la. Over these
shops and loggie were to be erected magnificent and commodious houses,
built in a very beautiful and very practical style of architecture, and
designed in such a manner as to be sheltered and protected from all the
pestiferous winds of Rome, and freed from all the inconveniences of
water and garbage likely to generate unhealthy exhalations. All this the
said Pontiff would have finished if he had been granted a little longer
life, for he had a great and resolute spirit, and an understanding so
profound, that he gave as much guidance and direction to the craftsmen
as they gave to him. When this is so, and when the patron has knowledge
of his own and capacity enough to take an immediate resolution, great
enterprises can be easily brought to completion; whereas an irresolute
and incapable man, wavering between yes and no in a sea of conflicting
designs and opinions, very often lets time slip past unprofitably
without doing anything. But of this design of Nicholas there is no need
to say any more, since it was not carried into effect.

[Illustration: TOMB OF CARDINAL JACOPO OF PORTUGAL

(_After =Antonio Rossellino=. Florence: S. Miniato_)

_Brogi_]

Besides this, he wished to build the Papal Palace with so much
magnificence and grandeur, and with so many conveniences and such
loveliness, that it might be in all respects the greatest and most
beautiful edifice in Christendom; and he intended that it should not
only serve for the person of the Supreme Pontiff, the Chief of all
Christians, and for the sacred college of Cardinals, who, being his
counsellors and assistants, had always to be about him, but also that it
should provide accommodation for the transaction of all the business,
resolutions, and judicial affairs of the Court; so that the grouping
together of all the offices and courts would have produced great
magnificence, and, if such a word may be used in such a context, an
effect of incredible pomp. What is infinitely more, it was meant for the
reception of all Emperors, Kings, Dukes, and other Christian Princes who
might, either on affairs of their own or out of devotion, visit that
most holy apostolic seat. It is incredible, but he proposed to make
there a theatre for the crowning of the Pontiffs, with gardens, loggie,
aqueducts, fountains, chapels, libraries, and a most beautiful building
set apart for the Conclave. In short, this edifice--I know not whether I
should call it palace, or castle, or