Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/439

Rh approval of those within, seeing that there is a bridge, by the raising of which the passage is not only closed, but all approach is rendered impossible, even towards the road, which is very narrow and hewn out of the rock.

In the city of Yerona San Michele constructed the beautiful bridge called the Ponte Nuovo; this he did after his return from Home, and by commission from Messer G-iovanni Emo, who was then Podesta or Prefect of that citya work then and now also much admired for its strength and solidity. But it was not in fortification only that San Michele was excellent, he was equally distinguished in the fabrication of private buildings, churches, and monasteries, as may be seen from the numerous edifices erected by that master in Yerona and elsewhere. Among these may more particularly be specified the beautiful and richly decorated chapel of the Guareschi in the church of San Bernardino; this is a circular building in the manner of an ancient temple; it is of the Corinthian order, and is adorned with all the ornaments proper to and permitted hy that order, the material being that hard white stone which in Yerona, from the sound rendered by it while in the process of working, is called bronzo. This kind of stone is of a truth the most beautiful, marble only excepted, that has been discovered down to our times, being extremely firm and having no holes or spots to diminish its beauty.

The above-named chapel therefore, being as it is entirely constructed of this beautiful stone on the inside, and executed by some of the best masters in masonry and stone-cutting, who have put it together with much ability, is held to be as fine a production of its kind as any that is in Italy. San Michele has given the circular form to the entire structure, insomuch that three altars which are within its circle with