e Cosimo, hearing of these misfortunes,
from coming to Florence; the Duke saying to him that his contentment
and the continuation of S. Pietro were more dear to him than anything
in the world, and that he should rest in peace. Whereupon Michelagnolo
wrote to Vasari, on the same sheet in which he thanked the Duke to the
best of his power and knowledge for such kindness, saying, "God give
me grace that I may be able to serve him with this my poor person, for
my memory and my brain are gone to await him elsewhere." The date of
this letter was August in the year 1557. Thus, then, Michelagnolo
learned that the Duke esteemed his life and his honour more than he
did himself, who so revered him. All these things, and many more that
it is not necessary to mention, we have in our possession, written in
his hand.

Michelagnolo by this time was reduced to a feeble condition, and it
was evident that little was being done in S. Pietro, now that he had
carried on a great part of the frieze of the windows within, and of
the double columns without, which curve above the great round
cornice[4] where the cupola is to be placed, as will be related; and
he was exhorted and urged by his greatest friends, such as the
Cardinal of Carpi, Messer Donato Giannotti, Francesco Bandini, Tommaso
de' Cavalieri, and Lottino that, since he saw the delay in the raising
of the cupola, he should at least make a model of it. He stayed many
months without making up his mind to this, but in the end he made a
beginning, and then little by little constructed a small model in
clay, from which, as an exemplar, and from the plans and profiles
that he had drawn, it might be possible afterwards to make a larger
one of wood. This, having made a beginning with it, he caused to be
constructed in little more than a year by Maestro Giovanni Franzese,
with much study and pains; and he made it on such a scale that the
smaller proportions of the model, measured by the old Roman palm,
corresponded with complete exactness to those of the large work, he
having fashioned with diligence in that model all the members of
columns, bases, capitals, doors, windows, cornices, projections, and
likewise every least thing, knowing that in such a work no less should
be done, for in all Christendom, nay, in all the world, there is not
to be found or seen any fabric more ornate or more grand. And I cannot
but think that, if we have given up time to noting smaller things, it
is even more use