Michelangelo, God’s Architect: The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece, by William E. Wallace | Academic life - Times Higher Education (THE)

James Stevens Curl, Architectural Historian is impressed by a detailed account of one of the world’s most celebrated buildings.

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Michelagnolo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564), aka Michelangelo, uomo universale, was master of terribilità, meaning awe-inspiring grandeur. This places much of his architectural work in the Mannerist category, for he employed elements from Classical exemplars in fanciful, disturbing ways (eg, the ricetto of the Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence (1524-62)). The times in which he lived were those of profound social, religious and scientific turmoil, in which the Church’s authority was challenged, Rome was sacked in 1527 and Copernicus’ recognition of the heliocentric planetary system heralded a completely novel view of the world.

Political upheavals in Florence led Michelangelo to move permanently to Rome in 1534. William E. Wallace (whose credentials as a scholar of the artist’s career are beyond question), in this volume, deals with the last 20-odd years during which Michelangelo served several popes, Paul III (r. 1534-49), Julius III (r. 1550-55), Marcellus II (r. 1555), Paul IV (r. 1555-59) and Pius IV (r. 1559-65), all the time having to ensure he was not in bad odour with the Medici in Florence, where the Buonarrotis had property and could have lost the lot.

Paul III appointed Michelangelo to supervise the construction of the new St Peter’s after the death of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, whose aesthetically unsatisfactory, fussy designs wrecked the clarity of Donato Bramante’s centrally planned Greek-Cross proposals...

This is the second book on someone described as “God’s architect”.
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Additional resources 

Michelangelo, God's Architect:
The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece

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Source: Times Higher Education (THE)