a
structure equal to this in workmanship or ingenuity, seeing, above all,
that the central shaft is made in such a way that even down to the
bottom it gives light by means of certain windows to the two staircases
mentioned above.

While this work was in progress, the same Antonio directed the
construction of the fortress of Ancona, which in time was carried to
completion. Afterwards, Pope Clement resolving, at the time when his
nephew Alessandro de' Medici was Duke of Florence, to erect an
impregnable fortress in that city, Signor Alessandro Vitelli, Pier
Francesco da Viterbo, and Antonio laid out that castle, or rather,
fortress, which is between the Porta al Prato and the Porta a S. Gallo,
and caused it to be built with such rapidity, that no similar structure,
whether ancient or modern, was ever completed so quickly. In a great
tower, which was the first to be founded, and was called the Toso, were
placed many inscriptions and medals, with the most solemn pomp and
ceremony; and this work is now celebrated over all the world, and is
held to be impregnable.

By order of Antonio were summoned to Loreto the sculptor Tribolo,
Raffaello da Montelupo, Francesco da San Gallo, then a young man, and
Simone Cioli, who finished the scenes of marble begun by Andrea
Sansovino. To the same place Antonio summoned the Florentine Mosca, a
most excellent carver of marble, who was then occupied, as will be
related in his Life, with a chimney-piece of stone for the heirs of
Pellegrino da Fossombrone, which proved to be a divine work of carving.
This master, I say, at the entreaty of Antonio, made his way to Loreto,
where he executed festoons that are absolutely divine. Thus, with
rapidity and diligence, the ornamentation of that Chamber of Our Lady
was completely finished, although Antonio had five works of importance
on his hands at one and the same time, to all of which, notwithstanding
that they were in different places, distant one from another, he gave
his attention in such a manner that he never neglected any of them; for
when at any time he could not conveniently be there in person, he
availed himself of the assistance of his brother Battista. These five
works were the above-mentioned Fortress of Florence, that of Ancona, the
work at Loreto, the Apostolic Palace, and the well at Orvieto.

After the death of Clement, when Cardinal Farnese was elected supreme
Pontiff under the title of Paul III, Antonio, having been the friend of