Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/188

180 For this undertaking Benvenuto chose Tribolo as his coadjutor, and therein he showed much judgment, since it was from Tribolo that the first suggestion for the making of such a plan had proceeded, he perceiving the importance thereof for the more minutely considering the height of the mountains, the depth of the valleys, and all other particulars relating to salient points, with which it is above all things essential that those engaged in military expeditions should be made acquainted. Nor wTas this a work to be performed without vast labour and infinite peril, since they were compelled to remain outside the gates of the city, all through the nights, measuring the roads, and ascertaining the exact number of braccia between one place and another, with the heights and levels of the summits of all the churches and and towers: measuring, in short, on all sides by aid of the compasses. They had chosen the Cupola of Santa Maria as their central point, and had to discover the relation borne thereto by all the surrounding heights; all which they could not effect without the lapse of many months; but, using great diligence, they finally accomplished the whole with great care and exactitude.

For the sake of lightness this model was made of cork, and was restricted within the limit of four braccia, each separate part being measured in exact proportion. And thus was finished this plan of the city and its neighbourhood, which being so made as to admit of its being taken to pieces, was packed up carefully and conveyed secretly out of Florence, in the centre of certain bales of wool which were going to Perugia, where the model was consigned to those who had received orders to transmit the same to the Pope.