a Working timeline of Michelangelo Buonarroti's life

Timeline:

1333 -A major flood hit Florence.

1339 -Florence suffered bank failures

1348 -A devastating plague spread through Florence

1378 -Painters were finally allowed to establish their own separate guild

1402 -A series of aggressive wars against Florence culminated in the siege of Florence. They were under siege by Milan.

1420 -Florence was growing into an economically and culturally thriving city of some 80,000 inhabitants.

1471 -Guiliano della Rovere’s uncle was elected Pope Sixtus IV

1475 -Michelangelo was born. His birth was witnessed by 8 people.

1477 -Buonarroto, M’s younger and favorite brother, was born.

1479 -Giovan-simone Buonarroti was born.

1481 -Francesca Del Sera, Michelangelo’s mother, died in childbirth. She was still in her early twenties and Michelangelo was only 6 years old.
-Sigismondo Buonarroti was born.

1487 -Michelangelo becomes Ghirlandaio’s apprentice for the next 2 years.

1491 -Lionardo Buonarroti, M’s eldest brother, became a follower of Savonarola and determined to give up worldly pleasures. So he entered the priesthood as a Dominican monk making Michelangelo take on the role of the eldest son his whole life from the age of 16 and onwards.

1492 -Lorenzo de’ Medici died of a sudden illness. His death disrupted the privileged life of a 17-year-old Michelangelo
-Rodrigo Borgia became Pope Alexander VI

1494 -The Medici were expelled from Florence.

1496 -Michelangelo arrives in Rome
-Shortly after that, in June, the bubonic plague broke out in Florence.
-Michelangelo stayed with Cardinal Riario, the same cardinal who had been duped by a dealer to pay 200 gold ducats for the now lost sleeping cupid.

1498 -A contract was drawn up by a French cardinal, Cardinal Villier of Saint-Denis, commissioning Michelangelo to make a marble pieta of the Virgin Mary holding the dead Christ in her arms (for the price of 450 golden ducats).

1503 -Pope Alexander VI died.
-Cardinal Guiliano della Rovere was elected Pope in an unusually short session of the conclave. He became known as Pope Julius II, but his terrible reputation gave him the nickname il papa terribile.

1505 -Late February, M received the papal summons to come to Rome and work for the Pope.
-M’s arrives to Rome in March.
-M stays with his architect friend Giuliano da Sangallo, who was 30 years his elder.
-After discussing the design of the tomb with the pope, Michelangelo leaves Rome in July, eager to get to work.
-M spends 6 months in Carrara supervising the quarrying and transport of the White Carrara marble.

1506 -The decision to build a new St. Peters had been made.
-Pope Julius II led armies into the field to recapture Perugia and Bologna for the Papal States.

1512 -Was the year Michelangelo finally completed the Sistine Ceiling. He was 37 years old.
-Pope Julius II led armies to rid Italy of French Invaders.
-Raphael painted a portrait of Pope Julius II

1520 -Count Alessandro Canossa wrote a letter to Michelangelo addressing him as an “honored kinsman”, providing “proof” to Michelangelo if his noble status

1550 -Giorgio Vasari published his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters,Sculptors and Architects. Michelangelo was the only living artist to be included in his book.

1553 -Michelangelo’s assistant Ascanio Condivi published a biography called the Life of Michelangelo