Aldrich, Henry; Smyth, Philip [Übers.]: The Elements Of Civil Architecture: According To Vitruvius And Other Ancients, And The Most Approved Practice Of Modern Authors, Especially Palladio (London, 1789) [Cicognara, 395]

INTRODUCTION,

xxxvil

Count Alexander Pompei of Verona, 1735, printed
for Jacopo Vallarsi, Verona, in folio. Italian,
Michel Angelo Buonarroti.15 This powerful
and comprehensive genius, who became possessed of
the three great arts os design alrnost as soon as he
attempted them, was born 1474, at the castle of
Caprese in the Diocese of Arezzo, where his father
Ludovico, di Lionardo, Buonarroti Simoni was ma-
gistrate of the distridt. The life of this eminent ar-
tist having been so largely written, by different
hands, and so generally read, it will be sufficient for
the present purpose to seledt, from the mass of par-
ticulars concerning him, only what relates to his
operative history as an Architect. It is laid that he
was 40 years of age when he took to the study of
Architecture, and then without a mailer. But these
circumstances cannot make his success seem marvel-
lous, when we consider that he was beforehand con-
summate in painting and scatuary, and perfectly ac-
quainted with the antient remains of every kind.
At Florence he built the Medicean Library : there
too he was Architect of the Sagrestia Nuova of St.
Lorenzo, deemed his bell work after St, Peter’s.
In 1527, when the Medici family were driven out of
Florence, he was appointed surveyor general of all
the fortifications of the Florentine State. His mili-
tary works, in the Capital of Tuscany, and at S. Mi-
niato, have been much applauded by competent
judges of their merit.
Upon the death of Antonio Sangallo, in 1546,
4 Michel Angelo Buonarroti, born 1474, died 1564, set. 90.
M. Angelo