And in time, afterwards, there
were made therein many chapels and other very rich ornaments, whereof
there is no need to discourse further, since this is enough on this
subject for the present, and above all because everyone can see how much
of the useful, the ornamental, and the beautiful has been added to this
beginning of Maestro Jacopo's by many supreme Pontiffs, Cardinals,
Princes, and other people of importance throughout all Europe.

Now, to return to Maestro Jacopo; by means of this work he acquired so
great fame throughout all Italy that he was summoned by those who then
governed the city of Florence, and afterwards received with the greatest
possible friendliness; although, according to the use that the
Florentines have, and had still more in ancient times, of abbreviating
names, he was called not Jacopo but Lapo throughout all the course of
his life; for he dwelt ever with his whole family in that city. And
although he went at diverse times to erect many buildings throughout
Tuscany, such as the Palace of Poppi in the Casentino, for that Count
who had had for wife the beautiful Gualdrada, and for her dower, the
Casentino; and for the Aretines, the Vescovado,[7] and the Palazzo
Vecchio of the Lords of Pietramala; none the less his home was always in
Florence, where, having founded in the year 1218 the piers of the Ponte
alla Carraja, which was then called the Ponte Nuovo, he delivered them
finished in two years; and a little time afterwards the rest was
finished of wood, as was then the custom. And in the year 1221 he gave
the design for the Church of S. Salvadore del Vescovado, which was begun
under his direction, and that of S. Michele in Piazza Padella, where
there are certain sculptures in the manner of those times. Next, having
given the design for draining the waters of the city, having caused the
Piazza di S. Giovanni to be raised, having built, in the time of Messer
Rubaconte da Mandella, a Milanese, the bridge that retains the same
man's name, and having discovered that most useful method of paving
streets, which before were covered with bricks, he made the model of the
Palace, to-day of the Podesta, which was then built for the Anziani. And
finally, having sent the model of a tomb to Sicily, to the Abbey of
Monreale, for the Emperor Frederick and by order of Manfred, he died,
leaving Arnolfo, his son, heir no less to the talent than to the wealth
of his father.

This Arnolfo, from whose talent arch