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its side he began, in 1495, the erection of a library in which he proposed to place all the books bequeathed to the family by Pius the Second, 1 the marbles of the entrance and outer face being intrusted to the Siennese sculptor Lorenzo di Mariano, 2 the bronze doors (1497) to Antonio Ormanni, 3 the wood-carving of the inside (1496) to Antonio Barili. 4 Pinturicchio was to paint the walls and ceiling, and signed a contract to that effect on the 29 th of June 1502. It is difficult to suppress a genuine surprise at this last determination, nor is it easy to determine by what canons of taste Cardinal Piccolomini was governed when he patronized at one and the same time two men who may be said to have stood at opposite poles in art. A prelate who was fond of classic sculpture and could appreciate the value of the antique, who was about to transfer the three Graces from his palace at Rome to this very library, would naturally admire the creations of Buonarotti; but that he should immediately afterwards pen an agreement showing that he was partial to the peculiar Umbrian style of Pinturicchio, is a contradiction that still requires explanation. One of the first conditions to which Bernardino bound himself was, that so soon as he should have settled to painting in the library he would undertake nothing else, either at Sienna or elsewhere. The ceiling was to be as brilliant and gay as possible, designed with fanciful spacings, colours, and subjects, in the style “at this day called grotesque”, the shield and arms of the Piccolomini being in the centre. On the walls were to be ten stories illustrative of the memory of Pius the Second, the “figures to be laid in with fresco, and retouched 1 The beginning of the library in 1495 is proved by a record in the Siennese archive granting freedom from entrance dues for the mate rials used in the building. See Verm, annot. 250. and Vas. com. V. 282. 2 Doc. Sen. III. 77. 3 lb. ib. II. 458. 4 Vas. com. VIII. 93.