hurry on the very day appointed for its execution.  In his absence it was duly signed and witnessed before Clement; the Cardinals Gonzaga and da Monte and the Lady Felice della Rovere attesting, while Giovan Maria della Porta and Girolamo Staccoli acted for the Duke of Urbino.  When Michelangelo returned and saw the instrument, he found that several clauses prejudicial to his interests had been inserted by the notary.  “I discovered more than 1000 ducats charged unjustly to my debit, also the house in which I live, and certain other hooks and crooks to ruin me.  The Pope would certainly not have tolerated this knavery, as Fra Sebastiano can bear witness, since he wished me to complain to Clement and have the notary hanged.  I swear I never received the moneys which Giovan Maria della Porta wrote against me, and caused to be engrossed upon the contract.”

It is difficult to understand why Michelangelo should not have immediately taken measures to rectify these errors.  He seems to have been well aware that he was bound to refund 2000 ducats, since the only letter from his pen belonging to the year 1532 is one dated May, and addressed to Andrea Quarantesi in Pisa.  In this document he consults Quarantesi about the possibility of raising that sum, with 1000 ducats in addition.  “It was in my mind, in order that I might not be left naked, to sell houses and possessions, and to let the lira go for ten soldi.”  As the contract was never carried out, the fraudulent passages inserted in the deed did not prove of practical importance.  Delia Porta, on his part, wrote in high spirits to his master:  “Yesterday we executed the new contract with Michelangelo, for the ratification of which by your Lordship we have fixed a limit of two months.  It is of a nature to satisfy all Rome, and reflects great credit on your Lordship for the trouble you have taken in concluding it.  Michelangelo, who shows a very proper respect for your Lordship, has promised to make and send you a design.  Among other items, I have bound him to furnish six statues by his own hand, which will be a world in themselves, because they are sure to be incomparable.  The rest he may have finished by some sculptor at his own choice, provided the work is done under his direction.  The Pope allows him to come twice a year to Rome, for periods of two months each, in order to push the work forward.  And he is to execute the whole at his own costs.”  He proceeds to say, that since the tomb cannot be put up in S. Peter’s, S. Pietro in Vincoli has been selected as the most suitable church.  It appears that the Duke’s ratification was sent upon the 5th of June and placed in the hands of Clement, so that Michelangelo probably did not see it for some months.  Della Porta, writing to the Duke again upon the 19th of June, says that Clement promised to allow Michelangelo to come to Rome in the winter, and to reside there working at the tomb.  But we have no direct information concerning his doings after the return to Florence at the end of April 1532.