The power of the Visconti was still in its cradle; the great plague had not devastated Tuscany.

As early as 1355 the whole of the fair order represented by Ambrogio was shaken to the foundation, and Siena deserved the words applied to it by De Commines.

See Vol.

L, _Age of the Despots_, p.

162, note 2.
[147] Rio, perversely bent on stigmatising whatever in Italian art savours of the Renaissance, depreciates this lovely form of Peace.