Vol 31: The Classics

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Vol 31: The Classics

    Part 1    Part 2

The Autobiography of 
Benvenuto Cellini 

TRANSLATED BY 
JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS 

W/VA Introduction and Notes 
Volume 31 




P. F. Collier & Son Corporation 

NEW YORK 



7 7 




' 



THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
BENVENUTO CELLINI 



THIS TALE OF MY SORE-TROUBLED LIFE I WRITE, 

To THANK THE GoD OF NATURE, WHO CONVEYED 

MY SOUL TO ME, AND WITH SUCH CARE HATH STAYED 

THAT DIVERS NOBLE DEEDS I'VE BROUGHT TO LIGHT. 

'TWAS HE SUBDUED MY CRUEL FORTUNE'S SPITE! 

LlFE GLORY VIRTUE MEASURELESS HATH MADE 
SUCH GRACE WORTH BEAUTY BE THROUGH ME DISPLAYED 
THAT FEW CAN RIVAL, NONE SURPASS ME QUITE. 
ONLY IT GRIEVES ME WHEN I UNDERSTAND 

WHAT PRECIOUS TIME IN VANITY I'VE SPENT 

THE WIND IT BEARETH MAN*S FRAIL THOUGHTS AWAY. 

YET, SINCE REMORSE AVAILS NOT, I'M CONTENT, 

As ERST I CAME, WELCOME TO GO ONE DAY, 
HERE IN THE FLOWER OF THIS FAIR TUSCAN LAND. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

AMONG the vast number of men who have thought fit to write down 
the history of their own lives, three or four have achieved masterpieces 
which stand out preeminent: Saint Augustine in his "Confessions," 
Samuel Pepys in his "Diary," Rousseau in his "Confessions." It is 
among these extraordinary documents, and unsurpassed by any of them, 
that the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini takes its place. 

The "Life" of himself which Cellini wrote was due to other motives 
than those which produced its chief competitors for first place in its 
class. St. Augustine's aim was religious and didactic, Pepys noted down 
in his diary the daily events of his life for his sole satisfaction and with 
no intention that any one should read the cipher in which they were 
recorded. But Cellini wrote that the world might know, after he was 
dead, what a fellow he had been; what great things he had attempted, 
and against what odds he had carried them through. "All men," he held, 
"whatever be their condition, who have done anything of merit, or which 
verily has a semblance of merit, if so be they are men of truth and 
good repute, should write the tale of their life with their own hand." 
That he had done many things of merit, he had no manner of doubt. 
His repute was great in his day, and perhaps good in the sense in which 
he meant goodness; as to whether he was a man of truth, there is still 
dispute among scholars. Of some misrepresentations, some suppressions 
of damaging facts, there seems to be evidence only too good a man 
with Cellini's passion for proving himself in the right could hardly have 
avoided being guilty of such ; but of the general trustworthiness of his 
record, of the kind of man he was and the kind of life he led, there is no 
reasonable doubt. 

The period covered by the autobiography is from Cellini's birth in 
1500 to 1562; the scene is mainly in Italy and France. Of the great events 
of the time, the time of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, 
of the strife of Pope and Emperor and King, we get only glimpses. The 
leaders in these events appear in the foreground of the picture only 
when they come into personal relations with the hero; and then not 
mainly as statesmen or warriors, but as connoisseurs and patrons of art. 
Such an event as the Sack of Rome is described because Benvenuto him- 
self fought in it. 

Much more complete is the view he gives of the artistic life of the time. 
It was the age of Michelangelo, and in the throng of great artists which 



4 INTRODUCTION 

then filled the Italian cities, Cellini was no inconsiderable figure. Michel- 
angelo himself he knew and adored. Nowhere can we gain a better 
idea than in this book of the passionate enthusiasm for the creation of 
beauty which has bestowed upon the Italy of the Renaissance its greatest 
glory. 

Very vivid, too, is the impression we receive of the social life of the 
sixteenth century; of its violence and licentiousness, of its zeal for fine 
craftsmanship, of its abounding vitality, its versatility and its idealism. 
For Cellini himself is an epitome of that century. This man who tells 
here the story of his life was a murderer and a braggart, insolent, sensual, 
inordinately proud and passionate; but he was also a worker in gold and 
silver, rejoicing in delicate chasing and subtle modelling of precious 
surfaces; a sculptor and a musician; and, as all who read his book must 
testify, a great master of narrative. Keen as was Benvenuto's interest in 
himself, and much as he loved to dwell on the splendor of his exploits 
and achievements, he had little idea that centuries after his death he 
would live again, less by his "Perseus" and his goldsmith's work than 
by the book which he dictated casually to a lad of fourteen, while he 
went about his work. 

The autobiography was composed between 1558 and 1566, but it 
brings the record down only to 1562. The remainder of Cellini's life 
seems to have been somewhat more peaceful. In 1565 he married Piera 
de Salvadore Parigi, a servant who had nursed him when he was sick; 
and in the care of his children, as earlier of his sister and nieces, he 
showed more tenderness than might have been expected from a man 
of his boisterous nature. He died at Florence, May 13, 1571, and was 
buried in The Church of the Annunziata in that city. 



BOOK FIRST 



A- men of whatsoever quality they be, who have done any- 
thing of excellence, or which may properly resemble excel- 
lence, ought, if they are persons of truth and honesty, to 
describe their life with their own hand; but they ought not to attempt 
so fine an enterprise till they have passed the age of forty. This 
duty occurs to my own mind now that I am travelling beyond the 
term of fifty-eight years, and am in Florence, the city of my birth. 
Many untoward things can I remember, such as happen to all who 
live upon our earth; and from those adversities I am now more free 
than at any previous period of my career nay, it seems to me that 
I enjoy greater content of soul and health of body than ever I did 
in bygone years. I can also bring to mind some pleasant goods and 
some inestimable evils, which, when I turn my thoughts backward, 
strike terror in me, and astonishment that I should have reached this 
age of fifty-eight, wherein, thanks be to God, I am still travelling 
prosperously forward. 

II 

It is true that men who have laboured with some show of excel- 
lence, have already given knowledge of themselves to the world; 
and this alone ought to suffice them; I mean the fact that they have 
proved their manhood and achieved renown. Yet one must needs 
live like others; and so in a work like this there will always be 
found occasion for natural bragging, which is of divers kinds, and 
the first is that a man should let others know he draws his lineage 
from persons of worth and most ancient origin. 

I am called Benvenuto Cellini, son of Maestro Giovanni, son of 
Andrea, son of Cristofano Cellini; my mother was Madonna Elisa- 
betta, daughter to Stefano Granacci; both parents citizens of Flor- 
ence. It is found written in chronicles made by our ancestors of 
Florence, men of old time and of credibility, even as Giovanni Villani 



O BENVENUTO CELLINI 

writes, that the city of Florence was evidently built in imitation of 
the fair city of Rome; and certain remnants of the Colosseum and 
the Baths can yet be traced. These things are near Santa Croce. The 
Capitol was where is now the Old Market. The Rotonda is entire, 
which was made for the temple of Mars, and is now dedicated to 
our Saint John. That thus it was, can very well be seen, and cannot 
be denied, but the said buildings are much smaller than those of 
Rome. He who caused them to be built, they say, was Julius Caesar, 
in concert with some noble Romans, who, when Fiesole had been 
stormed and taken, raised a city in this place, and each of them took 
in hand to erect one of these notable edifices. 

Julius Caesar had among his captains a man of highest rank and 
valour, who was called Fiorino of Cellino, which is a village about 
two miles distant from Monte Fiascone. Now this Fiorino took up 
his quarters under the hill of Fiesole, on the ground where Florence 
now stands, in order to be near the river Arno, and for the con- 
venience of the troops. All those soldiers and others who had to do 
with the said captain, used then to say: "Let us go to Fiorenze;" as 
well because the said captain was called Fiorino, as also because the 
place he had chosen for his quarters was by nature very rich in 
flowers. Upon the foundation of the city, therefore, since this name 
struck Julius Caesar as being fair and apt, and given by circum- 
stance, and seeing furthermore that flowers themselves bring good 
augury, he appointed the name of Florence for the town. He wished 
besides to pay his valiant captain this compliment; and he loved him 
all the more for having drawn him from a very humble place, and 
for the reason that so excellent a man was a creature of his own. 
The name that learned inventors and investigators of such etymolo- 
gies adduce, as that Florence is flowing at the Arno, cannot hold; 
seeing that Rome is flowing at the Tiber, Ferrara is flowing at the 
Po, Lyons is flowing at the Saone, Paris is flowing at the Seine, and 
yet the names of all these towns are different, and have come to 
them by other ways. 1 

1 He is alluding to the name Fluenzia, which some antiquaries of his day thought to 
have been the earliest name of the city, derived from its being near Arno fluente. I 
have translated the word fluente in the text literally, though of course it signifies 
"situated on a flowing river." I need not call attention to the apocryphal nature of 
Cellini's own derivation from the name of his supposed ancestor. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 7 

Thus then we find; and thus we believe that we are descended 
from a man of worth. Furthermore, we find that there are Cellinis 
of our stock in Ravenna, that most ancient town of Italy, where too 
are plenty of gentle folk. In Pisa also there are some, and I have 
discovered them in many parts of Christendom; and in this state 
also the breed exists, men devoted to the profession of arms; for not 
many years ago a young man, called Luca Cellini, a beardless youth, 
fought with a soldier of experience and a most valorous man, named 
Francesco da Vicorati, who had frequently fought before in single 
combat. This Luca, by his own valour, with sword in hand, over- 
came and slew him, with such bravery and stoutness that he moved 
the folk to wonder, who were expecting quite the contrary issue; 
so that I glory in tracing my descent from men of valour. 

