for him, and took him on the crupper, saying: "What would our friends
speak of us to-morrow, if, having left for Rome, we had not pluck to get
beyond Siena?" Then the good Tasso said I spoke the truth; and as he was
a pleasant fellow, he began to laugh and sing; and in this way, always
singing and laughing, we travelled the whole way to Rome. I had just
nineteen years then, and so had the century.

When we reached Rome, I put myself under a master who was known as Il
Firenzuola. His name was Giovanni, and he came from Firenzuola in
Lombardy, a most able craftsman in large vases and big plate of that
kind. I showed him part of the model for the clasp which I had made in
Florence at Salimbene's. It pleased him exceedingly; and turning to one
of his journeymen, a Florentine called Giannotto Giannotti, who had been
several years with him, he spoke as follows: "This fellow is one of the
Florentines who know something, and you are one of those who know
nothing." Then I recognised the man, and turned to speak with him; for
before he went to Rome, we often went to draw together, and had been
very intimate comrades. He was so put out by the words his master flung
at him, that he said he did not recognise me or know who I was;
whereupon I got angry, and cried out: "O Giannotto, you who were once my
friend-for have we not been together in such and such places, and drawn,
and ate, and drunk, and slept in company at your house in the country? I
don't want you to bear witness on my behalf to this worthy man, your
master, because I hope my hands are such that without aid from you they
will declare what sort of a fellow I am."

Note 1. The Chapel of the Carmine, painted in fresco by Masaccio and
some other artist, possibly Filippino Lippi, is still the most important
monument of Florentine art surviving from the period preceding Raphael.