Dante's journey through Hell and Purgatory, which is put into
Michelangelo's mouth, if we are to believe that he really made it
extempore and without book, shows a most minute knowledge of the
_Inferno_.

VII

Michelangelo's doings at Serravezza can be traced with some accuracy
during the summers of 1518 and 1519. An important letter to
Buonarroto, dated April 2, 1518, proves that the execution of the road
had not yet been decided on. He is impatient to hear whether the Wool
Corporation has voted the necessary funds and appointed him to
engineer it. "With regard to the construction of the road here, please
tell Jacopo Salviati that I shall carry out his wishes, and he will
not be betrayed by me. I do not look after any interests of my own in
this matter, but seek to serve my patrons and my country. If I begged
the Pope and Cardinal to give me full control over the business, it
was that I might be able to conduct it to those places where the best
marbles are. Nobody here knows anything about them. I did not ask for
the commission in order to make money; nothing of the sort is in my
head." This proves conclusively that much which has been written about
the waste of Michelangelo's abilities on things a lesser man might
have accomplished is merely sentimental. On the contrary, he was even
accused of begging for the contract from a desire to profit by it. In
another letter, of April 18, the decision of the Wool Corporation was
still anxiously expected. Michelangelo gets impatient. "I shall mount
my horse, and go to find the Pope and Cardinal, tell them how it is
with me, leave the business here, and return to Carrara. The folk
there pray for my return as one is wont to pray to Christ." Then he
complains of the worthlessness and disloyalty of the stone-hewers he
brought from Florence, and winds up with an angry postscript: "Oh,
cursed a thousand times the day and hour when I left Carrara! This is
the cause of my utter ruin. But I shall go back there soon. Nowadays
it is a sin to do one's duty." On the 22nd of April the Wool
Corporation assigned to Michelangelo a contract for the quarries,
leaving him free to act as he thought best. Complaints follow about
his workmen. One passage is curious: "Sandro, he too has gone away
from here. He stopped several months with a mule and a little mule in
grand style, doing nothing but fish and make love. He cost me a
hundred ducats to no purpose; has left a certain quantity of marble,