es made about the same time in Tuscany. And
what has been said of Romagna can be also said with truth of a part of
Lombardy. A glance at the Duomo of Ferrara, and at the other buildings
made by the Marquis Azzo, will give us to know that this is the truth
and how different they are from the Santo of Padua, made with the model
of Niccola, and from the Church of the Friars Minor in Venice, both
magnificent and honoured buildings. Many, in the time of Niccola, moved
by laudable envy, applied themselves with more zeal to sculpture than
they had done before, and particularly in Milan, whither there assembled
for the building of the Duomo many Lombards and Germans, who afterwards
scattered throughout Italy by reason of the discords that arose between
the Milanese and the Emperor Frederick. And so these craftsmen,
beginning to compete among themselves both in marble and in building,
found some little of the good. The same came to pass in Florence after
the works of Arnolfo and Niccola had been seen; and the latter, while
the little Church of the Misericordia was being erected from his design
in the Piazza di S. Giovanni, made therein in marble, with his own hand,
a Madonna with S. Dominic and another Saint, one on either side of her,
which may still be seen on the outer facade of the said church.

[Illustration: _Alinari_

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI

(_Detail, after_ Niccola Pisano, _from the Pulpit of the Baptistery,
Pisa_)]

The Florentines had begun, in the time of Niccola, to throw to the
ground many towers made formerly in barbaric manner throughout the whole
city, in order that the people might be less hurt by reason of these in
the brawls that were often taking place between the Guelphs and the
Ghibellines, or in order that there might be greater security for the
State, and it appeared to them that it would be very difficult to pull
down the Tower of Guardamorto, which was in the Piazza di S. Giovanni,
because the walls had been made so stoutly that they could not be pulled
to pieces with pickaxes, and all the more because it was very high.
Wherefore, Niccola causing the foot of the tower to be cut away on one
side and supporting it with wooden props a braccio and a half in length,
and then setting fire to them, as soon as the props were burnt away it
fell and was almost entirely shattered; which was held something so
ingenious and useful for such affairs that later it passed into use,
insomuch that, when there is ne