a perfection that it would else perhaps never have attained among the Tuscans.
In the year 1423, when the utmost rejoicing and festivity was prevailing in Florence, Filippo was chosen one of the Signori for the district of San Giovanni, for the months ot May and June; Lapo Niccolini being chosen Gonfalonier for the district of Santa Croce: and if Filippo be found registered in the Priorista as “di Ser Brunellesco Lippi”, this need not occasion surprise, since they called him so after his grandfather, Lippo, instead of “di Lapi”, as they ought to have done. And this practice is seen to prevail in the Priorista, with respect to many others, as is well known to all who have examined it, or who are acquainted with the custom of those times. Filippo performed his functions carefully in that office, and in others connected with the magistracy of the city, to which he was subsequently appointed, he constantly acquitted himself with the most judicious consideration.[1]
The two vaults of the Cupola were now approaching their close, at the circular window where the lanthorn was to begin, and there now remained to Filippo, who had made various models in wood and clay, both of the one and the other,in Rome and Florence, to decide finally as to which of these he would put in execution, wherefore he resolved to complete the gallery, and accordingly made different plans for it, which remained in the hall of the wardens after his death, but which by the neglect of those officials, have since been lost.[2] But it was
- ↑ Two years before Brunellesco reached the term of his work—and of all his labours—he received a mortifying affront from the Consuls of the Guild of Builders. Finding that he carried on the building without troubling himself to pay the annual tax due from every artist who desired to exercise his calling, in addition to the fees paid at his registration, they caused him to be apprehended and thrown into prison. This being made known to the wardens, they became very indignant, and assembling instantly, issued a solemn decree, commanding that Filippo should be liberated, and that the Consuls of the Guild should be imprisoned, which was accordingly done. Baldinucci is the only writer by whom this fact is related. He discovered and printed the authentic document containing the decree, which is dated Aug. 20, 1434. See Moreni, Due Vite del Brunellesco, etc., pp.' 274-6.
- ↑ Of all these models, designs, etc., there now remain in the hall of the wardens only a model, in wood, of the external Cupola and the drum beneath it; a second, shewing a part of the staircase formed between the exterior and interior Cupola, one, of the magazines constructed be-
