We may take it, then, as sufficiently well ascertained that Michelangelo departed from Florence before the end of 1534, and that he never returned during the remainder of his life.  There is left, however, another point of importance referring to this period, which cannot be satisfactorily cleared up.  We do not know the exact date of his father, Lodovico’s, death.  It must have happened either in 1533 or in 1534.  In spite of careful researches, no record of the event has yet been discovered, either at Settignano or in the public offices of Florence.  The documents of the Buonarroti family yield no direct information on the subject.  We learn, however, from the Libri delle Eta, preserved at the Archivio di Stato, that Lodovico di Lionardo di Buonarrota Simoni was born upon the 11th of June 1444.  Now Michelangelo, in his poem on Lodovico’s death, says very decidedly that his father was ninety when he breathed his last.  If we take this literally, it must be inferred that he died after the middle of June 1534.  There are many reasons for supposing that Michelangelo was in Florence when this happened.  The chief of these is that no correspondence passed between the Buonarroti brothers on the occasion, while Michelangelo’s minutes regarding the expenses of his father’s burial seem to indicate that he was personally responsible for their disbursement.  I may finally remark that the schedule of property belonging to Michelangelo, recorded under the year 1534 in the archives of the Decima at Florence, makes no reference at all to Lodovico.  We conclude from it that, at the time of its redaction, Michelangelo must have succeeded to his father’s estate.

The death of Lodovico and Buonarroto, happening within a space of little more than five years, profoundly affected Michelangelo’s mind, and left an indelible mark of sadness on his life.  One of his best poems, a capitolo, or piece of verse in terza rima stanzas, was written on the occasion of his father’s decease.  In it he says that Lodovico had reached the age of ninety.  If this statement be literally accurate, the old man must have died in 1534, since he was born upon the 11th of June 1444.  But up to the present time, as I have observed above, the exact date of his death has not been discovered.  One passage of singular and solemn beauty may be translated from the original:—­

  Thou’rt dead of dying, and art made divine,
     Nor fearest now to change or life or will;
     Scarce without envy can I call this thine. 
  Fortune and time beyond your temple-sill
     Dare not advance, by whom is dealt for us
     A doubtful gladness, and too certain ill. 
  Cloud is there none to dim you glorious: 
     The hours distinct compel you not to fade: 
     Nor chance nor fate o’er you are tyrannous. 
  Your splendour with the night sinks not in shade,
     Nor grows with day, howe’er that sun ride high
     Which on our mortal