HKB
in the architrave he carved the following lines, since he thought that he had completed a great and beautiful work, as indeed he had, considering the attainments of the age:
Hoc opus sculpsit Johannes, qui res non egit inanes. Nicoli natus . . . meliora beatus Quam genuit Pisa, doctum super omnia visa.
At the same time Giovanni made the holy water vessel in marble for the same church of S. Giovanni Evangelista, borne by three figures, Temperance, Prudence and Justice, and as it was then considered a work of great beauty, it was placed in the middle of the church as a remarkable object. Before he left Pistoia he made the model for the campanile of S. Jacopo, the principal church of the city, although the work was not then begun. The tower is situated beside the church in the piazza of S. Jacopo, and bears the date A.D. 1301. On the death of Pope Benedict IX. at. Perugia, Giovanni was sent for to make his tomb, which he executed in marble in the old church of S. Domenico of the Friars Preachers, placing the Pope's effigy, taken from life, and in his pontifical habit, upon the sarcophagus with two angels holding a curtain, one on either side, and Our Lady above, between two saints, executed in relief, as well as many other ornaments carved on the tomb. Similarly in the new church of the same order he made the tomb of M. Niccolo Guidalotti of Perugia, bishop of Recanati, who was the founder of the new University of Perugia. In this same new church, which had been previously founded by others, he directed the construction of the principal nave, and this part of the building was much more securely founded than the rest, which leans over to one side, and threatens to fall down, owing to the faulty laying of the foundations. And in truth he who undertakes to build or perform any things of importance ought always to take the advice, not of those who know little, but of those most competent to help him, so that he may not afterwards have to repent with loss and shame that he was ill-directed when he was in most need of assistance.
When he had completed his labours in Perugia, Giovanni wished to go to Rome to learn from the few antique things there, as his father had done, but being hindered by good reasons, he was never able to fulfil his desire, chiefly because he heard that the court had just gone to Avignon. So he returned to Pisa, where Nello di Giovanni Falconi, craftsman, entrusted to him the great pulpit of the Duomo, which is fixed to the choir on the right hand side as one approaches the high altar. He set to work on this, and on a number of figures in full relief, three braccia high, which he intended to use for it, and little by little he brought it to its present form, resting in part on the said figures and in part upon lions, while on the sides he represented scenes from the life of Jesus Christ. It is truly a sin that so much money, such diligence and labour should not be accompanied by good design, and that it should lack that perfection, invention, grace, and good style which any work of our own day would possess, even were it executed at much less cost and with less difficulty. Yet it must have excited no small admiration among the men of the time, who had only been accustomed to see the rudest productions. It was finished in the year 1320, as appears in certain lines which run round the pulpit and read thus:
"Laudo Deum verum, per quem sunt optima rerum Qui dedit has puras homini formate figuras; Hoc opus, his annis Domini sculpsere Johannis Arte manus sole quandam, natique Nicole. Cursis undenis tercentum milleque plenis."