to cover the horse alone
with tin-foil laid upon the still fresh clay. On the base were to be
read the following words:

IMPERATORI CAROLO AUGUSTO VICTORIOSISSIMO, POST DEVICTOS HOSTES,
ITALIAE PACE RESTITUTA ET SALUTATO FERDIN. FRATRE, EXPULSIS ITERUM
TURCIS AFRICAQUE PERDOMITA, ALEXANDER MED. DUX FLORENTIAE, D.D.

His Majesty having departed from Florence, a beginning was made with
the preparations for the nuptials, in expectation of his daughter, and
to the end that she and the Vice-Queen of Naples, who was in her
company, might be commodiously lodged according to the orders of his
Excellency in the house of M. Ottaviano de' Medici, an addition was
made to his old house in four weeks, to the astonishment of everyone;
and Tribolo, the painter Andrea di Cosimo, and I, in ten days, with
the help of about ninety sculptors and painters of the city, what with
masters and assistants, completed the preparations for the wedding in
so far as appertained to the house and its decorations, painting the
loggie, courtyards, and other spaces in a manner suitable for nuptials
of such importance. Among these decorations, Tribolo made, besides
other things, two Victories in half-relief that were one on either
side of the principal door, supported by two large terminal figures,
which also upheld the escutcheon of the Emperor, pendent from the
neck of a very beautiful eagle in the round. The same master also made
certain boys, likewise in the round, and large in size, which were
placed on either side of some heads over the pediments of various
doors; and these were much extolled.

Meanwhile, as the nuptials were in progress, Tribolo received letters
from Bologna, in which Messer Pietro del Magno, his devoted friend,
besought him that he should consent to go to Bologna, in order to make
for the Madonna di Galliera, where a most beautiful ornament of marble
was already prepared, a scene likewise of marble three braccia and a
half in extent. Whereupon Tribolo, happening to have nothing else to
do at that time, went thither, and after making a model of a Madonna
ascending into Heaven, with the Apostles below in various attitudes,
which, being very beautiful, gave great satisfaction, he set his hand
to executing it; but with little pleasure for himself, since the
marble that he was carving was that Milanese marble, saline, full of
emery, and bad in quality; and it seemed to him that he was wasting
his time, without feeling a