goes from the Ducal Palace to
the Palace and Garden of the Pitti; which corridor was built under my
direction and after my design in five months, although it is a work that
one might think impossible to finish in less than five years. In
addition, it was also my task to cause to be reconstructed and increased
for the same nuptials, in the great tribune of S. Spirito, the new
machinery for the festival that used to be held in S. Felice in Piazza;
which was all reduced to the greatest possible perfection, so that there
are no longer any of those dangers that used to be incurred in that
festival. And under my charge, likewise, have been the works of the
Palace and Church of the Knights of S. Stephen at Pisa, and the tribune,
or rather, cupola, of the Madonna dell' Umilta in Pistoia, which is a
work of the greatest importance. For all which, without excusing my
imperfection, which I know only too well, if I have achieved anything of
the good, I render infinite thanks to God, from whom I still hope to
have such help that I may see finished, whenever that may be, the
terrible undertaking of the walls in the Hall, to the full satisfaction
of my Lords, who already for a period of thirteen years have given me
opportunities to execute vast works with honour and profit for myself;
after which, weary, aged, and outworn, I may be at rest. And if for
various reasons I have executed the works described for the most part
with something of rapidity and haste, this I hope to do at my leisure,
seeing that the Lord Duke is content that I should not press it, but
should do it at my ease, granting me all the repose and recreation that
I myself could desire. Thus, last year, being tired by the many works
described above, he gave me leave that I might go about for some months
to divert myself, and so, setting out to travel, I passed over little
less than the whole of Italy, seeing again innumerable friends and
patrons and the works of various excellent craftsmen, as I have related
above in another connection. Finally, being in Rome on my way to return
to Florence, I went to kiss the feet of the most holy and most blessed
Pope Pius V, and he commissioned me to execute for him in Florence an
altar-picture for sending to his Convent and Church of Bosco, which he
was then having built in his native place, near Alessandria della
Paglia.

Having then returned to Florence, remembering the command that his
Holiness had laid upon me and the many marks