Some angry words passed between them about an engraving, possibly of the Last Judgment, which Buonarroti wanted to destroy, while Del Riccio refused to obliterate the plate:-- "Messer Luigi,--You seem to think I shall reply according to your wishes, when the case is quite the contrary.

You give me what I have refused, and refuse me what I begged.

And it is not ignorance which makes you send it me through Ercole, when you are ashamed to give it me yourself.

One who saved my life has certainly the power to disgrace me; but I do not know which is the heavier to bear, disgrace or death.

Therefore I beg and entreat you, by the true friendship which exists between us, to spoil that print (_stampa_), and to burn the copies that are already printed off.