The difficult work was suspended on the assassination of Duke Galeazzo Maria, by reason of want of funds. On the restoration of Gian Galeazzo in 1482, the subject was again under consideration, and in the absence of any very eminent Masters at the moment--Guiniforte having died in 1481--the Duke wrote to Strasburg to beg that some architects might be spared from the works there. This action is very suggestive of an affinity between the German and Italian Masonic Lodges. No one could be spared from Strasburg, but a certain Giovanni da Gratz came over with a little squadron of Germans, and signed a contract to superintend the "reparation and completion" of the _Tiburio_ of the Duomo. The conditions of the contract further stated that when the cupola should be so far finished as to allow of inspection, a committee of qualified Masters should be elected to inspect it, and pronounce if the work were good.[273] The words "reparation and completion" would imply that Guiniforte and Bartolommeo had already begun the dome. The contract with John of Gratz is signed May 1482, and it would appear not to have been of long duration, no payments being made to him after February 1486, and on January 26, 1488, the annals of the Duomo show the following entry--"To Maestro Antonio da Padernò in recompense for his labours during the past year in verifying the errors committed by Maestro Giovanni da Gratz, etc...." Like his forerunner Heinrich da Gmunden, John of Gratz had to retire from the Milanese Lodge; his name is no more found in the books, and the Council began to search for a _capo maestro_ nearer home. Magister Luca Paperio Fancelli was called from Florence to examine some designs which had been sent in. The one chosen was by Leonardo of Florence (Da Vinci), who was paid in anticipation L.56, and a _Maestro in legname_ was assigned as his assistant, named Bernardino da Abbiate. He probably was to superintend the scaffolding, and Da Vinci the building. However, the engagement fell through, and the Duke of Milan wrote to the Pope, the King of Sicily, and the rulers of Venice and Florence to find an architect for that puzzling cupola. Two Germans, one named Lorenzo, and one a monk, John Mayer, were successively refused. At length, in 1490, the Council finally commissioned Maestro Giovan Antonio Amadeo and Maestro Gio. Giacomo Dolcebuono as joint architects "to finish the cupola and the church." They were to choose the model which pleased them best of those preserved in the Administration, and the one they selected was to be examined for approval by Maestro Francesco di Giorgio, then living at Siena, and by Maestro Luca of Florence (Fancelli), then residing at Mantua, two experts who were by the Council elected as judges and examiners of the perfection of the model.