due to the
fact that he was now residing regularly part of the year in Rome and
part in Florence. We have good reason to believe that he went to Rome
in September 1532, and stayed there through the winter. It is probable
that he then formed the friendship with Cavalieri, which played so
important a part in his personal history. A brisk correspondence
carried on between him and his two friends, Bartolommeo Angelini and
Sebastiano del Piombo, shows that he resided at Florence during the
summer and early autumn of 1533. From a letter addressed to Figiovanni
on the 15th of October, we learn that he was then impatient to leave
Florence for Rome. But a _Ricordo,_ bearing date October 29, 1533,
renders it almost certain that he had not then started. Angelini's
letters, which had been so frequent, stop suddenly in that month. This
renders it almost certain that Michelangelo must have soon returned to
Rome. Strangely enough there are no letters or _Ricordi_ in his
handwriting which bear the date 1534. When we come to deal with this
year, 1534, we learn from Michelangelo's own statement to Vasari that
he was in Florence during the summer, and that he reached Rome two
days before the death of Clement VII., _i.e._, upon September 23.
Condivi observes that it was lucky for him that the Pope did not die
while he was still at Florence, else he would certainly have been
exposed to great peril, and probably been murdered or imprisoned by
Duke Alessandro.

Nevertheless, Michelangelo was again in Florence toward the close of
1534. An undated letter to a certain Febo (di Poggio) confirms this
supposition. It may probably be referred to the month of December. In
it he says that he means to leave Florence next day for Pisa and Rome,
and that he shall never return. Febo's answer, addressed to Rome, is
dated January 14, 1534, which, according to Florentine reckoning,
means 1535.

We may take it, then, as sufficiently well ascertained that
Michelangelo departed from Florence before the end of 1534, and that
he never returned during the remainder of his life. There is left,
however, another point of importance referring to this period, which
cannot be satisfactorily cleared up. We do not know the exact date of
his father, Lodovico's, death. It must have happened either in 1533 or
in 1534. In spite of careful researches, no record of the event has
yet been discovered, either at Settignano or in the public offices of
Florence. The documents of