the advantage that the young man might gain from the
work than of his own profit and interest; and even as he wished, so
exactly did the men of that Company decide.

In the meantime Domenico Giuntalodi, having gone to Rome, found Fortune
so propitious that he became known to Don Martino, the Ambassador of the
King of Portugal, and went to live with him; and he painted for him a
canvas with some twenty portraits from life, all of his followers and
friends, with himself in the midst of them, engaged in conversation;
which work so pleased Don Martino, that he looked upon Domenico as the
first painter in the world. Afterwards Don Ferrante Gonzaga, having been
made Viceroy of Sicily, and desiring to fortify the towns of that
kingdom, wished to have about his person a man who might draw and put
down on paper for him all that he thought of from day to day; and he
wrote to Don Martino that he should find for him a young man who might
be both able and willing to serve him in this way, and should send him
off as soon as possible. Don Martino, therefore, first sent to Don
Ferrante some designs by the hand of Domenico, among which was a
Colosseum, engraved on copper by Girolamo Fagiuoli of Bologna for
Antonio Salamanca, but drawn in perspective by Domenico; an old man in
a child's go-cart, drawn by the same hand and published in engraving,
with letters that ran thus, "Ancora imparo"; and a little picture with
the portrait of Don Martino himself. And shortly afterwards he sent
Domenico, at the wish of the aforesaid lord, Don Ferrante, who had been
much pleased with that young man's works. Having then arrived in Sicily,
there were assigned to Domenico an honourable salary, a horse, and a
servant, all at the expense of Don Ferrante; and not long afterwards he
was set to work on the walls and fortresses of Sicily. Whereupon,
abandoning his painting little by little, he devoted himself to
something else which for a time was more profitable to him; for, being
an ingenious person, he made use of men who were well adapted to heavy
labour, kept beasts of burden in the charge of others, and caused sand
and lime to be collected and furnaces to be set up; and no long time had
passed before he found that he had saved so much that he was able to buy
offices in Rome to the extent of two thousand crowns, and shortly
afterwards some others. Then, after he had been made keeper of the
wardrobe to Don Ferrante, it happened that his master was removed