'artificer', which combines some of the implications of both
'artisan' and the contemporary sense of the word 'artist'.
Contemporary English usage precludes the somewhat clumsy
term 'artificer' in a translation of this sort, but the reader
should bear in mind when he encounters the term 'artisan' in
the translation that these words have been chosen to render his
meaning, not his precise vocabulary.

A number of major critical editions of Vasari's works have
been published during the past century. Especially important
are those edited by Gaetano Milanesi ( 1906), Carlo L. Ragghianti
( 1942-9), and Paola Barocchi ( 1962, 1967- ), as
well as that by Paolo Della Pergola, Luigi Grassi, and a
number of other editors ( 1967). We have consulted all of these
editions in preparing this English translation and critical
edition but have usually followed the Italian text included in
this last nine-volume edition, since it incorporates the previous
important editions and provides the most up-to-date informa-
tion on the artistic works.

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