11. 19. "Credette," etc.
"Cimabue thought
To lord it over painting's field; and now
The cry is Giotto's, and his name eclips'd."—Cary.
15. 13. "drawings." It is stated that the knight Gaddi sold five volumes of drawings to some merchants for several thousands of scudi, which composed Vasari's famous book, so often referred to by h m. Card. Leopold de' Medici collected several of those by the most famous artists. This collection was sent to the Uffizi gallery in 1700, where they are merged with the other drawings.
25. 11. "bridge which still bears his name." M. Rubaconte was podesta of Florence in 1237 and in addition to laying the foundation stone of this bridge, he also caused the city to be paved. Villani, vi. 26. The bridge is now known as the Ponte alle Grazie.
45. 32. "Frederick Barbarossa." Impossible, for Barbarossa died two centuries before. Perhaps Vasari means the Emperor Frederick III.
51. 31. "Ser Ciappelletto," the hero of the first story in Boccaccio's Decameron, forger, murderer, blasphemer, fornicator, drunkard and gambler, "he was probably the worst man who was ever born," to crown all, he so deceived the priest to whom he confessed that he was canonised.
55. 23. "S. Giovanni." Bk. i., cap. 42. Villani states that it was originally built by the Romans in the time of Octavian as a temple to Mars.
67. 25. "M. Farinata degli Uberti."Cf, p. 30 above. After the battle of Montaperti in 1260, in which the Sienese aided by the Ghibelline exiles of Florence won a complete victory over the Florentines, a council was held in which it was proposed to destroy Florence utterly. The project was defeated by Farinata, one of the most prominent of the victorious Florentines. Villani, bk. vi., cap. 81. Cf, Dante Inferno, x. 1. 92.
75. 19. "M. Forese da Rabatta," Decameron, 6th Day, Novella 5.
81. 23. "life of the patient Job." It is now a well established fact that these frescoes were painted by Francesco da Volterra in 1371, several years after Giotto's death.
85. 10. "Oh dissi lui," etc.
"Oh," I exclaimed,
"Art thou not Oderigi, art not thou
Agobbio's glory, glory of that art
Which they of Paris call the limner's skill?
Brother, said he, with tints that gayer smile,
Bolognian Franco's pencil lines the leaves.
His all the honour now; mine borrowed light."
—Cary.