particle of that delight that men find in
working those marbles which are a pleasure to carve, and which in the
end, when brought to completion, show a surface that has the
appearance of the living flesh itself. However, he did so much that it
was already almost finished, when I, having persuaded Duke Alessandro
to recall Michelagnolo from Rome, and also the other masters, in order
to finish the work of the sacristy begun by Clement, was arranging to
give him something to do in Florence; and I would have succeeded, but
in the meantime, by reason of the death of Alessandro, who was
murdered by Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de' Medici, not only was this
design frustrated, but the greatness and prosperity of art were thrown
into utter ruin.

Having heard of the Duke's death, Tribolo condoled with me in his
letters, beseeching me, after he had exhorted me to bear with
resignation the death of that great Prince, my gracious master, that
if I went to Rome, as he had heard that I, being wholly determined to
abandon Courts and to pursue my studies, was intending to do, I should
obtain some commission for him, for the reason that, if assisted by my
friends, he would do whatever I told him. But it so chanced that it
became in no way necessary for him to seek commissions in Rome. For
Signor Cosimo de' Medici, having been created Duke of Florence, as
soon as he had freed himself from the troubles that he had in the
first year of his rule by routing his enemies at Monte Murlo, began to
take some diversion, and in particular to frequent not a little the
villa of Castello, which is little more than two miles distant from
Florence. There he began to do some building, in order that he might
be able to live there comfortably with his Court, and little by
little--being encouraged in this by Maestro Pietro da San Casciano,
who was held to be a passing good master in those days, and was much
in the service of Signora Maria, the mother of the Duke, and had also
always been the master-builder and the former servant of Signor
Giovanni--he resolved to conduct to that place certain waters that he
had desired long before to bring thither. Whereupon a beginning was
made with building an aqueduct that was to receive all the waters from
the hill of Castellina, which was at a distance of a quarter of a mile
or more from Castello; and the work was pursued vigorously with a good
number of men. But the Duke recognizing that Maestro Pietro had
neither inve