"Bales of English wool - the finest in the world - were brought from monasteries in the Cotswolds to be washed in the river Arno, combed, spun into yarn, and woven on wooden looms, then dyed beautiful colors: vermilion, made from cinnabar gathered on the shores of the Red Sea, or a brilliant yellow procured from the crocuses growing in meadows near the hilltop town of San Gimignano. The result was the most expensive and most sought-after cloth in Europe."
Chapter One, A More Beautiful and Honourable Temple, pp. 2

"From the outset its construction had as much to do with civic pride as religious faith: the cathedral was to be built, the Commune of Florence had stipulated, with the greatest lavishness and magnificence possible, and once completed it was to be 'a more beautiful and honourable temple than any in any other part of Tuscany."'
Chapter One...