his
studies and became priest. In 1480 he was sent for a short time to the
monastery of S. Elena, near Venice. Here he found the lay brother Fra
Sebastiano da Rovigno, whom he may perhaps have known before, since they
were both at Monte Oliveto in 1475. At all events he spoke to him about
learning his art, and finding him willing to teach him, "set about it
with so much diligence and assiduity that he was soon able to give him
valuable assistance." The work was on the cupboards of the sacristy and
on the backs of the choir stalls, which were 34 in number. On these the
principal cities of the world, as they then were, were drawn in
perspective "with great beauty and cleverness." About 1485 he went to an
abbey of Olivetan monks at Villanova, a small village in lower Lombardy,
where he illuminated 20 choral books with heads of saints and prophets,
with very beautiful borders of flowers, fruits, and animals. These were
sold by an ignorant and greedy priest for 17 zecchins, and only a few
of the miniatures have been recovered, which are now kept in the
sacristy. Of them, Vincenzo Sabbia, the Olivetan abbot, who was
"confratello di religione" and nearly contemporary, says, when
describing the abbey and its treasures in 1594, that there are there
"stupendous and wonderful choral books to the number of twenty, made
about the year 1485, and rare and wonderful miniatures are among the
letters, like lovely flowers in a delicious garden, and many most
beautiful imaginings, heads of saints and of all the ancient prophets,
and other wonderful things of like kind, made and illuminated by that
celebrated Fra Giovanni da Verona, around the text."

[Illustration: Plate 30.--_Panel from lower row of Stalls, S. Maria in
Organo, Verona._

_To face page 59._]

[Illustration: Plate 31.--_Panels from Monte Oliveto Maggiore, now in
the Cathedral, Siena._

_To face page 60._]

In 1490 he was summoned to the Certosa at Pavia to estimate the value of
the stalls made by Bartolommeo dei Polli, in company with Giacomo dei
Crocefissi and Cristoforo de' Rocchi. Except for these there are no
notices of the work which he must have done till 1502, when the abbot
and monks of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, having determined to renew the
choir of their church, confided the work to Fra Giovanni, and
necessarily recalled him. He worked with so much enthusiasm that in
three years he entirely completed them "to his great repute and with no
less satisfaction to