ch things
are not for me, I tell you, nor for you, who seem to me to be honest
men." And they, perceiving that Caparra would not do their will,
asked him who there was in Florence who might serve them; whereupon,
flying into a rage, he drove them away with a torrent of abuse. He
would never work for Jews, and was wont, indeed, to say that their
money was putrid and stinking. He was a good man and a religious,
but whimsical in brain and obstinate: and he would never leave
Florence, for all the offers that were made to him, but lived and
died in that city. Of him I have thought it right to make this
record, because he was truly unique in his craft, and has never had
and never will have an equal, as may be seen best from the iron-work
and the beautiful lanterns of the Palace of the Strozzi.

[Illustration: IRON LANTERN

(_After_ Niccolo Grosso. _Florence: Palazzo Strozzi_)

_Alinari_]

This palace was brought to completion by Cronaca, and adorned with
a very rich courtyard in the Corinthian and Doric Orders, with
ornaments in the form of columns, capitals, cornices, windows, and
doors, all most beautiful. And if it should appear to anyone that
the interior of this palace is not in keeping with the exterior, he
must know that the fault is not Cronaca's, for the reason that he
was forced to adapt his interior to an outer shell begun by others,
and to follow in great measure what had been laid down by those
before him; and it was no small feat for him to have given it such
beauty as it displays. The same answer may be made to any who say
that the ascent of the stairs is not easy, nor correct in
proportion, but too steep and sudden; and likewise, also, to such as
say that the rooms and apartments of the interior in general are out
of keeping, as has been described, with the grandeur and
magnificence of the exterior. Nevertheless this palace will never be
held as other than truly magnificent, and equal to any private
building whatsoever that has been erected in Italy in our own times;
wherefore Cronaca rightly obtained, as he still does, infinite
commendation for this work.

The same master built the Sacristy of S. Spirito in Florence, which
is in the form of an octagonal temple, beautiful in proportions, and
executed with a high finish; and among other things to be seen in
this work are some capitals fashioned by the happy hand of Andrea
dal Monte Sansovino, which are wrought with supreme perfection; and
such, likewise