less he was also a very fine architect, being a man who
always took supreme delight in that art, as Scaliger relates in his
epistle against Cardan, and the learned Bude in his book "De Asse," and
in the observations that he wrote on the Pandects.

Fra Giocondo, then, who was a fine scholar, a capable architect, and an
excellent master of perspective, spent many years near the person of the
Emperor Maximilian, and was master in the Greek and Latin tongues to the
learned Scaliger, who writes that he heard him dispute with profound
learning on matters of the greatest subtlety before the same Maximilian.
It is related by persons still living, who remember the facts very
clearly, that at the time when Verona was under the power of that
Emperor the bridge which is called the Ponte della Pietra, in that city,
was being restored, and it was seen to be necessary to refound the
central pier, which had been destroyed many times in the past, and Fra
Giocondo gave the design for refounding it, and also for safeguarding it
in such a manner that it might never be destroyed again. His method of
safeguarding it was as follows: he gave orders that the pier should be
kept always bound together with long double piles fixed below the water
on every side, to the end that these might so protect it that the river
should not be able to undermine it; for the place where it is built is
in the main current of the river, the bed of which is so soft that no
solid ground can be found on which to lay its foundations. And
excellent, in truth, as is evident from the result, was the advice of
Fra Giocondo, for the reason that the pier has stood firm from that time
to our own, as it still does, without ever showing a crack; and there is
hope that, by the observation of the suggestions given by that good
monk, it will stand for ever.

In his youth Fra Giocondo spent many years in Rome, giving his attention
to the study of antiquities, and not of buildings only, but also of the
ancient inscriptions that are in the tombs, and the other relics of
antiquity, both in Rome itself and its neighbourhood, and in every part
of Italy; and he collected all these inscriptions and memorials into a
most beautiful book, which he sent as a present, according to the
account of the citizens of Verona mentioned above, to the elder Lorenzo
de' Medici, the Magnificent, to whom, by reason of the great
friendliness and favour that he showed to all men of talent, both Fra
Giocond