The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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0521551331 c 01 CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 10 , 2007 22 : 22

CATALOGUE 4 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS 73

1 .With the left side as base, four lines, probably the

beginning of a sonnet.

Colui ch(e) ltucto fe, fece ogni parte

epoi deltucto la piu bella scelse

p(er) mostrar quivi le suo cose eccelse

Coma facto or cholla sua divinarte

Guasti, frammentiXVI; Frey, IV; Girardi, no. 9 ;

Residori, no. 9

Colui che ’il tutto fe’, fece ogni parte

epoi del tutto la pi`ubella scelse,

per mostrar quivi le suo cose eccelse,

com’ha fatto or colla sua divin’arte.

Ryan, no. 9

He who made all made every part and then from all chose

the most beautiful, to show forth here his sublime qualities,

as he has now done with his divine art.

2 .With the left side as base.

The reading of this sonnet is particularly difficult, as all schol-

ars have noted. Frey thought that some words had been

added and others altered by a later hand with a greyer ink

than the original, but his view may have been affected by

the condition of the sheet. The additions and variants seem

also to have been added in the same colour ink as the first

draft, if more diluted, and by the same hand. Some of them,