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"... and more, I know that you have advanced money, and the love you have for your brothers; it is a great consolation to me. About this matter of the money with which you wish to set up Buonarroto and Giansimone in a shop, I have hunted and I am still hunting, but as yet I have not found anything to please me.
The Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, who entered Florence on the 14th of September, established his nephews as despots in the city, and intimidated the burghers by what looked likely to be a reign of terror. These facts account for the uneasy tone of a letter written by Michelangelo to Buonarroto.
But a letter to Buonarroto shows that he was already afraid of being absorbed for other purposes by Leo: "I am forced to put great strain upon myself this summer in order to complete my undertaking; for I think that I shall soon be obliged to enter the Pope's service.
To BUONARROTO DI LODOVICO DI BUONARROTA, in Florence. From ROME, the 17th of October, 1509. "BUONARROTO,—I got the bread: it is good, but it is not good enough to make a trade of, for there would be little gain. I gave the knave five carlini, and he would hardly hand it over. I learn by your last how Lorenzo will pass this way, and how I am to give him a good reception.
Giovan Simone, another brother, born in 1479, led a vagabond life until he joined Buonarroto in a cloth business that was bought for them by Michael Angelo. Sigismondo, born in 1481, was a soldier.
Buonarroto also tells me that you have a swelling on your side; it comes from hardship or fatigue, or from eating something bad and windy, or suffering the feet to be cold or damp. I have had one myself, and it still troubles me when I eat windy food, or when I endure cold or such like things. Our Francesco formerly had one, too, and also Gismondo similarly.
To the same. "BUONARROTO,—We have cast my figure, and it has come out so badly that I truly believe I shall have to do it all again. I cannot write all the particulars, because I have other things to think of. Enough that it has come badly. Thanks be to God all the same, because I believe everything is for the best. Before long I shall know what I have to do and will write to you.
Michael Angelo worked in the Stanza del Pavaglione behind the Cathedral; he employed three assistants, from Florence—Lapo Antonio di Lapo, a sculptor; Lodovico del Buono, called Lotti, a founder; and Pietro Urbano, a man who worked for him for a long time. His way of life was frugal and sordid in the extreme. In his letter to his brother Buonarroto he says :—
Tell Lodovico about it, and be of good cheer. And if it should be that I have to do it all again, and that I am not able to return to you, I will find means somehow to do what I have promised in the best way I can. "The first day of July. "MICHAEL ANGELO, in Bologna." He gives further details in his next letter:— "BUONARROTO,—Understand how that we have cast my figure.
"DEAREST FATHER,—I have received your last, and hear with the greatest anxiety that Buonarroto is ill; therefore, as soon as you see this, go to the Spedalingo and make him give you fifty or an hundred ducats; you may need them. Arrange that all things necessary be provided in good time, and that there be no lack of money.
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