o Francesco
Fattucci and others.

Condivi's description of his master's personal appearance is so detailed
that we can see him with his sculptor's callipers measuring the head of
his dear master, and gazing earnestly into his eyes, recording the colours
of their scintillations, with the patience of a painter.

Vasari's account has been translated more than once, but Condivi's never,
at least never completely. Extracts have been given, and it has been the
main resource of every writer on the master; but the faithful and reverent
character of the whole work can only be given in a complete translation,
its transparent honesty, and its loving devotion. Even had the subject of
this naif and unscholarly narrative been an ordinary man in an ordinary
period, it would have been worth translating for its truth to life and
human nature, much more, therefore, when it is about the greatest
craftsman of the Cinque Cento.

Condivi published his "Vita di Michael Angelo Buonarroti" on July 16,
1553; probably incited thereto by the master himself, who desired to
correct certain misstatements of his excellent friend, Giorgio Vasari,
without hurting that worthy's feelings. Nevertheless, we gather from what
Vasari says in his second edition that he somewhat resented the appearance
of this new biographer. Perhaps this coloured his unflattering account of
Condivi as an artist, when describing Michael Angelo's scholars: "Ascanio
della Ripa took great pains, but no results have been seen, whether in
designs or finished works. He spent several years over a picture for which
Michael Angelo had given him the cartoon, and, at a word, the hopes
conceived of him have vanished in smoke." What a good thing it would have
been for Vasari's reputation if his art work had vanished in smoke, too,
and only his biographies remained. Condivi lives, as he said he wished to
live, in the dedication of his work to Pope Julius III., with the name of
being a faithful servant and disciple of Michael Angelo.

A second edition of the "Vita di Michael Angelo," by Ascanio Condivi, was
published at Florence in 1746. The introduction informs us that Condivi
was born at Ripa Transona, and that he outlived his master ten years,
dying on February 17, 1563 (1564), aged nearly eighty-nine years.

The second part of this book may be regarded as an appendix(1) to Condivi.
It is a supplementary account of the existing works of the master, and
details of their fashioning that m