ing from the work of
fortifying Parma and was going to Loreto to finish the work of the
Chapel of the Madonna, to which he had sent Tribolo, Raffaello da
Montelupo, the young Francesco da San Gallo, Girolamo da Ferrara,
Simone Cioli, and other carvers, masons, and stone-cutters, in order
to finish that which Andrea Sansovino at his death had left
incomplete; and he contrived to take Simone to work there. He ordained
that Simone should have charge not only of the carvings, but also of
the architecture and of the other ornaments of that work; in which
commissions Mosca acquitted himself very well, and, what is more,
executed many things perfectly with his own hands, particularly some
little boys of marble in the round, which are on the pediments of the
doors; and although there are also some by the hand of Simone Cioli,
the best--and rare indeed they are--are all by Mosca. He made,
likewise, all the festoons of marble that are around all that work,
with most beautiful artistry and carvings full of grace and worthy of
all praise; wherefore it is no marvel that these works are so esteemed
and admired, that many craftsmen from distant parts have set off in
order to go to see them.

Antonio da San Gallo, then, recognizing how much Mosca was worth, made
use of him in any undertaking of importance, with the intention of
remunerating him some day when the occasion might present itself, and
of giving him to know how much he loved him for his abilities. When,
therefore, after the death of Pope Clement, a new Supreme Pontiff had
been elected in Paul III of the Farnese family, who ordained that, the
mouth of the well at Orvieto having remained unfinished, Antonio
should have charge of it, Antonio took Mosca thither, to the end that
he might carry that work to completion, which presented some
difficulties, and particularly in the ornamentation of the doors, for
the reason that, the curve of the mouth being round, convex without
and concave within, those two circles conflicted with each other and
caused a difficulty in accommodating the squared doors with the
ornaments of stone. But the virtue of that singular genius of Simone's
solved every difficulty, and executed the whole work with such grace
and perfection, that no one could see that there had ever been any
difficulty. He finished off the mouth and border of the well in grey
sandstone, filled in with bricks, together with some very beautiful
inscriptions on white stone and other