the result
designed. First of all, therefore, at the Gate that is called the Porta
al Prato, by which her Highness was to enter the city, there was built
with dimensions truly heroic, which well showed ancient Rome risen again
in her beloved daughter Florence, a vast, most ornate, and very
ingeniously composed ante-port of Ionic architecture, which, surpassing
by a good measure the height of the walls, which are there very lofty,
presented a marvellous and most superb view not only to those entering
the city, but even at a distance of several miles. And this arch was
dedicated to Florence, who--standing between two figures, as it were her
beloved companions, of Fidelity and Affection, virtues which she has
always shown towards her Lords--in the form of a young and most
beautiful woman, smiling and all adorned with flowers, had been set, as
was her due, in the most important and most honourable place, nearest to
the Gate, as if she sought to receive, introduce, and accompany her new
Lady; having brought with her, as it were as her minister and companion,
and as the symbol of those of her sons who in the art of war, among
other arts, have rendered her illustrious, Mars, their leader and
master, and in a certain sense the first father of Florence herself, in
that under his auspices and by martial men, who were descended from
Mars, was made her first foundation. His statue, dread and terrible,
could be seen on the right in the part farthest from her, sword in hand,
as if he sought to use it in the service of his new Lady; he likewise
having as it were brought with him to accompany his Florence, in a very
large and very beautiful canvas painted in chiaroscuro that was beneath
his feet (very similar to the whitest marble, as were all the other
works that were in these decorations), some of the men of that
invincible Martian Legion so dear to the first and second Caesar, her
first founders, and some of those born from her, who afterwards followed
her discipline so gloriously. Many of these could be seen issuing full
of gladness from his temple, which is now dedicated to S. John in the
name of the Christian religion; and in the farthest distance were placed
those who were thought to have had a name only for bodily valour, in the
central space those others who had become famous by their counsel and
industry, such as commissaries or proveditors (to call them by their
Venetian name), and in the front part nearest to the eye, in the