friend the Capitano
Cuio(136) and certain other gentlemen were so good as to invite me
to sup with them, which gave me very great pleasure, since it took
me a little out of my melancholy, or rather folly. Not only did I
enjoy the supper, which was very good, but I had far more pleasure
in the conversation, and more than all it increased my pleasure to
hear your name mentioned by the said Capitano Cuio; nor was this
all, for it further rejoiced me exceedingly to hear from the
Capitano that, in art, you are peerless in the world, and that so
you were esteemed in Rome. If I could have rejoiced more I would
have done so. So you see my judgment is not false, therefore do
not any more deny that you are peerless, when I tell it you, for I
have too many witnesses. And behold there is a picture of yours
here, God be thanked, which wins credence for me with every one
who can see daylight."

From the Ricordi we learn that Michael Angelo was busy with the Library of
San Lorenzo. He had in his employ stone hewers and masters in various
crafts: Tasio and Carota for wood carving, Battista del Cinque and Ciapino
for carpentry, and Giovanni da Udine, a pupil of Raphael, for the
grotesque decoration for the dome of the chapel. Clement added a
postscript in his own hand to one of his secretary's letters: "Thou
knowest that Popes have no long lives; and we cannot yearn more than we do
to behold the chapel with the tombs of our kinsmen, or, at any rate, to
hear that it is finished. And so also the library. Wherefore we recommend
both to thy diligence. Meanwhile we will betake us (as thou said'st
erstwhile) to a wholesome patience, praying God that He may put it into
thy heart to push the whole forward together. Fear not that either work to
do or rewards shall fail thee while we live. Farewell; with the blessing
of God and ours.--JULIUS." (Clement signs with his baptismal name.)(137)

The Pope set Michael Angelo to make a Sacrarium for the relics belonging
to San Lorenzo. It was placed above the entrance door of the church, and
the details of that portion of the interior were altered for it. A design
by Michael Angelo at Oxford is for part of these alterations. Another
commission Clement desired Michael Angelo to undertake was of a curiously
absurd character. Fattucci wrote to say that the Pope wished a colossal
statue to be erected on the piazza of San Lorenzo, opposite the Stufa
P