and followed them thither,[1] where he devoted himself with his whole heart to the study of architecture, giving promise at once of that distinction which we have seen him evince at a more mature age in the many works produced by his skill in all parts of Italy.
Now it chanced that Giuliano, disabled by the internal disease with which he had been long afflicted, was compelled to return to Florence, but Antonio had by that time been made known to the architect Bramante of Castel Durante,[2] who was also become old, and being no longer able to work as he had formerly done, from gout and paralysis of the hands, received assistance from Antonio in the designs which he was preparing. These the young architect completed to such perfection that Bramante, finding his sketches executed with the utmost exactitude, became more and more disposed to leave the charge of such works as he was then conducting to the care of Antonio, Bramante describing the arrangements which he desired to have made, and supplying all the compositions and inventions for every operation that remained to be accomplished.
With so much judgment, care, and expedition did Bramante then find himself served on all these occasions by Antonio, that in the year 1512 he committed to him the care of the Corridor which led towards the trenches of the Castel Sant’ Angelo, an occupation which brought him in ten scudi per month; but the death of Pope Julius II. then intervening, the work remained unfinished. Antonio had meanwhile already acquired the reputation of possessing considerable ability in architecture, and was reputed to give evidence of a very good manner in building; this caused Alessandro, who was first Cardinal Farnese, and afterwards Pope Paul III., to conceive the idea of restoring, by his help, the old palace in the Campo di Fiore, in which he dwelt together with his family; and Antonio, anxious to put himself forward, prepared numerous designs in different manners. Among these, one by which the fabric was divided into two separate dwellings was that which best pleased his most reverend lordship, he having two sons, the Signor Pier Luigi and the Signor Ranuccio, whom he
