ce, and there executed for the Nuns of the famous
Convent of the Murate a picture in oils of a Last Supper for their
refectory; which work was allotted to me and paid for by Pope Paul III,
who had a sister-in-law, once Countess of Pitigliano, a nun in that
convent. And then I painted in another picture Our Lady with the Infant
Christ in her arms, who is espousing the Virgin-Martyr S. Catharine,
with two other Saints; which picture M. Tommaso Cambi caused me to
execute for a sister who was then Abbess of the Convent of the Bigallo,
without Florence. That finished, I painted two large pictures in oils
for Monsignor de' Rossi, Bishop of Pavia, of the family of the Counts of
San Secondo; in one of these is a S. Jerome, and in the other a Pieta,
and they were both sent to France. Then in the year 1547 I carried to
completion for the Duomo of Pisa, at the instance of M. Bastiano della
Seta, the Warden of Works, another altar-picture that I had begun; and
afterwards, for my very dear friend Simon Corsi, a large picture in oils
of Our Lady. Now, while I was executing these works, having carried
nearly to completion the Book of the Lives of the Craftsmen of Design,
there was scarcely anything left for me to do but to have it transcribed
in a good hand, when there presented himself to me most opportunely Don
Gian Matteo Faetani of Rimini, a monk of Monte Oliveto and a person of
intelligence and learning, who desired that I should execute some works
for him in the Church and Monastery of S. Maria di Scolca at Rimini,
where he was Abbot. He, then, having promised to have it transcribed for
me by one of his monks who was an excellent writer, and to correct it
himself, persuaded me to go to Rimini to execute, with this occasion,
the altar-picture and the high-altar of that church, which is about
three miles distant from the city. In that altar-picture I painted the
Magi adoring Christ, with an infinity of figures executed by me with
much study in that solitary place, counterfeiting the men of the Courts
of the three Kings in such a way, as well as I was able, that, although
they are all mingled together, yet one may recognize by the appearance
of the faces to what country each belongs and to which King he is
subject, for some have the flesh-colour white, some grey, and others
dark; besides which, the diversity of their vestments and the
differences in their adornments make a pleasing variety. That
altar-piece has on either side of it t