Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/100

88 the rule, he would not remain. Yet daring the time that he did abide in that place, he made himself particularly acceptable to those fathers, because he was of an excellent disposition. The amusement of Agnolo while at the Hermitage, consisted in carving the heads of men and different animals, with other fanciful inventions, on the upper ends of the stick or staff which each- of those good fathers was accustomed to carry, when he proceeded from Camaldoli to the Hermitage, or went into the woods for amusement, at which time the rule of maintaining silence is dispensed with.

Having left the' Hermitage with the permission and good favour of the Principal, but feeling still strongly disposed to become a monk, Agnolo then repaired to La Vernia, where he also remained for some time, frequenting the choir and holding converse with the fathers. But neither did that mode of life suit him on a further acquaintance; wherefore, having received certain intimations in respect to the manner of proceeding observed by various religious communities in Florence and Arezzo, he visited some of these on leaving La Vernia; and finding that he could not continue his care for the welfare of his soul with the desired attention to the studies of design, in any other convent so conveniently as in that of the Ingesuati of Florence, he presented himself to those fathers, and entered their monastery, which is situate at the Pinti Gate; he was very willingly received by those monks, the more so as they, labouring much in the painting of glass windows, had great hope that in him they should find a very useful and valuable assistant.

Now it has not been the custom with the Padri Ingesuati to read Mass, but according to their manner and the rule of their order, they keep a priest, who performs that office every morning; their Chaplain at that time being a Servite Monk named Fra Martino, who was a man of fair judgment and respectable life. This chaplain, perceiving the genius and aptitude of the youth, considered that he would not find exercise for the same among the Frati Ingesuati, who do nothing but say paternosters, make glass windows, distil herbs for sweet waters, dig their gardens, and perform other works of similar kind, but do not study or cultivate letters, wherefore he did and said so much that Agnolo went forth from the Ingesuati, and finally took the monastic habit among the