reat loss to
Michelangelo."

When the contract with Francesco Pellicia was cancelled, April 7,
1517, the project for developing the Florentine stone-quarries does
not seem to have taken shape. We must assume, therefore, that the
motive for this step was the abandonment of the tomb. The _Ricordi_
show that Michelangelo was still buying marbles and visiting Carrara
down to the end of February 1518. His correspondence from Pietra Santa
and Serravezza, where he lived when he was opening the Florentine
quarries of Monte Altissimo, does not begin, with any certainty, until
March 1518. We have indeed one letter written to Girolamo del Bardella
of Porto Venere upon the 6th of August, without date of year. This was
sent from Serravezza, and Milanesi, when he first made use of it,
assigned it to 1517. Gotti, following that indication, asserts that
Michelangelo began his operations at Monte Altissimo in July 1517; but
Milanesi afterwards changed his opinion, and assigned it to the year
1519. I believe he was right, because the first letter, bearing a
certain date from Pietra Santa, was written in March 1518 to Pietro
Urbano. It contains the account of Michelangelo's difficulties with
the Carraresi, and his journey to Genoa and Pisa. We have, therefore,
every reason to believe that he finally abandoned Carrara, for Pietra
Santa at the end of February 1518.

Pietra Santa is a little city on the Tuscan seaboard; Serravezza is a
still smaller fortress-town at the foot of the Carrara mountains.
Monte Altissimo rises above it; and on the flanks of that great hill
lie the quarries Della Finocchiaja, which Michelangelo opened at the
command of Pope Leo. It was not without reluctance that Michelangelo
departed from Carrara, offending the Marquis Malaspina, breaking his
contracts, and disappointing the folk with whom he had lived on
friendly terms ever since his first visit in 1505. A letter from the
Cardinal Giulio de' Medici shows that great pressure was put upon him.
It runs thus: "We have received yours, and shown it to our Lord the
Pope. Considering that all your doings are in favour of Carrara, you
have caused his Holiness and us no small astonishment. What we heard
from Jacopo Salviati contradicts your opinion. He went to examine the
marble-quarries at Pietra Santa, and informed us that there are
enormous quantities of stone, excellent in quality and easy to bring
down. This being the case, some suspicion has arisen in our minds th