As for the trifling honours which I have gained for my house, 
under the well-known conditions of our present ways of living, and 
by means of my art, albeit the same are matters of no great moment, 
I will relate these in their proper time and place, taking much more 
pride in having been born humble and having laid some honourable 
foundation for my family, than if I had been born of great lineage 
and had stained or overclouded that by my base qualities. So then I 
will make a beginning by saying how it pleased God I should be 
born. 

in 

My ancestors dwelt in Val d' Ambra, where they owned large 
estates, and lived like little lords, in retirement, however, on account 
of the then contending factions. They were all men devoted to arms 
and of notable bravery. In that time one of their sons, the younger, 
who was called Cristofano, roused a great feud with certain of their 
friends and neighbours. Now the heads of the families on both sides 
took part in it, and the fire kindled seemed to them so threatening 
that their houses were like to perish utterly; the elders upon this 
consideration, in concert with my own ancestors, removed Cristo- 
fano; and the other youth with whom the quarrel began was also 
sent away. They sent their young man to Siena. Our folk sent 
Cristofano to Florence; and there they bought for him a little house 
in Via Chiara, close to the convent of S. Orsola, and they also pur- 



8 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

chased for him some very good property near the Ponte a Rifredi. 
The said Cristofano took wife in Florence, and had sons and 
daughters; and when all the daughters had been portioned off, the 
sons, after their father's death, divided what remained. The house 
in Via Chiara with some other trifles fell to the share of one of the 
said sons, who had the name of Andrea. He also took wife, and had 
four male children. The first was called Girolamo, the second 
Bartolommeo, the third Giovanni, who was afterwards my father, 
and the fourth Francesco. This Andrea Cellini was very well versed 
in architecture, as it was then practised, and lived by it as his trade. 
Giovanni, who was my father, paid more attention to it than any of 
the other brothers. And since Vitruvius says, amongst other things, 
that one who wishes to practise that art well must have something 
of music and good drawing, Giovanni, when he had mastered draw- 
ing, began to turn his mind to music, and together with the theory 
learned to play most excellently on the viol and the flute; and being 
a person of studious habits, he left his home but seldom. 

They had for neighbour in the next house a man called Stefano 
Granacci, who had several daughters, all of them of remarkable 
beauty. As it pleased God, Giovanni noticed one of these girls who 
was named Elisabetta; and she found such favour with him that 
he asked her in marriage. The fathers of both of them being well 
acquainted through their close neighbourhood, it was easy to make 
this match up; and each thought that he had very well arranged his 
affairs. First of all the two good old men agreed upon the marriage; 
then they began to discuss the dowry, which led to a certain amount 
of friendly difference; for Andrea said to Stefano: "My son Giovanni 
is the stoutest youth of Florence, and of all Italy to boot, and if I 
had wanted earlier to have him married, I could have procured one 
of the largest dowries which folk of our rank get in Florence:" 
whereupon Stefano answered: "You have a thousand reasons on 
your side; but here am I with five daughters and as many sons, and 
when my reckoning is made, this is as much as I can possibly afford." 
Giovanni, who had been listening awhile unseen by them, suddenly 
broke in and said: "O my father, I have sought and loved that girl 
and not their money. Ill luck to those who seek to fill their pockets 
by the dowry of their wife! As you have boasted that I am a fellow 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 9 

of such parts, do you not think that I shall be able to provide for my 
wife and satisfy her needs, even if I receive something short of the 
portion you would like to get? Now I must make you understand 
that the woman is mine, and you may take the dowry for yourself." 
At this Andrea Cellini, who was a man of rather awkward temper, 
grew a trifle angry; but after a few days Giovanni took his wife, and 
never asked for other portion with her. 

They enjoyed their youth and wedded love through eighteen 
years, always greatly desiring to be blessed with children. At the end 
of this time Giovanni's wife miscarried of two boys through the 
unskilfulness of the doctors. Later on she was again with child, and 
gave birth to a girl, whom they called Cosa, after the mother of my 
father. 1 At the end of two years she was once more with child; and 
inasmuch as those longings to which pregnant women are subject, 
and to which they pay much attention, were now exactly the same as 
those of her former pregnancy, they made their minds up that she 
would give birth to a female as before, and agreed to call the child 
Reparata, after the mother of my mother. It happened that she was 
delivered on a night of All Saints, following the feast-day, at half- 
past four precisely, in the year I500. 2 The midwife, who knew that 
they were expecting a girl, after she had washed the baby and 
wrapped it in the fairest white linen, came softly to my father 
Giovanni and said: "I am bringing you a fine present, such as you 
did not anticipate." My father, who was a true philosopher, was 
walking up and down, and answered: "What God gives me is 
always dear to me;" and when he opened the swaddling clothes, he 
saw with his own eyes the unexpected male child. Joining together 
the palms of his old hands, he raised them with his eyes to God, and 
said "Lord, I thank Thee with my whole heart; this gift is very 
dear to me; let him be Welcome." All the persons who were there 
asked him joyfully what name the child should bear. Giovanni 
would make no other answer than "Let him be Welcome Ben- 
venuto;" 3 and so they resolved, and this name was given me at Holy 
Baptism, and by it I still am living with the grace of God. 

1 Cosa is Florentine for Niccolosa. 

2 The hour is reckoned, according to the old Italian fashion, from sunset of one day 
to sunset of the next twenty-four hours. 

3 Benvenuto means Welcome. 



10 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

IV 

Andrea Cellini was yet alive when I was about three years old, 
and he had passed his hundredth. One day they had been altering a 
certain conduit pertaining to a cistern, and there issued from it a 
great scorpion unperceived by them, which crept down from the 
cistern to the ground, and slank away beneath a bench. I saw it, 
and ran up to it, and laid my hands upon it. It was so big that when 
I had it in my little hands, it put out its tail on one side, and on the 
other thrust forth both its mouths. 1 They relate that I ran in high 
joy to my grandfather, crying out: "Look, grandpapa, at my pretty 
little crab." When he recognised that the creature was a scorpion, 
he was on the point of falling dead for the great fear he had and 
anxiety about me. He coaxed and entreated me to give it him; but 
the more he begged, the tighter I clasped it, crying and saying I 
would not give it to any one. My father, who was also in the house, 
ran up when he heard my screams, and in his stupefaction could 
not think how to prevent the venomous animal from killing me. 
Just then his eyes chanced to fall upon a pair of scissors; and so, 
while soothing and caressing me, he cut its tail and mouths off. 
Afterwards, when the great peril had been thus averted, he took the 
occurrence for a good augury. 

When I was about five years old my father happened to be in a 
basement-chamber of our house, where they had been washing, and 
where a good fire of oak-logs was still burning; he had a viol in his 
hand, and was playing and singing alone beside the fire. The 
weather was very cold. Happening to look into the fire, he spied 
in the middle of those most burning flames a little creature like a 
lizard, which was sporting in the core of the intensest coals. Becom- 
ing instantly aware of what the thing was, he had my sister and me 
called, and pointing it out to us children, gave me a great box on the 
ears, which caused me to howl and weep with all my might. Then 
he pacified me good-humouredly, and spoke as follows: "My dear 
little boy, I am not striking you for any wrong that you have done, 
but only to make you remember that that lizard which you see in 

1 The word is bocche, so I have translated it by mouths. But Cellini clearly meant 
the gaping claws of the scorpion. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1 1 

the fire is a salamander, a creature which has never been seen before 
by any one of whom we have credible information." So saying, he 
kissed me and gave me some pieces of money. 



My father began teaching me to play upon the flute and sing by 
note; but notwithstanding I was of that tender age when little 
children are wont to take pastime in whistles and such toys, I had an 
inexpressible dislike for it, and played and sang only to obey him. 
My father in those times fashioned wonderful organs with pipes of 
wood, spinets the fairest and most excellent which then could be 
seen, viols and lutes and harps of the most beautiful and perfect 
construction. He was an engineer, and had marvellous skill in mak- 
ing instruments for lowering bridges and for working mills, and 
other machines of that sort. In ivory he was the first who wrought 
really well. But after he had fallen in love with the woman who was 
destined to become my mother perhaps what brought them together 
was that little flute, to which indeed he paid more attention than was 
proper he was entreated by the fifers of the Signory to play in their 
company. Accordingly he did so for some time to amuse himself, 
until by constant importunity they induced him to become a member 
of their band. Lorenzo de' Medici and Piero his son, who had a 
great liking for him, perceived later on that he was devoting himself 
wholly to the fife, and was neglecting his fine engineering talent and 
his beautiful art. 1 So they had him removed from that post. My 
father took this very ill, and it seemed to him that they had done 
him a great despite. Yet he immediately resumed his art, and 
fashioned a mirror, about a cubit in diameter, out of bone and ivory, 
with figures and foliage of great finish and grand design. The 
mirror was in the form of a wheel. In the middle was the looking- 
glass; around it were seven circular pieces, on which were the Seven 
Virtues, carved and joined of ivory and black bone. The whole 
mirror, together with the Virtues, was placed in equilibrium, so that 
when the wheel turned, all the Virtues moved, and they had weights 
at their feet which kept them upright. Possessing some acquaintance 

1 The Medici here mentioned were Lorenzo the Magnificent, and his son Pietro, who 
was expelled from Florence in the year 1494. He never returned, but died in the river 
Garigliano in 1504. 



