the best remedy would be if his Holiness could accommodate matters with the Duke of Urbino.”  In a second letter, of October 8, Mini insists again upon the necessity of freeing Michelangelo’s mind from his anxieties.  The upshot was that Clement, on the 21st of November, addressed a brief to his sculptor, whereby Buonarroti was ordered, under pain of excommunication, to lay aside all work except what was strictly necessary for the Medicean monuments, and to take better care of his health.  On the 26th of the same month Benvenuto della Volpaia wrote, repeating what the Pope had written in his brief, and adding that his Holiness desired him to select some workshop more convenient for his health than the cold and cheerless sacristy.

In spite of Clement’s orders that Michelangelo should confine himself strictly to working on the Medicean monuments, he continued to be solicited with various commissions.  Thus the Cardinal Cybo wrote in December begging him to furnish a design for a tomb which he intended to erect.  Whether Michelangelo consented is not known.

Early in December Sebastiano resumed his communications on the subject of the tomb of Julius, saying that Michelangelo must not expect to satisfy the Duke without executing the work, in part at least, himself.  “There is no one but yourself that harms you:  I mean, your eminent fame and the greatness of your works.  I do not say this to flatter you.  Therefore, I am of opinion that, without some shadow of yourself, we shall never induce those parties to do what we want.  It seems to me that you might easily make designs and models, and afterwards assign the completion to any master whom you choose.  But the shadow of yourself there must be.  If you take the matter in this way, it will be a trifle; you will do nothing, and seem to do all; but remember that the work must be carried out under your shadow.”  A series of despatches, forwarded between December 4, 1531, and April 29, 1532, by Giovan Maria della Porta to the Duke of Urbino, confirm the particulars furnished by the letters which Sebastiano still continued to write from Rome.  At the end of 1531 Michelangelo expressed his anxiety to visit Rome, now that the negotiations with the Duke were nearly complete.  Sebastiano, hearing this, replies:  “You will effect more in half an hour than I can do in a whole year.  I believe that you will arrange everything after two words with his Holiness; for our Lord is anxious to meet your wishes.”  He wanted to be present at the drawing up and signing of the contract.  Clement, however, although he told Sebastiano that he should be glad to see him, hesitated to send the necessary permission, and it was not until the month of April 1532 that he set out.  About the 6th, as appears from the indorsement of a letter received in his absence, he must have reached Rome.  The new contract was not ready for signature before the 29th, and on that date Michelangelo left for Florence, having, as he says, been sent off by the Pope in a