Camaldoli

In the ninth, the same pope is placing in the catalogue of saints, or as the saying is, canonizing Catherine of Siena, a holy woman and nun of the preaching order.

In the tenth and last, while preparing a vast expedition against the Turks with the help and favor of all the Christian princes, Pope Pius dies at Ancona, and a hermit of the Hermitage of Camaldoli, a holy man, sees the soul of the said pontiff being borne by angels into heaven at the very moment of his death, as may also be read.

Afterwards, in the same picture, the body of the same pope is seen being borne from Ancona to Rome by a vast and honorable company of lords and prelates, who are lamenting the death of so great a man and so rare and holy a pontiff.

The whole of this work is full of portraits from the life, so numerous that it would be a long story to recount their names, and it is all painted with the finest and most lively colors, and wrought with various ornaments of gold, and with very well-designed partitions in the ceiling.

He did very little work in his native city of Pistoia, but for the company of the Buon Gesù in Borgo San Sepolco he painted a circumcision in oil on a panel which is passing good.

In the Pieve of the same place he painted a chapel in fresco, and on the bank of the Tiber, on the road that leads to Anghiari, he painted another chapel, also in fresco, for the commune.

And he painted still another chapel in the same place, in San Lorenzo, an abbey of the monks of Camaldoli.

By reason of all these works, he made so long a stay in the Borgo that he almost adopted it as his home.

From this beginning, sometimes assembling and sometimes not, this company has continued up to its arrival, at the conditions wherein it stands today, as it is narrated in its new articles, approved by the most illustrious Lord Duke Cosimo, most benign protector of these arts of design.

Finally, being heavy with years and much fatigued, Jacopo returned to the Cosentino, and died in Prato Vecchio at the age of eighty, and was buried by his relatives and friends in St. Agnolo, the abbey of the order of Camaldoli, without Prato Vecchio.

His portrait by the hand of Spinello was in the Duomo Vecchio, in a story of the Magi, and of the manner of his drawing there is an example in our book.

End of Life of Jacopo di Cosentino, Painter Recording by Dion Gines, Salt Lake City, Utah Section 5 of Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Volume 2 This is a LibriVox recording.

And these discoveries ever exalt with marvelous praise all those who, employing themselves in honorable ways, give a form marvelous in beauty under the covering and shadow of a veil to the works that they make, now praising others dexterously, and now blaming them without being openly understood.

Lipo, then a painter of Florence, who was as rare and as varied in invention as he was truly unfortunate in his works and in his life, for it lasted but a little time, was born in Florence about the year of our salvation 1354.

And although he applied himself to the art of painting very late, when already grown up, nevertheless, he was so well assisted by nature, which inclined him to this, and by his intelligence, which was very beautiful, that soon he produced therein marvelous fruits, whereof beginning his labors in Florence, he made in St. Benedetto a very large and beautiful monastery of the order of Camaldoli without the Porta Apinti, and now in ruins, many figures that were held very beautiful, and in particular a chapel painted entirely with his own hand, which showed how soon diligent study can produce great works in one who labors honorably through desire of glory.

Being summoned from Florence to Arezzo, he made in fresco for the chapel of the Magi in the church of Sant'Antonio a large scene wherein the Magi are adoring Christ, and in the Vescovado he painted the chapel of St. Iacopo in San Cristofano for the family of the Ubertini.

He left very great possessions in the Borgo, with some houses that he had built himself, which were burnt and destroyed in the strife of factions in the year 1536.

He was honourably buried by his fellow-citizens in the principal church, which formerly belonged to the Order of Camaldoli, and is now the Vescovado.

Piero's books are for the most part in the library of Frederick II, Duke of Urbino, and they are such that they have deservedly acquired for him the name of the best geometrician of his time.

End of chapter 3 Chapter 4 of Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Volume 3 This is a LibriVox recording.

The blessed are seen entering the gate of paradise in celestial dance, and the damned are being dragged by demons to the eternal pains of hell.

This work is in the aforesaid church, on the right hand as one goes towards the high altar, where the priest sits when mass is sung.

For the nuns of San Piero Martire, who now live in the monastery of San Felice in the Piazza, which used to belong to the order of Camaldoli, he painted a panel with Our Lady, St. John the Baptist, St. Dominic, St. Thomas, and St. Peter Martyr, and a number of little figures, and in the tramezzo of Santa Maria Nuova there may also be seen a panel by his hand.

These many labours having made the name of Fra Giovanni illustrious throughout all Italy, Pope Nicholas V sent for him and caused him to adorn that chapel of his palace in Rome, wherein the Pope hears mass, with a deposition from the cross and some very beautiful stories of St. Lawrence, and also to illuminate some books, which are most beautiful.

This impetus for reform was felt widely in England, in Germany, and especially in Italy.

In the last named country about 1018, St. Romuald founded the Order of Camaldoli, which became a great support to the papacy and held much of the same position for Italy that Cluny did for France.

Footnote.

Camaldoli was a monastery in the Apennines near Arezzo.

Back to main text.

Among its most famous members was Peter Damiani, a reformer and writer of the 11th century, and Gratian, the author of the Decretum.

He left very great possessions in the Borgo, with some houses that he had built himself, which were burnt and destroyed in the strife of factions in the year 1536.

He was honorably buried by his fellow-citizens in the principal church, which formerly belonged to the order of Camaldoli, and is now the Vescovado.

Piero's books are for the most part in the library of Frederick II, Duke of Urbino, and they are such that they have deservedly acquired for him the name of the best geometrician of his time.

End of chapter three.

The blessed are seen entering the gate of paradise in celestial dance, and the damned are being dragged by demons to the eternal pains of hell.

This work is in the aforesaid church, on the right hand as one goes towards the high altar, where the priest sits when mass is sung.

For the nuns of San Piero Martire, who now live in the monastery of San Felice in the Piazza, which used to belong to the order of Camaldoli, he painted a panel with Our Lady, St. John the Baptist, St. Dominic, St. Thomas, and St. Peter Martyr, and a number of little figures, and in the tramezzo of Santa Maria Nuova there may also be seen a panel by his hand.

These many labours having made the name of Fra Giovanni illustrious throughout all Italy, Pope Nicholas V sent for him and caused him to adorn that chapel of his palace in Rome wherein the Pope hears mass with a deposition from the cross and some very beautiful stories of St. Lawrence, and also to illuminate some books, which are most beautiful.