in the centre was not without defect, as will be told
in the Life of that same Bandinelli. This work, after having been
pursued for ten years, was abandoned, and so it remained for some time.
It is true that the profiled stones as well as the columns, both of
Fossato stone and of marble, were wrought with the greatest diligence by
the stone-cutters and carvers under the care of Giuliano, and were
afterwards so well built in that it would not be possible to find any
masonry better put together, all the stones being accurately measured.
In this respect Giuliano may be celebrated as most excellent; and the
work, as will be related in the proper place, was finished in five
months, with an addition, by Giorgio Vasari of Arezzo.

Giuliano, meanwhile, not neglecting his workshop, was giving his
attention, together with his brothers, to the execution of many carvings
and works in wood, and also to pressing on the making of the pavement
of S. Maria del Fiore; and since he was superintendent and architect of
that building, he was requested by the same Bandinelli to make designs
and models of wood, after some fantasies of figures and other ornaments
of his own, for the high-altar of that same S. Maria del Fiore, which
was to be constructed of marble; which Giuliano did most willingly,
being a good and kindly person and one who delighted in architecture as
much as Bandinelli despised it, and being also won over by the lavish
promises of profit and honour that Bandinelli made him. Setting to work,
therefore, on that model, Giuliano made it much after the simple pattern
formerly designed by Brunelleschi, save that he enriched it by doubling
both the columns and the arch above. And when he had brought it to
completion, and the model, together with many designs, had been carried
by Bandinelli to Duke Cosimo, his most illustrious Excellency resolved
in his regal mind to execute not only the altar, but also the ornament
of marble that surrounds the choir, following its original octagonal
shape, with all those rich adornments with which it has since been
carried out, in keeping with the grandeur and magnificence of that
temple. Giuliano, therefore, with the assistance of Bandinelli, made a
beginning with that choir, without altering anything save the principal
entrance, which is opposite to the above-mentioned altar; for which
reason he wished that it should be exactly similar to that altar, with
the same arch and decorations. He also mad