12 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

with the Latin tongue, he put a legend in Latin round his looking- 
glass, to this effect "Whithersoever the wheel of Fortune turns, 
Virtue stands firm upon her feet:" 

Rota sum: semper, quoquo me verto, stat Virtus. 

A little while after this he obtained his place again among the fifers. 
Although some of these things happened before I was born, my 
familiarity with them has moved me to set them down here. In those 
days the musicians of the Signory were all of them members of the 
most honourable trades, and some of them belonged to the greater 
guilds of silk and wool; 2 and that was the reason why my father did 
not disdain to follow this profession, and his chief desire with regard 
to me was always that I should become a great performer on the 
flute. I for my part felt never more discontented than when he chose 
to talk to me about this scheme, and to tell me that, if I liked, he 
discerned in me such aptitudes that I might become the best man 
in the world. 



VI 



As I have said, my father was the devoted servant and attached 
friend of the house of Medici; and when Piero was banished, he 
entrusted him with many affairs of the greatest possible importance. 
Afterwards, when the magnificent Piero Soderini was elected, and 
my father continued in his office of musician, Soderini, perceiving 
his wonderful talent, began to employ him in many matters of 
great importance as an engineer. 1 So long as Soderini remained in 
Florence, he showed the utmost good-will to my father; and in those 
days, I being still of tender age, my father had me carried, and made 
me perform upon the flute; I used to play treble in concert with the 
musicians of the palace before the Signory, following my notes : and 
a beadle used to carry me upon his shoulders. The Gonfalonier, 
that is, Soderini, whom I have already mentioned, took much pleas- 

2 In the Middle Ages the burghers of Florence were divided into industrial guilds 
called the Greater and the Lesser Arts. The former took precedence of the latter, both 
in political importance and in social esteem. 

1 Piero Soderini was elected Gonfalonier of the Florentine Republic for life in the year 
1502. After nine years of government, he was banished, and when he died, Machiavelli 
wrote the famous sneering epitaph upon him. See J. A. Symonds* Renaissance in Italy, 
yol. i. p. 297. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 13 

ure in making me chatter, and gave me comfits, and was wont to 
say to my father: "Maestro Giovanni, besides music, teach the boy 
those other arts which do you so much honour." To which my 
father answered: "I do not wish him to practise any art but playing 
and composing; for in this profession I hope to make him the 
greatest man of the world, if God prolongs his life." To these words 
one of the old counsellors made answer: "Ah! Maestro Giovanni, 
do what the Gonfalonier tells you! for why should he never become 
anything more than a good musician?" 

Thus some time passed, until the Medici returned. 2 When they 
arrived, the Cardinal, who afterwards became Pope Leo, received 
my father very kindly. During their exile the scutcheons which were 
on the palace of the Medici had had their balls erased, and a great 
red cross painted over them, which was the bearing of the Com- 
mune. 3 Accordingly, as soon as they returned, the red cross was 
scratched out, and on the scutcheon the red balls and the golden field 
were painted in again, and finished with great beauty. My father, 
who possessed a simple vein of poetry, instilled in him by nature, 
together with a certain touch of prophecy, which was doubtless a 
divine gift in him, wrote these four verses under the said arms of 
the Medici, when they were uncovered to the view: 

These arms, which have so long from sight been laid 

Beneath the holy cross, that symbol meek, 

Now lift their glorious glad face, and seek 
With Peter's sacred cloak to be arrayed. 

This epigram was read by all Florence. A few days afterwards Pope 
Julius II. died. The Cardinal de' Medici went to Rome, and was 
elected Pope against the expectation of everybody. He reigned as 
Leo X., that generous and great soul. My father sent him his four 
prophetic verses. The Pope sent to tell him to come to Rome; for 
this would be to his advantage. But he had no will to go; and so, 
in lieu of reward, his place in the palace was taken from him by 

2 This was in 1512, when Lorenzo's two sons, Giuliano and Giovanni (afterwards 
Pope Leo X.), came back through the aid of a Spanish army, after the great battle at 
Ravenna. 

3 The Medicean arms were "or, six pellets gules, three, two, and one." The Floren- 
tine Commune bore, "argent a cross gules." 



14 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

Jacopo Salviati, upon that man's election as Gonfalonier. 4 This 
was the reason why I commenced goldsmith; after which I spent 
part of my time in learning that art, and part in playing, much 
against my will. 

VII 

When my father spoke to me in the way I have above described, 
I entreated him to let me draw a certain fixed number of hours in 
the day; all the rest of my time I would give to music, only with the 
view of satisfying his desire. Upon this he said to me: "So then, 
you take no pleasure in playing?" To which I answered, "No;" be- 
cause that art seemed too base in comparison with what I had in my 
own mind. My good father, driven to despair by this fixed idea of 
mine, placed me in the workshop of Cavaliere Bandinello's father, 
who was called Michel Agnolo, a goldsmith from Pinzi di Monte, 
and a master excellent in that craft. 1 He had no distinction of birth 
whatever, but was the son of a charcoal-seller. This is no blame to 
Bandinello, who has founded the honour of the family if only he 
had done so honestly! However that may be, I have no cause now 
to talk about him. After I had stayed there some days, my father 
took me away from Michel Agnolo, finding himself unable to live 
without having me always under his eyes. Accordingly, much to my 
discontent, I remained at music till I reached the age of fifteen. If I 
were to describe all the wonderful things that happened to me up 
to that time, and all the great dangers to my own life which I ran, 
I should astound my readers; but, in order to avoid prolixity, and 
having very much to relate, I will omit these incidents. 

When I reached the age of fifteen, I put myself, against my 
father's will, to the goldsmith's trade with a man called Antonio, 
son of Sandro, known commonly as Marcone the goldsmith. He was 
a most excellent craftsman and a very good fellow to boot, high- 

4 Cellini makes a mistake here. Salviati married a daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, 
and obtained great influence in Florence; but we have no record of his appointment 
to the office of Gonfalonier. 

1 Baccio Bandinello, the sculptor, and a great rival of Cellini's, as will appear in the 
ensuing pages, was born in 1487, and received the honour of knighthood from Clement 
VII. and Charles V. Posterity has confirmed Cellini's opinion of Bandinello as an artist; 
for his works are coarse, pretentious, and incapable of giving pleasure to any 
person of refined intelligence. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1$ 

spirited and frank in all his ways. My father would not let him 
give me wages like the other apprentices; for having taken up the 
study of this art to please myself, he wished me to indulge my whim 
for drawing to the full. I did so willingly enough; and that honest 
master of mine took marvellous delight in my performances. He 
had an only son, a bastard, to whom he often gave his orders, in 
order to spare me. My liking for the art was so great, or, I may 
truly say, my natural bias, both one and the other, that in a few 
months I caught up the good, nay, the best young craftsmen in our 
business, and began to reap the fruits of my labours. I did not, how- 
ever, neglect to gratify my good father from time to time by playing 
on the flute or cornet. Each time he heard me, I used to make- his 
tears fall accompanied with deep-drawn sighs of satisfaction. My 
filial piety often made me give him that contentment, and induce 
me to pretend that I enjoyed the music too. 

VIII 

At that time I had a brother, younger by two years, a youth of 
extreme boldness and fierce temper. He afterwards became one of 
the great soldiers in the school of that marvellous general Giovannino 
de' Medici, father of Duke Cosimo. 1 The boy was about fourteen, 
and I two years older. One Sunday evening, just before nightfall, 
he happened to find himself between the gate San Gallo and the 
Porta a Pinti; in this quarter he came to duel with a young fellow 
of twenty or thereabouts. They both had swords; and my brother 
dealt so valiantly that, after having badly wounded him, he was 
upon the point of following up his advantage. There was a great 
crowd of people present, among whom were many of the adver- 
sary's kinsfolk. Seeing that the thing was going ill for their own 
man, they put hand to their slings, a stone from one of which hit 
my poor brother in the head. He fell to the ground at once in a 
dead faint. It so chanced that I had been upon the spot alone, and 
without arms; and I had done my best to get my brother out of the 
fray by calling to him: "Make off; you have done enough." Mean- 

1 Cellini refers to the famous Giovanni delle Bande Nere, who was killed in an en- 
gagement in Lombardy in November 1526, by the Imperialist troops marching to the 
sack of Rome. His son Cosimo, after the murder of Duke Alessandro, established the 
second Medicean dynasty in Florence. 



1 6 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

while, as luck would have it, he fell, as I have said, half dead to 
earth. I ran up at once, seized his sword, and stood in front of him, 
bearing the brunt of several rapiers and a shower of stones. I never 
left his side until some brave soldiers came from the gate San Gallo 
and rescued me from the raging crowd; they marvelled much, the 
while, to find such valour in so young a boy. 

