Life of Taddeo Zucchero, Painter of Sant'Agnolo in Vado
Henricus Valesius Dei Gratia Gallorum Rex Invictissimus
It is true, indeed, that the Roman M. Alessandro Taddei, the secretary of that Cardinal, and Don Silvano Razzi, my dearest friend, who have given me information about this picture and about many other things, do not know by whose hand it is, but only that it was presented by the above-named King Henry to Cardinal Caraffa, when he was in France, and then by Caraffa to the most illustrious Cardinal di Monte, who treasured it as a very rare thing, which in truth it is. The words painted in the picture, which alone are to be seen by him who looks at it from the ordinary point of view, as one looks at other pictures, are these--
HEus tu quid viDes nil ut reoR
Nisi lunam crEscentem et E
Regione posItam quae eX
Intervallo GRadatim utI
Crescit nos Admonet ut iN
Una spe fide eT charitate tV
Simul et ego Illuminat I
Verbo dei crescAmus, doneC
Ab ejusdem Gratia fiaT
Lux in nobis Amplissima quI
ESt aeternus iLLe dator luciS
In quo et a quO mortales omneS
Veram lucem Recipere sI
Speramus in vanUM non sperabiMUS
In the same guardaroba is a most beautiful portrait of Signora Sofonisba Anguisciuola by her own hand, once presented by her to Pope Julius III. And there is another thing of great value, a very ancient book with the Bucolics, the Georgics, and the AEneid of Virgil, in characters so old, that it has been judged by many men of learning in Rome and in other places that it was written in the very time of Caesar Augustus, or little after; wherefore it is no marvel that it should be held by the Cardinal in the greatest veneration.
And let this be the end of the Life of the painter Taddeo Zucchero.