Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/508

496 ments, will be the various plants and animals produced by the respective countries, all depicted from Nature. Over the cornice of the said cabinets, which completes the decoration, there are to be ressaults dividing the pictures, and on these will be placed certain antique busts in marble, representing the Emperors and Princes by whom those lands have been possessed, so far as those portraits are known to exist or can be procured. The ceiling is entirely in carved wood-work, and within the compartments of the same are twelve large pictures, in each of which are to be four of the Celestial Signs, making in the whole forty-eight; the figures are to be but little less than the size of life, each accompanied by its Stars. On the walls beneath are three hundred portraits of distinguished persons belonging to the last five centuries, or somewhat more; they are painted in oil; but, that I may not make too long a story, 1 refer the mention of their names to the Tables of my work. All have frames of similar size, very richly carved in oak, and producing an exceedingly fine effect.

In the two pictures occupying the centre of the ceiling, each of which is four braccia wide, are the celestial signs; these can be thrown back by means which cannot be perceived; and in a space representing the concave are to be two large spheres, one representing the Earth: this will be made to descend by a concealed windlass, and will then be balanced on a support adequate to that purpose, so that when fixed, all the pictures and maps on the cabinets will be reflected therein, each part being thus readily found in the sphere. On the other globe the forty-eight Celestial Signs will be arranged, in such sort that all the operations of the Astrolabe may be performed most perfectly by the aid thereof. The plan of this work has proceeded from the Duke Cosimo, who desired to have all these parts of Earth and Heaven brought for once fairly together in their just positions, exactly and without errors, to the end that they might be observed and measured, either apart or all together, as might be desired by those who study and delight in this most beautiful science. I have, therefore, thought myself bound to make a memorial of the same in this place, for the sake of Fra Ignazio; and that his ability, with the magnificence of that great Prince, who has judged us worthy to