E, Subbia, a point. F, Calcagnuolo, a toothed chisel. G, Gradina, a broader toothed chisel. H, Scarpello, a chisel. J, Trapano, a drill.
But returning to the quarries of Pietrasanta,[[65]] I say that they were the quarries in which all the ancients worked, and no other marbles but these were used for their statues by those masters, who were so excellent. While the masses were being hewn out, they were always at work, blocking out figures in the rough on the stones while they were still in the quarry. The remains of many of these can be seen even yet in that place.[[66]] This same marble, then, the moderns of to-day use for their statues, not only in Italy, but in France, England, Spain and Portugal, as can be seen to-day in the tomb executed in Naples by Giovanni da Nola, the excellent sculptor, for Don Pietro di Toledo, viceroy of that kingdom, to whom all the marbles were presented, and sent to Naples by Duke Cosimo de’ Medici.[[67]] This kind of marble has in itself larger available pieces and is more yielding and softer to work and receives a finer polish than any other marble. It is true that occasionally the workman meets with flaws called by the sculptors ‘smerigli’ (emery veins) which usually cause the tools to break. The blocks are first roughed into shape, by a tool called ‘subbia’ (point)[[68]] which is pointed like a stake in facets, and is heavier or lighter as the case may be. At the next stage are used chisels, named ‘calcagnuoli’ (toothed chisels), which have a notch in the middle of the edge of the blade; after that finer and finer tools with more teeth are used to score the marble, after which it is smoothed with another chisel called ‘gradina,’ (broader toothed chisel) used to reduce and refine the figures. The tooth marks left in the marble are removed with iron rasps straight and curved, and thus at last, by polishing gradually with pumice stone the surface aimed at is attained. In order not to fracture the marble, all the drill-holes are made with drills of different sizes weighing from twelve pounds each even to twenty, according to the size of the hole needed,[[69]] and they serve to finish every sort of work and to bring it to perfection.
Of certain white marbles, streaked with grey,[[70]] sculptors and architects make ornaments for doors and columns for houses and the same are used also for pavements and for facings of large buildings, and for all sorts of things. All the marbles called ‘mischiati’[[71]] are used for the same purposes.
§ 10. Of Cipollino Marble.[[72]]
The cipollini marbles are another kind, different in grain and colour, and found in other places besides Carrara. Most of them are greenish, and full of veins; they are useful for various things, but not for figures. Those which the sculptors call ‘saligni,’[[73]] because they are partly transparent, and have that lustrous appearance seen in salt, have something of the nature of stalagmite, and are troublesome enough to make figures of; because the grain of the stone is rough and coarse, or because in damp weather water drops from it continually or else it sweats. The ‘campanini’ marbles are so named because they sound like a bell under the hammer and give out a sharper note than other marbles.[[74]] These are hard and crack more easily than the kinds above mentioned. They are quarried at Pietrasanta.[[75]] Again at Seravezza[[76]] in many places and at Campiglia[[77]] there are marbles excavated, which are for the most part excellent for ashlar work and even fairly good sometimes for statues.
§ 11. Of White Pisan Marble.
A kind of white marble, akin to limestone, is found likewise at Monte San Giuliano near Pisa.[[78]] It has been used for covering the outside walls of the Duomo and the Camposanto of Pisa, as well as for many other ornaments to be seen in that city. Formerly the said marbles were brought to Pisa from the hill at San Giuliano with trouble and expense, but now it is different, because Duke Cosimo, in order to make the district more healthy and also to facilitate the carriage of the marbles and other stones taken from those mountains, has turned into a straight canal the river Osoli and many other streams, which used to rise in those plains and do damage to the country. By means of this canal, the marbles, either worked or rough, can be easily conveyed, at a trifling cost, and with the greatest advantage to the city which is now almost restored to its former magnificence, thanks to the said Duke, who has no object more dear to him than that of improving and restoring the city, which was falling into ruins, before His Excellency became its lord.[[79]]
§ 12. Of Travertine.
There is another sort of stone called travertine, which is much used for building and also for carvings of various sorts. It is always being quarried in many places throughout Italy, as in the neighbourhood of Lucca, at Pisa, and round about Siena; but the largest blocks and the best, that is, those which are most easily worked, are taken from above the river Teverone at Tivoli.[[80]] The stone is all a kind of coagulation of earth and of water, which by its hardness and coldness congeals and petrifies not only earth, but stumps and branches and leaves of trees. On account of the water that remains within the stones—which never can be dry so long as they lie under water—they are full of pores which give them a spongy and perforated appearance, both within and without.
Of travertine the ancients constructed their most wonderful buildings, for example, the Colosseum, and the Treasury by the church of Ss. Cosimo e Damiano[[81]] and many other edifices. They used it without stint for the foundations of their public buildings, and in working these basements, they were not too fastidious in finishing them carefully, but left them rough, as in rustic work; and this they did perhaps because so treated they possess a certain grandeur and nobility of their own.[[82]] But in our days there has been found one who has worked travertine most skilfully, as was formerly seen in that round temple, begun but never finished, save only the basement, on the piazza of San Luigi de’ Francesi in Rome.[[83]] It was undertaken by a Frenchman named Maestro Gian, who studied the art of carving in Rome and became so proficient, that his work in the beginning of this temple could stand comparison with the best things, either ancient or modern, ever seen carved in travertine. He carved astrological globes, salamanders in the fire, royal emblems, devices of open books showing the leaves, and carefully finished trophies and masks. These, in their own place, bear witness to the excellence and quality of the stone which, although it is coarse, can be worked as freely as marble. It possesses a charm of its own, owing to the spongy appearance produced by the little cavities which cover the surface and look so well. This unfinished temple being left imperfect, was razed by the French, and the said stones and other pieces that formed part of its construction were placed in the façade of the church of San Luigi[[84]] and in some of its chapels, where they are well arranged, and produce a beautiful effect.