present yourself before me; and do not write to me again, and act like
the priest in the fable."

The correspondence between uncle and nephew during the next months
proves that this furious letter wrought no diminution of mutual regard
and affection. Before the end of the year he must have recovered, for
we find him writing to Del Riccio: "I am well again now, and hope to
live yet some years, seeing that God has placed my health under the
care of Maestro Baccio Rontini and the trebbian wine of the Ulivieri."
This letter is referred to January 1545, and on the 9th of that month
he dictated a letter to his friend Del Riccio, in which he tells
Lionardo Buonarroti: "I do not feel well, and cannot write.
Nevertheless I have recovered from my illness, and suffer no pain
now." We have reason to think that Michelangelo fell gravely ill again
toward the close of 1545. News came to Florence that he was dying; and
Lionardo, not intimidated by his experience on the last occasion, set
out to visit him. His _ricordo_ of the journey was as follows: "I note
how on the 15th of January 1545 (Flor. style, _i.e._ 1546) I went to
Rome by post to see Michelangelo, who was ill, and returned to-day,
the 26th."

It is not quite easy to separate the records of these two acute
illnesses of Michelangelo, falling between the summer of 1544 and the
early spring of 1546. Still, there is no doubt that they signalised
his passage from robust old age into a period of physical decline.
Much of life survived in the hero yet; he had still to mould S.
Peter's after his own mind, and to invent the cupola. Intellectually
he suffered no diminution, but he became subject to a chronic disease
of the bladder, and adopted habits suited to decaying faculty.

II

We have seen that Michelangelo regarded Luigi del Riccio as his most
trusty friend and adviser. The letters which he wrote to him during
these years turn mainly upon business or poetical compositions. Some,
however, throw light upon the private life of both men, and on the
nature of their intimacy. I will select a few for special comment
here. The following has no date; but it is interesting, because we may
connect the feeling expressed in it with one of Michelangelo's
familiar sonnets. "Dear Messer Luigi, since I know you are as great a
master of ceremonies as I am unfit for that trade, I beg you to help
me in a little matter. Monsignor di Todi (Federigo Cesi, afterwards
Cardinal of S. Pancrazio)