Page:On the Vatican Library of Sixtus IV.djvu/18

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VATICAN LIBRARY OF SIXTUS IV.
"Moreover I make myself the debtor of the said Francis in a sum of one hundred and twenty-two ducats for five large windows and two of smaller size; for eight planks of chesnut-wood, (talariis nucis), for a grille for the door, for the piercing of four doors, and for a bench for the keepers: the actual value of all which things shall be set out when they are paid for[1]."

When the account was discharged it is set out as follows:

For 150 boards (tabulis) 6 ducats
For 5 large windows 21 "
For 8 planks of chesnut-wood (talariis nucis) also large 28 "
For 2 windows (also large) which look into the court 4 "
For the grille of the great door 30 "
For the great door 16 "
For the keepers' bench and settle 10 "
For piercing four doors 7 "
122 ducats
This is the actual value I promised to set out, together with that of the boards which I had omitted[2].

The glass and the stamnum, a word which I have ventured to translate sawder, arrived 15 December, 1475, when a carlino was paid to the porters who carried the boxes from the custom-house to the Vatican[3], and 77 ducats for carriage to the merchantman who brought them by sea from Venice. Between this date and 11 April 1476, 1100 pounds of lead were bought at different times; and there is a single payment for coals (15 January). The work was completed by the beginning of May, 1476, when the last payment was made to Hermann, ending with the significant words "there is no more for him to have (nil amplius restat habere)." His own wages, from September 1475 to May 1476, exclusive of the purchase of materials, had amounted to 56 ducats.

  1. Müntz, p. 126.
  2. Ibid., p. 128.
  3. Dedi his qui portarunt cassas vitri et stamnum e dovana [dogana?] ad palatium car. un. die xv decembris 1475. Expendi ducatos xv et b. [bononenos] LXIII pro vectura et expensis factis ab urbe Veneta hucus pro vitro et stamno ad vsum fenestrarum conducto die xv decembris 1475. Ibid., p. 123. Solutum est xxii Januarii 1476 Dominico Petri mercatori veneto pro vitris emptis et stamno ad usum bibliothecæ ducatos LXII, bl. III. ut superius apparet. Ibid., p. 124.