The span of his life was not only extraordinary in its length, but also in the events it comprehended.
Born in the mediaeval pontificate of Sixtus IV., brought up in the golden days of Lorenzo de' Medici, he survived the Franco-Spanish struggle for supremacy, watched the progress of the Reformation, and only died when a new Church and a new Papacy had been established by the Tridentine Council amid states sinking into the repose of decrepitude.
VI We must return from this digression and resume the events of Michelangelo's life in 1525.
The first letter to Sebastiano del Piombo is referred to April of that year.

He says that a picture, probably the portrait of Anton Francesco degli Albizzi, is eagerly expected at Florence.

When it arrived in May, he wrote again under the influence of generous admiration for his friend's performance: "Last evening our friend the Captain Cuio and certain other gentlemen were so kind as to invite me to sup with them.
This gave me exceeding great pleasure, since it drew me forth a little from my melancholy, or shall we call it my mad mood.

Not only did I enjoy the supper, which was most agreeable, but far more the conversation.

Among the topics discussed, what gave me most delight was to hear your name mentioned by the Captain; nor was this all, for he still added to my pleasure, nay, to a superlative degree, by saying that, in the art of painting he held you to be sole and without peer in the whole world, and that so you were esteemed at Rome.