'Ma per non tediare i lectori lascero indrieto moltissime opere per me producte. So che in detta materia non si pub pigliare diletto.' (Lorenzo Ghiberti: I Commentari)

THE CHRONOLOGY and authorship of two elements of the Florentine oratory of Orsanmichele - the stained glass windows and the western portals - have continued to vex modern students of the building. Together with the in- terior fresco campaign, they concluded the efforts of the Compagnia di Orsanmichele to decorate the oratory it had slowly transformed from an open loggia below the communal granary during the second half of the Trecento. Hitherto unknown documents provide a substantial amount of new information about both endeavours, and underline Orsanmichele's position as an important religious and civic monument during this period, second only to the Florentine Cathedral and Baptistery.

THE REASON for the dedication of this article will be apparent to any reader. Without Giovanni Poggi's researches, it would never have come to be written. His inexhaustible curiosity and desire to deepen our knowledge of the past can be appreciated in the rapid succession of articles that he wrote in the early numbers of Rivista d'Arte and can now be more widely admired in the recent, much amplified, new edition of his II Duomo di Firenze. The material that he collected for the edition of Michelangelo's letters which he himself never achieved is a further testimony to his unflagging search for more information. Poggi's aim was to write a commentary for each letter where the documentary material warranted it. And in pursuit of this, he set out to re-examine all the evidence which had already been published, checking and frequently retranscribing every document relating to Michelangelo's life and work known to be located in Florentine archives. But he also sought out new sources of information. It was he who realised the potential of the bank books of the Rome-based Balducci, today conserved in the Florence Archivio di Stato. His notes show that he knew, and had, indeed, transcribed, documents relating to Michelangelo's first stay in Rome which were first published only in 1981. They show also that he was familiar with some of the documents relating to the construction of the S. Lorenzo New Sacristy published for the first time in 1979. His finds in the Salviati Archive concerning the tomb of Julius II, without doubt made at a time when access was exception- ally difficult, are yet another witness to an indefatigable pursuit of knowledge which makes the reading of his notes a moving experience.