It was the year of the Lord 1628 when I received a letter from the Riviera d’Orta. They requested my services for Francis’ Sacro Monte. The local notables were building it on the model of the New Jerusalem of Varallo, which has now become my second home. My brother Melchiorre, an excellent painter and sculptor, and I came to Orta and modelled the terracotta statues of the new chapel. It shows the late Pope Innocent III approving the rule of the most holy Francis. In that same chapel was working a very talented painter, named Antonio Maria Crespi, also known as Bustino, from Busto Arsizio, not far from the great city of Milan.
But precisely in 1630 the terrible plague reached the Riviera d’Orta and also hit poor Bustino, so that only his heirs were paid for his work at the Monte: 1250 liras! We ‘Righo,’ as they call us on the Riviera, received only 581 liras and 5 coins. But you know, these days you can't complain. We thank God that the disease has not taken us too!