Nardo's state of health,
all makes me restless. The boy has been for some days out of health
and pining, and I am anxious about him." It is probable that some
means were found for escorting them both safely to Settignano. We hear
no more about Lodovico till the period of his death, the date of which
has not been ascertained with certainty.

From the autumn of 1530 on to the end of 1533 Michelangelo worked at
the Medicean monuments. His letters are singularly scanty during all
this period, but we possess sufficient information from other sources
to enable us to reconstruct a portion of his life. What may be called
the chronic malady of his existence, that never-ending worry with the
tomb of Julius, assumed an acute form again in the spring of 1531. The
correspondence with Sebastiano del Piombo, which had been interrupted
since 1525, now becomes plentiful, and enables us to follow some of
the steps which led to the new and solemn contract of May 1532.

It is possible that Michelangelo thought he ought to go to Rome in the
beginning of the year. If we are right in ascribing a letter written
by Benvenuto della Volpaia from Rome upon the 18th of January to the
year 1531, and not to 1532, he must have already decided on this step.
The document is curious in several respects. "Yours of the 13th
informs me that you want a room. I shall be delighted if I can be of
service to you in this matter; indeed, it is nothing in respect to
what I should like to do for you. I can offer you a chamber or two
without the least inconvenience; and you could not confer on me a
greater pleasure than by taking up your abode with me in either of the
two places which I will now describe. His Holiness has placed me in
the Belvedere, and made me guardian there. To-morrow my things will be
carried thither, for a permanent establishment; and I can place at
your disposal a room with a bed and everything you want. You can even
enter by the gate outside the city, which opens into the spiral
staircase, and reach your apartment and mine without passing through
Rome. From here I can let you into the palace, for I keep a key at
your service; and what is better, the Pope comes every day to visit
us. If you decide on the Belvedere, you must let me know the day of
your departure, and about when you will arrive. In that case I will
take up my post at the spiral staircase of Bramante, where you will be
able to see me. If you wish, nobody but my brother and Mona L