Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/70

56 Giovanni with black marble from Prato, removing the stones which had been suffered to remain between those old marbles. About the same time, the Florentines desired to erect certain buildings in the upper Valdarno, above the fortress of San Giovanni and Castel Franco, for the greater convenience of the inhabitants and the more commodious supply of their markets ; they entrusted the design of these works also to Arnolfo, in the year 1295, when he so completely satisfied them on this, as he had done on other occasions, that he was elected a citizen of Florence.

All these undertakings being completed, the Florentines resolved, as Giovanni Villani relates in his History, to construct a cathedral church in their city, determining to give it such extent and magnificence that nothing superior or more beautiful should remain to be desired from the power or industry of man. Arnolfo then prepared the plans and executed the model of that temple, which can never be sufficiently extolled, the, directing that the external walls should be encrusted with polished marbles, rich cornices, pilasters, columns, carved foliage, figures and other ornaments, with which we now see it brought, if not entirely, yet in a great measure to completion. But what was most of all wonderful in that work, was the fact, that he incorporated the, besides other small churches and houses, which stood around it, in his edifice, yet, in arranging the design of his ground plan (which is most beautiful), he proceeded with so much care and judgment, making the excavations wide and deep, and filling them with excellent materials, such as flint and lime, and a foundation of immense stones, that they have proved equal, as we still see, to the perfect support of that enormous construction,, which erected upon them, and which Arnolfo had probably not even thought of placing thereon : nay, from the fame acquired by these constructions, the place is still called “Lungo-i-Fondamenti.” The foundation of this edifice was celebrated with much solemnity, the first stone being laid on the birthday of the