of knowledge in the world; and sorrow that, having finished part of my subject, I was unable to avail myself of the treasures of your imagination, which is so perfect, that if the last day had arrived and you had actually witnessed its horrors, you could not have given a better description of it. But in answer to the good opinion you have of me, I will convince you that your letter is a source of great satisfaction to me, by asking you to publish it, since Kings and Princes esteem it a very great favour if your pen deigns to notice them.

"If I have any thing, the possession of which would please you, it is most heartily at your service. In the meantime, I trust your resolution of not coming to Rome will not prevail over your wish to see the pictures on which I am at present engaged: that would be very disagreeable to me. I finish my letter with recommending myself to you."

TO M. LUCAS MARTINI.

"Rome.

"I received, by M. Bartholomew Bettini, your letter, containing a little comment on one of my sonnets, written by M. Benedetto Varchi: the sonnet comes from me, the comment from heaven. It is truly admirable. I

do not say this merely on my own judgment, but on that of many learned men, and particularly of M. Donato Giannoti, who is never tired of reading it. He desires to be remembered to you. As for the sonnet, I know whom they mean; but be it who it may, I cannot help being a little vain, since it has been the means of producing so fine and learned a criticism. I know, from the language of the author, and the praises he bestows on me, that he thinks more of me than I deserve; I beg you to thank him for it from me in terms suitable to so much kindness and affection. I ask you to do this because I am unable to do it so well myself. He who is thought much of, should not tempt fortune; it is better to hold one's tongue than to lose one's reputation; I am old, and death has taken away my youthful thoughts. Who does not know what old age is? Be patient enough to wait its arrival, for you will not know it before. Commend me, as I said before, to Varchi, as one who loves his person as well as his virtue. I am entirely at his service.

"MICHAEL ANGELO BONAROTTI."

This sonnet was one of those which Michael Angelo composed in his youth. His taste for

poetry did not last long; it ceased when Cosmo de Medicis obtained his father's consent that he should entirely devote himself to sculpture, for which profession he had not at first been designed. Cosmo, who had just been raised to the throne of Florence, requited this complaisance by inviting him to partake of the pleasures of his court. The austere Michael could not however find any pleasure there; he could not forget the yet recent murder of Duke Alexander, of which Vasari had been almost an eye-witness, and which he described so well after his flight from Florence, where he did not think his life in safety.

Michael Angelo, however, composed a few sonnets in his old age, in order to shew his envious detractors that the Muses yet smiled on him. These sonnets are very beautiful, written in a philosophical strain, and tinged with that melancholy which clouded all his days. Of these poems there have been two editions, printed at Florence.

66 TO M. BARTHOLOMEW.

"It cannot be denied that Bramanti was as great an architect as has ever appeared since the time of the ancients to the present. He

laid the foundation of St Peter's, not full of confusion, but clear, simple, luminous, and apart, so that it could in no way obstruct the other details of the palace. It was, as it is now, looked upon as a wonderfully fine thing, so that whoever swerves from the said plan of Bramanti, as Sangallo has done, swerves from the true one; and any one can see it in his model, who is not led away by prejudice.

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Sangallo, by the circle he has planned for the outside, takes away all the lights which were in Bramanti's plan; and this is not the only fault, for he will have none for those little dark places both above and beneath the choirs; a very convenient thing for people of bad life, for hiding robbers, for people to coin bad money in, &c., so that in the evening, when it is necessary to lock up the church, there must be at least twenty-five people to see that no one is concealed; and even they would have a great deal of trouble.

"There is also another inconvenience; which is, that in this circle, with the additions intended on the outside, called composition of Bramanti, it would be necessary to pull down the chapel of St Paul, the chambers where they seal the bulls with lead, the rota, and many other parts of the edifice: I doubt even if the

Sistine Chapel could be all retained. As to the circular part outside, which is said to have cost a hundred thousand crowns, that is not true, because it could be done for sixteen thousand: the pulling it down would not be a bad thing at all, because the stones and the foundations would be of the greatest use; the building would gain two hundred thousand crowns and three years' labour. This appears to me the most dispassionate view of the subject; but to finish it would be a loss to me of a great deal of time. If you can let the Pope understand as much, you would do me a great pleasure, for I am not over well. Yours,

"MICHAEL ANGELO BONA ROTTI."

66 TO NICHOLAS MARTELLI, ROME. "M. Nicholas, I received by M. Vincent Perini, your letter, containing three sonnets and a madrigal. The letter and the sonnet, addressed to me, are so admirable that the most fastidious critic could find no fault with them. Indeed I am so much praised in both, that if I were an angel in Paradise I could not be more so. I see you have a notion that I am just as God would have me; but I am only a poor man, of very little worth, fatiguing my