favoured by Leo X., requested permission also to erect a church. Orders being given by the Pope accordingly to Ludovico Capponi, -who was Consul of the Florentines, it was resolved that a large Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, should be constructed behind the Banchi, at the commencement of the Strada Julia on the shore of the Tiber; and this, whether for size, magnificence, cost, or beauty of design, was to surpass all the others. For that work Baffaello da Urbino, Antonio da Sangallo, Baldassare da Siena, and Sansovino prepared designs in competition; and the Pope having seen all, declared that of Jacopo the best, he having made a tribune at each angle of the church, with one of larger size in the centre, resembling that in the plan which Sebastiano Serlio gives in the second book of his work on Architecture. In this opinion all the heads of the undertaking agreed with the Pope, Sansovino received many proofs of favour, and the foundations for a portion of the church, about twenty-two yards in length, were begun. But there was not space enough for the building, more especially as it was determined to have the front of the Church opposite to that of the houses in the Strada Julia; the builders were consequently obliged to impinge upon the stream of the Tiber to the extent of full fifteen braccia, which pleased many, all the more, because the display as well as cost was the greater; it was therefore commenced as I have said, and more than forty thousand crowns[1] was spent thereon, a sum for which they might have erected half the walls of the Church.
The works were proceeding rapidly, when Sansovino had a fall, which injured him so severely, that he determined to be taken to Florence, leaving the care of those foundations to Antonio da Sangallo. But no long time afterwards, the death of Pope Leo depriving the Florentines of so great a support and so splendid a Prince, caused the abandonment of the works, which remained suspended during the Pontificate of Adrian VI. Pope Clement afterwards succeeding, Sansovino was ordered to return, and the Church was recommenced, with the original designs. At the same time our artist undertook the sepulchral monuments of the Cardinals of Aragon and Agen; he began to prepare the marbles, and
- ↑ In the Life of Antonio San Gallo, Vasaii has said “12,000,” but the above is considered more likely to be correct.
