Note 43 — BOOK I. (continued 2)

We confess our obligations to Sig. Giuseppe Beltramelli, who informs us, in a work published in 1806, that this painter, generally supposed from Bergamo, was really a Venetian, being thus mentioned in a public contract: M. Laurentius Lottus de Venetiis nunc habitator Bergomi. Father Federici, who, on the strength of some historian, pronounces him of Trevigi, brings forward another document in which Lotto is called: D. Laurentii Lotti pictoris, et de presenti Tarvisii commorantis. If, therefore, habitator Bergomi does not prove him a native of Bergamo, will the words Tarvisii commorantis make him a native of Trevigi? But Father Affò, in one of his earliest pictures, found him entitled Tarvisinus. Who, however, can assure us that it is in fact the handwriting of Lotto, which he there found written?