fest by the four verses that were
placed above them, as with the others, saying:

Quas artes pariat solertia, nutriat usus,
Aurea monstravit quondam Florentia cunctis.
Pandere namque acri ingenio atque enixa labore est
Praestanti, unde paret vitam sibi quisque beatam.

Of the two last Deities or Virtues, seeing that, as we have said, by
reason of the number and excellence in them of her sons they are so
peculiar to Florence that she may well consider herself glorious in them
beyond any other city, there was placed on the right hand, next to the
statue of Ceres, that of Apollo, representing that Tuscan Apollo who
infuses Tuscan verse in Tuscan poets. Under his feet, as in the other
canvases, there was painted on the summit of a most lovely mountain,
recognized as that of Helicon by the horse Pegasus, a very spacious and
beautiful meadow, in the centre of which rose the sacred Fount of
Aganippe, likewise recognized by the nine Muses, who stood around it in
pleasant converse, and with them, and in the shade of the verdant
laurels with which the whole mount was covered, were seen various poets
in various guise seated or discoursing as they walked, or singing to the
sound of the lyre, while a multitude of little Loves were playing above
the laurels, some of them shooting arrows, and some appeared to be
throwing down crowns of laurel. Of these poets, in the most honourable
place were seen the profound Dante, the gracious Petrarca, and the
fecund Boccaccio, who with smiling aspect appeared to be promising to
the incoming Lady, since a subject so noble had not fallen to them, to
infuse in the intellects of Florence such virtue that they would be able
to sing worthily of her; to which with the exemplar of their writings,
if only there may be found one able to imitate them, they have opened a
broad and easy way. Near them, as if discoursing with them, and all,
like the rest, portrayed from life, were seen M. Cino da Pistoia,
Montemagno, Guido Cavalcanti, Guittone d'Arezzo, and Dante da Maiano,
who lived in the same age and were poets passing gracious for those
times. In another part were Monsignor Giovanni della Casa, Luigi
Alamanni, and Lodovico Martelli, with Vincenzio at some distance from
him, and with them Messer Giovanni Rucellai, the writer of the
tragedies, and Girolamo Benivieni; among whom, if he had not been living
at that time, a well-merited place would have been given also to the
portrait of M.