[47] To the testimonies in favor of Cimabue, may be added one of no little weight, from the manuscript given to the public a few years since, by the Abbate Morelli. We there find that Cimabue painted in Padua, in the church del Carmine, which was afterwards burnt; but that a head of S. Giovanni, by him, being rescued from the flames, was inserted in a frame, and preserved in the house of Alessandro Capella. Would a painter, who had done neither good nor harm to the Florentine school, and to the art, have been invited to Padua? Would the remains of his works have been held in such esteem? Would he have been so highly valued, after so great a lapse of time, by Vasari, to whose arts he seems to wish to ascribe the reputation of Cimabue. Other proofs of this reputation may be seen in the defence of Vasari, in the present Book, third Epoch. The writer of history ought completely to divest himself of the love of system and party spirit.
[48] Vasari, tom. i. p. 322.
[49] A book is mentioned by Baldinucci ornamented by Giotto with miniatures, with histories from the Old Testament, and presented to the vestry of St. Peter, by Cardinal Stefaneschi; of this he neither adduces any proof, nor can I find any record. From the evidence, rather, of an existing necrology, where, among the presents made by Stefaneschi to the cathedral, the pictures and the mosaic by Giotto are noticed without any other work of this artist, the gift of the book is very doubtful. See Sig. Ab, Cancellieri De Secretariis Veteris Basilicæ Vaticanæ, p. 859, and 2464. Some miniatures of the martyrdom and miracles of St. George, in another book, are ascribed to him; but I am uncertain whether there is any ancient document for this; and they might, possibly, be the work of Simone da Siena, who is often confounded with him.
[50] See his first volume, pp. 131 and 202; and also P. della Valle in the preface to Vasari, p. 27; also Signor da Morrona in his Pisa Illustrata, p. 154; besides many other authors.
[51] D. Valle's preface to Vasari, p. 36.
[52] We may observe, that Malvasia is the champion, not only of Bologna, but of Italy, and of all Europe. At page 11, volume first, he has quoted a passage from Filibien, which proves that design always maintained itself in France, even in rude ages, and that at the time of Cimabue it was there equally respectable as in Italy.
[53] A catalogue of them is given in P. della Valle, in his history of that Church, and is republished in the Sienese edition of Vasari, at the end of the second volume.
[54] This place, which will ever do high honour to the magnificence of the Pisans, would be an inestimable museum, if the pictures there, executed by Giotto, by Memmi, by Stefano Florentino, by Buffalmacco, by Antonio Veneziano, by the two Orcagni, by Spinello Aretino, and by Laurati, had been carefully preserved; but the greatest number having been injured by dampness, were repaired, but with considerable judgment, within the century.
[55] Plin. xxxv. 9.
[56] Zanet. p. 3.