buried,
even as his virtues deserved, with great honour, having been loved by
all while he lived, and in particular by the men excellent in all the
professions, seeing that, besides Dante, of whom we have spoken
above, he was much honoured by Petrarca, both he and his works, so
greatly that it is read in Petrarca's testament that he left to Signor
Francesco da Carrara, Lord of Padua, among other things held by him in
the highest veneration, a picture by the hand of Giotto containing a
Madonna, as something rare and very dear to him. And the words of that
clause in the testament run thus:

"Transeo ad dispositionem aliarum rerum; et praedicto igitur domino meo
Paduano, quia et ipse per Dei gratiam non eget, et ego nihil aliud habeo
dignum se, mitto tabulam meam sive historiam Beatae Virginis Mariae, opus
Jocti pictoris egregii, quae mihi ab amico meo Michaele Vannis de
Florentia missa est, in cujus pulchritudinem ignorantes non intelligunt,
magistri autem artis stupent; hanc iconam ipsi domino lego, ut ipsa
Virgo benedicta sibi sit propitia apud filium suum Jesum Christum."

And the same Petrarch, in a Latin epistle in the fifth book of his
_Familiar Letters_, says these words:

"Atque (ut a veteribus ad nova, ab externis ad nostra transgrediar) duos
ego novi pictores egregios, nec formosos, Joctum Florentinum civem,
cujus inter modernos fama ingens est, et Simonem Senensem. Novi
scultores aliquot," etc.

Giotto was buried in S. Maria del Fiore, on the left side as you enter
the church, where there is a slab of white marble in memory of so great
a man. And, as was told in the Life of Cimabue, a commentator of Dante,
who lived at the same time as Giotto, said: "Giotto was and is the most
eminent among painters in the same city of Florence, and his works bear
testimony for him in Rome, in Naples, in Avignon, in Florence, in Padua,
and in many other parts of the world."

His disciples were Taddeo Gaddi, held by him at baptism, as has been
said, and Puccio Capanna of Florence, who, working at Rimini in the
Church of S. Cataldo, belonging to the Preaching Friars, painted
perfectly in fresco the hull of a ship which appears to be sinking in
the sea, with men who are throwing things into the sea, one of whom is
Puccio himself portrayed from life among a good number of mariners. The
same man painted many works after the death of Giotto in the Church of
S. Francesco at Assisi, and in the Church of S. Trinita in Florence,
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