the duke and myself as
to the reward to be given me for the statue of Perseus, during which the
duchess and the sculptor Bandinello interposed. Bandinello declared that
the work had proved so admirable a masterpiece, that, in his opinion, it
was worth 16,000 gold crowns and upwards. When the duke was informed of
this decision he was highly displeased, and down to the close of the
year 1566 I received no more than 3,000 gold crowns, given to me monthly
by payments of 25, 50, or 100 crowns.

Subsequently, I was employed to erect two pulpits in the choir of St.
Maria del Fiore, and adorn them with historical figures in basso-relievo
of bronze, together with varieties of other embellishments. About this
period, the great block of marble, intended for the gigantic statue of
Neptune, to be placed near the fountain on the Ducal Piazza, was brought
up the River Arno, and thence by road to Florence. A competition took
place between the model which I had made for the statue of Neptune and
that designed by Bandinello. The duchess, who had become my implacable
enemy, favoured Bandinello, and I waited upon her, carrying to her some
pretty trifles of my making, which her excellency liked very much. Then
I added that I had undertaken one of the most laborious tasks in the
world--the carving of a Christ crucified, of the whitest marble, upon a
cross of the blackest, and as large as the life. Upon her asking me what
I proposed doing with it, I said I would freely make her a present of
it; that all I desired was that she would be neutral with respect to the
model of the Neptune which the duke had ordered to be made.

When I had finished the model of Neptune, the duke came to see it. It
gave him high satisfaction, and he said I deserved the prize. Some weeks
later, Bandinello died, and it was generally thought that the grief
which he felt at losing the fine piece of marble out of which the statue
of Neptune was to be made greatly contributed to hasten his dissolution.
When I was working at my great model of Neptune, I was seized with
illness, caused by a dose of sublimate poison administered in food by a
man named Sbietta and his brother, a profligate priest, from whom I had
bought the annuity of a farm. Upon my recovery the duke and the duchess
came unexpectedly with a grand retinue to my workshop to see the image
of Christ upon the Cross, and it pleased them so greatly that they
bestowed the highest encomiums on me. Though I had undergo