Peter's.

Signor Gotti's "Vita," in 1875, was the first to profit to any
considerable degree by documentary researches. The conclusions of this
book are best known to the English-reading public through Charles
Heath Wilson's "Life and Works of Michelangelo Buonarotti" (1876 and
1881), consisting of compilations from Gotti, to which are added
original investigations of the Sistine frescoes, which are very
valuable.

More privileged than any of his predecessors was John Addington
Symonds, who, by special favor of the Italian government, was allowed
to examine the Buonarotti collection in Florence, so long debarred to
others. His "Life of Michelangelo Buonarotti" is therefore unique in
being, as the sub-title announces, "based on studies in the archives
of the Buonarotti family at Florence." It was published in 1893 in two
large, finely illustrated volumes, and is taken as the latest
authoritative word on the subject, a word singularly independent of
others' conclusions, and influenced by an artistic and literary nature
of rare sensitiveness.

To those who wish briefer notices of Michelangelo's life and work than
any of these full biographies are recommended the chapters on
Michelangelo in Kugler's "Handbook of the Italian Schools," in Mrs.
Jameson's "Memoirs of the Italian Painters," in Frank Preston
Stearns's "Midsummer of Italian Art," in Mrs. Oliphant's "Makers of
Florence," and in Symonds's volume on "Fine Arts" in the series
"Renaissance in Italy."

To understand more fully the character of the man Michelangelo, the