[180] Cav. F. Tolomei, Guida di Pistoja, p. 74. Pistoja, 1821.
[181] Doctor to King Desiderius.
[182] Reproduced in Muratori's Rerum Italicum, verse 636 et seq.—
"Inteluum scandunt et amicos insimul addunt
... veniunt properantes
Artificesque, boni nimium satis ingeniosi;
Strenuus inter quosque rogatus adesse Joannes
Quinque Bonus de Vesonzo cognomine dictus."
[183] Merzario, I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. iv. pp. 161, 162.
[184] Vasari, Life of Arnolfo di Lapo.
[185] I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. iv. p. 162.
[186] Milanesi, quoting other experts, says that when IX. is placed between hundreds and units it signifies 90, consequently the date is 1196.
[187] One only has to glance at the names of the well-known artists to see how common this use of nicknames was. We have Masaccio (the bad Thomas); Cronaca, whose real name was Pollajuolo; Domenico Bigordi, called Ghirlandajo; the iron-worker Niccolò Grossi, called Caparra; Antonio Allegri, called Correggio; Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino; Alessandro Buonvicino, called Moretto da Brescia (the dark man from Brescia); Pietro Vanucci, Perugino; Andrea Vanucchi, del Sarto; Michelangelo Amerighi, nicknamed Caravaggio; Domenico Zampieri, styled Domenichino; and hundreds of others. No doubt the Buschetto architect of Pisa was only another instance; probably he had a shock head of hair and was nicknamed "the little bush."
[188] Marchese Ricci, Dell' Architettura in Italia, Vol. I. cap. ii. p. 485, note 40.