un by the Romans, as
aforesaid, on a small site and circuit, after the same fashion as
Rome, allowing for the smallness of the undertaking; and it began on
the side of the sunrise at the gate of S. Piero, which was where were
after the houses of M. Bellincione Berti, of the Rovignani, a noble
and powerful citizen, albeit to-day they have disappeared; the which
houses by inheritance of the Countess Gualdrada, his daughter, and
wife to the first Count Guido, passed to the Counts Guidi, her
descendants, when they became citizens of Florence, and afterwards
they sold them to the Black Cerchi, a Florentine family; and from the
said gate ran a borgo as far as S. Piero Maggiore, after the fashion
of Rome, and from that gate the walls proceeded as far as the Duomo,
on the site where now runs the great road leading to San Giovanni, as
far as the Bishop's Palace. And here was another gate, which was
called the gate of the Duomo, but there were who called it the
Bishop's Gate; and without this gate was built the church of S.
Lorenzo, just as in Rome there is S. Lorenzo without the walls; and
within that gate is S. Giovanni, like as in Rome, S. Giovanni
Laterano. And then proceeding, as at Rome, on that side they made
Santa Maria Maggiore; and then from S. Michele Berteldi, as far as the
third gate of S. Brancazio [S. Pancras], where are now the houses of
the Tornaquinci, and S. Brancazio was without the city and near S.
Paolo, just as in Rome, on the other side of the city over against S.
Piero, as at Rome. And then from the said gate of S. Brancazio, they
followed on where now is the church of Santa Trinita, which was
without the walls; and hard by was a postern gate called the Porta
Rossa, and down to our own times the road has retained the name. And
afterward the walls turned where are now the houses of the Scali along
the Via di Terma as far as the gate of Santa Maria, some way past the
Mercato Nuovo, and that was the fourth principal gate, the which was
over against the houses which now pertain to the Infangati, on one
side; and above the said gate was the church of Santa Maria, called
Sopra Porta; and afterwards when the said gate was pulled down, the
city having increased, the said church was transported to where it now
is. And the Borgo di Santo Apostolo was without the city, and also S.
Stefano, after the fashion of Rome; and beyond S. Stefano, at the end
of the master street of Porta Santa Maria, they made and built a
br