se assertions,
should show it to him. This was carried out, and Signor Gabrio found
that the whole story was a malicious slander, and not the truth;
wherefore Nanni was dismissed from that fabric with no very flattering
words in the presence of many lords, being also reproached that by his
fault the bridge of Santa Maria fell into ruin, and that at Ancona,
seeking to do great things at little cost in the matter of cleaning
out the harbour, he filled it up more in one day than the sea had done
in ten years. Such was the end of Nanni in the fabric of S. Pietro.
For that work Michelagnolo for seventeen years attended constantly to
nothing but to establishing it securely with directions, doubting on
account of those envious persecutions lest it might come to be
changed after his death; so that at the present day it is strong
enough to allow the vaulting to be raised with perfect security. Thus
it has been seen that God, who is the protector of the good, defended
him as long as he lived, and worked for the benefit of the fabric and
for the defence of the master until his death. Moreover, Pius IV,
living after him, commanded the superintendents of the fabric that
nothing of what Michelagnolo had directed should be changed; and with
even greater authority his successor, Pius V, caused it to be carried
out, who, lest disorder should arise, insisted that the designs made
by Michelagnolo should be carried into execution with the utmost
fidelity, so that, when the architects Pirro Ligorio and Jacopo
Vignuola were in charge of it, and Pirro wished presumptuously to
disturb and alter those directions, he was removed with little honour
from that fabric, and only Vignuola remained. Finally, that Pontiff
being full of zeal no less for the honour of the fabric of S. Pietro
than for the Christian religion, in the year 1565, when Vasari went to
kiss the feet of his Holiness, and in the year 1566, when he was again
summoned, nothing was discussed save the means to ensure the observing
of the designs left by Michelagnolo; and his Holiness, in order to
obviate all chance of disorder, commanded Vasari that he should go
with Messer Guglielmo Sangalletti, the private treasurer of his
Holiness, to seek out Bishop Ferratino, the head of the
superintendents of S. Pietro, with orders from the Pontiff that he
should listen to all the suggestions and records of importance that
Vasari might impart to him, to the end that no words of any malignant
and