Then I carried my brother home for dead, and it was only with 
great difficulty that he came to himself again. When he was cured, 
the Eight, who had already condemned our adversaries and banished 
them for a term of years, sent us also into exile for six months at a 
distance of ten miles from Florence. 2 I said to my brother: "Come 
along with me;" and so we took leave of our poor father; and instead 
of giving us money, for he had none, he bestowed on us his blessing. 
I went to Siena, wishing to look up a certain worthy man called 
Maestro Francesco Castoro. On another occasion, when I had run 
away from my father, I went to this good man, and stayed some 
time with him, working at the goldsmith's trade until my father 
sent for me back. Francesco, when I reached him, recognised me 
at once, and gave me work to do. While thus occupied, he placed a 
house at my disposal for the whole time of my sojourn in Siena. Into 
this I moved, together with my brother, and applied myself to 
labour for the space of several months. My brother had acquired the 
rudiments of Latin, but was still so young that he could not yet relish 
the taste of virtuous employment, but passed his time in dissipation. 

IX 

The Cardinal de' Medici, who afterwards became Pope Clement 
VII., had us recalled to Florence at the entreaty of my father. 1 A 
certain pupil of my father's, moved by his own bad nature, sug- 
gested to the Cardinal that he ought to send me to Bologna, in order 
to learn to play well from a great master there. The name of this 

2 The Eight, or Gli Otto, were a magistracy in Florence with cognizance of matters 
affecting the internal peace of the city. 

1 This Cardinal and Pope was Giulio, a natural son of Giuliano, Lorenzo de' Medici's 
brother, who had been killed in the Pazzi conspiracy, year 1478. Giulio lived to be- 
come Pope Clement VII., to suffer the sack of Rome in 1527, and to make the con- 
cordat with Charles V. at Bologna in 1529-30, which settled for three centuries the 
destiny of Italy. We shall hear much more of him from Cellini in the course of this 
narrative. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY IJ 

master was Antonio, and he was in truth a worthy man in the 
musician's art. The Cardinal said to my father that, i he sent me 
there he would give me letters of recommendation and support. My 
father, dying with joy at such an opportunity, sent me off; and I 
being eager to see the world, went with good grace. 

When I reached Bologna, I put myself under a certain Maestro 
Ercole del Piffero, and began to earn something by my trade. In the 
meantime I used to go every day to take my music lesson, and in a 
few weeks made considerable progress in that accursed art. How- 
ever I made still greater in my trade of goldsmith; for the Cardinal 
having given, me no assistance, I went to live with a Bolognese 
illuminator who was called Scipione Cavalletti (his house was in 
the street of our Lady del Baraccan); and while there I devoted 
myself to drawing and working for one Graziadio, a Jew, with 
whom I earned considerably. 

At the end of six months I returned to Florence, where that fellow 
Pierino, who had been my father's pupil, was greatly mortified by 
my return. To please my father, I went to his house and played the 
cornet and the flute with one of his brothers, who was named 
Girolamo, several years younger than the said Piero, a very worthy 
young man, and quite the contrary of his brother. On one of those 
days my father came to Piero's house to hear us play, and in ecstasy 
at my performance exclaimed: "I shall yet make you a marvellous 
musician against the will of all or any one who may desire to prevent 
me." To this Piero answered, and spoke the truth : "Your Benvenuto 
will get much more honour and profit if he devotes himself to the 
goldsmith's trade than to this piping." These words made my father 
angry, seeing that I too had the same opinion as Piero, that he flew 
into a rage and cried out at him : "Well did I know that it was you, 
you who put obstacles in the way of my cherished wish; you are the 
man who had me ousted from my place at the palace, paying me 
back with that black ingratitude which is the usual recompense of 
great benefits. I got you promoted, and you have got me cashiered; 
I taught you to play with all the little art you have, and you are 
preventing my son from obeying me; but bear in mind these words 
of prophecy: not years or months, I say, but only a few weeks will 
pass before this dirty ingratitude of yours shall plunge you into 



1 8 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

ruin." To these words answered Pierino and said: "Maestro Gio- 
vanni, the majority of men, when they grow old, go mad at the 
same time; and this has happened to you. I am not astonished at it, 
because most liberally have you squandered all your property, with- 
out reflecting that your children had need of it. I mind to do just 
the opposite, and to leave my children so much that they shall be 
able to succour yours." To this my father answered: "No bad tree 
ever bore good fruit; quite the contrary; and I tell you further that 
you are bad, and that your children will be mad and paupers, and 
will cringe for alms to my virtuous and wealthy sons." Thereupon 
we left the house, muttering words of anger on both sides. I had 
taken my father's part; and when we stepped into the street together, 
I told him I was quite ready to take vengeance for the insults heaped 
on him by that scoundrel, provided he permit me to give myself 
up to the art of design. He answered: "My dear son, I too in my 
time was a good draughtsman; but for recreation, after such stupend- 
ous labours, and for the love of me who am your father, who begat 
you and brought you up and implanted so many honourable talents 
in you, for the sake of recreation, I say, will not you promise some- 
times to take in hand your flute and that seductive cornet, and to 
play upon them to your heart's content, inviting the delight of 
music?" I promised I would do so, and very willingly for his love's 
sake. Then my good father said that such excellent parts as I 
possessed would be the greatest vengeance I could take for the insults 
of his enemies. 

Not a whole month had been completed after this scene before 
the man Pierino happened to be building a vault in a house of his, 
which he had in the Via dello Studio; and being one day in a 
ground-floor room above the vault which he was making, together 
with much company around him, he fell to talking about his old 
master, my father. While repeating the words which he had said 
to him concerning his ruin, no sooner had they escaped his lips than 
the floor where he was standing (either because the vault had been 
badly built, or rather through the sheer mightiness of God, who 
does not always pay on Saturday) suddenly gave way. Some of the 
stones and bricks of the vault, which fell with him, broke both his 
legs. The friends who were with him, remaining on the border of 
the broken vault, took no harm, but were astounded and full of 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 19 

wonder, especially because of the prophecy which he had just con- 
temptuously repeated to them. When my father heard of this, he 
took his sword, and went to see the man. There, in the presence of 
his father, who was called Niccolaio da Volterra, a trumpeter of the 
Signory, he said, "O Piero, my dear pupil, I am sorely grieved at 
your mischance; but if you remember it was only a short time ago 
that I warned you of it; and as much as I then said will come to 
happen between your children and mine." Shortly afterwards, the 
ungrateful Piero died of that illness. He left a wife of bad char- 
acter and one son, who after the lapse of some years came to me to 
beg for alms in Rome. I gave him something, as well because it is 
my nature to be charitable, as also because I recalled with tears the 
happy state which Pierino held when my father spake those words of 
prophecy, namely, that Pierino's children should live to crave succour 
from his own virtuous sons. Of this perhaps enough is now said; 
but let none ever laugh at the prognostications of any worthy man 
whom he has wrongfully insulted; because it is not he who speaks, 
nay, but the very voice of God through him. 



All this while I worked as a goldsmith, and was able to assist my 
good father. His other son, my brother Cecchino, had, as I said 
before, been instructed in the rudiments of Latin letters. It was our 
father's wish to make me, the elder, a great musician and composer, 
and him, the younger, a great and learned jurist. He could not, 
however, put force upon the inclinations of our nature, which 
directed me to the arts of design, and my brother, who had a fine and 
graceful person, to the profession of arms. Cecchino, being still 
quite a lad, was returning from his first lesson in the school of the 
stupendous Giovannino de' Medici. On the day when he reached 
home, I happened to be absent; and he, being in want of proper 
clothes, sought out our sisters, who, unknown to my father, gave 
him a cloak and doublet of mine, both new and of good quality. 
I ought to say that, beside the aid I gave my father and my excellent 
and honest sisters, I had bought those handsome clothes out of my 
own savings. When I found I had been cheated, and my clothes 
taken from me, and my brother from whom I should have recovered 
them was gone, I asked my father why he suffered so great a wrong 



2O BENVENUTO CELLINI 

to be done me, seeing that I was always ready to assist him. He 
replied that I was his good son, but that the other, whom he thought 
to have lost, had been found again; also that it was a duty, nay, a 
precept from God Himself, that he who hath should give to him who 
hath not; and that for his sake I ought to bear this injustice, for 
God would increase me in all good things. I, like a youth with- 
out experience, retorted on my poor afflicted parent; and taking 
the miserable remnants of my clothes and money, went toward a 
gate of the city. As I did not know which gate would start me 
on the road to Rome, I arrived at Lucca, and from Lucca reached 
Pisa. 

When I came to Pisa (I was about sixteen years of age at the time), 
I stopped near the middle bridge, by what is called the Fish-stone, 
at the shop of a goldsmith, and began attentively to watch what the 
master was about. 1 He asked me who I was, and what was my 
profession. I told him that I worked a little in the same trade as his 
own. This worthy man bade me come into his shop, and at once 
gave me work to do, and spoke as follows: "Your good appearance 
makes me believe you are a decent honest youth." Then he told 
me out gold, silver, and gems; and when the first day's work was 
finished, he took me in the evening to his house, where he dwelt 
respectably with his handsome wife and children. Thinking of the 
grief which my good father might be feeling for me, I wrote him 
that I was sojourning with a very excellent and honest man, called 
Maestro Ulivieri della Chiostra, and was working with him at many 
good things of beauty and importance. I bade him be of good cheer, 
for that I was bent on learning, and hoped by my acquirements to 
bring him back both profit and honour before long. My good father 
answered the letter at once in words like these: "My son, the love 
I bear you is so great, that if it were not for the honour of our 
family, which above all things I regard, I should immediately have 
set off for you; for indeed it seems like being without the light of my 
eyes, when I do not see you daily, as I used to do. I will make it my 
business to complete the training of my household up to virtuous 
honesty; do you make it yours to acquire excellence in your art; and 

1 The Fish-stone, or Pietra del Pesce, was the market on the quay where the fish 
brought from the sea up the Arno to Pisa used to be sold. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 21 

I only wish you to remember these four simple words, obey them, 
and never let them escape your memory: 

In whatever house you be, 
Steal not, and live honestly." 

