ch'abbelliva di Maria, come del sole stella mattutina_, "he who drew light from Mary, as the morning star from the sun." Filippino has introduced the portrait of the donor, on the right, Francesco di Pugliese. The church contains two other works by Mino da Fiesole, a Madonna and (in the right transept) the sepulchral monument of Bernardo Giugni, who served the State as ambassador to Milan and Venice in the days of Cosimo and Piero dei Medici. At the entrance to the cloisters Francesco Valori is buried. It was in the Badia (and not in the Church of San Stefano, near the Via Por Santa Maria, as usually stated) that Boccaccio lectured upon the _Divina Commedia_ in 1373. Benvenuto da Imola came over from Bologna to attend his beloved master's readings, and was much edified. But the audience were not equally pleased, and Boccaccio had to defend himself in verse. One of the sonnets he wrote on this occasion, _Se Dante piange, dove ch'el si sia_, has been admirably translated by Dante Rossetti:-- If Dante mourns, there wheresoe'er he be, That such high fancies of a soul so proud Should be laid open to the vulgar crowd, (As, touching my Discourse, I'm told by thee), This were my grievous pain; and certainly My proper blame should not be disavow'd; Though hereof somewhat, I declare aloud Were due to others, not alone to me. False hopes, true poverty, and therewithal The blinded judgment of a host of friends, And their entreaties, made that I did thus. But of all this there is no gain at all Unto the thankless souls with whose base ends Nothing agrees that's great or generous. [Illustration: ARMS OF THE SESTO DI SAN PIERO] CHAPTER VII _From the Bargello past Santa Croce_ "Non ha l'ottimo artista alcun concetto, ch'un marmo solo in sé non circonscriva col suo soverchio; e solo a quello arriva la man che ubbidisce all'intelletto." --_Michelangelo Buonarroti._