the story
of the Magi in the Church of the Duomo Vecchio, without the city, and,
in the Chapel of S. Gismondo, a S. Donatus who is slaying a serpent
with his benediction. In like manner, he made diverse figures on many
pilasters in that Duomo, and, on a wall, the Magdalene anointing the
feet of Christ in the house of Simon; with other pictures, whereof there
is no need to make mention, since that church, which was full of tombs,
of bones of saints, and of other memorable things, is to-day wholly
ruined. I will say, indeed, to the end that there may at least remain
this memory of it, that it was erected by the Aretines more than
thirteen hundred years since, at the time when first they came into the
faith of Jesus Christ, converted by S. Donatus, who was afterwards
Bishop of that city; and that it was dedicated to his name, and richly
adorned, both within and without, with very ancient spoils. The
ground-plan of this edifice, whereof we have discoursed at length in
another place, was divided without into sixteen sides, and within into
eight, and all were full of the spoils of those temples which before had
been dedicated to the idols; and it was, in short, as beautiful as a
temple thus made and very ancient can be, when it was destroyed.

After the many pictures made in the Duomo, Spinello painted in S.
Francesco, in the Chapel of the Marsuppini, Pope Honorius confirming and
approving the Order of that Saint, and made there from nature the
portrait of Innocent IV, from whatsoever source he had it. He painted
also in the same church, in the Chapel of S. Michelagnolo, many stories
of him, in the place where the bells are rung; and a little below, in
the Chapel of Messer Giuliano Baccio, an Annunciation, with other
figures, which are much praised; all which works made in this church
were wrought in fresco, with very resolute handling, from 1334 up to
1338. Next, in the Pieve of the same city, he painted the Chapel of S.
Pietro e S. Paolo, and below it, that of S. Michelagnolo; and, for the
Confraternity of S. Maria della Misericordia, he painted in fresco, on
the same side of the church, the Chapel of S. Jacopo e S. Filippo; and
over the principal door of the Confraternity, which opens on to the
square--namely, on the arch--he painted a Pieta, with a S. John, at the
request of the Rectors of that Confraternity, which had its origin in
the following way. A certain number of good and honourable citizens had
begun to go about