On this head, notwithstanding our proposed brevity, I must here refer to the words of Baldinucci in his notices of the miniature painter, Franco: "After Giotto, that very celebrated Florentine painter, had discovered his novel and fine method by which he gained the name of the first restorer of the art of painting, or rather to have raised it from utter extinction; and after he had acquired with industrious diligence that fine mode of painting which is called _di minio_,[2] which for the most part consists in colouring very diminutive figures; many others also applied themselves to the like art, and soon became illustrious. One of these was Oderigi d'Agubbio, concerning whom we have spoken in his proper place among the disciples of Cimabue. We discovered that this Oderigi, as we are assured by Vellutello in his comment upon Dante, in the eleventh canto of the Purgatorio,[3] was master in the art to Franco Bolognese, which assertion acquires great credit from his having worked much in miniature in the city of Bologna, according to these words that I find said of him by Benvenuto da Imola, a contemporary of Petrarch, in his comment upon Dante: 'Iste Odorisius fuit magnus miniator in civitate Bononiæ, qui erat valde vanus jactator artis suæ.' From this Franco, according to the opinion of Malvasia, the most noble and ever glorious city of Bologna received the first seeds of the beautiful art of painting." Footnote 2: _Di minio_, a peculiar red colour, used also in oil painting, and well known to the ancients, who on festal days were accustomed to ornament with it the face of Jove's statue, as also that of the victors on days of triumph. Pliny and others explain the ancient method of employing it. The term, in its simple acceptation, means here the art of designing and colouring in miniature, (from _di minio_) early applied to the ornamenting and illuminating of ancient works and MSS. R. Footnote 3: "Oh dissi lui non se' tu Oderisi, L'onor d'Agubbio, e l'onor di quell'arte Che alluminar è chiamata a Parisi? Frate, diss'egli, più ridon le carte Che pennellegia Franco Bolognese: L'onor è tutto or suo, e mio in parte. Ben non sarei stato sì cortese Mentre ch'io vissi per lo gran disìo Dell'eccellenza, ove mio cor intese. Di tal superbia qui si paga il fio."