The established fame of Bramante now recommended him to Pope Julius II., who had formed the idea of uniting the old Vatican palace with the Belvedere by means of a magnificent court, an engraving of which, as it was first executed by Bramante, is to be seen in the public library erected by the Corsini princes. The division of the court by the Vatican library, subsequently erected by Sixtus V., and other additions and alterations, have utterly destroyed the effect of Bramante’s design, though the principal architectural features still remain. Among these, in a lofty central pile of building, is a vast semicircular headed niche, the archivolt of which springs from the cornices of two lofty wing compartments, appearing, it must be confessed, more like the section of an interior, than an external elevation. It is as if the opposite walls in the length of a cathedral choir were taken away, the grand altar recess being alone suffered to remain; and it may be regarded as a very curious instance of a passion for the spherical vault, which thus prompted Bramante to turn it, as it were, inside out; and to take from the cellæ of the temples of Peace, and of Venus and Rome, the idea of the garden alcove. Bramante was now high in favour with Julius II.; and, having invented an ingenious machine for stamping the leaden seals attached to the papal bulls, was rewarded with the office “_del Piombo_.” He attended the Pope to Bologna, when that city was united to the states pontifical in 1504, and served his Holiness in the capacity of military engineer. Our account of Bramante now resolves itself into the history of St. Peter’s church, the antecedent progress of which may be thus briefly stated:— St. Peter being buried within the site of Nero’s Circus, Constantine erected (A.D. 324) a magnificent church over the apostle’s remains. During the lapse of eleven centuries, it fell into decay, and in the pontificate of Nicholas V. (1450) a new building was commenced from designs by Alberti. On the death of Nicholas, the works were discontinued till Paul II. caused them again to proceed: but it must be understood that the structure then in course of erection was in a great measure mixed up with Constantine’s church, many remaining parts of which were to be incorporated in the new building.