Beloved Father:

Hope you are doing well at home!

Love your son, Michelangelo has now left Rome to follow Caesar, Duke of Valentino. Borgia traveled to Romagna, we are now at the foot of the Apennines, where the trees are verdant, the flowers are blooming, the climate and humidity are very suitable for people who have to travel, and for my fingers and feet, which have been painful and peeling for a long time, and I am happy that I can serve my new master better.

Speaking of my new master, he was indeed a great, generous, and handsome man, and you shall remember that after I had been rescued from prison by him, I went to Rome and worked for him, and I carved three beautiful statues of him in a row, the sleeping Eros, the drunken Bacchus, and the dying Adonis, the Eros of which I had carved after his sister Lucretia, the princess of Borgia, and he looked at the statues and thought that I had not spoken as much as the others, and he gave me three hundred gold florins, As the wages for the statue, I later gave you a hundred gold florins, and the same number of coins to my brothers.

Later, when the Duke returned to Rome and the Pope performed a triumphal ceremony for him, the little portrait I painted for him was also completed, and although painting was not my hobby or my specialty, it was sincerely complimented and received some rewards (which I kept with me in case of emergency), and later I was with the Duchess of Biscapili, that is, Luclayia. Borgia saw a reliquary inlaid with the statue around his neck.

I also painted a full-length portrait of him, painting him as the Holy Angel Michael, with the devil under his feet, but after reading the sketch, he was not very satisfied, so I put it aside for the time being, and began to carve a small statue of him out of Carrara's white marble, which was only as high as my fingertips and elbows, but I took great care to make him look like Julius in Rome. Caesar, with his toga and cuirass, with one hand raised and a scepter in the other, was very pleased to see it, and urged me to finish it as soon as possible, and said that he would put the statue in the Vatican Palace, so that his father could see it if he missed him.

Of course I would very much like! Although it is not my intention to work for the Pope, this venerable Father, as legend has been made, is not a cruel and ruthless man, and perhaps he is harsh on his enemies, but he may be more forgiving and loving to his children than you are to me!

Lucaresia, the youngest daughter of the Holy Father, whom I have mentioned above, was a beautiful and unfortunate lady, and just recently she had lost her child in her womb and then her beloved husband, and the Holy Father, in order to comfort her, bought all the towns and lands between Spoleet and Lepi for fifty thousand gold florins, and gave her to manage them, in order to send sorrow (although the Bible says that a man is the head of a woman, and a woman should not be a lord), have you ever seen such a father who cherishes his daughter in this way? I have never seen or even seen an only son whose father loved him so much.

But I soon found myself wrong, for our Holy Father did care more for his sons than his daughters. Not only did he give Caesar. The authority of the Borgia Church Army and the title of Church Standard-bearer allowed him to carry the Holy Key of St. Peter (the Holy See coat of arms) on his banner, and he also recruited a large number of golden florins, employing for him the strongest and strongest professional soldiers in all of Italy, a number you could never imagine...... That's as many as ten thousand! And they all had weapons and horses, and they also had their own minions.

And the French lancers, the artillerymen, and the soldiers of the lords who were willing to obey the will of the Pope and serve his son.

I would like to say an interesting thing here, because among the soldiers hired by the Pope, I also saw a familiar man, Pietro. Tony Giano, do you remember, when he was apprenticed with me, he got into a fight with me and broke the bridge of my nose with a punch! Of course, I didn't suffer either. However, when he was in the ranks of soldiers, when he saw me riding a mule and following behind the Duke of Valentino, that stunned expression was quite ridiculous!

