ore had had the idea and the wish
to make a place of burial for all the inhabitants of the city, both
noble and plebeian, either in order not to fill the Duomo with graves or
for some other reason, caused Giovanni to make the edifice of the Campo
Santo, which is on the Piazza del Duomo, towards the walls; wherefore
he, with good design and with much judgment, made it in that manner and
with those ornaments of marble and of that size which are to be seen;
and because there was no consideration of expense, the roof was made of
lead. And outside the principal door there are seen these words carved
in marble:

A.D. MCCLXXVIII. TEMPORE DOMINI FREDERIGI ARCHIEPISCOPI PISANI, ET
DOMINI TARLATI POTESTATIS, OPERARIO ORLANDO SARDELLA, JOHANNE
MAGISTRO AEDIFICANTE.

This work finished, in the same year, 1283, Giovanni went to Naples,
where, for King Charles, he made the Castel Nuovo of Naples; and in
order to have room and to make it stronger, he was forced to pull down
many houses and churches, and in particular a convent of Friars of S.
Francis, which was afterwards rebuilt no little larger and more
magnificent than it was before, far from the castle and under the title
of S. Maria della Nuova. These buildings being begun and considerably
advanced, Giovanni departed from Naples, in order to return to Tuscany;
but arriving at Siena, without being allowed to go on farther he was
caused to make the model of the facade of the Duomo of that city, and
afterwards the said facade was made very rich and magnificent from this
model. Next, in the year 1286, when the Vescovado of Arezzo was
building with the design of Margaritone, architect of Arezzo, Giovanni
was brought from Siena to Arezzo by Guglielmino Ubertini, Bishop of that
city, where he made in marble the panel of the high-altar, all filled
with carvings of figures, of foliage, and other ornaments, distributing
throughout the whole work certain things in delicate mosaic, and enamels
laid on plates of silver, let into the marble with much diligence. In
the middle is a Madonna with the Child in her arms, and on one side S.
Gregory the Pope, whose face is the portrait from life of Pope Honorius
IV; and on the other side is S. Donatus, Bishop and Protector of that
city, whose body, with those of S. Antilla and of other Saints, is laid
under that same altar. And because the said altar stands out by itself,
round it and on the sides there are small scenes in low-relie