Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/319

Rh defence to that part which was opposite to the high altar. This choir was exceedingly commodious for the friars of that convent during the performance of their nocturnal ‘services, or when engaged in their private devotions: it was, besides, very useful to them on all festivals and holidays. Over the principal door of the church, which was amply decorated with beautiful ornam^ents in stone, and with a portico reposing on fine columns, which extended even to the door of the convent, was the figure of the Bishop San Giusto, in a lunette, with an Angel on each side, by the hand of the master in minature, Gherardo; a very fine work, and placed there because the church was dedicated to San Giusto: Within the building there was a relic preserved by those friars, an arm of the saint namely. At the entrance to the convent was a small cloister, cloister, the extent of which was exactly equal to that of the church, forty braccia long that is, and twenty broad. The arches and vaulting of this cloister were supported by columns of stone, and the whole formed a spacious and very commodious loggia, or gallery, entirely around the building. In the centre of the court of the cloister, which was neatly paved all over with cut stones, was an extremely beautiful fountain, with a loggia above it, also built on stone columns, which made a rich and handsome ornament to the place. In this cloister Was the chapter-house of the monks, with the lateral door of the church and the stairs which ascended to the upper stories, where were dormitories and other apartments for the use of the brotherhood. On the further side of the cloister, and exactly opposite to the principal door oi the convent, was a spacious avenue, the length of which was equal to that of the chapter-house and the chancery: this avenue led to a cloister which was larger and more beautiful than the first. All this line, the forty braccia of the loggia belonging to the first cloister, that is, with the length of the avenue and that of the loggia of the second cloister, formed a very long and most beautiful succession of arcades, the view of which was more delightful than words could easily describe. And the effect was all the finer from the circumstance that, beyond the last cloister, and in the same direc- . tion, there extended one of the walks of the convent garden, which was two hundred braccia in length; all which, as seen