An Italian quarry wants to lop 300 feet off the top of a mountain. But it’s been said Michelangelo quarried marble from the place and so a dispute has ensued. The historical record, including Michelangelo’s own abundant correspondence, shows clearly that he never took any marble from Monte Altissimo. He did open two quarries farther down the Serra gorge and nearly lost his life extracting enormous columns and blocks. But he never got to use any of them; the project for which they were intended, an overambitious façade for Florence’s San Lorenzo Church, was aborted and his hard-won marble scattered and purloined.