was chosen to erect it, on the ground avowedly of the
universality of his talents, with the appointment of Capomaestro, or
chief architect of the Cathedral and its dependencies, a yearly salary
of one hundred gold florins, and the privilege of citizenship, and under
the special understanding that he was not to quit Florence. His designs
being approved of, the republic passed a decree in the spring of 1334,
that 'the Campanile should be built so as to exceed in magnificence,
height and excellence of workmanship whatever in that kind had been
achieved of old by the Greeks and Romans in the time of their utmost
power and greatness--"della loro piu florida potenza."' The first stone
was laid accordingly, with great pomp, on the 18th of July following,
and the work prosecuted with such vigor and with such costliness and
utter disregard of expense, that a citizen of Verona, looking on,
exclaimed that the republic was taxing her strength too far,--that the
united resources of two great monarchs would be insufficient to complete
it; a _criticism which the Signoria resented by confining him for two
months in prison_, and afterwards conducting him through the public
treasury, to teach him that the Florentines could build their whole city
of marble, and not one poor steeple only, were they so inclined.

"Giotto made a model of his proposed structure, on which every stone was
marked, and the successive courses painted red and white, according to
his design, so as to match with the Cathedral and Baptistery; this model
was of course adhered to strictly during the short remnant of his life,
and the work was completed in strict conformity to it after his death,
with the exception of the spire, which, the taste having changed, was
never added. He had intended it to be one hundred _braccia_, or one
hundred and fifty feet high."--Vol. ii., pp. 247-249.

The deficiency of the spire Lord Lindsay does not regret:--

* * *

"Let the reader stand before the Campanile, and ask himself whether,
with Michael Scott at his elbow, or Aladdin's lamp in his hand, he would
supply the deficiency? I think not."--p. 38.

* * *

We have more faith in Giotto than our author--and we will reply to his
question by two others--whether, looking down upon Florence from the
hill of San Miniato, his eye rested oftener and more affectionately on
the Campanile of Giotto, or on the simple tower and spire of Santa Maria
Nove