gobbio, who was
much the friend of Giotto and an excellent illuminator for those days.
This man, being summoned for this purpose by the Pope, illuminated many
books for the library of the palace, which are now in great part eaten
away by time. And in my book of ancient drawings are some remains from
the very hand of this man, who in truth was an able man; although a much
better master than Oderigi was Franco Bolognese, who wrought a number of
works excellently in that manner for the same Pope and for the same
library, about the same time, as can be seen in the said book, wherein I
have designs by his hand both in painting and in illumination, and among
them an eagle very well done, and a very beautiful lion that is tearing
a tree. Of these two excellent illuminators Dante makes mention in the
eleventh canto of the _Purgatorio_, where he is talking of the
vainglorious, in these verses:

O, dissi a lui, non se' tu Oderigi,
L'onor d'Agobbio, e l'onor di quell'arte
Che alluminare e chiamata in Parigi?
Frate, diss'egli, piu ridon le carte
Che pennelleggia Franco Bolognese;
L'onor e tutto suo, e mio in parte.

The Pope, having seen these works, and the manner of Giotto pleasing him
infinitely, ordered him to make scenes from the Old Testament and the
New right round S. Pietro; wherefore, for a beginning, Giotto made in
fresco the Angel that is over the organ, seven braccia high, and many
other paintings, whereof part have been restored by others in our own
days, and part, in founding the new walls, have been either destroyed or
removed from the old edifice of S. Pietro, up to the space below the
organ; such as a Madonna on a wall, which, to the end that it might not
be thrown to the ground, was cut right out of the wall and made fast
with beams and iron bars and thus removed, and afterwards built in, by
reason of its beauty, in the place that pleased the pious love that is
borne towards everything excellent in art by Messer Niccolo Acciaiuoli,
doctor of Florence, who richly adorned this work of Giotto with
stucco-work and also with modern paintings. By his hand, also, was the
Navicella in mosaic that is over the three doors of the portico in the
court of S. Pietro, which is truly marvellous and deservedly praised by
all beautiful minds, because in it, besides the design, there is the
grouping of the Apostles, who are travailing in diverse manners through
the sea-tempest, while the winds are bl