is own, for which he was repaid.

Now, after the matter had been discussed, Filippo was sent for and asked
to make a model with all the features, both useful and honourable, that
might be possible and suitable to a Christian church. Whereupon he urged
strongly that the ground-plan of that edifice should be turned right
round, because he greatly desired that the square should extend to the
bank of the Arno, to the end that all those who passed that way from
Genoa, from the Riviera, from the Lunigiana, and from the districts of
Pisa and Lucca, might see the magnificence of that building. But since
certain citizens objected, refusing to have their houses pulled down,
the desire of Filippo did not take effect. He made the model of the
church, therefore, with that of the habitation of the monks, in the form
wherein it stands to-day. The length of the church was one hundred and
sixty-one braccia, and the width fifty-four braccia, and it was so well
planned, both in the ordering of the columns and in the rest of the
ornaments, that it would be impossible to make a work richer, more
lovely, or more graceful than that one. And in truth, but for the
malevolence of those who are ever spoiling the beautiful beginnings of
any work in order to appear to have more understanding than others, this
would now be the most perfect church in Christendom; and even as it
stands it is more lovely and better designed than any other, although it
has not been carried out according to the model, as may be seen from
certain parts begun on the outside, wherein the design observed within
has not been followed, as it appears from the model that the doors and
the borders round the windows were meant to do. There are some errors,
attributed to him, about which I will be silent, for it is believed that
if he had completed the building he would not have endured them, seeing
that he had brought all his work to perfection with so much judgment,
discrimination, intellect, and art; and this work likewise established
him as a genius truly divine.

Filippo was very humorous in his discourse and very acute in repartee,
as he showed when he wished to hit at Lorenzo Ghiberti, who had bought a
farm on Monte Morello, called Lepriano, on which he spent twice as much
as he gained by way of income, so that he grew weary of this and sold
it. Some one asked Filippo what was the best thing that Lorenzo had ever
done, thinking perchance, by reason of the enmity between them