as being the son of Francesco, who had ever proved himself a faithful servant of the house of Medici.
Arrived at Castellana, therefore, Giuliano fortified the place within and without, constructing good walls and strong outworks, with all other defences necessary to the security of the town. He remarked that the artillery-men handled their guns very timidly, standing at a distance from them while loading or raising them, and firing them with evident fear; he set himself therefore to remedy this evil, and so contrived that no further accidents happened to the artillery-men, although several of them had previously been killed by the recoil; they not having experience and judgment enough to fire their pieces with the degree of management proper to prevent that recoil from doing injury to those around. Nay, furthermore, when Giuliano took the control of that department, his intelligence in the details of the arrangements connected therewith, inspired the camp of the Duke with so much terror that, being compelled by this and other adverse circumstances, he was glad to come to terms, and so raised the siege.[1] These things gained Giuliano no small praise in Florence, and obtained him the good-will of Lorenzo, who received him most favourably and loaded him with commendations.
Having afterwards turned his attention to architecture, Giuliano commenced the first Cloister of the Monastery of Cestello,[2] and constructed that part of it which is of the Ionic order, placing the capitals on the columns, and finishing them with their volutes, which turned, winding down, to the collerino where the shaft of the column terminates; beneath the uvola and fusarola he added a frieze, the height of which was a third of the diameter of the column. This capital was copied from a very ancient one in marble, which had been found at Fiesole by Messer Leonardo Salviati, bishop of that place, who had it for a long time, with many other antiquities, in a house and garden in the Via San Gallo opposite to Sant’ Agata, wherein he dwelt: it is now in the
- ↑ Muratori, on the contrary, declares that “Castellana surrendered to the Duke of Calabria by capitulation.” —See Annali d’Italia, 1478.
- ↑ This is the cloister before the church of Santa Maddalena de’ Pjizzi, which is that formerly called the Cestello; it remains as here described, and the Ionic capitals still unaltered.—Masselli.
