MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI. 437 MICHELET. of liylil aiul sliade. requiring of detail only a sharp and effective formation. In the cupola of Saint Peter's, however, he created a complete const nictive masterpiece, as perfect as any of tlic early Kenaissance. Miclielan^'olo's poetry was valued as highly by his contemporaries as were his other artistic ac- tivities. They admired especially its deep phil- osopliic thought, in which respect he indeed stands above the other poets of his day. Indeed, the value of his poetry is rather ps3'cho!ogical than literary; it is often obscure and labored in expression. But when his nature was stirred by powerful emotions, it found expression in some of the most beautiful sonnets and madrigals in the Italian or any other language. Some of the very finest are dedicated to Vittoria Colonna and Toniniaso Cavalieri : these are mostly love poems, othi'i's, like madrigals on the loss of Florentine liberty, are patriotic in character and many are deeply religious, expressing the dignified attitude of a great soul, calmly awaiting the end. Bini.ioGRAPiiY. The most important sources for the life o,f Michelangelo are the documents preserved in the Casa Buonarroti, Florence, con- sisting mainly of letters to and from the artist, his poems, memoranda, contracts, and like ma- terial, and a large collectinn of his letters pur- chased by the British Museum in 1S59 from one of the Buonarroti family. The latter were first made known to the public by Hermann Grimm in his Lehen ilichelancielos: a selection of the former was indifferently edited by Mila- nesi. Le lettere di Michelanrielo (Florence, 1875), and Les correspondaiits de Michel Ange, tome i. (Sebastiano del Piombo. Paris, 1891). By far the best edition of the letters, comprising all of historical importance, nianv for the first time published, is that of Carl Frey (Berlin 1899). Of high importance are the contemporary biog- raphies of ilichelangelo. The earliest of these appeared in the first edition of Vasari's Lives (Florence. 15.50). The inaccuracies of this ac- count impelled Ascanio Condivi, then an inmate of Michelangelo's household, to write his brief biography (Rome, 155.3; later edition. Pisa, 1823). Based on the recollection of the great artist himself, this is the most important and reliable source, after his correspondence. It was pirated without acknowledgment by Vasari in his second edition of the Lives { 15G8 ; edited by Mila- nesi, Florence, 1878), who supplied valuable additional information on Michelangelo's later years. Both of these biographies, together with other contemporary biographical materials, are host edited by Frey. S<uiuiiliinp nusrieicuhUer Bio- (irnpliien ^'nsaris (Berlin, 18S7). The most important modern biographies of Miclielangelo are those of Duppa (London. ISnC) ; Quatrem&re de Quiney (Paris. 1835) ; Harford (London. 1857); Grimm (Hanover, 1860); Clement (Paris, I860: translated in "Great Artist Series") ; Gotti (Florence. 1875) ; Black (London. 1875) ; Heath Wilson (London, 1876) ; Perkins (Boston, 1878) : Springer (Leip- zig, 1892); Scheffler (Altenburg.' 1892); Symonds (London and Xew York. 1892) ; Knack- fuss (Bielefeld, 1895) : .lusti (Leipzig. 1900) ; Bicci (Florence. 1901); Thode (Berlin, 1902). The first critical work, in the modern sense, was that of Grimm (10th ed. Berlin. 1901; English translation. New York, 1896), in which the artist is sympathetically treated, and with high literary skill. Although as much space is devoted to his time and environ- ment as to the artist himself, it remains the best work for the general reader. Wilson's work ia valuable from a technical standpoint, as is also the admirable volume of the ISazctie dcs Beaux- Arts, entitled L'acinre et la vie de Michel Atige, written by seven French artists. Of value for the artist's youthful period is Wiilflin, Die Ju- gendwerke Michelangelos (Berlin, 1887). Springer's Raffael und Michelangelo (Leipzig, 1892) is a work of sound learning and criticism. The most complete English life, of high literary and historical value, is that of Symonds. Thode 's Michelangelo und das Ende dcr Renais- sance (Berlin, 1902. of which the first of three volumes has appeared) gives an exhaustive treat- ment from the psychological standpoint. Michelangelo's poems suffered much by being known through the garbled and mutilated edition of his grandson, Jlichelangelo the younger. A more complete edition was that of Guasti (Flor- ence. 1863) ; but the best is by Frey (Berlin, 1897). Sj'monds has made an excellent Eng- lish translation of selected examples of the sonnets. Consult, also, Lang, Michclanqelo als Dichier (Stuttgart, 1861) ; Thomas, Michel Ange, pocte (Paris, 1891) ; and the admirable essay of Walter Pater, in his i^tiidics in the History of the Renaissance (London, 1873). MICHELET, mc'shlu', Jules (1798-1874). The greatest French historian of the Romantic School, born in Paris, August 21, 1798, the son of a printer. He studied literature under Ville- main (q.v. ), and at twenty-three became profes- sor of history in the Coll&ge Rollin. He delivered lectures at the ancient Coll&ge Sainte-Barbe and the Eoole Normale, and, after the Liberal tri- umph in 1830, received an appointment at the Record Office, was made assistant of Guizot at the Sorbonne, and tutor of the Princess Clemen- tine. In 1838 he was made Academician and professor in the College de France, where he presently became involved in a bitter controversy with the Jesuits, the popular echoes of which may be felt in Sue's (q.v.) famous novel Le juif errant. In 1851 he refused the oath of allegiance to Napoleon, lost his offices, and lived mainly in Brittany and on the Riviera, giving himself wholly to literature, chiefly poetically romantic impressions of nature; L'oiseau (1856); L'in- secte (1857); La mer (1861); La montagne (1868) ; of society, L'ainour (1858) ; La femme (1860) ; La soreilre (1862) ; La hible de I'huma- niti (1864); and 'Nos fils (1869). From this imaginative and sociologic work he returned in his last Tears to history, adding three volumes (1872-75) to the eighteen (1833-67) of his His- toire de France, and bringing the narrative to Waterloo. Besides this monumental work, he had contributed to history a Precis d'histoire moderne (1828); Introduction i I'histoire uni- verscUe (1831); Origines du droit francais (1837) : Le proeis des tetnpUers (1841-51) ; Me- moires de Luther (1845) ; and to religious and political controversy, Lcs Jcsuites (in collabora- tion with Edgar Quinet. 1843) ; Du pretre et de la famille (1845); Du peuple (1846). Charac- teristics of all !Michelet's work are democratic enthusiasm, hatred of priests, sympathy for the oppressed, and a picturesque imagination that transformed vast learning into poetry and history into intuition. He is seldom an objective
