The contribution examines some lyrical collections, some translations and some historical essays produced by Friulian priests at the end of the eighteenth century, that is, in the period in which the Jesuit and great art historian Luigi Lanzi lived in Udine. The erudition of the Friulian clergy of that time is well represented by the treatise by Federico Altan On the various state of painting, where historiographical sources today little known and little explored are mentioned, such as De claris legum interpretibus libri quatuor by Guido Panciroli. This treatise actually provides interesting information on the history of art, and in particular on the pictorial cycle executed by Vitale da Bologna in the Cathedral of Udine. It is shown here that Guido Panciroli had direct knowledge of the pictorial cycle of Vitale da Bologna, and described it in a precise way. It is therefore a precious source for reconstructing a ruined part of that fresco today, that is, the miracle of San Nicolò and the usurer.
