. . . rii (operarii) opere majoris Ecclesie Sancte Marie pro comuni Pisano pro anima Domini Albisi de stateriis de pe . . . supradicte, Franciscus Traini pin.” Giovanni Coco, not Coscia, was a lawyer who filled the office of Anziano at Pisa five times at least, and whose will, dated 1346, is still preserved. 1 Albizzo delle Stadere was one of those astute and wary diplomatists whom Pisa so frequently found herself obliged to employ at the time when she was threatened alike by the hostility of the Flo rentines and of Castruccio of Lucca. His will dated the 25. of January 1336, betrays a close intimacy with the ablest Dominicans of his time, and one clause of it relates to the erection of an altar in S. Catherine of Pisa, for which a picture was commissioned of Traini. 2 Original records discovered and printed by Signor Bonaini, refer to this altarpiece which, it seems, was partly finished in April 1345 and completed in the January following for the sum of 110 livres. 3 The central panel (in the Academy of Pisa) is exclusi vely devoted to the erect figure of S. Dominick grasping the book and the lily. The founder of the inquisition is grave in expression with features of a certain softness; and his head is drawn by Traini with a fine regular out line. The draperies sweep broadly and gracefully round the form which may be classed without hesitation amongst the fine ones of the fourteenth century. In the pinnacle as usual is the figure of the Redeemer in the act of benediction, 4 with a round shaped head, broad across the cheekbone, supported on a long neck and enwreathed with hair in waving locks. The smiling type, though it has nobleness and dignity, is not so much Giottesque as of the older Christian character, and is certainly inferior to those of Andrea Orcagna. Traini in this respect is more of the kindred of the Siennese Simone Martini, than of that of Orcagna. The side panels of the altarpiece divided severally into four, and having double pinnacles in which are the prophets Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, are 1 Bonaini, ub. sup. p. 10. 2 Bonaini, ub. sup. p.p. 11. 12, and 109 and following. 3 Bonaini, ub. sup. p. 123. 124. 4 “Ego sum lux mundi” is in scribed.