Now at this time the Bishop of Verona, Monsignore Luigi Lippomani, had determined to finish the Campanile of his church, which had been commenced a hundred years previously; he therefore caused a design to be prepared by San Michele, who made one for him which was most beautiful, at the same time that the architect had been careful to preserve the older part of the fabric, and had also taken into consideration the amount of expenditure which the Bishop was prepared to make. But a certain Messer Domenico Porzio, a Roman and the vicar of the Bishop, who was but slightly versed in matters connected with architecture, although for the rest a good honest man in the main—this Domenico, I say, allowed himself to be overreached by a man of poor acquirements, and committed to him the care of' continuing the building: but that person took stones quarried from the mountain, which he used in their undressed state; he made the staircase moreover in the thickness of the wall, treating it in such a manner that the result was exactly what even those but moderately conversant with architecture might easily have divined, I mean that the building could not maintain itself, but was on the point of falling to the ground.
Among the persons who had predicted this conclusion, was the most reverend Father Marco de’ Medici of Verona, who, in addition to his more serious studies, has ever delighted in those of architecture and still continues to do so. But to his assertions of the fate that would inevitably befall the fabric, he received this reply, “Fra Marco is a very learned man in his own calling of letters, philosophy, and theology; but as to architecture he has not fished deeply enough to render himself worthy of belief.”
When the tower had attained to the height of the platform where the bells should have been placed, however, it gave way at four different points, and this to such an extent, that after having expended many thousands of crowns in erecting the Campanile, they found it necessary to pay three hundred more to the masons for throwing it down again, seeing that in a few days it must have fallen of itself, and so carried ruin to all around it. But thus should it always happen to those who leaving good and able masters, involve themselves with ignorant and bungling pretenders.
The above-named Monsignor Luigi Lippomani having
