concurring with that of better judges
than myself, is that we have here to deal with one of the many
baseless stories told about him. Omitting the difficulties presented
by his advanced age, it is wholly contrary to all we know about the
Marchioness, and not a little damaging to her reputation for
austerity, to suppose that this admirable matron, who, after the death
of her husband, gave herself up to God, and abjured the commerce of
the world, should, later in life, have carried on an intrigue, as the
saying is, upon the sly, particularly when a third person is imposed
on our credulity, acting the part of go-between and cloak in the
transaction, as certain biographers of the great artist, and certain
commentators of his poetry, are pleased to assert, with how much
common-sense and what seriousness I will not ask."

VIII

The history of Luigi del Riccio's affection for a lad of Florence
called Cecchino dei Bracci, since this is interwoven with
Michelangelo's own biography and the criticism of his poems, may be
adduced in support of the argument I am developing. Cecchino was a
youth of singular promise and personal charm. His relative, the
Florentine merchant, Luigi del Riccio, one of Buonarroti's most
intimate friends and advisers, became devotedly attached to the boy.
Michelangelo, after his return to Rome in 1534, shared this friend
Luigi's admiration for Cecchino; and the close intimacy into which the
two elder men were drawn, at a somewhat later period of Buonarroti's
life, seems to have been cemented by their common interest in poetry
and their common feeling for a charming personality. We have a letter
of uncertain date, in which Michelangelo tells Del Riccio that he has
sent him a madrigal, begging him, if he thinks fit, to commit the
verses "to the fire--that is, to what consumes me." Then he asks him
to resolve a certain problem which has occurred to his mind during the
night, "for while I was saluting _our idol_ in a dream, it seemed to
me that he laughed, and in the same instant threatened me; and not
knowing which of these two moods I have to abide by, I beg you to find
out from him; and on Sunday, when we meet again, you will inform me."
Cecchino, who is probably alluded to in this letter, died at Rome on
the 8th of January 1542, and was buried in the Church of Araceli.
Luigi felt the blow acutely. Upon the 12th of January he wrote to his
friend Donate Giannotti, then at Vicenza, in the following words