like to hear particularly how he
died, and if he confessed and communicated with all the ordinances
of the Church. For if he did so, and I know it, I shall suffer
less." All through his life Michael Angelo is most punctilious
about the observances of the Church.

Lionardo was now the only hope of continuing the family, so his
uncle reminds him that if he does not soon marry and get children,
his property will all go to the Hospital of San Martino.(177) Old
bachelor as he is, he gives his nephew advice, in another letter,
as to the choice of a wife: "You ought not to look for a dower,
but only to consider whether the girl is well brought up, healthy,
of good character, and noble blood. You are not yourself of such
parts and person as to be worthy of the first beauty of Florence.
Let me tell you not to run after money, but only look for virtue
and good name."

Lionardo married Cassandra Ridolfi in the year 1553, and the first child
born of this marriage was a boy, by Michael Angelo's wish he was named
Buonarroto. "I shall be very pleased if the name of Buonarroto does not
die out of our family, it having lasted three hundred years with us."(178)
Vasari wrote to Michael Angelo describing the festivities at the
christening. Giorgio held the child at the font in the Baptistry, "Mio bel
Giovanni," as Michael Angelo always called it.

The letters to Vasari are full of a courtly friendship and regard; they
are very pleasant reading. One of them is the most beautiful and touching
letter by his hand, referring to the death of his servant Francesco,
called Urbino.(179)

"MESSER GIORGIO, DEAR FRIEND,--Although I write but badly, yet will
I say a few words in reply to yours. You know that Urbino is dead,
for which I owe the greatest thanks to God; at the same time my
loss is heavy and sorrow infinite. The grace is this, that while
Urbino living kept me alive, in dying he has taught me to die not
unwillingly, but rather with a desire for death. I had him with me
twenty-six years, and always found him faithful and true. Now that
I had made him rich, and thought to keep him as the staff and rest
of my old age, he has departed, and the only hope left to me is
that of seeing him again in Paradise, and of this God has given a
sign in his most happy death. Even more than dying, it grieved him
to leave me alive in this treacherous