Florence and to fund the earnings of his life there, he naturally assumed a courteous attitude.  A letter written by the Bishop Tornabuoni to Giovanni Francesco Lottini in Rome shows that these overtures began as early as 1546.  The prelate says the Duke is so anxious to regain “Michelangelo, the divine sculptor,” that he promises “to make him a member of the forty-eight senators, and to give him any office he may ask for.”  The affair was dropped for some years, but in 1552 Cosimo renewed his attempts, and now began to employ Vasari and Cellini as ambassadors.  Soon after finishing his Perseus, Benvenuto begged for leave to go to Rome; and before starting, he showed the Duke Michelangelo’s friendly letter on the bust of Bindo Altoviti.  “He read it with much kindly interest, and said to me:  ’Benvenuto, if you write to him, and can persuade him to return to Florence, I will make him a member of the Forty-eight.’  Accordingly I wrote a letter full of warmth, and offered in the Duke’s name a hundred times more than my commission carried; but not wanting to make any mistake, I showed this to the Duke before I sealed it, saying to his most illustrious Excellency:  ’Prince, perhaps I have made him too many promises.’  He replied:  ’Michel Agnolo deserves more than you have promised, and I will bestow on him still greater favours.’  To this letter he sent no answer, and I could see that the Duke was much offended with him.”

While in Rome, Cellini went to visit Michelangelo, and renewed his offers in the Duke’s name.  What passed in that interview is so graphically told, introducing the rustic personality of Urbino on the stage, and giving a hint of Michelangelo’s reasons for not returning in person to Florence, that the whole passage may be transcribed as opening a little window on the details of our hero’s domestic life:—­

“Then I went to visit Michel Agnolo Buonarroti, and repeated what I had written from Florence to him in the Duke’s name.  He replied that he was engaged upon the fabric of S. Peter’s, and that this would prevent him from leaving Rome.  I rejoined that, as he had decided on the model of that building, he could leave its execution to his man Urbino, who would carry out his orders to the letter.  I added much about future favours, in the form of a message from the Duke.  Upon this he looked me hard in the face, and said with a sarcastic smile:  ‘And you! to what extent are you satisfied with him?’ Although I replied that I was extremely contented and was very well treated by his Excellency, he showed that he was acquainted with the greater part of my annoyances, and gave as his final answer that it would be difficult for him to leave Rome.  To this I added that he could not do better than to return to his own land, which was governed by a prince renowned for justice, and the greatest lover of the arts and sciences who ever saw the light of this world.  As I have remarked above, he had with him a servant of his who came from Urbino,