rto; parate viam Domini: rectas facite semitas ejus.'
The eighteenth shows a fine gate through which one sees a garden, within
which appear different trees with fruit on them, and at the bottom is a
little table upon which is an inkstand with a pen and a penknife with a
label which issues from the inkstand with these words, 'Alberto
Aringherio operaio fabre factum.' The last panel shows an open cupboard
with shelf and grating, above is a harp and below is a violin and other
musical instruments. The rector Arringhieri paid 4090 scudi for the work
as a matter of compromise on the valuing of Fra Giovanni da Verona. It
was in so dark a place that it could not be seen except with lighted
torches, and it was also damaged because it was put in a newly built
place, the walls of which were not sufficiently dry to receive such
delicate work." This account was written in 1786.

THE CLOISTERED INTARSIATORI AND THEIR PUPILS

The Order of the Olivetans took its rise from the piety and liberality
of a Sienese noble, Bernardo Tolomei, who, with two companions, Ambrogio
Piccolomini and Patricio Patrizzi, established himself as a hermit on a
barren point of land at Chiusuri, some miles from Siena, in the same
manner as did S. Benedict at Subiaco. This was in 1312, but the Papal
charter by which the Order was founded dates from 1319. It was called
"Monte Oliveto," from a vision seen by Guido Tarlati, Bishop of Arezzo,
the Papal commissary, in which the Virgin ordered that the monks should
have a white habit, and that the badge of the Order should be three
hills surmounted by a branch of olive. It was a branch of the
Benedictines, and, like them, the monks devoted their lives to useful
labours. As Michele Caffi says, "The Olivetans did not strive in
political or party struggles, but spent their simple lives in works of
charity and industry, and showing great talent for working in wood
succeeded to the heirship of the art of tarsia in coloured woods, which
they got from Tuscany."

The first master of intarsia mentioned among the Olivetan monks is a
certain lay brother, "laico Olivetano," who came from Tuscany in the
first half of the fifteenth century, and taught the art to the monks of
S. Elena, the island which lies just beyond the Public Gardens at
Venice, and was so beautiful before the iron foundry was established
upon it. His principal pupil was Fra Sebastiano of Rovigno, known as the
"Zoppo Schiavone," the lame Slavonian, w