Michelangelo: A Self Portrait

From the Preface:

“The character of Michelangelo was a complex amalgam which has fascinated historians and biographers. However, the biographers, especially those working in that dubious genre, the Biographie romance, have left us incomplete and even inaccurate portraits of the great artist. Partly to ease the impressions these fanciful portraitists have left, and more precisely to enable the modern reader to form an authentic picture of Michelangelo, we are making available in English a full collection of the master’s own words, the most revealing and rewarding thoughts gleaned from his 495 letters, his 343 poems and poetic fragments, his conversations with friends, and even from sundry outbursts set down by contemporaries who understood their enduring value.”