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1498] knows I have no other thought in my heart but how best to perfect my work and satisfy your wishes."

On the 11th of September, Benozzo writes another letter to Piero, whom he calls his dearest friend—Amico mio singularissimo—reminding him that he had not sent him the forty florins for which the painter had asked, in order that he might be able to buy corn and provisions, while they were still cheap. "I had," he adds, "a great thought, which was not to ask you for any money until you had seen the work, but necessity compels me to make this request, so forgive me, for, God knows, I only seek to please you. And I must remind you once more, to send to Venice for some azure, because this wall will be finished this week, and I shall need the blue colour for the brocades and other parts of the figures."

On the 25th, he writes a third letter, telling Piero of a Genoese merchant who has 1500 pieces of fine gold for sale, some of which he will require for his work, and begging for ten more florins to pay for the azure, which he has bought at two florins the ounce, from the Prior of the Gesuati, whose ultramarine was famous throughout Italy.

The pains which Benozzo bestowed upon his task were not thrown away, and we find no trace