In the age when the republic of Florence bid one of her architects "build the greatest church in the world," all the fine arts rose simultaneously, and advanced with gigantic steps. Architecture and sculpture led the van, and had their chief seat in Tuscany, under the disciples of Nicholas of Pisa. Rienzi and Petrarch had been as diligent in the collection of gems and medals as in their search after classical manuscripts, and their example was not lost upon their successors. Poggio, Cosmo de Medici, and other illustrious private men gave origin to princely museums. The gallery of statues and other antiquities belonging to Lorenzo de Medici, and the academy annexed to it, constituted the great school in which, with many others, the genius of young Michael Angelo was formed. Berfoldo, the Florentine sculptor, an aged and experienced master, who had studied under Donatello, was the custodian of the Medician garden, and gave lessons to all the youthful cultivators of art. Poets hymned the praises of each splendid creation, and thus stimulated the most enthusiastic rivalry. Pindarus and Tirteus sang the glories of the Greeks, and why should not the bards of Florence enkindle in these young bosoms the love of a similar glory? It was a grand spectacle to behold the flower of Italian genius assembled, where chisel and hammer made the marble ring, and the emulative canvas glowed with most fascinating tints. Thus was this garden a lyceum for the philosopher, an arcadia for the poet, and an academy for the artist; and no quality that it could either elicit or impart was foreign to the mighty mind of Michael Angelo. He was the truest exponent of the fifteenth century, and should be regarded as the chief agent in substituting modern for mediæval art. He founded modern Italy immediately on ancient ruins, and did much to efface the memory of the middle ages. Marble was to Michael Angelo what the Italian language was to the greatest of Florentine writers; and with a mind as vast and free as that of Dantè, of whom he was the warmest admirer, he simultaneously illustrated supreme ability in all the liberal arts.