XI 

This letter fell into the hands of my master Ulivieri, and he read 
it unknown to me. Afterwards he avowed that he had read it, and 
added : "So then, my Benvenuto, your good looks did not deceive me, 
as a letter from your father which has come into my hands gives 
me assurance, which proves him to be a man of notable honesty and 
worth. Consider yourself then to be at home here, and as though in 
your own father's house." 

While I stayed at Pisa, I went to see the Campo Santo, and there 
I found many beautiful fragments of antiquity, that is to say, marble 
sarcophagi. In other parts of Pisa also I saw many antique objects, 
which I diligently studied whenever I had days or hours free from 
the labour of the workshop. My master, who took pleasure in com- 
ing to visit me in the little room which he had allotted me, observing 
that I spent all my time in studious occupations, began to love me 
like a father. I made great progress in the one year that I stayed 
there, and completed several fine and valuable things in gold and 
silver, which inspired me with a resolute ambition to advance in 
my art. 

My father, in the meanwhile, kept writing piteous entreaties that 
I should return to him; and in every letter bade me not to lose the 
music he had taught me with such trouble. On this, I suddenly 
gave up all wish to go back to him ; so much did I hate that accursed 
music; and I felt as though of a truth I were in paradise the whole 
year I stayed at Pisa, where I never played the flute. 

At the end of the year my master Ulivieri had occasion to go to 
Florence, in order to sell certain gold and silver sweepings which he 
had; 1 and inasmuch as the bad air of Pisa had given me a touch of 
fever, I went with the fever hanging still about me, in my master's 

1 1 have translated spazzature by sweepings. It means all refuse of the precious metals 
left in the goldsmith's trays. 



22 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

company, back to Florence. There my father received him most 
affectionately, and lovingly prayed him, unknown by me, not to 
insist on taking me again to Pisa. I was ill about two months, during 
which time my father had me most kindly treated and cured, always 
repeating that it seemed to him a thousand years till I got well again, 
in order that he might hear me play a little. But when he talked to 
me of music, with his fingers on my pulse, seeing he had some 
acquaintance with medicine and Latin learning, he felt it change 
so much if he approached that topic, that he was often dismayed and 
left my side in tears. When I perceived how greatly he was dis- 
appointed, I bade one of my sisters bring me a flute; for though the 
fever never left me, that instrument is so easy that it did not hurt 
me to play upon it; and I used it with such dexterity of hand and 
tongue that my father coming suddenly upon me, blessed me a 
thousand times, exclaiming that while I was away from him I had 
made great progress, as he thought; and he begged me to go for- 
wards, and not to sacrifice so fine an accomplishment. 



XII 



When I had recovered my health, I returned to my old friend 
Marcone, the worthy goldsmith, who put me in the way of earning 
money, with which I helped my father and our household. About 
that time there came to Florence a sculptor named Piero Torrigiani; 1 
he arrived from England, where he had resided many years; and 
being intimate with my master, he daily visited his house; and when 
he saw my drawings and the things which I was making, he said: 
"I have come to Florence to enlist as many young men as I can; 
for I have undertaken to execute a great work for my king, and 
want some of my own Florentines to help me. Now your method 
of working and your designs are worthy rather of a sculptor than a 
goldsmith; and since I have to turn out a great piece of bronze, I 
will at the same time turn you into a rich and able artist." This man 

1 Torrigiani worked in fact for Henry VIII., and his monument to Henry VII. still 
exists in the Lady Chapel of Westminster Abbey. From England he went to Spain, 
where he modelled a statue of the Virgin for a great nobleman. Not receiving the pay 
he expected, he broke his work to pieces; for which act of sacrilege the Inquisition sent 
him to prison, where he starved himself to death in 1522. Such at least is the legend 
of his end. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 23 

had a splendid person and a most arrogant spirit, with the air of a 
great soldier more than a sculptor, especially in regard to his vehe- 
ment gestures and his resonant voice, together with a habit he had of 
knitting his brows, enough to frighten any man of courage. He kept 
talking every day about his gallant feats among those beasts of 
Englishmen. 

In course of conversation he happened to mention Michel Agnolo 
Buonarroti, led thereto by a drawing I had made from a cartoon of 
that divinest painter. 2 This cartoon was the first masterpiece which 
Michel Agnolo exhibited, in proof of his stupendous talents. He 
produced it in competition with another painter, Lionardo da Vinci, 
who also made a cartoon; and both were intended for the council- 
hall in the palace of the Signory. They represented the taking of 
Pisa by the Florentines; and our admirable Lionardo had chosen to 
depict a battle of horses, with the capture of some standards, in as 
divine a style as could possibly be imagined. Michel Agnolo in his 
cartoon portrayed a number of foot-soldiers, who, the season being 
summer, had gone to bathe in Arno. He drew them at the very 
moment the alarm is sounded, and the men all naked run to arms; 
so splendid in their action that nothing survives of ancient or of 
modern art which touches the same lofty point of excellence; and 
as I have already said, the design of the great Lionardo was itself 
most admirably beautiful. These two cartoons stood, one in the 
palace of the Medici, the other in the hall of the Pope. So long as 
they remained intact, they were the school of the world. Though the 
divine Michel Agnolo in later life finished that great chapel of Pope 
Julius, 3 he never rose half-way to the same pitch of power; his 
genius never afterwards attained to the force of those first studies. 

XIII 

Now let us return to Piero Torrigiani, who, with my drawing in 
his hand, spoke as follows: "This Buonarroti and I used, when we 
were boys, to go into the Church of the Carmine, to learn drawing 

2 The cartoons to which Cellini here alludes were made by Michel Angelo and Lio- 
nardo for the decoration of the Sal a del Gran Consiglio in the Palazzo Vecchio at 
Florence. Only the shadows of them remain to this day; a part of Michel Angelo's, 
engraved by Schiavonetti, and a transcript by Rubens from Lionardo's, called the 
Battle of the Standard. 

3 The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. 



24 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

from the chapel of Masaccio. 1 It was Buonarroti's habit to banter 
all who were drawing there; and one day, among others, when he 
was annoying me, I got more angry than usual, and clenching my 
fist, gave him such a blow on the nose, that I felt bone and cartilage 
go down like biscuit beneath my knuckles; and this mark of mine 
he will carry with him to the grave." 2 These words begat in me such 
hatred of the man, since I was always gazing at the masterpieces of 
the divine Michel Agnolo, that although I felt a wish to go with him 
to England, I now could never bear the sight of him. 

All the while I was at Florence, I studied the noble manner of 
Michel Agnolo, and from this I have never deviated. About that 
time I contracted a close and familiar friendship with an amiable 
lad of my own age, who was also in the goldsmith's trade. He was 
called Francesco, son of Filippo, and grandson of Fra Lippo Lippi, 
that most excellent painter. 3 Through intercourse together, such 
love grew up between us that, day or night, we never stayed apart. 
The house where he lived was still full of the fine studies which 
his father had made, bound up in several books of drawings by his 
hand, and taken from the best antiquities of Rome. The sight of 
these things filled me with passionate enthusiasm; and for two 
years or thereabouts we lived in intimacy. At that time I fashioned 
a silver bas-relief of the size of a little child's hand. It was intended 
for the clasp to a man's belt; for they were then worn as large as 
that. I carved on it a knot of leaves in the antique style, with figures 
of children and other masks of great beauty. This piece I made in 
the workshop of one Francesco Salimbene; and on its being exhibited 
to the trade, the goldsmiths praised me as the best young craftsman 
of their art. 

There was one Giovan Battista, surnamed II Tasso, a wood-carver, 

1 The Chapel of the Carmine, painted in fresco by Masaccio and some other artist, 
possibly Filippino Lippi, is still the most important monument of Florentine art sur- 
viving from the period preceding Raphael. 

2 The profile portraits of Michel Angelo Buonarroti confirm this story. They show 
the bridge of his nose bent in an angle, as though it had been broken. 

