Faldoni, parts 2960 - 2963

 2960. “When God created the sun and the moon and the earth He had them try cubes for their shapes at first, and when that didn’t work out he tried pyramids. Only later did he hit on the spheres. This is why five has always been more than four, and less than six, there had to be a reason for that.”

 2961. All of this the old man said strictly to himself, and it would not have even been remembered and recorded except for the events that were to follow, which seemed to shed a light on the supposed meaning of what he was saying. 

 2962. The archbishop did not hear anything of what the old man had been muttering but continued with his presentation, unfolding another parchment with a ground-plan of the new edifice. The monks did not know what a ground plan was so he began to explain it to them.

2963.  This archbishop, by the way, was not the archbishop with the ornate robe with the diamonds and rubies, this was his predecessor. He did indeed have the robe, but it had not yet achieved the elaborate form it had years later.