order for building the facade, he himself went to Carrara to transport
marbles, not only for the facade but also for the tomb, relying upon the
promise of the Pope that he would be able to go on with it. In the
meantime the Pope was informed that in the mountains of Pietrasanta, in
the Florentine territory, there were marbles as good and beautiful as at
Carrara. When this was discussed with Michael Angelo, he, as a friend of
the Marchese Alberigo, and having come to an understanding with him about
the marbles, preferred rather to quarry at Carrara than at these new
places in the State of Florence. The Pope wrote to Michael Angelo and
commanded him to go to Pietrasanta and see if it was as he heard from
Florence. He went there and found the marble very unmanageable and
unsuitable;(47) and even if it had been suitable, it would be a difficult
and very expensive business to bring it down to the sea; for it would
require a new road to be constructed for several miles over the mountains
with pickaxes, and across the plains, which were very marshy, on piles.
Michael Angelo wrote all this to the Pope; but he rather believed those
who had written to him from Florence, and ordered him to make the road. So
to carry out the will of the Pope he constructed this road,(48) and by it
carried a vast quantity of marble to the sea coast, amongst them five
columns of the right size; one of them is to be seen on the Piazza of San
Lorenzo, brought by him to Florence;(49) the other four, because the Pope
had changed his mind and turned his thoughts elsewhere, are still lying on
the sea shore. But the Marchese di Carrara, thinking that Michael Angelo,
as a citizen of Florence, might have been the originator of the quarrying
at Pietrasanta, became his enemy; nor would he allow him to return to
Carrara afterwards even for marble that he had already quarried, which was
a great loss to Michael Angelo.

CHAPTER VIII

THE SACRISTY OF SAN LORENZO

XL. Now having returned to Florence, and finding, as was said before, that
the fervour of Pope Leo was all spent, Michael Angelo, grieving, remained
there doing nothing for a long while, having, first in one thing and then
in another, thrown away much of his time, to his great annoyance.
Nevertheless, with certain blocks of marble that he had placed in his own
house, he proceeded with the work of the Tomb. But Leo departing this
life, Adrian was created Pope, and the work