Later he even came to me in my tent, and when he heard that I was now in the service of the duke, he was undoubtedly jealous, but he did not show it, but told me that, as a soldier, he was able to get more gold florin from Borgia, God, I really couldn't contain my curiosity, and asked him the price, according to him, he was a good fighter and a cavalryman, so he could get the price of eight gold florins a month (you know, in Florence, a doctor, The monthly income is only three gold florins! Ordinary soldiers can only get two gold florins, while the captain of their "gun" squad can get three gold florins, the captain of the pile (five spear teams) can get five gold florins, and the squadron leader (who manages five piles) can get thirty gold florins, of course, I will not be angry about this, but I heard that they were hired for three months, and it was postponed for three months in advance, so I asked a monk to help me calculate that the Holy Father would use up twenty or thirty thousand gold florins per month on the money of these people alone.

What a terrible number! Dear father, I scarcely dare to think, let alone be fed and equipped, that the pack horses walk on the Avenue of Emilia as if they could not see their heads!

By the way, if I hadn't been playing for the Duke of Valentino right now, I would have put down my hammer for a while and picked up my spear – I believe I could have done better than Pietro.

And it seems to me that whoever has an army like the duke, if he wants to win, is completely a matter of capture, or, before the army reaches the city or village that needs to be attacked, the duke's messenger can persuade the lord or the head of the army there, so that he will be intimidated by the duke's strength and bearing, give up resistance, surrender, or flee - there is really no danger in this!

The only thing that worries me is that the Duke still promises his soldiers that he will allow them to plunder as long as they can help him to victory, and I can't help but think of what I saw in Imola and Forlì, and I want to admonish him, but I fear that he will anger me for my presumptuousness. But when he asked me to carve another bust of him, I carefully raised my doubts with him, and the Duke said that such acts were always seen in war, and that not only he but others did it.

Fortunately, he also promised me that if the enemies he met would not resist, and would give him up with his realm, he would do the same to the people of Rome—and he did seem to be changing some of his ways, as I had seen him give a guide a gold florin, and to warn all the soldiers not to take away the poor man's reward, when he spoke to the lord of Perugia, Giamparo, or Paul of the Banu Orsini, He also became much kinder, and did not instruct them at will, even Yves. Alegre, a French mercenary captain, is said to have had a dispute with the Duke over the distribution of the spoils of war during the Battle of Forlì, and received an indemnity worth about 500 gold florins, which I know so clearly because I sent it on my behalf.

We may have to travel for about six days to reach our destination, the continuous journey is indeed tiring, but the Duke has decided to conquer Faenza before the winter comes, the end of the battle season, but it has been raining lately, the avenues are muddy, we are moving slowly, and we can hardly eat anything hot, and our clothes are wet, and I have a tent, and many soldiers and servants can only survive the night with their cloaks under the shade of the trees, and some of them have become feverish, so they have to stay in the nearby villages.

So, can you send me some Florentine medicine? I was afraid that if I fell ill, I would have to miss the Duke's conquest of Faenza, after I had missed the Battle of Imola, and when Forlì Castle fell, I had broken my foot from the fire that startled the donkey.

I hope to be able to make something wonderful, not only for me, but also for my benefactor, and perhaps when I come up with a portrait or a statue that will amaze the Duke and turn it around, the relationship between the two of them may not be so tense...... At that time, I will be able to repay the favor of that person and gain their appreciation, and what a wonderful thing it would be to be able to stay with them!

…… Perhaps the opportunity will soon come, and the Duke of Valentino has told me that he hopes that I will be able to paint that scene every time he triumphs, and send it to Rome, and hand it over to his father, our Holy Father, so that he may be proud and at ease, and I have been mixing paint powders, making canvases, and boards, and I will be able to start all the way when I reach Faenza.

Also, if possible, pray for me, for the blessing of the father is always useful to the son, perhaps better than medicine, and so that my heart may not always be at peace, except for the body, though I do not know what it is for.

Enclosed is a hundred and twenty gold florins, this is for you alone, please do not give it to my brother, their insatiable greed has tired me, but I still have to spend it on them, don't let them cheat you out of your money again.

Also, tell them that if they yell at you or shake their fists again, when I come back, I will beat them until they get down on their knees and beg me or you.

Michelangelo in an unnamed village