“M. Francesco replied: ‘[…] And if the painters of earlier times had taken care to show the dress of popes and cardinals, before the letter started to wear the red hat under Pope Innocent IV, we would now know how they dressed when those consecrated heads and backs were not yet decorated with crimson (for according to some they used to wear dark blue, as evidenced by certain figures in San Martino ai Monti). This applies to the popes too, from Paul II onward, wore papal miters embellished with gold and gems, according to Platina’.”

‘Rispose M. Francesco: ‘[….]E se i pittori digià avessero atteso a mostrare gli abiti de’ papi, de’ cardinali prima che, sotto Innocenzio IIII Pontefice, i cardinali usassero il rosso cappello, saperemmo oggi qual abito usavano in quell tempo che la porpora ancora non gli ornava il sacrato capo né ‘l dosso (che secondo alcuni veste vano di turchino, per certe figure che si veggono in San Martino in Monti); et i papi anco, i quali, secondo Platina, da Paolo Secondo in qua cominciarono ad usare le mitre pontificali fregiate d’oro e di gemme’.”