me to pay for it, it appeared to
him that Donato was asking too much; wherefore the matter was referred
to Cosimo, who had the head carried to the upper court of the palace and
placed between the battlements that overlook the street, to the end that
it might be seen better. When Cosimo sought to settle the difference, he
found the offer of the merchant very far from the demand of Donato, and
he turned round and said that it was too little. Whereupon the merchant,
thinking it too much, said that Donato had wrought it in a month or
little more, and that this meant a gain of more than half a florin a
day. Donato, thinking this too much of an insult, turned round in anger
and said to the merchant that in the hundredth part of an hour he would
have been able to spoil the value of a year's labour; and giving the
head a push, he sent it flying straightway into the street below, where
it broke into a thousand pieces; saying to him that this showed that he
was more used to bargaining for beans than for statues. Wherefore the
merchant, regretting his meanness, offered to give him double the sum if
he would make another; but neither his promises nor the entreaties of
Cosimo could induce Donato to make it again. In the houses of the
Martelli there are many scenes in marble and in bronze; among others, a
David three braccia high, with many other works presented by him as a
free gift to that family in proof of the devotion and love that he bore
them; above all, a S. John of marble, made by him in the round and three
braccia high, a very rare work, which is to-day in the house of the
heirs of Ruberto Martelli. With regard to this work, a legal agreement
was made to the effect that it should be neither pledged, nor sold, nor
given away, without heavy penalties, as a testimony and token of the
affection shown by them to Donato, and by him to them out of gratitude
that he had learnt his art through the protection and the opportunities
that he received from them.

He also made a tomb of marble for an Archbishop, which was sent to
Naples and is in S. Angelo di Seggio di Nido; in this tomb there are
three figures in the round that support the sarcophagus with their
heads, and on the sarcophagus itself is a scene in low-relief, so
beautiful that it commands infinite praise. In the house of the Count of
Matalone, in the same city, there is the head of a horse by the hand of
Donato, so beautiful that many take it for an antique. In the township