ch havoc; but he would not hear
any of them--nay, he made Giulio superintendent of the streets at that
very time, and decreed that no one should build in that city save under
Giulio's direction. On which account many complaining and some even
threatening Giulio, this came to the ears of the Duke, who used such
words in his favour as made it known that if they did anything to the
despite or injury of Giulio, he would count it as done to himself, and
would make an example of them.

The Duke was so enamoured of the excellence of Giulio, that he could not
live without him; and Giulio, on his part, bore to that lord the
greatest reverence that it is possible to imagine. Wherefore he never
asked a favour for himself or for others without obtaining it, and when
he died it was found that with all that he had received from the Duke he
had an income of more than a thousand ducats.

Giulio built a house for himself in Mantua, opposite to S. Barnaba, on
the outer side of which he made a fantastic facade, all wrought with
coloured stucco, and the interior he caused to be all painted and
wrought likewise with stucco; and he found place in it for many
antiquities brought from Rome and others received from the Duke, to whom
he gave many of his own. He made so many designs both for Mantua and for
places in its neighbourhood, that it was a thing incredible; for, as has
been told, no palaces or other buildings of importance could be erected,
particularly in the city, save after his design. He rebuilt upon the old
walls the Church of S. Benedetto, a rich and vast seat of Black Friars
at Mantua, near the Po; and the whole church was embellished with most
beautiful paintings and altar-pieces from designs by his hand. And since
his works were very highly prized throughout Lombardy, it pleased Gian
Matteo Giberti, Bishop of Verona, to have the tribune of the Duomo of
that city all painted, as has been related in another place, by Il Moro
the Veronese, after designs by Giulio. For the Duke of Ferrara, also, he
executed many designs for tapestries, which were afterwards woven in
silk and gold by Maestro Niccolo and Giovan Battista Rosso, both
Flemings; and of these there are engravings to be seen, executed by
Giovan Battista Mantovano, who engraved a vast number of things drawn by
Giulio, and in particular, besides three drawings of battles engraved by
others, a physician who is applying cupping-glasses to the shoulders of
a woman, and the Flig