rist, a
scene full of nudes. For Nones he has made there the Magi adoring
Christ, and opposite to that Solomon adored by the Queen of Sheba,
both one and the other with borders rich and varied, and at the foot
of this the whole Feast of Testaccio executed with figures smaller
than ants, which is a marvellous thing to see, that a work so small
should have been executed to perfection with the point of a brush;
this is one of the greatest things that mortal hand could do or mortal
eye could behold, and in it are all the liveries that Cardinal Farnese
devised at that time. For Vespers there is Our Lady flying with Christ
into Egypt, and opposite is the Submersion of Pharaoh in the Red Sea;
with varied borders at the sides. For Complines there is the
Coronation of Our Lady in Heaven, with a multitude of Angels, and in
the other scene opposite is Ahasuerus crowning Esther; with
appropriate borders. For the Mass of the Madonna he has placed first,
in a border in imitation of cameos, the Angel Gabriel announcing the
Word to the Virgin; and the two scenes are Our Lady with Jesus Christ
in her arms and God the Father creating Heaven and Earth. Before the
Penitential Psalms is the Battle in which Uriah the Hittite was done
to death by command of King David, wherein are horses and warriors
wounded or dead, all marvellous; and opposite, in the other scene,
David in Penitence; with ornaments and also little grotesques. But he
who would sate himself with marvelling, let him look at the Litanies,
where Don Giulio has woven a maze with the letters of the names of the
Saints; and there in the margin above is a Heaven filled with Angels
around the most holy Trinity, and one by one the Apostles and the
other Saints; and on the other side the Heaven continues with Our Lady
and all the Virgin Saints. On the margin below he has depicted with
the most minute figures the procession that Rome holds for the solemn
office of the Corpus Christi, thronged with officers with their
torches, Bishops, and Cardinals, and the most Holy Sacrament borne by
the Pope, with the rest of the Court and the Guard of Halberdiers, and
finally Castel S. Angelo firing artillery; all such as to cause every
acutest wit to marvel with amazement. At the beginning of the Office
for the Dead are two scenes; Death triumphing over all mortals, mighty
rulers of States and Kingdoms and the common herd alike, and opposite,
in the other scene, the Resurrection of Lazarus, and also