His new tragedy, _La Simona_, of moderate length, possessed a most singular charm.

Written and rhymed though it was, on the ancient Tuscan rules, it might have been conceived by an English poet of Elizabeth's time, after a story from the _Decameron_, and it breathed something of the strange and delicious charm of certain of the minor dramas of Shakespeare.
On the frontispiece of the single copy, the author had signed his work: A.S.CALCOGRAPHUS AQUA FORTI SIBI TIBI FECIT.
Copper had greater attractions for him than paper, nitric acid than ink, the graving-tool than the pen.

One of his ancestors before him, Giusto Sperelli, had tried his hand at engraving.

Certain plates of his, executed about 1520, showed distinct evidences of the influence of Antonio del Pollajuolo by the depth and acidity, so to speak, of the design.

Andrea used the Rembrandt method _a tratti liberi_ and the _maniera nera_ so much affected by the English engravers of the school of Green, Dixon, and Earlom.