on the 9th of December 1814.

BRAMANTE, or BRAMANTE LAZZARI (c. 1444-1514), Italian architect and
painter, whose real name was Donate d'Augnolo, was born at
Monte-Asdrualdo in Urbino, in July 1444. He showed a great taste for
drawing, and was at an early age placed under Fra Bartolommeo, called
Fra Carnavale. But though he afterwards gained some fame as a painter,
his attention was soon absorbed by architecture. He appears to have
studied under Scirro Scirri, an architect in his native place, and
perhaps under other masters. He then set out from Urbino, and proceeded
through several of the towns of Lombardy, executing works of various
magnitudes, and examining patiently all remains of ancient art. At last,
attracted by the fame of the great Duomo, he reached Milan, where he
remained from 1476 to 1499. He seems to have left Milan for Rome about
1500. He painted some frescoes at Rome, and devoted himself to the study
of the ancient buildings, both in the city and as far south as Naples.
About this time the Cardinal Caraffa commissioned him to rebuild the
cloister of the Convent della Pace. Owing to the celerity and skill with
which Bramante did this, the cardinal introduced him to Pope Alexander
VI. He began to be consulted on nearly all the great architectural
operations in Rome, and executed for the pope the palace of the
Cancelleria or chancery. Under Julius II., Alexander's successor,
Bramante's talents began to obtain adequate sphere of exercise. His
first large work was to unite the straggling buildings of the palace and
the Belvedere. This he accomplished by means of two long galleries or
corridors enclosing a court. The design was only in part completed
before the death of Julius and of the architect. So impatient was the
pope and so eager was Bramante, that the foundations were not
sufficiently well attended to; great part of it had, therefore, soon to
be rebuilt, and the whole is now so much altered that it is hardly
possible to decipher the original design.

Besides executing numerous smaller works at Rome and Bologna, among
which is specially mentioned by older writers a round temple in the
cloister of San Pietro-a-Montorio, Bramante was called upon by Pope
Julius to take the first part in one of the greatest architectural
enterprises ever attempted--the rebuilding of St Peter's. Bramante's
designs were complete, and he pushed on the work so fast that before his
death he had erected the four great piers