me, passing from lip to
lip, in a short time waxes great, and his qualities become very
highly prized and honoured. And it happens often to a great number
of men, who have left their country far behind them, that they
chance upon nations that are lovers of ability and of foreigners,
where, by reason of their upright walk of life, they find themselves
recognized and cherished in such a manner, that they forget the
country of their birth and choose a new one for their last
resting-place.

Even so was Arezzo chosen as a final home by Guglielmo, who, as a
youth in France, applied himself to the art of design, and together
with that gave attention to glass windows, in which he made figures
no less harmonious in colouring than if they had been painted with
the greatest beauty and harmony in oils. While in his own country,
persuaded by the entreaties of certain of his friends, he was
present at the slaying of one who was their enemy: on which account
he was forced to assume the habit of a monk in the Order of S.
Dominic in France, in order to escape the courts and the hand of
justice. But although he remained in that Order, yet he never
abandoned the study of art; nay, continuing it, he arrived at the
highest perfection.

Now, by order of Pope Julius II, a commission was given to Bramante
da Urbino to have a number of glass windows made for the Palace;
whereupon he, making inquiries about the most excellent craftsmen,
received information of many who were working at that craft, and
among them of some who were executing marvellous works in France;
and of these he saw a specimen through the French Ambassador who was
then at the Court of his Holiness, and who had in the frame of a
window in his study a figure executed on a piece of white glass with
a vast number of colours, fixed on the glass by the action of fire.
Wherefore, by order of Bramante, a letter was written to France,
inviting them to come to Rome, and offering them good payments.
Thereupon Maestro Claudio, a Frenchman, the head of that art, having
received the intelligence, and knowing the excellence of Guglielmo,
so went to work with money and fair promises, that it was no
difficult matter to draw him out of the convent, particularly
because Guglielmo, on account of the discourtesy shown to him and
the jealousies that there always are among monks, was even more
eager to leave it than was Maestro Claudio to get him out. They
went, therefore, to Rome, where the hab