ake the facade of the church in line with
the houses of the Strada Giulia, they were obliged to stretch out into
the stream of the Tiber at least fifteen canne; which pleasing many of
them, because the grandeur as well as the cost was increased by making
the foundations in the river, work was begun on this, and they spent
upon it more than forty thousand crowns, which would have been enough
to build half the masonry of the church.

[Footnote 12: A "canna" is equal to about four braccia.]

In the meantime Sansovino, who was the head of this fabric, while the
foundations were being laid little by little, had a fall and suffered
a serious injury; and after a few days he had himself carried to
Florence for treatment, leaving the charge of laying the rest of the
foundations, as has been related, to Antonio da San Gallo. But no long
time passed before the Florentine colony, having lost by the death of
Leo so great a support and so splendid a Prince, abandoned the
building for the duration of the life of Pope Adrian VI. Then, Clement
having been elected, it was ordained, in order to pursue the same
order and design, that Sansovino should return and carry on that
fabric in the same manner wherein he had first arranged it; and so a
beginning was made once more with the work. Meanwhile, Sansovino
undertook to make the tomb of the Cardinal of Arragon and that of
Cardinal Aginense; and he had caused work to be begun on the marbles
for the ornaments, and had made many models for the figures, and
already Rome was in his hands, and he was executing many works of the
greatest importance for all those lords, when God, in order to
chastise that city and abate the pride of the inhabitants of Rome,
permitted that Bourbon should come with his army on the 6th of May,
1527, and that the whole city should be sacked and put to fire and
sword.

In that ruin, besides many other beautiful intellects that came to an
evil end, Sansovino was forced to his great loss to depart from Rome
and to fly to Venice, intending from there to pass into France to
enter the service of the King, whither he had been already invited.
But, halting in that city in order to make himself ready and provide
himself with many things, for he was despoiled of everything, it was
announced to the Prince Andrea Gritti, who was much the friend of
every talent, that Jacopo Sansovino was there. Whereupon there came to
Gritti a desire to speak with him, because at that v