wo towers. In like manner, he made the model for the fortress
of the port of Pesaro. Returning to Milan, he made many designs for the
Duke, and some for the masters of the Duomo of that city.

The Church of S. Lorenzo had been begun in Florence at this time by
order of the people of that quarter, who had made the Prior
superintendent of that building. This person made profession of much
knowledge in architecture, and was ever amusing himself therewith by way
of pastime. And they had already begun the building by making piers of
brick, when Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, who had promised the people of
that quarter and the Prior to have the sacristy and a chapel made at his
own expense, invited Filippo one morning to dine with him, and after
much discourse asked him what he thought of the beginning of S. Lorenzo.
Filippo was constrained by the entreaties of Giovanni to say what he
thought, and being compelled to speak the truth, he criticized it in
many respects, as something designed by a person who had perchance more
learning than experience of buildings of that sort. Whereupon Giovanni
asked Filippo if something better and more beautiful could be made: to
which Filippo replied, "Without a doubt, and I marvel that you, being
the chief in the enterprise, do not devote a few thousand crowns to
building a body of a church with all its parts worthy of the place and
of so many noble owners of tombs, who, seeing it begun, will proceed
with their chapels to the best of their power; above all, because there
remains no memorial of us save walls, which bear testimony for hundreds
and thousands of years to those who built them." Giovanni, encouraged by
the words of Filippo, determined to build the sacristy and the principal
chapel, together with the whole body of the church, although only seven
families were willing to co-operate, since the others had not the means:
these seven were the Rondinelli, Ginori, Dalla Stufa, Neroni, Ciai,
Marignolli, Martelli, and Marco di Luca, and these chapels were to be
made in the cross. The sacristy was the first part to be undertaken, and
afterwards the church, little by little. The other chapels along the
length of the church came to be granted afterwards, one by one, to other
citizens of the quarter. The roofing of the sacristy was not finished
when Giovanni de' Medici passed to the other life, leaving behind him
his son Cosimo, who, having a greater spirit than his father and
delighting in memor