gus laid on the said base he made, with infinite diligence, the
image of the wife of Paolo Guinigi herself, who was buried within it,
and at her feet, from the same block, he made a dog in full relief,
signifying the fidelity shown by her to her husband. After Paolo had
departed, or rather, had been driven out of Lucca in the year 1429, when
the city became free, this sarcophagus was removed from that place and
was almost wholly destroyed, by reason of the hatred that the people of
Lucca bore to the memory of Guinigi; but the reverence that they bore to
the beauty of the figure and of the so many ornaments restrained them,
and brought it about that a little time afterwards the sarcophagus and
the figure were placed with diligence near the door of the sacristy,
where they are at present, while the Chapel of Guinigi was taken over
by the Commune.

Meanwhile Jacopo had heard that the Guild of the Merchants of Calimara
in Florence wished to have a bronze door made for the Church of S.
Giovanni, where, as it has been said, Andrea Pisano had wrought the
first; and he had come to Florence in order to make himself known, above
all because this work was to be allotted to the man who, in making one
of those scenes in bronze, should give the best proof of himself and of
his talent. Having therefore come to Florence, he not only made the
model, but delivered one very well executed scene, completely finished
and polished, which gave so great satisfaction, that, if he had not had
as rivals those most excellent masters, Donatello and Filippo
Brunelleschi, who in truth surpassed him in their specimens, it would
have fallen to him to make this work of so great importance. But the
business having concluded otherwise, he went to Bologna, where, by the
favour of Giovanni Bentivogli, he was commissioned by the Wardens of
Works of S. Petronio to make in marble the principal door of that
church, which he continued in the German manner, in order not to alter
the style wherein it had already been begun, filling up what was lacking
in the design of the pilasters that support the cornice and the arch,
with scenes wrought with infinite love within the space of the twelve
years that he was engaged in this work, wherein he made with his own
hand all the foliage and ornamentation of the said door, with the
greatest diligence and care that he could command. On each of the
pilasters that support the architrave, the cornice, and the arch, there
are five