ise,
appear to lack nothing save breath and speech. That little picture, as
a thing truly of the rarest, was sent to Spain to the Emperor Charles
V, who was amazed by it. After that work the Cardinal caused him to
set his hand to executing in miniature the stories in an Office of Our
Lady, written in lettering shaped by Monterchi, who is a rare master
in such work. Whereupon Don Giulio, resolving that this work should be
the highest flight of his powers, applied himself to it with so much
study and diligence, that no other was ever executed with more;
wherefore he has achieved with the brush things so stupendous, that it
does not appear possible to go so far with the eye or with the hand.
Don Giulio has divided this labour into twenty-six little scenes, each
two sheets being next to one another, the figure and the
prefiguration, and every little scene has around it an ornament
different from the other, with figures and fantasies appropriate to
the story that it represents. Nor do I wish to grudge the labour of
describing them briefly, for the reason that everyone is not able to
see them. On the first page, where Matins begin, is the Angel bringing
the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, and in the ornament a border full
of little children that are marvellous; and in the other scene Isaiah
speaking with King Ahaz. In the second, for Lauds, is the Visitation
of the Virgin to Elizabeth, which has an ornament in imitation of
metal; and in the opposite scene are Justice and Peace embracing one
another. For Prime is the Nativity of Christ, and opposite, in the
Earthly Paradise, Adam and Eve eating the Fruit; both the one and the
other with ornaments full of nudes and other figures and animals,
portrayed from nature. For Terce he has painted the Shepherds with the
Angel appearing to them, and in the opposite scene the Tiburtine Sibyl
showing to the Emperor Octavian the Virgin with Christ her Son in
Heaven; both the one and the other with ornaments of various borders
and figures, all coloured, and containing the portrait of Alexander
the Great and of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. For Sext there is the
Circumcision of Christ, where Pope Paul III is portrayed for Simeon,
and in the scene are portraits of Mancina and Settimia, gentlewomen of
Rome, who were of surpassing beauty; and around it a border well
adorned, which likewise encloses with the same design the other story
that is beside it, wherein is S. John the Baptist baptizing Ch