THE MERRY-HEARTED BUFFALMACCO

_Buonamico di Cristofano detto Buffalmacco pittore Fiorentino, il qual
fu discepolo d' Andrea Tafi, e come uomo burlevole celebrato da Messer
Giovanni Boccaccio nel suo Decamerone, fu come si sa carissimo
compagno di Bruno e di Calendrino pittori ancor essi faceti e
piacevole, e, come si può vedere nell' opere sue sparse per tutta
Toscana, di assai buon giudizio nell' arte sua del dipignere._

_(Vite de' più eccellenti pittori_, da Messer Giorgio Vasari.--"Vita
di Buonamico Buffalmacco.")[1]

[Footnote 1: "Buonamico di Cristofano, known as Buffalmacco, a
Florentine painter, the same that was pupil of Andrea Tafi, and
celebrated as a burlesque character by Messer Giovanni Boccaccio in his
_Decameron_ was as we know bosom friend of Bruno and Calendrino, also
painters and of an even more witty and merry humour than himself, and as
may be seen in his works scattered throughout Tuscany, of no mean
judgement in his art of painting." _(Lives of the most Excellent
Painters_ by Messer Giorgio Vasari.--"Life of Buonamico Buffalmacco.")]


I

THE COCKROACHES

In his callow youth, Buonamico Cristofani, Florentine, surnamed
Buffalmacco by reason of his merry humour, served his apprenticeship in
the workshop of Andrea Tafi, painter and worker-in-mosaic. Now the said
Tafi was a very knowledgeable master. Sojourning at Venice in the days