Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/89

Rh Arte manus sola quondam natique Nicole Cursis undenis tercentwn milleque plenis.” There are, besides, thirteen other lines which I do not give here, that the reader may be the less wearied, and likewise because these suffice to show, not only that this pulpit is from the hand of Giovanni, but also that the men of those times were uniform in their shortcomings. A Virgin in marble, placed over the principal door of the Duomo, between the figures of St. John the Baptist and another saint, is also by Giovanni Pisano, and the figure kneeling at the feet of the Virgin is said to represent Pietro Gambacorti, master of the works. However this may be, on the pedestal of the Virgin are engraved the following words :— “ Sub Petri cura haec pia fuit sculpta figura Nicoli nato sculptore Johanne vocato.” In like manner, over the side door, opposite to the campanile, stands a Virgin in marble, from the hand of Giovanni ; on one side of her there is a woman kneeling, with two children. This group represents Pisa. On the other side of the Madonna is the Emperor Henry. On the pedestal of the Virgin are the words—“ Ave gratia plena, Dominus tecum”; and near them the following verses :— “ Nobilis arte manus sculpsit Johannes Pisanus. Sculpsit sub Burgundio Tadi Benigno.” Around the pedestal of the group representing Pisa, “ Virginis ancilla sum Pisa quieta sub ilia.” And on that of the Emperor, “ Imperat. Henricus qui Christo fertur amicus.” In the, under the altar of the principal chapel, the girdle of the Virgin had been preserved during a long series of years. This relic had been brought to his native place by Michele da Prato, when he returned from the Holy Land in the year 1141, and by him it was consigned to the care of Uberto, dean of the Chapter, who deposited it in the above-named sanctuary, where it has ever been held in high veneration. But in the year 1312, a native of Prato,—a man of very bad