
that from the descendants of Arnolfo there descended Filippo di Ser
Brunellesco. But leaving this, seeing that others believe that the Lapi
came from Ficaruolo, a township on the mouth of the Po, and returning to
our Arnolfo, I say that by reason of the greatness of this work he
deserves infinite praise and an eternal name, above all because he
caused it to be all incrusted, without, with marbles of many colours,
and within, with hard stone, and made even the smallest corners of that
same stone. But in order that everyone may know the exact size of this
marvellous fabric, I say that from the door up to the end of the Chapel
of S. Zanobi the length is 260 braccia, and the breadth across the
transepts 166; across the three naves it is 66 braccia. The middle nave
alone is 72 braccia in height; and the other two lesser naves, 48
braccia. The external circuit of the whole church is 1,280 braccia. The
cupola, from the ground up to the base of the lantern, is 154 braccia;
the lantern, without the ball, is 36 braccia in height; the ball, 4
braccia in heigh