capable and ingenious citizens being present, to the end that having heard the opinion of each on the subject, they might at length decide on the method to be adopted for vaulting the tribune. -Being called into the audience, the opinions of all were heard one after another, and each architect declared the method which he had thought of adopting. And a fine thing it was to hear the strange and various notions then propounded on that matter: for one said that columns must be raised from the ground up, and that on these they must turn the arches, whereon the woodwork for supporting the weight must rest. Others affirmed that the vault should be turned in cysteolite or sponge-stone, (spugna), thereby to diminish the weight; and several of the masters agreed in the opinion, that a column must be erected in the centre, and the cupola raised in the form of a pavilion, like that of San Giovanni in Florence.[1] Nay, there were not wanting those who maintained that it would be a good plan to fill the space with earth,[2] among which small coins (quatrini) should be mingled, that when the cupola should be raised, they might then give permission that whoever should desire the soil might go to fetch it, when the people would immediately carry it away without expense. Filippo alone declared that the cupola might be erected without so great a mass of wood-work, without a column in the centre, and without the mound of earth; at a much lighter expense than would be caused by so many arches, and very easily, without any frame-work whatever.
Hearing this, the syndics, who were listening in the expectation of hearing some fine method, felt convinced that Filippo had talked like a mere simpleton, as did the superintendents, and all the other citizens; they derided him therefore, laughing at him, and turning away; they bade him discourse of something else, for that this was the talk of a fool or madman, as he was. Therefore Filippo, thinking he had cause of offence, replied, “But consider, gentlemen, that it is not possible to raise the cupola in any other manner than this of
- ↑ Not the Cupola properly so called, which is turned with the pointed arch, and is said to be the largest erected in the middle ages, but rather the external covering, the eight sides of which have the form of a pavilion.—Masselli.
- ↑ According to a popular saying, cited by Baglioni, in the life of Giacomo della Porta, the Cupola of the Rotunda was constructed in that manner.
