ndemned to pay a fine of fifty Bolognese lire: not having
the wherewithal he was obliged to remain at the office. A certain
Bolognese gentleman, Messer Gian Francesco Aldovrandi, who was then of the
Sixteen, seeing him there, and hearing the reason, liberated him, chiefly
because he was a sculptor. Aldovrandi invited the sculptor to his house.
Michael Angelo thanked him, but excused himself because he had two
companions with him who would not leave him, and he would not burden the
gentleman with their company. To this the gentleman replied: "_I, too,
will come and wander over the world with you, if you will pay my
expenses._" With these and other words he prevailed over Michael Angelo,
who excused himself to his companions and took leave of them, gave them
what little money he had, and went to lodge with the gentleman.

XVI. By this time the House of the Medici, with all their followers,
having been hunted out of Florence, came to Bologna and were lodged in the
House of the Rossi. Thus the vision of Cardiere, whether a delusion of the
devil, a divine warning, or a strong imagination that had taken hold of
him, was verified; a thing so truly remarkable that it is worthy of being
recorded. I have narrated it just as I heard it from Michael Angelo
himself. It was about three years after the death of the Magnificent
Lorenzo that his children were exiled from Florence, so that Michael
Angelo was between twenty and twenty-one years of age when he escaped the
first popular tumults by remaining with the aforesaid gentleman of Bologna
until the city of Florence settled down again. This gentleman honoured him
highly, delighting in his genius, and every evening he made him read
something from Dante or from Petrarca, or now and then from Boccaccio,
until he fell asleep.

XVII. One day walking together in Bologna they went to see the ark of San
Domenico, in the Church dedicated to that Saint; two marble figures were
still lacking, a San Petronio and a kneeling angel supporting a
candlestick in his arms. The gentleman asked Michael Angelo if he had the
heart to undertake them, and he replying "yes," had it arranged that he
should have them to do; he was paid thirty ducats for it, eighteen for the
San Petronio, and twelve for the angel. The figures were three palms high;
they may still be seen in that same place. But afterwards Michael Angelo
mistrusted a Bolognese sculptor, who complained that he had taken away the
commission for the