to his many friends, who had
always known him as a loving and reasonable man. And since he had always
lived like an upright and orderly citizen, the Deputati of S. Pietro
gave him honourable burial in a tomb, on which they placed the following
epitaph:

SCULPTORI LAURENTIO FLORENTINO

ROMA MIHI TRIBUIT TUMULUM, FLORENTIA VITAM:
NEMO ALIO VELLET NASCI ET OBIRE LOCO.
MDXLI
VIX. ANN. XLVII, MEN. II, D. XV.

[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS

(_After the panel by =Boccaccino=. Rome: Doria Gallery, 125_)

_Anderson_]

Boccaccino of Cremona, who lived about the same time, had acquired the
name of a rare and excellent painter in his native place and throughout
all Lombardy, and his works were very highly extolled, when he went to
Rome to see the works, so much renowned, of Michelagnolo; but no sooner
had he seen them than he sought to the best of his power to disparage
and revile them, believing that he could exalt himself almost exactly in
proportion as he vilified a man who truly was in the matters of design,
and indeed in all others without exception, supremely excellent. This
master, then, was commissioned to paint the Chapel of S. Maria
Traspontina; but when he had finished it and thrown it open to view, it
was a revelation to all those who thought that he would soar above the
heavens, for they saw that he could not reach even to the level of the
lowest floor of a house. And so the painters of Rome, on seeing the
Coronation of Our Lady that he had painted in that work, with some
children flying around her, changed from marvel to laughter.

From this it may be seen that when people begin to exalt with their
praise men who are more excellent in name than in deeds, it is a
difficult thing to contrive to bring such men down to their true level
with words, however reasonable, before their own works, wholly contrary
to their reputation, reveal what the masters so celebrated really are.
And it is a very certain fact that the worst harm that one man can do to
another is the giving of praise too early to any intellect engaged in
work, since such praise, swelling him with premature pride, prevents him
from going any farther, and a man so greatly extolled, on finding that
his works have not that excellence which was expected, takes the censure
too much to heart, and despairs completely of ever being able to do good
work. Wise men, therefore, should fear praise much more than censure,
for the first flat