Note 94 — BOOK I. (continued 2)

They are to be seen in a little portable altar; and are most probably the proofs of some niello worker of the time; who had executed those histories in silver to ornament some similar little altar, or the place in which sacred relics were laid. Before introducing the niello, he had cast proofs of his work in these zolfi (sulphurs), which were subsequently inlaid with great symmetry and taste in the altar-piece. They consist of various forms and sizes, and are adapted to the architecture of the little altar, and to its various parts. Many of them have now perished, though several are yet in existence, the smallest of which chiefly represent histories from scripture, and the largest of them the acts of the Evangelists, to the number of fourteen, and about one-sixth of a braccio (an arm, two-thirds of a yard) in height.