agerness as he worked, and
that of the Pope, who would have liked to see the edifice spring up
from the ground, without needing to be built, that the builders of
the foundations brought the sand and the solid foundation-clay by
night and let[14] it down by day in the presence of Bramante, who
caused the foundations to be made without seeing anything more of
the work. This inadvertence was the reason that all his buildings
have cracked, and are in danger of falling down, as did this same
corridor, of which a piece eighty braccia in length fell to the
ground in the time of Clement VII, and was afterwards rebuilt by
Pope Paul III, who also had the foundations restored and the whole
strengthened.

From his design, also, are many flights of steps in the Belvedere,
varied according to their situations, whether high or low, in the
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian Orders--a very beautiful work, executed
with extraordinary grace. And he had made a model for the whole,
which is said to have been a marvellous thing, as may still be
imagined from the beginning of the work, unfinished as it is.
Moreover, he made a spiral staircase upon mounting columns, in such
a way that one can ascend it on horseback; wherein the Doric passes
into the Ionic, and the Ionic into the Corinthian, rising from one
into the other; a work executed with supreme grace, and with truly
excellent art, which does him no less honour than any other thing by
his hand that is therein. This invention was copied by Bramante from
S. Niccolo at Pisa, as was said in the Lives of Giovanni and Niccola
of Pisa.

The fancy took Bramante to make, in a frieze on the outer facade of
the Belvedere, some letters after the manner of ancient
hieroglyphics, representing the name of the Pope and his own, in
order to show his ingenuity: and he had begun thus, "Julio II, Pont.
Massimo," having caused a head in profile of Julius Caesar to be
made, and a bridge, with two arches, which signified, "Julio II,
Pont.," and an obelisk from the Circus Maximus, to represent "Max."
At which the Pope laughed, and caused him to make the letters in the
ancient manner, one braccio in height, which are there at the
present day; saying that he had copied this folly from a door at
Viterbo, over which one Maestro Francesco, an architect, had placed
his name, carved in the architrave, and represented by a S. Francis
(S. Francesco), an arch (arco), a roof (tetto), and a tower (torre),
which, interpreted i