soon as they do where the minds of noble spirits are united by such a bond of love as that which drew together Gaddo and Cimabue, and, in like manner, Andrea Tafi and Gaddo. It was Andrea who took Gaddo into his companionship to finish the mosaics of S. Giovanni. Here Gaddo learned so much, that he was able, without assistance, to make the prophets, which may be seen round the walls of that sanctuary, in the squares under the windows; and, as he executed these unaided and in a much improved style, they brought him great renown. Encouraged by this, he prepared himself to work alone, and devoted himself constantly to the study of the Byzantine style, combined with that of Cimabue. By such means, it was not long before he became an excellent artist; so that the wardens of S. Maria del Fiore entrusted to him the semi-circular space within the building above the principal entrance, where he introduced a Coronation of the Virgin, in mosaic. Upon its completion, it was pronounced by all the foreign and native masters to be the finest work of its kind that had yet been seen in Italy, for they recognised that it possessed more design and more judgment, and displayed the results of more study, than were to be found in all the remaining works in mosaic then in existence in the peninsula. Thus, his fame being spread abroad by this work, he was summoned to Rome by Clement V. in the year 1308,--that is to say, in the year following the great fire, in which the church and palaces of the Lateran were destroyed. There he completed for the Pope some works in mosaic, which had been left unfinished by Jacopo da Turrita.