3 Fra Filippo Lippi was a Carmelite monk, whose frescoes at Prato and Spoleto and 
oil-paintings in Florence and elsewhere are among the most genial works of the pre- 
Raphaelite Renaissance. Vasari narrates his love-adventures with Lucrezia Buti, and 
Robert Browning has drawn a clever portrait of him in his "Men and Women." His 
son, Filippo or Filippino, was also an able painter, some of whose best work survives 
in the Strozzi Chapel of S. Maria Novella at Florence, and in the Church of S. Maria 
Sopra Minerva at Rome. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 25 

precisely of my own age, who one day said to me that if I was willing 
to go to Rome, he should be glad to join me. 4 Now we had this 
conversation together immediately after dinner; and I being angry 
with my father for the same old reason of the music, said to Tasso : 
"You are a fellow of words, not deeds." He answered: "I too have 
come to anger with my mother; and if I had cash enough to take me 
to Rome, I would not turn back to lock the door of that wretched 
little workshop I call mine." To these words I replied that if that 
was all that kept him in Florence I had money enough in my pockets 
to bring us both to Rome. Talking thus and walking onwards, we 
found ourselves at the gate San Piero Gattolini without noticing 
that we had got there; whereupon I said: "Friend Tasso, this is 
God's doing that we have reached this gate without either you or 
me noticing that we were there; and now that I am here, it seems to 
me that I have finished half the journey." And so, being of one 
accord, we pursued our way together, saying, "Oh, what will our 
old folks say this evening?" We then made an agreement not to 
think more about them till we reached Rome. So we tied our aprons 
behind our backs, and trudged almost in silence to Siena. When 
we arrived at Siena, Tasso said (for he had hurt his feet) that he 
would not go farther, and asked me to lend him money to get back. 
I made answer: "I should not have enough left to go forward; you 
ought indeed to have thought of this on leaving Florence; and if it 
is because of your feet that you shirk the journey, we will find a 
return horse for Rome, which will deprive you of the excuse." 
Accordingly I hired a horse; and seeing that he did not answer, I 
took my way toward the gate of Rome. When he knew that I was 
firmly resolved to go, muttering between his teeth, and limping as 
well as he could, he came on behind me very slowly and at a great 
distance. On reaching the gate, I felt pity for my comrade, and 
waited for him, and took him on the crupper, saying: "What would 
our friends speak of us to-morrow, if, having left for Rome, we had 
not pluck to get beyond Siena?" Then the good Tasso said I spoke 
the truth; and as he was a pleasant fellow, he began to laugh and 
sing; and in this way, always singing and laughing, we travelled the 

4 Tasso was an able artist, mentioned both by Vasari and Pietro Aretino. He stood 
high in the favour of Duke Cosimo de' Medici, who took his opinion on the work of 
other craftsmen. 



26 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

whole way to Rome. I had just nineteen years then, and so had 
the century. 

When we reached Rome, I put myself under a master who was 
known as II Firenzuola. His name was Giovanni, and he came 
from Firenzuola in Lombardy, a most able craftsman in large vases 
and big plate of that kind. I showed him part of the model for the 
clasp which I had made in Florence at Salimbene's. It pleased him 
exceedingly; and turning to one of his journeymen, a Florentine 
called Giannotto Giannotti, who had been several years with him, 
he spoke as follows: "This fellow is one of the Florentines who 
know something, and you are one of those who know nothing." 
Then I recognised the man, and turned to speak with him; for 
before he went to Rome, we often went to draw together, and had 
been very intimate comrades. He was so put out by the words his 
master flung at him, that he said he did not recognise me or know 
who I was; whereupon I got angry, and cried out: "O Giannotto, 
you who were once my friend for have we not been together in 
such and such places, and drawn, and ate, and drunk, and slept in 
company at your house in the country? I don't want you to bear 
witness on my behalf to this worthy man, your master, because I 
hope my hands are such that without aid from you they will declare 
what sort of a fellow I am." 

XIV 

When I had thus spoken, Firenzuola, who was a man of hot 
spirit and brave, turned to Giannotto, and said to him: "You vile 
rascal, aren't you ashamed to treat a man who has been so intimate 
a comrade with you in this way?" And with the same movement of 
quick feeling, he faced round and said to me: "Welcome to my 
workshop; and do as you have promised; let your hands declare 
what man you are." 

He gave me a very fine piece of silver plate to work on for a 
cardinal. It was a little oblong box, copied from the porphyry sar- 
cophagus before the door of the Rotonda. Beside what I copied, I 
enriched it with so many elegant masks of my invention, that my 
master went about showing it through the art, and boasting that so 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 27 

good a piece of work had been turned out from his shop. 1 It was 
about half a cubit in size, and was so constructed as to serve for a 
salt-cellar at table. This was the first earning that I touched at 
Rome, and part of it I sent to assist my good father; the rest I kept 
for my own use, living upon it while I went about studying the 
antiquities of Rome, until my money failed, and I had to return to 
the shop for work. Battista del Tasso, my comrade, did not stay 
long in Rome, but went back to Florence. 

After undertaking some new commissions, I took it into my head, 
as soon as I had finished them, to change my master; I had indeed 
been worried into doing so by a certain Milanese, called Pagolo 
Arsago. 2 My first master, Firenzuola, had a great quarrel about this 
with Arsago, and abused him in my presence; whereupon I took 
up speech in defence of my new master. I said that I was born free, 
and free I meant to live, and that there was no reason to complain 
of him, far less of me, since some few crowns of wages were still due 
to me; also that I chose to go, like a free journeyman, where it 
pleased me, knowing I did wrong to no man. My new master then 
put in with his excuses, saying that he had not asked me to come, 
and that I should gratify him by returning with Firenzuola. To this 
I replied that I was not aware of wronging the latter in any way, 
and as I had completed his commissions, I chose to be my own 
master and not the man of others, and that he who wanted me must 
beg me of myself. Firenzuola cried: "I don't intend to beg you of 
yourself; I have done with you; don't show yourself again upon my 
premises." I reminded him of the money he owed me. He laughed 
me in the face; on which I said that if I knew how to use my tools 
in handicraft as well as he had seen, I could be quite as clever with 
my sword in claiming the just payment of my labour. While we 
were exchanging these words, an old man happened to come up, 
called Maestro Antonio, of San Marino. He was the chief among 
the Roman goldsmiths, and had been Firenzuola's master. Hearing 

1 Cellini's use of the word arte for the art or trade of goldsmiths corresponds to 
"the art" as used by English writers early in this century. See Haydon's Autobiography, 
passim. 

2 The Italian is sobbillato, which might be also translated inveigled or instigated. 
But Varchi, the contemporary of Cellini, gives this verb the force of using pressure 
and boring on until somebody is driven to do something. 



28 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

what I had to say, which I took good care that he should understand, 
he immediately espoused my cause, and bade Firenzuola pay me. 
The dispute waxed warm, because Firenzuola was an admirable 
swordsman, far better than he was a goldsmith. Yet reason made 
itself heard; and I backed my cause with the same spirit, till I got 
myself paid. In course of time Firenzuola and I became friends, 
and at his request I stood godfather to one of his children. 

xv 

I went on working with Pagolo Arsago, and earned a good deal 
of money, the greater part of which I always sent to my good father. 
At the end of two years, upon my father's entreaty, I returned to 
Florence, and put myself once more under Francesco Salimbene, 
with whom I earned a great deal, and took continual pains to 
improve in my art. I renewed my intimacy with Francesco di 
Filippo; and though I was too much given to pleasure, owing to that 
accursed music, I never neglected to devote some hours of the day 
or night to study. At that time I fashioned a silver heart's-key 
(chiavaquore)) as it was then called. This was a girdle three inches 
broad, which used to be made for brides, and was executed in half 
relief with some small figures in the round. It was a commission 
from a man called Raffaello Lapaccini. I was very badly paid; but 
the honour which it brought me was worth far more than the gain 
I might have justly made by it. Having at this time worked with 
many different persons in Florence, I had come to know some 
worthy men among the goldsmiths, as, for instance, Marcone, my 
first master; but I also met with others reputed honest, who did all 
they could to ruin me, and robbed me grossly. When I perceived 
this, I left their company, and held them for thieves and black- 
guards. One of the goldsmiths, called Giovanbattista Sogliani, kindly 
accommodated me with part of his shop, which stood at the side of 
the New Market near the Landi's bank. There I finished several 
pretty pieces, and made good gains, and was able to give my family 
much help. This roused the jealousy of the bad men among my 
former masters, who were called Salvadore and Michele Guasconti. 
In the guild of the goldsmiths they had three big shops, and drove 
a thriving trade. On becoming aware of their evil will against me, 
I complained to certain worthy fellows, and remarked that they 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 29 

ought to have been satisfied with the thieveries they practised on me 
under the cloak of hypocritical kindness. This coming to their ears, 
they threatened to make me sorely repent of such words; but I, 
who knew not what the colour of fear was, paid them little or no 
heed. 

XVI 

It chanced one day that I was leaning against a shop of one of 
these men, who called out to me, and began partly reproaching, 
partly bullying. I answered that had they done their duty by me, 
I should have spoken of them what one speaks of good and worthy 
men; but as they had done the contrary, they ought to complain of 
themselves and not of me. While I was standing there and talking, 
one of them, named Gherardo Guasconti, their cousin, having per- 
haps been put up to it by them, lay in wait till a beast of burden 
went by. 1 It was a load of bricks. When the load reached me, 
Gherardo pushed it so violently on my body that I was very much 
hurt. Turning suddenly round and seeing him laughing, I struck 
him such a blow on the temple that he fell down, stunned, like one 
dead. Then I faced round to his cousins, and said: "That's the way 
to treat cowardly thieves of your sort;" and when they wanted to 
make a move upon me, trusting to their numbers, I, whose blood 
was now well up, laid hands to a little knife I had, and cried: "If 
one of you comes out of the shop, let the other run for the con- 
fessor, because the doctor will have nothing to do here." These 
words so frightened them that not one stirred to help their cousin. 
As soon as I had gone, the fathers and sons ran to the Eight, and 
declared that I had assaulted them in their shops with sword in 
hand, a thing which had never yet been seen in Florence. The 
magistrates had me summoned. I appeared before them; and they 
began to upbraid and cry out upon me partly, I think, because they 
saw me in my cloak, while the others were dressed like citizens in 
mantle and hood; 2 but also because my adversaries had been to the 
houses of those magistrates, and had talked with all of them in 

1 The Italian is appostb che passassi una soma. The verb appostare has the double 
meaning of lying in wait and arranging something on purpose. Cellini's words may 
mean, caused a beast of burden to pass by. 

