Sforza, last Duke of Milan, those Signori did at length give San Michele permission to attend the Prince, but for three months only. Having repaired to Milan accordingly, he inspected all the fortresses of that state, ordering everything which he thought it necessary to have done in each place, and not only obtaining much honour thereby, but giving such entire satisfaction to the Signor Duke, that after sending his acknowledgments and thanks to the Venetian Signori, his Excellency presented San Michele with five hundred crowns.
Our architect then availed himself of the opportunity offered by his return to Venice, and went to Casale di Monserrato, there to inspect the beautiful and very strongly defended city and fortress, which had been constructed after the plans and under the direction of the excellent architect Matteo San Michele, who was a kinsman of his own.[1] Michele also went to see a very magnificent sepulchre in marble, erected in the church of San Francesco in the same city, and also by the above-named Matteo.[2]
These things done, San Michele returned home, but had no sooner arrived in Venice than he was despatched by the Signori a to accompany the Signor Duke of Urbino, who was then proceeding to inspect La Chiusa, a pass and fortress of much importance above Verona, with all the strong towns of
- ↑ Vasari does not appear to have derived his intelligence respecting Casale from the best sources, that fortress having been commenced in the thirteenth century, and enlarged by Theodore, Marquis of Montserrat, in the fourteenth (1326), receiving its present form from the Marquis Guglielmo VIII. in 1470. In later times, the Dukes of Mantua and Montserrat, Guglielmo and Vincenzio, made additions respectively in the years 1560 and 1590. That Matteo San Michele was employed to repair these works at the period indicated in the text, is however not to be doubted, since, deriving his intelligence as he did from the Padre Marco de’ Medici, and personally acquainted with Michele San Michele as Vasari was, it is not probable that he would give any relation which had not some foundation in truth.
- ↑ According to the Padre Della Valle this is the Sepulchral Monument of Maria, daughter of Stephen, King of Servia, and Marchioness of Montserrat. But Michael Angelo, and not Matteo San Michele, is the more probable author of this work, or at least of the sculptures with which it was decorated: was, for the barbarous injuries inflicted on the tomb in 1746, when the church was turned into a military hospital by the French and Spanish armies, were unhappily followed by its total destruction, when the building came once more to be set in order, the condition of the monument causing its restoration to be then considered a hopeless attempt.
