succeeded in practising
her more happily than I, perhaps, have been able to do. And from this my
good will, so full of the most sincere affection, it appears to me that
I have gathered hitherto fruits that are an ample reward, for I have
been always loved and honoured by you all, and we have been united in
the most perfect intimacy or brotherhood, I know not which to call it;
mutually showing our works to one another, I to you and you to me, and
helping one another with counsel and assistance whenever the occasion
has presented itself. Wherefore I have always felt myself deeply bound
by this loving fellowship, and much more by your excellent abilities,
and no less, also, by this my inclination, by nature, and by a most
powerful attraction, to assist and serve you in every way and every
matter wherein I have considered myself able to bring you pleasure or
advantage. To this end I published in the year 1550 the Lives of our
best and most famous Craftsmen, moved by a cause that has been mentioned
in another place, and also, to tell the truth, by a generous indignation
that so much talent should have been for so long a time, and should
still remain, buried in oblivion. And this my labour appears not to have
been in any way unwelcome; on the contrary, so acceptable, that, not to
mention what has been said and written to me from many quarters, out of
the vast number that were printed at that time, there is not one single
volume to be found at the booksellers.

Thus, therefore, receiving every day requests from many friends, and
understanding no less clearly the unexpressed desires of many others,
once more, although in the midst of most important undertakings, I have
applied myself to the same labour, with the intention not only of adding
those masters who have passed to a better world between that time and
the present, thus giving me the opportunity of writing their Lives in
full, but also of supplying that which may have been wanting to the
perfection of my first work. For since then I have had leisure to come
to a better knowledge of many matters, and to re-examine others, not
only by the favour of these my most illustrious Lords, whom I serve, the
true refuge and protection of all the arts, but also through the
facilities that they have given me to search the whole of Italy once
again and to see and understand many things which had not before come
under my notice. I have been able, therefore, not merely to make
correction