2 Varchi says that a man who went about with only his cloak or cape by daytime, 
if he were not a soldier, was reputed an ill-liver. The Florentine citizens at this time 
still wore their ancient civil dress of the long gown and hood called lucco. 



3O BENVENUTO CELLINI 

private, while I, inexperienced in such matters, had not spoken to 
any of them, trusting in the goodness of my cause. I said that, 
having received such outrage and insult from Gherardo, and in my 
fury having only given him a box on the ear, I did not think I 
deserved such a vehement reprimand. I had hardly time to finish the 
word box, before Prinzivalle della Stufa, 3 who was one of the Eight, 
interrupted me by saying: "You gave him a blow, and not a box, 
on the ear." The bell was rung and we were all ordered out, when 
Prinzivalle spoke thus in my defence to his brother judges: "Mark, 
sirs, the simplicity of this poor young man, who has accused him- 
self of having given a box on the ear, under the impression that this 
is of less importance than a blow; whereas a box on the ear in the 
New Market carries a fine of twenty-five crowns, while a blow costs 
little or nothing. He is a young man of admirable talents, and sup- 
ports his poor family by his labour in great abundance; I would to 
God that our city had plenty of this sort, instead of the present 
dearth of them." 

XVII 

Among the magistrates were some Radical fellows with turned-up 
hoods, who had been influenced by the entreaties and the calumnies 
of my opponents, because they all belonged to the party of Fra Giro- 
lamo; and these men would have had me sent to prison and punished 
without too close a reckoning. 1 But the good Prinzivalle put a stop 
to that. So they sentenced me to pay four measures of flour, which 
were to be given as alms to the nunnery of the Murate. 2 I was called 
in again; and he ordered me not to speak a word under pain of their 
displeasure, and to perform the sentence they had passed. Then, 
after giving me another sharp rebuke, they sent us to the chancellor; 
I muttering all the while, "It was a slap and not a blow," with which 
we left the Eight bursting with laughter. The chancellor bound us 

3 This man was an ardent supporter of the Medici, and in 1510 organized a con- 
spiracy in their favour against the Gonfalonier Soderini. 

1 Cellini calls these magistrates arronzinati cappuccetti, a term corresponding to our 
Roundheads. The democratic or anti-Medicean party in Florence at that time, who 
adhered to the republican principles of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, distinguished them- 
selves by wearing the long tails of their hoods twisted up and turned round their 
heads. Cellini shows his Medicean sympathies by using this contemptuous term, and 
by the honourable mention he makes of Prinzivalle della Stufa. 

2 A convent of closely immured nuns. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 31 

over upon bail on both sides; but only I was punished by having to 
pay the four measures of meal. Albeit just then I felt as though I 
had been massacred, I sent for one of my cousins, called Maestro 
Annibale, the surgeon, father of Messer Librodoro Librodori, de- 
siring that he should go bail for me. 3 He refused to come, which 
made me so angry, that, fuming with fury and swelling like an asp, 
I took a desperate resolve. At this point one may observe how the 
stars do not so much sway as force our conduct. When I reflected 
on the great obligations which this Annibale owed my family, my 
rage grew to such a pitch that, turning wholly to evil, and being 
also by nature somewhat choleric, I waited till the magistrates had 
gone to dinner; and when I was alone, and observed that none of 
their officers were watching me, in the fire of my anger, I left the 
palace, ran to my shop, seized a dagger and rushed to the house of 
my enemies, who were at home and shop together. I found them at 
table; and Gherardo, who had been the cause of the quarrel, flung 
himself upon me. I stabbed him in the breast, piercing doublet and 
jerkin through and through to the shirt, without however grazing 
his flesh or doing him the least harm in the world. When I felt 
my hand go in, and heard the clothes tear, I thought that I had 
killed him; and seeing him fall terror-struck to earth, I cried: 
"Traitors, this day is the day on which I mean to murder you all." 
Father, mother, and sisters, thinking the last day had come, threw 
themselves upon their knees, screaming out for mercy with all their 
might; but I perceiving that they offered no resistance, and that he 
was stretched for dead upon the ground, thought it too base a thing 
to touch them. I ran storming down the staircase; and when I 
reached the street, I found all the rest of the household, more than 
twelve persons; one of them had seized an iron shovel, another a 
thick iron pipe, one had an anvil, some of them hammers, and some 
cudgels. When I got among them, raging like a mad bull, I flung 
four or five to the earth, and fell down with them myself, continually 
aiming my dagger now at one and now at another. Those who 
remained upright plied both hands with all their force, giving it me 
with hammers, cudgels, and anvil; but inasmuch as God does some- 

3 The word I have translated massacred above is assassinato. It occurs frequently in 
Italian of this period, and indicates the extremity of wrong and outrage. 



32 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

time mercifully intervene, He so ordered that neither they nor I did 
any harm to one another. I only lost my cap, on which my adver- 
saries seized, though they had run away from it before, and struck 
at it with all their weapons. Afterwards, they searched among their 
dead and wounded, and saw that not a single man was injured. 

XVIII 

I went off in the direction of Santa Maria Novella, and stumbling 
up against Fra Alessio Strozzi, whom by the way I did not know, 
I entreated this good friar for the love of God to save my life, since 
I had committed a great fault. He told me to have no fear; for had 
I done every sin in the world, I was yet in perfect safety in his 
little cell. 

After about an hour, the Eight, in an extraordinary meeting, 
caused one of the most dreadful bans which ever were heard of to 
be published against me, announcing heavy penalties against who 
should harbour me or know where I was, without regard to place 
or to the quality of my protector. My poor afflicted father went to the 
Eight, threw himself upon his knees, and prayed for mercy for his 
unfortunate young son. Thereupon one of those Radical fellows, 
shaking the crest of his twisted hood, stood up and addressed my 
father with these insulting words: 1 "Get up from there, and begone 
at once, for to-morrow we shall send your son into the country with 
the lances." 2 My poor father had still the spirit to answer : "What 
God shall have ordained, that will you do, and not a jot or tittle 
more." Whereto the same man replied that for certain God had 
ordained as he had spoken. My father said: "The thought consoles 
me that you do not know for certain;" and quitting their presence, 
he came to visit me, together with a young man of my own age, 
called Pierro di Giovanni Landi we loved one another as though 
we had been brothers. 

Under his mantle the lad carried a first-rate sword and a splendid 
coat of mail; and when they found me, my brave father told me 

1 Un ali quell arrovellati scotendo la cresto dello arronzinato cappucclo. See above, 
p. 31. The democrats in Cellini's days were called at Florence Arrabbiati or Arrovellati. 
In the days of Savonarola this nickname had been given to the ultra-Medicean party or 
Palleschi. 

2 Lanciotti. There is some doubt about this word. But it clearly means men armed 
with lances, at the disposal of the Signory. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 33 

what had happened, and what the magistrates had said to him. Then 
he kissed me on the forehead and both eyes, and gave me his hearty 
blessing, saying: "May the power of goodness of God be your pro- 
tection;" and reaching me the sword and armour, he helped me with 
his own hands to put them on. Afterwards he added : "Oh, my good 
son, with these arms in thy hand thou shalt either live or die." Pier 
Landi, who was present, kept shedding tears; and when he had 
given me ten golden crowns, I bade him remove a few hairs from 
my chin, which were the first down of my manhood. Frate Alessio 
disguised me like a friar and gave me a lay brother to go with me. 3 
Quitting the convent, and issuing from the city by the gate of Prato, 
I went along the walls as far as the Piazza di San Gallo. Then 
I ascended the slope of Montui, and in one of the first houses there 
I found a man called II Grassuccio, own brother to Messer Bene- 
detto da Monte Varchi. 4 I flung off my monk's clothes, and 
became once more a man. Then we mounted two horses, which 
were waiting there for us, and went by night to Siena. Grassuccio re- 
turned to Florence, sought out my father, and gave him the news 
of my safe escape. In the excess of his joy, it seemed a thousand 
years to my father till he should meet that member of the Eight 
who had insulted him; and when he came across the man, he said: 
"See you, Antonio, that it was God who knew what had to happen 
to my son, and not yourself?" To which the fellow answered: 
"Only let him get another time into our clutches!" And my father: 
"I shall spend my time in thanking God that He has rescued him 
from that fate." 

XIX 

At Siena I waited for the mail to Rome, which I afterwards joined; 
and when we passed the Paglia, we met a courier carrying news of 
the new Pope, Clement VII. Upon my arrival in Rome, I went to 
work in the shop of the master-goldsmith Santi. He was dead; but 
a son of his cajrried on the business. He did not work himself, but 

3 Un converse, an attendant on the monks. 

4 Benedetto da Monte Varchi was the celebrated poet, scholar, and historian of 
Florence, better known as Varchi. Another of his brothers was a physician of high 
repute at Florence. They continued throughout Cellini's life to live on terms of 
intimacy with him. 



