TINTRODUCTION xlix

the most complete collection. For his personal appearance we
have the contemporary testimony of the writer of the anonymous
Vita prefixed to the first edition of his Works (1555). It was
either written by Rannusio the editor or was at any rate ap—
proved by him: '*He was of short stature, but stockily built; his
shoulders were broad and he wore a becoming and well—groomed
beard; his long blaek hair framed a round face, his eyes were
brown, and his nose was flattened by his assiduous contempla—
tion of the stars—(this sounds too foolish for Rannusio to have
written it) —his features showed the vivacity of his intellect and
the sincerity and candor of his soul'.  Some of all this we can
see for ourselves in the more reliable portraits, for instance in
the bronze medallion set up by Rannusio at Padua as a likeness
of his friend, and even in the more conventional marble head
of the statue in the Piazza dei Signori at Verona.

Statue

This monument was voted by the Council of Verona in a
meeting on Nov. 21st, 1555, two years after his death, on the
motion of one Cristoforo Fracastoro, presumably a relative,
who was then an official with the title Provisor Civitatis. The
votes were 45 for, and 13 against, the proposal. The decree
of the Council says that in the knowledge of medicine he equalled
the most celebrated men of his time, but surpassed all in his
poetry and knowledge of literature, and it praises in particular
the poems Syphi/is and Josecph. The statue was executed
by Danese Cattaneo (1509—1573) a pupil of Sansovino, and is
said to have been set up first in the Piazza delle Erbe, but in
1559 it was placed in the Piazza dei Signori above the archway
next to the Loggia, on a level below the other statues of famous
Veronese writers, Catullus, Vitruvius, Pliny, Cornelius Nepos
and Macer. In the West corner of the Piazza is a statue of the
historian Maffei who wrote a Life of Fracastorius. 'The latter
wears a Roman toga and is crowned with laurel. In his right
hand he holds one of those globes, or armillary spheres to whose
construction he gave so much time. 'The statue has not been
adequately photographed, partly on account of its lofty position."

:'"The statue is inscribed: HIERONIMO FRACASTORIO PAULLI
PHILIPPI F. Ex PVUBLICA AUCTORITATE DIcATA AN. SAL. MDLIX.