[In This Cathedral Is
The Tomb Of Johannes Acutus Anglus, Which A Man Would Naturally
Interpret As John Sharp; But His Name Was Really Hawkwood, Which
The Italians Have Corrupted Into Acut.
He was a celebrated
General or Condottiere who arrived in Italy at the head of four
thousand soldiers of fortune, mostly Englishmen who had served
with him in the army of King Edward III., and were dismissed at
the Peace of Bontigny.
Hawkwood greatly distinguished himself in
Italy by his valour and conduct, and died a very old man in the
Florentine service. He was the son of a Tanner in Essex, and had
been put apprentice to a Taylor.] The baptistery, which stands by
it, was an antient temple, said to be dedicated to Mars. There
are some good statues of marble within; and one or two of bronze
on the outside of the doors; but it is chiefly celebrated for the
embossed work of its brass gates, by Lorenzo Ghiberti, which
Buonaroti used to say, deserved to be made the gates of Paradise.
I viewed them with pleasure: but still I retained a greater
veneration for those of Pisa, which I had first admired: a
preference which either arises from want of taste, or from the
charm of novelty, by which the former were recommended to my
attention. Those who would have a particular detail of every
thing worth seeing at Florence, comprehending churches,
libraries, palaces, tombs, statues, pictures, fountains, bridge,
etc. may consult Keysler, who is so laboriously circumstantial in
his descriptions, that I never could peruse them, without
suffering the headache, and recollecting the old observation,
that the German genius lies more in the back than in the brain.
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