Lodovico perceived at length that it was useless to oppose his son’s natural bent.  Accordingly, he sent him into Ghirlandajo’s workshop.  A minute from Ghirlandajo’s ledger, under the date 1488, gives information regarding the terms of the apprenticeship.  “I record this first of April how I, Lodovico di Lionardo di Buonarrota, bind my son Michelangelo to Domenico and Davit di Tommaso di Currado for the next three ensuing years, under these conditions and contracts:  to wit, that the said Michelangelo shall stay with the above-named masters during this time, to learn the art of painting, and to practise the same, and to be at the orders of the above-named; and they, for their part, shall give to him in the course of these three years twenty-four florins (fiorini di suggello):  to wit, six florins in the first year, eight in the second, ten in the third; making in all the sum of ninety-six pounds (lire).”  A postscript, dated April 16th of the same year, 1488, records that two florins were paid to Michelangelo upon that day.

It seems that Michelangelo retained no very pleasant memory of his sojourn with the Ghirlandajo brothers.  Condivi, in the passage translated above, hints that Domenico was jealous of him.  He proceeds as follows:  “This jealousy betrayed itself still more when Michelangelo once begged the loan of a certain sketch-book, wherein Domenico had portrayed shepherds with their flocks and watchdogs, landscapes, buildings, ruins, and such-like things.  The master refused to lend it; and indeed he had the fame of being somewhat envious; for not only showed he thus scant courtesy toward Michelangelo, but he also treated his brother likewise, sending him into France when he saw that he was making progress and putting forth great promise; and doing this not so much for any profit to David, as that he might himself remain the first of Florentine painters.  I have thought fit to mention these things, because I have been told that Domenico’s son is wont to ascribe the genius and divinity of Michelangelo in great part to his father’s teaching, whereas the truth is that he received no assistance from that master.  I ought, however, to add that Michelangelo does not complain:  on the contrary, he praises Domenico both as artist and as man.”

This passage irritated Vasari beyond measure.  He had written his first Life of Michelangelo in 1550.  Condivi published his own modest biography in 1553, with the expressed intention of correcting errors and supplying deficiencies made by “others,” under which vague word he pointed probably at Vasari.  Michelangelo, who furnished Condivi with materials, died in 1564; and Vasari, in 1568, issued a second enlarged edition of the Life, into which he cynically incorporated what he chose to steal from Condivi’s sources.  The supreme Florentine sculptor being dead and buried, Vasari felt that he was safe in giving the lie direct to this humble rival biographer.  Accordingly, he spoke as follows about Michelangelo’s