longed to Raffaello da
Urbino, executed with bricks and mould-castings, the columns and
bosses being of the Doric Order and of rustic work--a very
beautiful work--with a new invention in the making of these
castings. He also made the design and preparations for the
decoration of S. Maria at Loreto, which was afterwards continued by
Andrea Sansovino; and an endless number of models for palaces and
temples, which are in Rome and throughout the States of the Church.

So sublime was the intellect of this marvellous craftsman, that he
made a vast design for restoring and rearranging the Papal Palace.
And so greatly had his courage grown, on seeing the powers and
desires of the Pope rise to the level of his own wishes and genius,
that, hearing that he was minded to throw the Church of S. Pietro to
the ground, in order to build it anew, he made him an endless number
of designs. And among those that he made was one that was very
wonderful, wherein he showed the greatest possible judgment, with
two bell-towers, one on either side of the facade, as we see it in
the coins afterwards struck for Julius II and Leo X by Caradosso, a
most excellent goldsmith, who had no peer in making dies, as may
still be seen from the medal of Bramante, executed by him, which is
very beautiful. And so, the Pope having resolved to make a beginning
with the vast and sublime structure of S. Pietro, Bramante caused
half of the old church to be pulled down, and put his hand to the
work, with the intention that it should surpass, in beauty, art,
invention, and design, as well as in grandeur, richness, and
adornment, all the buildings that had been erected in that city by
the power of the Commonwealth, and by the art and intellect of so
many able masters; and with his usual promptness he laid the
foundations, and carried the greater part of the building, before
the death of the Pope and his own, to the height of the cornice,
where are the arches to all the four piers; and these he turned with
supreme expedition and art. He also executed the vaulting of the
principal chapel, where the recess is, giving his attention at the
same time to pressing on the building of the chapel that is called
the Chapel of the King of France.

For this work he invented the method of casting vaults in wooden
moulds, in such a manner that patterns of friezes and foliage, like
carvings, come out in the plaster; and in the arches of this edifice
he showed how they could be turned