pret as John Sharp; but his
name was really Hawkwood, which the Italians have corrupted into Acut.
He was a celebrated General or Condottiere who arrived in Italy at the
head of four thousand soldiers of fortune, mostly Englishmen who had
served with him in the army of King Edward III., and were dismissed at
the Peace of Bontigny. Hawkwood greatly distinguished himself in Italy
by his valour and conduct, and died a very old man in the Florentine
service. He was the son of a Tanner in Essex, and had been put
apprentice to a Taylor.] The baptistery, which stands by it, was an
antient temple, said to be dedicated to Mars. There are some good
statues of marble within; and one or two of bronze on the outside of
the doors; but it is chiefly celebrated for the embossed work of its
brass gates, by Lorenzo Ghiberti, which Buonaroti used to say, deserved
to be made the gates of Paradise. I viewed them with pleasure: but
still I retained a greater veneration for those of Pisa, which I had
first admired: a preference which either arises from want of taste, or
from the charm of novelty, by which the former were recommended to my
attention. Those who would have a particular detail of every thing
worth seeing at Florence, comprehending churches, libraries, palaces,
tombs, statues, pictures, fountains, bridge, etc. may consult Keysler,
who is so laboriously circumstantial in his descriptions, that I never
could peruse them, without suffering the headache, and recollecting the
old observation, that the German genius lies more in the back than in
the brain.

I was much disappointed in the chapel of St. Lorenzo. Notwithstanding
the great profusion of granite, porphyry, jasper, verde antico,
lapis-lazuli, and other precious stones, representing figures in the
way of marquetry, I think the whole has a gloomy effect. These pietre
commesse are better calculated for cabinets, than for ornaments to
great buildings, which ought to be large masses proportioned to the
greatness of the edifice. The compartments are so small, that they
produce no effect in giving the first impression when one enters the
place; except to give an air of littleness to the whole, just as if a
grand saloon was covered with pictures painted in miniature. If they
have as little regard to proportion and perspective, when they paint
the dome, which is not yet finished, this chapel will, in my opinion,
remain a monument of ill taste and extravagance.

The court of the palac