Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/129

Rh borders, seeing that the monastery was thereby in a certain sort embarrassed and rendered dependent; as to the Temple which the artists talked of filling with their works, the monks, so far as they were concerned, thought it just as well that it should remain as it was. His Excellency therefore caused it to be signified to the men of the Academy, which had already made a commencement, and had solemnized the festival of San Luca in that Temple; that since the monks of the Angeli, from what he could learn, did not receive them very willingly in their house, he would himself take care to provide them with a place of their own. The Signor Duke added further, like a truly magnanimous prince as he is, that he would not only ever continue to favour the said Academy, but would himself be the head thereof, its chief, its guide, and its protector; appointing to that end a representative of his person, who should be constantly present at the meetings of the body; and should be chosen year by year as lieutenant of His Excellency. Acting on this suggestion, there was then elected as the first of these representatives, the Reverend Don Vincenzio Borghini, Director of the Hospital of the Innocents; for all which favours and proofs of affection granted by the Signor Duke to his new Academy he received the thanks of the same through a deputation of ten belonging to the oldest and most eminent of their number.

But of this matter I will not speak further on the present occasion, seeing that the reform of the Company and the rules of the Academy are treated of at great length in the report prepared by the men chosen and selected for that purpose from the whole body, with the assistance of the above-named representative or deputy of the Duke, and confirmed by subsequent reference to His Excellency. I will but add the names of the members to whom the reform and the preparation of rules was committed'; and these were. Fra Giovanni’ Agnolo, Francesco da Sangallo, Agnolo Bronzino, Giorgio Vasari, Michele di Ridolfo, and Pier Francesco di Jacopo di Sandro.

I must, however, not omit to mention, that as the old seal and arms, or rather device of the Company, the winged Ox