e old staircase, he rebuilt it with a more gentle ascent, and
increased the courtyard on every side and also the whole palace, making
the halls greater in extent and the rooms more numerous and more
magnificent, with very beautiful carved ceilings and many other
ornaments. And he had already brought the facade, with the second range
of windows, to completion, and had only to add the great cornice that
was to go right round the whole, when the Pope, who was a man of exalted
mind and excellent judgment, desiring to have a cornice richer and more
beautiful than any that there had ever been in any other palace
whatsoever, resolved that, in addition to the designs that Antonio had
made, all the best architects of Rome should each make one, after which
he would choose the finest, but would nevertheless have it carried into
execution by Antonio. And so one morning, while he was at table at the
Belvedere, all those designs were brought before him in the presence of
Antonio, the masters who had made them being Perino del Vaga, Fra
Sebastiano del Piombo, Michelagnolo Buonarroti, and Giorgio Vasari, who
was then a young man and in the service of Cardinal Farnese, at the
commission of whom and of the Pope he had prepared for that cornice not
one only, but two different designs. It is true that Buonarroti did not
bring his own himself, but sent it by the same Giorgio Vasari, who had
gone to show him his designs, to the end that he might express his
opinion on them as a friend; whereupon Michelagnolo gave him his own
design, asking that he should take it to the Pope and make his excuses
for not going in person, on the ground that he was indisposed. And when
all the designs had been presented to the Pope, his Holiness examined
them for a long time, and praised them all as ingenious and very
beautiful, but that of the divine Michelagnolo above all.

Now all this did not happen without causing vexation to Antonio, who was
not much pleased with this method of procedure on the part of the Pope,
and who would have liked to do everything by himself. But even more was
he displeased to see that the Pope held in great account one Jacomo
Melighino of Ferrara, and made use of him as architect in the building
of S. Pietro, although he showed neither power of design nor much
judgment in his works, giving him the same salary as he paid to Antonio,
on whom fell all the labour. And this happened because this Melighino
had been the faithful servant of