etter
written by a friend in Florence on the 14th of May proves that his
antagonists had then good hopes of crushing him. Giovan Francesco Ughi
begins by saying that he has been silent because he had nothing
special to report. "But now Jacopo del Conte has come here with the
wife of Nanni di Baccio Bigio, alleging that he has brought her
because Nanni is so occupied at S. Peter's. Among other things, he
says that Nanni means to make a model for the building which will
knock yours to nothing. He declares that what you are about is mad and
babyish. He means to fling it all down, since he has quite as much
credit with the Pope as you have. You throw oceans of money away and
work by night, so that nobody may see what you are doing. You follow
in the footsteps of a Spaniard, having no knowledge of your own about
the art of building, and he less than nothing. Nanni stays there in
your despite: you did everything to get him removed; but the Pope
keeps him, being convinced that nothing good can be done without him."
After this Ughi goes on to relate how Michelangelo's enemies are
spreading all kinds of reports against his honour and good fame,
criticising the cornice of the Palazzo Farnese, and hoping that its
weight will drag the walls down. At the end he adds, that although he
knows one ought not to write about such matters, yet the man's
"insolence and blackguardly shamelessness of speech" compel him to put
his friend on his guard against such calumnies.

After the receipt of this letter, Michelangelo sent it to one of the
Superintendents of the Fabric, on whose sympathy he could reckon, with
the following indorsement in his own handwriting: "Messer Bartolommeo
(Ferrantino), please read this letter, and take thought who the two
rascals are who, lying thus about what I did at the Palazzo Farnese,
are now lying in the matter of the information they are laying before
the deputies of S. Peter's. It comes upon me in return for the
kindness I have shown them. But what else can one expect from a couple
of the basest scoundrelly villains?"

Nanni di Baccio Bigio had, as it seems, good friends at court in Rome.
He was an open enemy of Michelangelo, who, nevertheless, found it
difficult to shake him off. In the history of S. Peter's the man's
name will frequently occur.

Three years elapsed. Paul III. died, and Michelangelo wrote to his
nephew Lionardo on the occasion: "It is true that I have suffered
great sorrow, and not less lo