et it suffice to have said in this place that they
were disciples of Giotto, who drew very well for his time and for that
manner, whereunto witness is borne by many sheets of parchment drawn by
his hand in water-colour, outlined with the pen, in chiaroscuro, with
the high lights in white, which are in our book of drawings, and are
truly a marvel in comparison with those of the masters that lived before
him.

Giotto, as it has been said, was very ingenious and humorous, and very
witty in his sayings, whereof there is still vivid memory in that city;
for besides that which Messer Giovanni Boccaccio wrote about him, Franco
Sacchetti, in his three hundred Stories, relates many of them that are
very beautiful. Of these I will not forbear to write down some with the
very words of Franco himself, to the end that, together with the story
itself, there may be seen certain modes of speech and expressions of
those times. He says in one, then, to give it its heading:

"To Giotto, a great painter, is given a buckler to paint by a man of
small account. He, making a jest of it, paints it in such a fashion that
the other is put to confusion."

The story: "Everyone must have heard already who was Giotto, and how
great a painter he was above every other. A clownish fellow, having
heard his fame and having need, perchance for doing watch and ward, to
have a buckler of his painted, went off incontinent to the shop of
Giotto, with one who carried his buckler behind him, and, arriving where
he found Giotto, said, 'God save thee, master, I would have thee paint
my arms on this buckler.' Giotto, considering the man and the way of
him, said no other word save this, 'When dost thou want it?' And he told
him; and Giotto said, 'Leave it to me'; and off he went. And Giotto,
being left alone, ponders to himself, 'What meaneth this? Can this
fellow have been sent to me in jest? Howsoever it may be, never was
there brought to me a buckler to paint, and he who brings it is a
simple manikin and bids me make him his arms as if he were of the
blood-royal of France; i' faith, I must make him a new fashion of arms.'
And so, pondering within himself, he put the said buckler before him,
and, having designed what seemed good to him, bade one of his disciples
finish the painting, and so he did; which painting was a helmet, a
gorget, a pair of arm-pieces, a pair of iron gauntlets, a cuirass and a
back-piece, a pair of thigh-pieces, a pair of leg-pieces, a swor