braccio high, in the form of a ball of crystal filled with distilled
water, behind which were two lighted torches, which rendered the sky of
the scenery and prospect-view so luminous, that it had the appearance of
the real and natural sun. This sun, which had around it an ornament of
golden rays that covered the curtain, was drawn little by little by
means of a small windlass that was there, in such a manner that at the
beginning of the performance the sun appeared to be rising, and then,
having climbed to the centre of the arch, it so descended that at the
end of the piece it was setting and sinking below the horizon.

The author of the piece was Antonio Landi, a gentleman of Florence, and
the interludes and music were in the hands of Giovan Battista Strozzi, a
man of very beautiful genius, who was then very young. But since enough
was written at that time about the other things that adorned the
performance, such as the interludes and music, I shall do no more than
mention who they were who executed certain pictures, and it must suffice
for the present to know that all the other things were carried out by
the above-named Giovan Battista Strozzi, Tribolo, and Aristotile. Below
the scenery of the comedy, the walls at the sides were divided into six
painted pictures, each eight braccia in height and five in breadth, and
each having around it an ornamental border one braccio and two-thirds in
width, which formed a frieze about it and was moulded on the side next
the picture, containing four medallions in the form of a cross, with two
Latin mottoes for each scene, and in the rest were suitable devices.
Over all, right round, ran a frieze of blue baize, save where the scene
was, above which was a canopy, likewise of baize, which covered the
whole court. On that frieze of baize, above every painted story, were
the arms of some of the most illustrious families with which the house
of Medici had kinship.

Beginning with the eastern side, then, next to the stage, in the first
picture, which was by the hand of Francesco Ubertini, called Il
Bacchiacca, was the Return from Exile of the Magnificent Cosimo de'
Medici; the device consisted of two Doves on a Golden Bough, and the
arms in the frieze were those of Duke Cosimo. In the second, which was
by the same hand, was the Journey of the Magnificent Lorenzo to Naples;
the device a Pelican, and the arms those of Duke Lorenzo--namely, Medici
and Savoy. In the third picture, painted by