complete "History of the most Holy Family," written in Northern
Italian of about the middle of the 14th century; and appearing to be
one of the forms of the legend which Giotto has occasionally followed
in preference to the statements of the Protevangelion. I have
therefore, in illustration of the paintings, given, when it seemed
useful, some portions of this manuscript; and these, with one or two
verses of the commonly received accounts, will be found generally
enough to interpret sufficiently the meaning of the painter.

[Footnote 13: It has always appeared strange to me, that
ecclesiastical history should possess no more authentic records of the
life of the Virgin, before the period at which the narrative of St.
Luke commences, than these apocryphal gospels, which are as wretched
in style as untrustworthy in matter; and are evidently nothing more
than a collection, in rude imitation of the style of the Evangelists,
of such floating traditions as became current among the weak
Christians of the earlier ages, when their inquiries respecting the
history of Mary were met by the obscurity under which the Divine will
had veiled her humble person and character. There must always be
something painful, to those who are familiar with the Scriptures, in
reading these feeble and foolish mockeries of the manner of the
inspired writers; but it will be proper, nevertheless, to give the
exact words in which the scenes represented by Giotto were recorded to
_him_.]

The following complete list of the subjects will at once enable the
reader to refer any of them to its place in the series, and on the
walls of the building; and I have only now to remind him in
conclusion, that within those walls the greatest painter and greatest
poet of mediæval Italy held happy companionship during the time when