t; the cross, 8 braccia in height. The whole cupola,
from the ground up to the summit of the cross, is 202 braccia.

[Illustration: _Alinari_

TOMB OF ADRIAN V

(_After the_ School of Arnolfo di Lapo. _Viterbo: Church of S.
Francesco_)]

But returning to Arnolfo, I say that being held, as he was, excellent,
he had acquired so great trust that nothing of importance was determined
without his counsel; wherefore, in the same year, the Commune of
Florence having finished the foundation of the last circle of the walls
of the city, even as it was said above that they were formerly begun,
and so too the towers of the gates, and all being in great part well
advanced, he made a beginning for the Palace of the Signori, designing
it in resemblance to that which his father Lapo had built in the
Casentino for the Counts of Poppi. But yet, however magnificent and
great he designed it, he could not give it that perfection which his art
and his judgment required, for the following reason: the houses of the
Uberti, Ghibellines and rebels against the people of Florence, had been
pulled down and thrown to the ground, and a square had been made on the
site, and the stupid obstinacy of certain men prevailed so greatly that
Arnolfo could not bring it about, through whatsoever arguments he might
urge thereunto, that it should be granted to him to put the Palace on a
square base, because the governors had refused that the Palace should
have its foundations in any way whatsoever on the ground of the rebel
Uberti. And they brought it about that the northern aisle of S. Pietro
Scheraggio should be thrown to the ground, rather than let him work in
the middle of the square with his own measurements; not to mention that
they insisted, moreover, that there should be united and incorporated
with the Palace the Tower of the Foraboschi, called the "Torre della
Vacca," in height fifty braccia, for the use of the great bell, and
together with it some houses bought by the Commune for this edifice. For
which reasons no one must marvel if the foundation of the Palace is awry
and out of the square, it having been necessary, in order to incorporate
the tower in the middle and to render it stronger, to bind it round with
the walls of the Palace; which walls, having been laid open in the year
1561 by Giorgio Vasari, painter and architect, were found excellent.
Arnolfo, then, having filled up the said tower with good material, it
was afterwards easy for other