IT ALTA DOMUS.
HIS INVICTA FUIT VIRTUS, HIS CUNCTA SUBACTA,
HIS DOMITA EST TELLUS, SERVIT ET OCEANUS.

Even as was done in the same manner and for the same reason towards the
Mercato Vecchio, in another inscription, saying:

IMPERIIS GENS NATA BONIS ET NATA TRIUMPHIS,
QUAM GENUS E COELO DUCERE NEMO NEGET;
TUQUE NITENS GERMEN DIVINAE STIRPIS ETRUSCIS
TRADITUM AGRIS NITIDIS, UT SOLA CULTA BEES;
SI MIHI CONTINGAT VESTRO DE SEMINE FRUCTUM
CARPERE ET IN NATIS CERNERE DETUR AVOS,
O FORTUNATAM! VERO TUNC NOMINE FLORENS
URBS FERAR, IN QUAM FORS CONGERAT OMNE BONUM.

OF THE CANTO DE' CARNESECCHI.

Now it appeared a fitting thing, having brought the triumphant Caesars to
the place described above, to bring the magnanimous Medici, also, with
all their pomp, to the corner that is called the Canto de' Carnesecchi,
which is not far distant from it; as if, reverently receiving the
Caesars, as is the custom, they were come to hold high revel and to do
honour to the new-come bride, so much desired. And here, no less than in
some of the passages to follow, it will be necessary that I should be
pardoned by those who are not of our arts for describing minutely the
nature of the site and the form of the arches and other ornaments, for
the reason that it is my intention to demonstrate not less the
excellence of the hands and brushes of the craftsmen who executed the
works, than the fertility and acuteness of brain of him who was the
author of the stories and of the whole invention; and particularly
because the site in that place was perhaps more disastrous and more
difficult to accommodate than any of the others described or about to be
described. For there the street turns towards S. Maria del Fiore,
inclining to somewhat greater breadth, and comes to form the angle that
by those of our arts is called obtuse; and that was the side on the
right. Opposite, and on the left-hand side, there is a little piazza
into which two streets lead, one that comes from the great Piazza di S.
Maria Novella, and the other likewise from another piazza called the
Piazza Vecchia. In that little piazza, which is in truth very ill
proportioned, there was built over all the lower part a structure in the
form of an octagonal theatre, the doors of which were rectangular and in
the Tuscan Order; and over each of them was seen a niche between two
columns, with cornices, architraves, and other ornaments, rich and
imposin