Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/165

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Among all the gifts which Heaven confers on mortals, there is none which can be or justly ought to be held in higher esteem than elevation of the mind, with quiet and peace of soul; for by the first man is rendered immortal, and with the second he may truly be accounted blessed. He then who is thus endowed should not only render great and perpetual thankfulness to God, but is bound to show himself among his fellow men, as it were a light amidst darkness, and so it is that in our own times we have seen done by the Sienese painter and architect, Baldasare Peruzzi. Of him it may truly be affirmed, that the modesty and goodness so beautifully exemplified in his life, were possessed to such a degree, as to form no mean part of that supreme tranquillity and peace of mind, for which all men who think must needs sigh, and towards which all should constantly aspire; while the works which he has left to us are manifest and honourable fruits of that true genius, which was breathed into his mind by Heaven itself.

I have called him above, Baldassare of Siena, because he was always considered a Sienese, but I will not omit to mention, that as seven cities contended for Homer, each desiring to claim him for her citizen, so have three most noble cities of Tuscany, Florence, Volterra, and Siena, namely, all maintained, each for herself, that Baldassare was cf the number of her sons. But to tell all the truth of this matter, every one of them has part in him, seeing that at the time when Florence was distracted by wars, the father of Baldassare, Antonio Peruzzi, a noble citizen of Florence, changed his abode, in the hope of living more quietly, and went to dwell in Volterra. Having remained there a certain number of years, he then took a wife in that city; this