I amused
myself in discussing with them many rare and noble works both of ancient
and modern times. Master Michael especially I esteemed so much that if I
met him either in the palace of the Pope or in the street, we could not
part until the stars sent us to rest. D. Pedro Mascarenhas, the
Ambassador, is my witness what a great thing this was and how difficult;
and, too, of the tales M. Angelo, when coming out of vespers one day, told
about me and about a book of mine in which I had drawn some things in Rome
and Italy, to Cardinal Santtiquatro and to him. Now my habit was to go
round the solemn temple of the Pantheon and note all its columns and
proportions; the Mausoleum of Adrian and that of Augustus, the Coliseum,
the Thermae of Antoninus and those of Diocletian, the Arch of Titus and
that of Severus, the Capitol, the theatre of Marcellus and all the other
notable things in that city, the names of which have already escaped me.
At times, too, I was not turned out of the magnificent chambers of the
Pope, I only went there because they were painted by the noble hand of
Raphael of Urbino. I loved more those antique men of stone sculptured on
the arches and columns of the old buildings, than those more inconstant
which everywhere weary one with talking, I learned more from them and from
their grave silence.
Now amongst the days which I thus passed in that Court there was a Sunday
on which I went to see Messer Lactancio Tolomei, as others did; it was he,
with the assistance of Messer Blosio, the Pope's secretary, who gave me
the friendship of Michael Angelo.
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