as also at his table, precisely like one of his own sons. It was the
custom of this household, where men of the noblest birth and highest
public rank assembled round the daily board, for the guests to take
their places next the master in the order of their arrival; those who
were present at the beginning of the meal sat, each according to his
degree, next the Magnificent, not moving afterwards for any one who
might appear. So it happened that Michelangelo found himself
frequently seated above Lorenzo's children and other persons of great
consequence, with whom that house continually flourished and abounded.
All these illustrious men paid him particular attention, and
encouraged him in the honourable art which he had chosen. But the
chief to do so was the Magnificent himself, who sent for him
oftentimes in a day, in order that he might show him jewels,
cornelians, medals, and such-like objects of great rarity, as knowing
him to be of excellent parts and judgment in these things." It does
not appear that Michelangelo had any duties to perform or services to
render. Probably his patron employed him upon some useful work of the
kind suggested by Condivi. But the main business of his life in the
Casa Medici was to make himself a valiant sculptor, who in after years
should confer lustre on the city of the lily and her Medicean masters.
What he produced during this period seems to have become his own
property, for two pieces of statuary, presently to be described,
remained in the possession of his family, and now form a part of the
collection in the Casa Buonarroti.


VI

Angelo Poliziano, who was certainly the chief scholar of his age in
the new learning, and no less certainly one of its truest poets in the