He had a friend, the Prior of S.Spirito, for whom he carved a wooden crucifix of nearly life-size.

This liberal-minded churchman put a room at his disposal, and allowed him to dissect dead bodies.

Condivi tells us that the practice of anatomy was a passion with his master.

"His prolonged habits of dissection injured his stomach to such an extent that he lost the power of eating or drinking to any profit.

It is true, however, that he became so learned in this branch of knowledge that he has often entertained the idea of composing a work for sculptors and painters, which should treat exhaustively of all the movements of the human body, the external aspect of the limbs, the bones, and so forth, adding an ingenious discourse upon the truths discovered by him through the investigations of many years.