t thing this was and how difficult;
and, too, of the tales M. Angelo, when coming out of vespers one day, told
about me and about a book of mine in which I had drawn some things in Rome
and Italy, to Cardinal Santtiquatro and to him. Now my habit was to go
round the solemn temple of the Pantheon and note all its columns and
proportions; the Mausoleum of Adrian and that of Augustus, the Coliseum,
the Thermae of Antoninus and those of Diocletian, the Arch of Titus and
that of Severus, the Capitol, the theatre of Marcellus and all the other
notable things in that city, the names of which have already escaped me.
At times, too, I was not turned out of the magnificent chambers of the
Pope, I only went there because they were painted by the noble hand of
Raphael of Urbino. I loved more those antique men of stone sculptured on
the arches and columns of the old buildings, than those more inconstant
which everywhere weary one with talking, I learned more from them and from
their grave silence.

Now amongst the days which I thus passed in that Court there was a Sunday
on which I went to see Messer Lactancio Tolomei, as others did; it was he,
with the assistance of Messer Blosio, the Pope's secretary, who gave me
the friendship of Michael Angelo. And this M. Lactancio was a very
important personage, both on account of nobility of mind and of blood (he
being a nephew of the Cardinal of Siena), as well as through his knowledge
of Latin, Greek and Hebrew letters, and for the authority of his years.
But finding in his house a message that he was at Monte Cavallo, in the
church of St. Silvester, with the Lady Marchioness of Pescara, listening
to a lecture from the Epistles of St. Paul, I went to Monte Cavallo and to
St. Silvester. Now Senhora Vittoria Colonna, Marchioness of Pescara, and
sister of Senhor Ascanio Colonna, is one of the most illustrious and
famous ladies in Italy and in all Europe, which is the world, chaste yet
beautiful, a Latin scholar, well-informed and with all the other parts of
virtue and fairness to be praised in woman. She, after the death of her
great husband, took to a private and simple life, contenting herself with
the fact that she had already lived in her estate, and loving henceforward
only Jesu Christ and good deeds, doing good to poor women and bearing the
fruits of a true Catholic. For my friendship with this lady also I was
indebted to M. Lactancio, who was the most intimate friend that she had.

Havi