the
Strada Giulia; in one of which coats of arms, making a great lily, the
ancient emblem of the Commune of Florence, he carved upon it some
curves of foliage with creepers and seeds executed so well that they
made everyone gasp with wonder. Nor had any long time passed when
Antonio da San Gallo--who was directing for Messer Agnolo Cesis the
execution of the marble ornaments of a chapel and tomb for himself and
his family, which were afterwards erected in the year 1550 in the
Church of S. Maria della Pace--caused part of certain pilasters and
socles covered with friezes, which were going into that work, to be
wrought by Simone, who executed them so well and with such beauty,
that they make themselves known among the others, without my saying
which they are, by their grace and perfection; nor is it possible to
see any altars for the offering of sacrifices after the ancient use
more beautiful and fanciful than those that he made on the base of
that work. Afterwards the same San Gallo, who was superintending the
execution of the mouth of the well in the cloister of S. Pietro in
Vincula, caused Mosca to make the borders with some large masks of
great beauty.

Not long afterwards he returned one summer to Florence, having a good
name among craftsmen, and Baccio Bandinelli, who was making the
Orpheus of marble that was placed in the court of the Medici Palace,
after having the base for that work carried out by Benedetto da
Rovezzano, caused Simone to execute the festoons and other carvings
therein, which are very beautiful, although one festoon is unfinished
and only worked over with the gradine. Having then done many works in
grey sandstone, of which there is no need to make record, he was
planning to return to Rome, when in the meantime the sack took place,
and he did not go after all. But, having taken a wife, he was living
in Florence with little to do: wherefore, being obliged to support his
family, and having no income, he was occupying himself with any work
that he could obtain. Now in those days there arrived in Florence one
Pietro di Subisso, a master-mason of Arezzo, who always had under him
a good number of workmen, for the reason that all the building in
Arezzo passed through his hands; and he took Simone, with many others,
to Arezzo. There he set Simone to making a chimney-piece of grey
sandstone and a water-basin of no great cost, for a hall in the house
of the heirs of Pellegrino da Fossombrone, a citizen of A