carved that say: A.D. MCLXXIV, CAMPANILE HOC FUIT
FUNDATUM, MENSE AUG. But these two architects not having much practice
of founding in Pisa and therefore not supporting the platform with
piles, as they ought, before they had gone halfway with that building it
inclined to one side and bent over to the weakest part, in a manner that
the said campanile leans six and a half braccia[6] out of the straight,
according as the foundation sank on this side; and although in the lower
part this is not much, up above it shows clear enough to make men stand
fast in a marvel how it can be that it has not fallen down and has not
thrown out cracks. The reason is that this edifice is round both without
and within and built in the shape of a hollow well, and bound together
with the stones in a manner that it is well-nigh impossible that it
should fall; and it is assisted, above all, by the foundations, which
have an outwork three braccia wide outside the tower, made, as it is
seen, after the sinking of the campanile, in order to support it. I am
convinced that if it had been square it would not have been standing
to-day, for the reason that the corner-stones of the square sides, as is
often seen to happen, would have forced them out in a manner that it
would have fallen down. And if the Garisenda, a tower in Bologna,
although square, leans and does not fall, that comes to pass because it
is slender and does not lean so much, not being burdened by so great a
weight, by a great measure, as is this campanile, which is praised, not
because it has in it any design or beautiful manner, but simply for its
extravagance, it appearing impossible to anyone who sees it that it can
in any wise keep standing. And the same Bonanno, while the said
campanile was building, made, in the year 1180, the royal door of bronze
for the said Duomo of Pisa, wherein are seen these letters:

EGO BONANNUS PIS. MEA ARTE HANC PORTAM UNO ANNO PERFECI,
TEMPORE BENEDICTI OPERARII.

Next, from the walls that were made from ancient spoils at S. Giovanni
Laterano in Rome, under Lucius III and Urban III, Pontiffs, when the
Emperor Frederick was crowned by this Urban, it is seen that the art was
going on continually improving, because certain little temples and
chapels, built, as has been said, of spoils, have passing good design
and certain things in them worthy of consideration, and among others
this, that in order not to overburden the walls of the