ee will to Venice and insisted on remaining with him all the
time that he stayed there; and in that city, besides many designs and
models that he made for private dwellings and public buildings and
decorations for the friends of Cosimo and for many gentlemen, he built,
at the command and expense of Cosimo, the library of the Monastery of S.
Giorgio Maggiore, a seat of the Black Friars of S. Justina; and this was
not only finished with regard to walls, book-shelves, wood-work, and
other adornments, but was also filled with many books. Such was the
occupation and amusement of Cosimo during that exile, from which he was
recalled to his country in the year 1434; whereupon he returned almost
in triumph, and Michelozzo with him. Now, while Michelozzo was in
Florence, the Palazzo Pubblico della Signoria began to threaten to
collapse, for some columns in the courtyard were giving way, either
because there was too much weight pressing on them, or because their
foundations were weak and awry, or even perchance because they were made
of pieces badly joined and put together. Whatever may have been the
reason, the matter was put into the hands of Michelozzo, who accepted
the undertaking willingly, because he had provided against a similar
peril near S. Barnaba in Venice, in the following manner. A gentleman
had a house that was in danger of falling down, and he entrusted the
matter to Michelozzo; wherefore he--according to what Michelagnolo
Buonarroti once told me--caused a column to be made in secret, and
prepared a number of props; and hiding everything in a boat, into which
he entered together with some builders, in one night he propped up the
house and replaced the column. Michelozzo, therefore, emboldened by this
experience, averted the danger from the palace, doing honour both to
himself and to those by whose favour he had received such a charge; and
he refounded and rebuilt the columns in the manner wherein they stand
to-day. First he made a stout framework of props and thick beams
standing upright to support the centres of the arches, made of
nut-wood, and upholding the vaulting, so that this came to support
equally the weight that was previously borne by the columns; then,
little by little removing those that were made of pieces badly joined
together, he replaced them with others made of pieces and wrought with
diligence, in such a manner that the building did not suffer in any way
and has never moved a hair's breadth. And in