related, learned it from Girolamo when he was
working at Candiana, where the former was a friar; and this Don Giulio
has since raised it to a height of excellence which very few have
reached and no one has ever surpassed.

I knew for myself some of the facts about the excellent and noble
craftsmen mentioned above, but I would never have been able to learn the
whole of what I have related of them if the great goodness and diligence
of the reverend and most learned Fra Marco de' Medici of Verona, a man
profoundly conversant with all the most noble arts and sciences, and
with him Danese Cattaneo of Carrara, a sculptor of great excellence,
both being very much my friends, had not given me that complete and
perfect information which I have just written down, to the best of my
ability, for the convenience and advantage of all who may read these our
Lives, in which the courtesy of many friends, who have taken pains with
the investigation of these matters in order to please me and to benefit
the world, has been, as it still is, of great assistance to me. And let
this be the end of the Lives of these craftsmen of Verona, the portraits
of each of whom I have not been able to obtain, because this full notice
did not reach my hands until I found myself almost at the close of my
work.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Canal of the slaughter-houses.

[2] Small canal of the corn-magazines.

[3] Scarpagnino.

[4] See note on page 57, Vol. I.

[5] See note on page 57, Vol. I.

[6] See note on page 57, Vol. I.

[7] From "terra," earth.

[8] See note on page 57, Vol. I.

[9] _I.e._, "of the books."

FRANCESCO GRANACCI (IL GRANACCIO)

LIFE OF FRANCESCO GRANACCI (IL GRANACCIO)

PAINTER OF FLORENCE

Great, indeed, is the good fortune of those craftsmen who are brought
into contact, either by their birth or by the associations that are
formed in childhood, with those men whom Heaven has chosen out to be
distinguished and exalted above all others in our arts, for the reason
that a good and beautiful manner can be acquired with the greatest
facility by seeing the methods and works of men of excellence, not to
mention that rivalry and emulation, as we have said elsewhere, have
great power over our minds.

Francesco Granacci, of whom we have already spoken, was one of those who
were placed by the Magnificent Lorenzo de' Medici to learn in his
garden; whence it happened that, recognizing, boy as he was, the great
genius of Mich