d the Wardens so strongly, under
the pretext of love and affection towards that building, that he was
united to Filippo as his colleague in the work. How great were the
despair and the bitterness of Filippo, on hearing what the Wardens had
done, may be seen from this, that he was minded to fly from Florence;
and if it had not been for Donato and Luca della Robbia, who comforted
him, he would have lost his reason. Truly impious and cruel is the rage
of those who, blinded by envy, put into peril the honours and the
beautiful works of others in their jealous emulation! It was no fault of
theirs, in truth, that Filippo did not break his models into pieces,
burn his designs, and throw away in less than half an hour all that
labour which had occupied him for so many years. The Wardens at first
made excuses to Filippo and exhorted him to proceed, saying that he
himself and no other was the inventor and the creator of so noble a
building; but at the same time they gave the same salary to Lorenzo as
to Filippo. The work was pursued with little willingness on the part of
Filippo, who saw that he must endure the labours that it entailed, and
must then divide the honour and the fame equally with Lorenzo. Making up
his mind, however, that he would find means to prevent Lorenzo from
continuing very long in the work, he went on pursuing it in company with
him, in the manner suggested by the writing given to the Wardens.
Meanwhile, there arose in the mind of Filippo the idea of making such a
model as had not yet been made; wherefore, having put his hand to this,
he had it wrought by one Bartolommeo, a carpenter, who lived near the
Studio. In this model, which had all the exact proportions measured to
scale, he made all the difficult parts, such as staircases both lighted
and dark, and every sort of window, door, tie, and buttress, together
with a part of the gallery. Lorenzo, hearing of this, wished to see it,
but Filippo refused to let him, whereupon he flew into a rage and
ordered another model to be made for himself, to the end that he might
not appear to be drawing his salary for nothing and to be of no account
in the work. With regard to these models, Filippo was paid fifty lire
and fifteen soldi for his, as we see from an order in the book of
Migliore di Tommaso, dated October 3, 1419, whereas three hundred lire
are entered as paid to Lorenzo Ghiberti for the labour and expense of
his model, more in consequence of the friendship an