zzaro, a
gentleman of Naples, and a truly distinguished and most rare poet.
Sannazzaro had built at Margoglino, a very pleasant place with a most
beautiful view at the end of the Chiaia, on the shore, a magnificent and
most commodious habitation, which he enjoyed during his lifetime; and,
coming to his death, he left that place, which has the form of a
convent, with a beautiful little church, to the Order of Servite Friars,
enjoining on Signor Cesare Mormerio and the Lord Count d'Aliffe, the
executors of his will, that they should erect his tomb in that church,
built by himself, which was to be administered by the above-named
friars. When the making of it came to be discussed, Fra Giovanni Agnolo
was proposed by the friars to the above-named executors; and to him,
after he had gone to Naples, as has been related, that tomb was
allotted, for his models had been judged to be no little better than the
many others that had been made by various sculptors, the price being a
thousand crowns. Of which having received a good portion, he sent to
quarry the marbles Francesco del Tadda of Fiesole, an excellent carver,
whom he had commissioned to execute all the squared work and carving
that had to be done in that undertaking, in order to finish it more
quickly.

While the Frate was preparing himself to make that tomb, the Turkish
army having entered Puglia and the people of Naples being in no little
alarm on that account, orders were given that the city should be
fortified, and for that purpose there were appointed four men of
importance and of the best judgment. These men, wishing to make use of
competent architects, turned their thoughts to the Frate; but he, having
heard some rumour of this, and not considering that it was right for a
man of religion, such as he was, to occupy himself with affairs of war,
gave the executors to understand that he would do the work either in
Carrara or in Florence, and that at the appointed time it would be
finished and erected in its place. Having then made his way from Naples
to Florence, he straightway received a command from the Signora Donna
Maria, the mother of Duke Cosimo, that he should finish the S. Cosimo
that he had previously begun under the direction of Buonarroti, for the
tomb of the elder Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent. Whereupon he set
his hand to it, and finished it; and that done, since the Duke had
already caused to be constructed a great part of the conduits for the
great