During his long career, Michelangelo produced not only the important works of painting, sculpture, and architecture for which he is justly famous but also well over three hundred sonnets, madrigals, and other poems. The poems, unlike Michelangelo's better-known works of art, are not the product of a highly accomplished hand, but they are invaluable for what they reveal of the artist's innermost feelings about such universal themes as love, death, and redemption and also about more mundane matters, such as the tribulations of paintings the Sistine Chapel ceiling. This book, the only available bilingual edition of Michelangelo's complete poetic output, is based on the definitive Girardi dating of the poems. James M. Saslow has translated the poems with an eye to providing a clear and faithful rendering of the artist's words and thoughts. Extensive annotations and detailed textual commentary give background data essential for understanding Michelangelo's references. A lengthy introduction, which incorporates the latest Michelangelo scholarship, includes a biographical sketch of the artist, a critical examination of the themes, content, style, and sources of his poetry, and a review of the criticism devoted to his poems. The Italian original of each poem appears with the translation, and several paintings and drawings that are relevant to the poems are reproduced. This comprehensive edition of Michelangelo's poetry offers a fresh perspective on the life, work, and times of the great artist.