given life to the building, and also persuaded his Holiness that
he should do nothing concerned with design without the advice of
Michelagnolo. This promise the Pope kept ever afterwards, for neither
at the Vigna Julia did he do anything without his counsel, nor at the
Belvedere, where there was built the staircase that is there now, in
place of the semicircular staircase that came forward, ascending in
eight steps, and turned inwards in eight more steps, erected in former
times by Bramante in the great recess in the centre of the Belvedere.
And Michelagnolo designed and caused to be built the very beautiful
quadrangular staircase, with balusters of peperino-stone, which is
there at the present day.

Vasari had finished in that year the printing of his work, the Lives
of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, in Florence. Now he had
not written the Life of any living master, although some who were old
were still alive, save only of Michelagnolo; and in the book were many
records of circumstances that Vasari had received from his lips, his
age and his judgment being the greatest among all the craftsmen.
Giorgio therefore presented the work to him, and he received it very
gladly; and not long afterwards, having read it, Michelagnolo sent to
him the following sonnet, written by himself, which I am pleased to
include in this place in memory of his loving-kindness:

Se con lo stile o co' colori havete
Alla Natura pareggiato l'Arte,
Anzi a quella scemato il pregio in parte,
Che 'l bel di lei piu bello a noi rendete,
Poiche con dotta man posto vi siete
A piu degno lavoro, a vergar carte,
Quel che vi manca a lei di pregio in parte,
Nel dar vita ad altrui tutto togliete.
Che se secolo alcuno omai contese
In far bell'opre, almen cedale, poi
Che convien', ch'al prescritto fine arrive.
Or le memorie altrui gia spente accese
Tornando fate, or che sien quelle, e voi,
Mal grado d'esse, eternalmente vive.

Vasari departed for Florence, and left to Michelagnolo the charge of
having the work founded in the Montorio. Now Messer Bindo Altoviti,
the Consul of the Florentine colony at that time, was much the friend
of Vasari, and on this occasion Giorgio said to him that it would be
well to have this work erected in the Church of S. Giovanni de'
Fiorentini, and that he had already spoken of it with Michelagnolo,
who would favour the enterprise; and that this would