gellation
Rome: S. Pietro in Montorio 176

FRA SEBASTIANO VINIZIANO DEL PIOMBO
Andrea Doria
Rome: Palazzo Doria 182

PERINO DEL VAGA
The Passage of the Red Sea
Rome: The Vatican, Loggia 192

FRA GIOCONDO, LIBERALE, AND OTHER CRAFTSMEN OF VERONA

LIVES OF FRA GIOCONDO, LIBERALE, AND OTHER CRAFTSMEN OF VERONA

If writers of history were to live a few years longer than the number
commonly granted as the span of human life, I, for my part, have no
manner of doubt that they would have something to add to the accounts of
the past previously written by them, for the reason that, even as it is
not possible for a single man, be he ever so diligent, to learn the
exact truth in a flash, or to discover all the details of his subject in
the little time at his command, so it is as clear as the light of day
that Time, who is said to be the father of truth, is always revealing
new things every day to the seeker after knowledge. If, many years ago,
when I first wrote and also published these Lives of the Painters and
other Craftsmen, I had possessed that full information which I have
since received concerning Fra Giocondo of Verona, a man of rare parts
and a master of all the most noble faculties, I would without a doubt
have made that honourable record of him which I am now about to make for
the benefit of craftsmen, or rather, of the world; and not of him only,
but also of many other masters of Verona, who have been truly excellent.
And let no one marvel that I place them all under the image of one only,
because, not having been able to obtain portraits of them all, I am
forced to do this; but, so far as in me lies, not one of them shall
thereby have his excellence defrauded of its due.

Now, since the order of time and merit so demands, I shall speak first
of Fra Giocondo. This man, when he assumed the habit of S. Dominic, was
called not simply Fra Giocondo, but Fra Giovanni Giocondo. How the name
Giovanni dropped from him I know not, but I do know that he was always
called Fra Giocondo by everyone. And although his chief profession was
that of letters, and he was not only a very good philosopher and
theologian, but also an excellent Greek scholar (which was a rare thing
at that time, when learning and letters were just beginning to revive in
Italy), neverthe