Note 24 — BOOK I.

Ruggieri indeed had acquired a great reputation in Italy as early as 1449, when Ciriaco Anconitano, being in Ferrara, saw a picture of Christ taken from the cross, belonging to the Duke. He thus writes respecting the artist: Rugerus Brugiensis pictorum decus ΑΓΑΘΗΙ ΤΥΧΗΙ.—Rugierius in Brussella post præclarum illum Brugiensem picturæ decus Joannem, insignis N. T. Pictor habetur, &c. See Colucci A. P. vol. xxiii. p. 143. He is also commended in high terms by Bartolommeo Facio in his little work De viris illustribus. See Morelli, Notizia, p. 239.