rightly called--was a mandorla of copper, hollow
within, wherein were many holes showing certain little lamps fixed on
iron bars in the form of tubes; which lamps, on the touching of a spring
which could be pressed down, were all hidden within the mandorla of
copper, whereas, when the spring was not pressed down, all the lamps
could be seen alight through some holes therein. When the cluster of
angels had reached its place, this mandorla, which was fastened to the
aforesaid little rope, was lowered very gradually by the unwinding of
the rope with another little windlass, and arrived at the platform where
the Representation took place; and on this platform, precisely on the
spot where the mandorla was to rest, there was a raised place in the
shape of a throne with four steps, in the centre of which there was a
hole wherein the iron point of the mandorla stood upright. Below the
said throne was a man who, when the mandorla had reached its place, made
it fast with a bolt without being seen, so that it stood firmly on its
base. Within the mandorla was a youth about fifteen years of age in the
guise of an angel, girt round the middle with an iron, and secured by a
bolt to the foot of the mandorla in a manner that he could not fall; and
to the end that he might be able to kneel, the said iron was divided
into three parts, whereof one part entered readily into another as he
knelt. Thus, when the cluster of angels had descended and the mandorla
was resting on the throne, the man who fixed the mandorla with the bolt
also unbolted the iron that supported the angel; whereupon he issued
forth and walked across the platform, and, having come to where the
Virgin was, saluted her and made the Annunciation. He then returned into
the mandorla, and the lights, which had gone out on his issuing forth,
being rekindled, the iron that supported him was once more bolted by the
man who was concealed below, the bolt that held the mandorla firm was
removed, and it was drawn up again; while the singing of the angels in
the cluster, and of those in the Heaven, who kept circling round, made
it appear truly a Paradise, and the rather because, in addition to the
said choir of angels and to the cluster, there was a God the Father on
the outer edge of the globe, surrounded by angels similar to those named
above and supported by irons, in such wise that the Heaven, the God the
Father, the cluster, and the mandorla, with innumerable lights and very
sweet