ejus) were engaged to build two scaffolds, apparently one for each artist, and move them as required (28 November); and it is distinctly stated that Domenico began to work on the same day[1]. His brother David is not mentioned until 14 December. The last payment is made 4 May, 1476, by which time the decoration of the Latin Library was probably complete. Up to that date the sums paid had amounted to 65 ducats.
A still more important entry in the accounts referring to artistic work is the following:
The painter thus designated is Melozzo dà Forli, an eminent artist who had come to Rome in 1472, through the influence, in all probability, of Girolamo Riario, one of the nephews of Sixtus IV., on whom the town of Forli had been conferred as a fief.
The entries which I have collected from the Accounts up to this point show that the Common Library and the Greek Library were practically finished by the end of 1477. The Inner Library or Bibliotheca secreta was undertaken next; and, before it was finished, the Bibliotheca pontificia and the rooms for the Librarian and his assistants were begun. The whole was finished by the end of 1481, but in that year and the previous one, the three separate pieces of work above mentioned were proceeding together, and it is often difficult, if not impossible, to be certain to which a special entry refers.
The furniture for the Bibliotheca secreta was ordered in January, 1477, of a workman who is described as John the
- ↑ Dedi ducatos x auri Dominico Thomasii pictori florentino pro pictura bibliothecæ quam inchoavit die xxviii novembris 1475. Dedi Xanthino muratori pro lignis et funibus ad pontes faciendos ducatos tres et car. iiii, ii pontes pro pictura fiunt in bibliotheca, die xxviii, 1475. Dedi Santino (sic) et Joanni ejus socio die ultima Novembris 1475 ducatos quatuor pro ponte confecto mutatove ubi oportuit. Dedi ducatos quinque David pictori fratri Dominici supradicti xiiii decembris 1475. Müntz, p. 123.
- ↑ Dedi magistro Melotio pictori pro auro emendo pro pictura quam pingit in bibliotheca ducatos sex die xv Januarii 1477. Müntz, p. 127; see also p. 95.
