that he may not afterwards have to repent with loss and shame that he was ill-directed when he was in most need of assistance. When he had completed his labours in Perugia, Giovanni wished to go to Rome to learn from the few antique things there, as his father had done, but being hindered by good reasons, he was never able to fulfil his desire, chiefly because he heard that the court had just gone to Avignon. So he returned to Pisa, where Nello di Giovanni Falconi, craftsman, entrusted to him the great pulpit of the Duomo, which is fixed to the choir on the right hand side as one approaches the high altar. He set to work on this, and on a number of figures in full relief, three braccia high, which he intended to use for it, and little by little he brought it to its present form, resting in part on the said figures and in part upon lions, while on the sides he represented scenes from the life of Jesus Christ. It is truly a sin that so much money, such diligence and labour should not be accompanied by good design, and that it should lack that perfection, invention, grace, and good style which any work of our own day would possess, even were it executed at much less cost and with less difficulty. Yet it must have excited no small admiration among the men of the time, who had only been accustomed to see the rudest productions. It was finished in the year 1320, as appears in certain lines which run round the pulpit and read thus: "Laudo Deum verum, per quem sunt optima rerum Qui dedit has puras homini formate figuras; Hoc opus, his annis Domini sculpsere Johannis Arte manus sole quandam, natique Nicole. Cursis undenis tercentum milleque plenis." There are thirteen other lines, which I do not write here, because I do not wish to weary the reader, and because these are sufficient to show not only that the pulpit is by the hand of Giovanni, but that the men of that time were alike in their shortcomings. A Madonna between St John the Baptist and another saint may be seen over the principal of the door of the Duomo; it is in marble, and by the hand of Giovanni, and the figure kneeling at her feet is said to be Piero Gambacorti, the warden. However this may be, the following words are cut in the pedestal, on which the image of Our Lady stands: "Sub Petri cura haec pia fuit scutpta figura Nicoli nato sculptore Johanne vocato." Moreover there is another marble Madonna, by Giovanni, over the side door, which is opposite the campanile, while on one side of her kneel a lady and two children, representing Pisa, and on the other side the Emperor Henry. On the base are these words: Ave gratia plena, Dominus teum, and then-- Nobilis arte manus sculpsit Johannes Pisanus Sculpsit sub Burgundio Tadi benigno. And about the base of Pisa: Virginis ancilla sum Pisa quieta sub illa, and about the base of Henry: Imperat Henricus qui Cliristo fertur amicus.