begin in earnest to make
plans for leaving Florence? It would give peace to yourself and all of
us, if you were here. I have seen your soul, which is in good health
and under good guardianship. The body waits for your arrival."

This mysterious reference to the soul, which Angelini gave, at
Buonarroti's request, to young Cavalieri, and which he now describes
as prospering, throws some light upon the passionate phrases of the
following mutilated letter, addressed to Angelini by Michelangelo upon
the 11th of October. The writer, alluding to Messer Tommao, says that,
having given him his heart, he can hardly go on living in his absence:
"And so, if I yearn day and night without intermission to be in Rome,
it is only in order to return again to life, which I cannot enjoy
without the soul." This conceit is carried on for some time, and the
letter winds up with the following sentence: "My dear Bartolommeo,
although you may think that I am joking with you, this is not the
case. I am talking sober sense, for I have grown twenty years older
and twenty pounds lighter since I have been here." This epistle, as we
shall see in due course, was acknowledged. All Michelangelo's
intimates in Rome became acquainted with the details of this
friendship. Writing to Sebastiano from Florence in this year, he says:
"I beg you, if you see Messer T. Cavalieri, to recommend me to him
infinitely; and when you write, tell me something about him to keep
him in my memory; for if I were to lose him from my mind, I believe
that I should fall down dead straightway." In Sebastiano's letters
there is one allusion to Cavalieri, who had come to visit him in the
company of Bartolommeo Angelini, when he was ill.

It is not necessary to follow all the references to Tommaso Cavalieri
contained in Angelini's letters. They amount to little more than kind
messages and warm wishes for Michelangelo's return. Soon, however,
Michelangelo began to send poems, which Angelini acknowledges
(September 6): "I have received the very welcome letter you wrote me,
together with your graceful and beautiful sonnet, of which I kept a
copy, and then sent it on to M. Thomao. He was delighted to possess
it, being thereby assured that God has deigned to bestow upon him the
friendship of a man endowed with so many noble gifts as you are."
Again he writes (October 18): "Yours of the 12th is to hand, together
with M. Thomao's letter and the most beautiful sonnets. I have kept
copies,