§ 98 Pavements in Variegated Tiles
Hence it is that the pavements of many apartments in our day are made of variegated bricks, one portion of white clay, that is of clay that draws towards a bluish shade when it is fresh and when baked becomes white, and the other portion of the ordinary earth for making bricks which becomes red when baked. Of these two sorts are made pavements, inlaid in various designs and compartments, as the papal halls at Rome in the time of Raffaello da Urbino bear testimony;258 and now recently many apartments in the castle of Sant’ Angelo where emblems of lilies of fitted pieces showing the arms of Pope Paolo, and many other devices, have been made with these same bricks. In Florence also there is the pavement of the library of San Lorenzo ordered to be made by Duke Cosimo. All have been executed with such great care that anything more beautiful in that sort of workmanship cannot be desired, and the point of departure for all these inlaid things was the first mosaic.