property, which Lionardo Buonarroti may
possibly have furnished to the state of Florence, been yet brought to
light.

That he inherited some landed property at Settignano from his father
is certain; and he added several plots of ground to the paternal
acres. He also is said to have bought a farm in Valdichiana
(doubtful), and other pieces of land in Tuscany. He owned a house at
Rome, a house and workshop in the Via Mozza at Florence, and he
purchased the Casa Buonarroti in Via Ghibellina. But we have no means
of determining the total value of these real assets.

In these circumstances I feel unable to offer any probable opinion
regarding the amount of Michelangelo's professional earnings, or the
exact way in which they were acquired. That he died possessed of a
considerable fortune, and that he was able during his lifetime to
assist his family with large donations, cannot be disputed. But how he
came to command so much money does not appear. His frugality,
bordering upon penuriousness, impressed contemporaries. This,
considering the length of his life, may account for not contemptible
accumulations.

VIII

We have seen that Michelangelo's contemporaries found fault with
several supposed frailties of his nature. These may be briefly
catalogued under the following heads: A passionate violence of temper
(_terribilita_), expressing itself in hasty acts and words; extreme
suspiciousness and irritability; solitary habits, amounting to
misanthropy or churlishness; eccentricity and melancholy bordering on
madness; personal timidity and avarice; a want of generosity in
imparting knowledge, and an undue partiality for handsome persons of
his own sex. His biographers, Condivi and Vasari, thought these
charges worthy of serious refutation, which proves that they were
current. They had no difficulty in showing that his alleged
misanthropy, melancholy, and madness were only signs of a studious
nature absorbed in profound meditations. They easily refuted the
charges of avarice and want of generosity in helping on young artists.
But there remained a great deal in the popular conception which could
not be dismissed, and which has recently been corroborated by the
publication of his correspondence. The opinion that Michelangelo was a
man of peculiar, and in some respects not altogether healthy nervous
temperament, will force itself upon all those who have fairly weighed
the evidence of the letters in connection with the events o