“From the beginning of printing up to a time not far distant from our own, the engravers of punches for types were goldsmiths, die-sinkers, medallists, niellists,—masters in their art. It will be found in Zani that Fust and Schœffer were goldsmiths, and so, it is believed, was Guttenberg; while, in the opinion of the said Zani, it was Giovanni Dunne, ‘a most excellent goldsmith, who led the way in the formation of metal types.’ ... Every one knows how distinguished Francia was as a goldsmith, his first and chief profession, and how frequently he signed his paintings with the words, ‘Franciscus Francia aurifaber,’ or ‘aurifex,’ as if he gloried in the designation. Vasari says, in the Life of Francia, that his fine medals stood on a par with those of Caradosso; but he says never a word of the Furnius conjured up by Gaurico.”
“I had long suspected that this Francesco da Bologna, was no other than the Bolognese Francesco Raibolini, generally known as ‘Francia.’ Some years ago, in running through a work of some note in former times, I found that after mentioning various ancient artists, exactly as Gaurico does, it went on to speak of the modern ones thus:—‘I find amongst the ancients one great omission of which the moderns take notice, and that is with regard to engravers or artists in silver, a kind of work known as niello. I am acquainted with a man of the highest excellence, and very famous in his art, his name is Francesco da Bologna, otherwise Franza; he forms or engraves on a diminutive orb or plate of silver, so many men and animals, so many mountains, trees, and castles, and in so many various shapes and positions that it is wonderful to behold or describe.’”
“And here I might stop,” continues Panizzi, “were it not that the direct testimony of Leonardi is corroborated irrefragably by a very remarkable circumstance.... I think I may conclude by answering the question which I have put to myself, thus:—_Francesco da Bologna was Francesco Raibolini, called Francia_, the worthy contemporary and compatriot of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michel Angelo, great as a painter, great as an engraver, great as a medallist, great as a niellist, without equal as a type-cutter, a shining ornament of illustrious and learned Bologna.”