BIBLIOGRAPII Y. The most important sources for the life of Michelangelo are the documents preserved in the Casa Buonarroth Florence. con sisting mainly of letters to and from the artist, his poems. memoranda, contracts. and like ma terial. and a large collection of his letters pur chased by the British Museum in 1859 from one of the Buonarroti family. The latter were first made known to the public by Hermann Grimm in his Lcbcn. Michelangelos; a selection of the former was indifferently edited by Mila nesi. Le lettere di Michelangelo (Florence. 1875), and Les corrcspondants de Michel Antic. tome i. (Sebastian° del Piombo, Paris. 1891). By far the best edition of the letters, comprising all of historical importance, many for the first time published. is that of Carl Frey (Berlin 1899). Of high importance are the contemporary biog raphies of Michelangelo. The earliest of these appeared in the first edition of Vasari's Lit-es (Florence. 1550). The inaccuracies of this ac count impelled Aseanio Condivi. then an inmate of Michelangelo's household, to write his brief biography (Rome. 1553; later edition• Pisa, 1823). Based on the recollection of the great artist himself, this is the most important and reliable source, after his correspondence. It was pirated without acknowledgment by Vasari in his second edition of the Lines (1568; edited by Mila nesi. Florence, 1878), who supplied valuable additional information on Michelangelo's later years. Both of these biographies. together with other contemporary biographical materials, are hest edited by Frey. Sam nn lung ausgewiihlter Bio graphien fasaris (Berlin, 1887).
The most important modern biographies of Michelangelo are those of Duppa (London. 1806) ; Quatremere de Quincy (Paris, 1835) : Ifarford (London. 18571 ; Grimm (Hanover, 1860) ; Clement (Paris, 1860; translated in "Great Artist Series") ; Gotti (Florence. 1875) ; Black (London, 1875) ; Heath Wilson (London, 1876) ; Perkins (Boston. 1878) ; Springer (Leip•
zig, 1892) : Scheffier (Altenburg, 1892) ; Symonds (London and New York. 1892) ; Knack fuss (Bielefeld, 1895) : (Leipzig, 1900) : Ricci (Florence, 1901) ; Thode (Berlin. 1902). The first critical work, in the modern sense, was that of Grimm (10th ed. Berlin. 1901; English translation. New York, 1896), in which the artist is sympathetically treated, and with high literary skill. Although as much space is devoted to his time and environ ment as to the artist himself, it remains the best work for the general reader. Wilson's work is valuable from a technical standpoint, as is also the admirable volume of the Gazette des Beaux ...iris, entitled I:allure et la nic de Michel -loge. written by seven French artists. Of value for the artist's youthful period is Wffiflin, Die Jagendrrcrkc Michclangclos (Berlin. 1887 ) . Springer's Raffael and Michelangelo (Leipzig, 1832 is a work of sound learning and criticism. The most complete English life, of high literary and historical value, is that of Symonds. Thode's _Michelangelo nod dos Enle der Renais sance (Berlin, 1902. of which the first of three volumes has appeared) gives an exhaustive treat ment from the psychological standpoint.
Michelangelo's poems suffered much by being known through the garbled and mutilated edition of his grandson, Michelangelo the younger. A more complete edition was that of Guasti (Flor ence. 1863) ; but the best is by Frey (Berlin, 1807). Symonds has made an excellent Eng lish translation of selected examples of the sonnets. Consult, also. Lang. ifiellehmgc/o a/s Dichter (Stuttgart, 1861) ; Thomas. Michel doge, poi:te (Paris, 1891) ; and the admirable essay of Walter Pater, in his Studirs in the History of the Renaissance (London, 1S73).