It must, however, have been after the end of July.

The extracts from Michelangelo's notebooks show that he had already sketched an agreement as to wages several weeks before.

"I record how on this day, the 10th of May 1508, I, Michelangelo, sculptor, have received from the Holiness of our Lord Pope Julius II.
500 ducats of the Camera, the which were paid me by Messer Carlino, chamberlain, and Messer Carlo degli Albizzi, on account of the painting of the vault of the Sistine Chapel, on which I begin to work to-day, under the conditions and contracts set forth in a document written by his Most Reverend Lordship of Pavia, and signed by my hand.
"For the painter-assistants who are to come from Florence, who will be five in number, twenty gold ducats of the Camera apiece, on this condition; that is to say, that when they are here and are working in harmony with me, the twenty ducats shall be reckoned to each man's salary; the said salary to begin upon the day they leave Florence.

And if they do not agree with me, half of the said money shall be paid them for their travelling expenses, and for their time." On the strength of this _Ricordo_, it has been assumed that Michelangelo actually began to paint the Sistine on the 10th of May 1508.

That would have been physically and literally impossible.