found him at work upon this Pieta, but the sculptor was so dissatisfied
with one portion that he let his lantern fall in order that Vasari
might not see it, saying: "I am so old that death frequently drags
at my mantle to take me, and one day my person will fall like this
lantern". The Pieta is still in deep gloom, as the master would have
liked, but enough is revealed to prove its pathos and its power.

In the east end of the nave is the chapel of S. Zenobius, containing a
bronze reliquary by Ghiberti, with scenes upon it from the life of this
saint, so important in Florentine religious history. It is, however,
very hard to see, and should be illuminated. Zenobius was born at
Florence in the reign of Constantine the Great, when Christianity
was by no means the prevailing religion of the city, although the
way had been paved by various martyrs. After studying philosophy
and preaching with much acceptance, Zenobius was summoned to Rome
by Pope Damasus. On the Pope's death he became Bishop of Florence,
and did much, says Butler, to "extirpate the kingdom of Satan". The
saint lived in the ancient tower which still stands--one of the few
survivors of Florence's hundreds of towers--at the corner of the Via
Por S. Maria (which leads from the Mercato Nuovo to the Ponte Vecchio)
and the Via Lambertesca. It is called the Torre de' Girolami, and
on S. Zenobius' day--May 25th--is decorated with flowers; and since
never are so many flowers in the city of flowers as at that time, it
is a sight to see. The remains of the saint were moved to the Duomo,
although it had not then its dome, from S. Lorenzo, in 1330, and the
simple column in the centre of the road opposite Ghiberti's first
Baptistery doors was erected to mark the event, since on that very
spot, it is said, stood a dead elm tree which, when the bier of the
saint chanced to touch it, immediately sprang to life again and burst
into leaf; even, the enthusiastic chronicler adds, into flower. The
result was that the tree was cut completely to pieces by relic hunters,
but the column by the Baptistery, the work of Brunelleschi (erected on
the site of an earlier one), fortunately remains as evidence of the
miracle. Ghiberti, however, did not choose this miracle but another
for representation; for not only did Zenobius dead restore animation,
but while he was himself living he resuscitated two boys. The one was a
ward of his own; the second was an ordinary Florentine, for whom the