34 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

entrusted all his commissions to a young man named Lucagnolo from 
lesi, a country fellow, who while yet a child had come into Santi's 
service. This man was short but well proportioned, and was a more 
skilful craftsman than any one whom I had met with up to that 
time; remarkable for facility and excellent in design. He executed 
large plate only: that is to say, vases of the utmost beauty, basons, 
and such pieces. 1 Having put myself to work there, I began to make 
some candelabra for the Bishop of Salamanca, a Spaniard. 2 They 
were richly chased, so far as that sort of work admits. A pupil of 
Raffaello da Urbino called Gian Francesco, and commonly known 
as II Fattore, was a painter of great ability; and being on terms of 
friendship with the Bishop, he introduced me to his favour, so that 
I obtained many commissions from that prelate, and earned consid- 
erable sums of money. 3 

During that time I went to draw, sometimes in Michel Agnolo's 
chapel, and sometimes in the house of Agostino Chigi of Siena, 
which contained many incomparable paintings by the hand of that 
great master Raffaello. 4 This I did on feast-days, because the house 
was then inhabited by Messer Gismondo, Agostino's brother. They 
plumed themselves exceedingly when they saw young men of my 
sort coming to study in their palaces. Gismondo's wife, noticing my 
frequent presence in that house she was a lady as courteous as 
could be, and of surpassing beauty came up to me one day, looked 
at my drawings, and asked me if I was a sculptor or a painter; to 
whom I said I was a goldsmith. She remarked that I drew too well 
for a goldsmith; and having made one of her waiting-maids bring 
a lily of the finest diamonds set in gold, she showed it to me, and 
bade me value it. I valued it at 800 crowns. Then she said that I 
had very nearly hit the mark, and asked me whether I felt capable 
of setting the stones really well. I said that I should much like to 
do so, and began before her eyes to make a little sketch for it, 

1 Cellini calls this grosseria. 

2 Don Francesco de Bobadilla. He came to Rome in 1517, was shut up with 
Clement in the castle of S. Angelo in 1527, and died in 1529, after his return to Spain. 

3 This painter, Gio. Francesco Penni, surnamed II Fattore, aided Raphael in his 
Roman frescoes and was much beloved by him. Together with Giulio Romano he 
completed the imperfect Stanze of the Vatican. 

4 Cellini here alludes to the Sistine Chapel and to the Villa Farnesina in Trastevere, 
built by the Sienese banker, Agostino Chigi. It was here that Raphael painted his 
Galatea and the whole fable of Cupid and Psyche. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 35 

working all the better because of the pleasure I took in conversing 
with so lovely and agreeable a gentlewoman. When the sketch was 
finished, another Roman lady of great beauty joined us; she had been 
above, and now descending to the ground-floor, asked Madonna 
Porzia what she was doing there. She answered with a smile: "I 
am amusing myself by watching this worthy young man at his draw- 
ing; he is as good as he is handsome." I had by this time acquired 
a trifle of assurance, mixed, however, with some honest bashfulness; 
so I blushed and said: "Such as I am, lady, I shall ever be most 
ready to serve you." The gentlewoman, also slightly blushing, said: 
"You know well that I want you to serve me;" and reaching me the 
lily, told me to take it away; and gave me besides twenty golden 
crowns which she had in her bag, and added: "Set me the jewel 
after the fashion you have sketched, and keep for me the old gold 
in which it is now set." On this the Roman lady observed: "If I 
were in that young man's body, I should go off without asking 
leave." Madonna Porzia replied that virtues rarely are at home with 
vices, and that if I did such a thing, I should strongly belie my good 
looks of an honest man. Then turning round, she took the Roman 
lady's hand, and with a pleasant smile said: "Farewell, Benvenuto." 
I stayed on a short while at the drawing I was making, which was 
a copy of a Jove by RafTaello. When I had finished it and left the 
house, I set myself to making a little model of wax, in order to show 
how the jewel would look when it was completed. This I took to 
Madonna Porzia, whom I found with the same Roman lady. Both 
of them were highly satisfied with my work, and treated me so 
kindly that, being somewhat emboldened, I promised the jewel 
should be twice as good as the model. Accordingly I set hand to it, 
and in twelve days I finished it in the form of a fleur-de-lys, as I have 
said above, ornamenting it with little masks, children, and animals, 
exquisitely enamelled, whereby the diamonds which formed the lily 
were more than doubled in effect. 

xx 

While I was working at this piece, Lucagnolo, of whose ability I 
have before spoken, showed considerable discontent, telling me over 
and over again that I might acquire far more profit and honour by 



36 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

helping him to execute large plate, as I had done at first. I made 
him answer that, whenever I chose, I should always be capable of 
working at great silver pieces; but that things like that on which 
I was now engaged were not commissioned every day; and beside 
their bringing no less honour than large silver plate, there was also 
more profit to be made by them. He laughed me in the face, and 
said: "Wait and see, Benvenuto; for by the time that you have fin- 
ished that work of yours, I will make haste to have finished this vase, 
which I took in hand when you did the jewel; and then experience 
shall teach you what profit I shall get from my vase, and what you 
will get from your ornament." I answered that I was very glad 
indeed to enter into such a competition with so good a craftsman as 
he was, because the end would show which of us was mistaken. 
Accordingly both the one and the other of us, with a scornful smile 
upon our lips, bent our heads in grim earnest to the work, which 
both were now desirous of accomplishing; so that after about ten 
days, each had finished his undertaking with great delicacy and 
artistic skill. 

Lucagnolo's was a huge silver piece, used at the table of Pope 
Clement, into which he flung away bits of bone and the rind of 
divers fruits, while eating; an object of ostentation rather than neces- 
sity. The vase was adorned with two fine handles, together with 
many masks, both small and great, and masses of lovely foliage, in 
as exquisite a style of elegance as could be imagined; on seeing which 
I said it was the most beautiful vase that ever I set eyes on. Thinking 
he had convinced me, Lucagnolo replied : "Your work seems to me 
no less beautiful, but we shall soon perceive the difference between 
the two." So he took his vase and carried it to the Pope, who was 
very well pleased with it, and ordered at once that he should be paid 
at the ordinary rate of such large plate. Meanwhile I carried mine 
to Madonna Porzia, who looked at it with astonishment, and told 
me I had far surpassed my promise. Then she bade me ask for my 
reward whatever I liked; for it seemed to her my desert was so 
great that if I craved a castle she could hardly recompense me; but 
since that was not in her hands to bestow, she added laughing that 
I must beg what lay within her power. I answered that the greatest 
reward I could desire for my labour was to have satisfied her lady- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 37 

ship. Then, smiling in my turn, and bowing to her, I took my leave, 
saying I wanted no reward but that. She turned to the Roman lady 
and said: "You see that the qualities we discerned in him are com- 
panied by virtues, and not vices." They both expressed their admira- 
tion, and then Madonna Porzia continued : "Friend Benvenuto, have 
you never heard it said that when the poor give to the rich, the devil 
laughs?" I replied: "Quite true! and yet, in the midst of all his 
troubles, I should like this time to see him laugh;" and as I took my 
leave, she said that this time she had no will to bestow on him that 
favour. 

When I came back to the shop, Lucagnolo had the money for his 
vase in a paper packet; and on my arrival he cried out: "Come and 
compare the price of your jewel with the price of my plate." I said 
that he must leave things as they were till the next day, because I 
hoped that even as my work in its kind was not less excellent than 
his, so I should be able to show him quite an equal price for it. 

XXI 

On the day following, Madonna Porzia sent a major-domo of hers 
to my shop, who called me out, and putting into my hands a paper 
packet full of money from his lady, told me that she did not choose 
the devil should have his whole laugh out : by which she hinted that 
the money sent me was not the entire payment merited by my indus- 
try, and other messages were added worthy of so courteous a lady. 
Lucagnolo, who was burning to compare his packet with mine, 
burst into the shop; then in the presence of twelve journeymen and 
some neighbours, eager to behold the result of this competition, he 
seized his packet, scornfully exclaiming "Ou! ou!" three or four 
times, while he poured his money on the counter with a great noise. 
They were twenty-five crowns in giulios; and he fancied that mine 
would be four or five crowns di moneta. 1 I for my part, stunned and 
stifled by his cries, and by the looks and smiles of the bystanders, 
first peeped into my packet; then, after seeing that it contained 
nothing but gold, I retired to one end of the counter, and, keeping 

1 Scudi di giuli and scudl di moneta. The giulio was a silver coin worth 56 Italian 
centimes. The scudi di moneta was worth 10 giulios. Cellini was paid in golden 
crowns, which had a much higher value. The scuda and the ducato at this epoch were 
reckoned at 7 lire, the lira at 20 soldi. 



38 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

my eyes lowered and making no noise at all, I lifted it with both 
hands suddenly above my head, and emptied it like a mill hopper. 2 
My coin was twice as much as his; which caused the onlookers, who 
had fixed their eyes on me with some derision, to turn round sud- 
denly to him and say: "Lucagnolo, Benvenuto's pieces, being all of 
gold and twice as many as yours, make a far finer effect." I thought 
for certain that, what with jealousy and what with shame, Lucagnolo 
would have fallen dead upon the spot; and though he took the third 
part of my gain, since I was a journeyman (for such is the custom 
of the trade, two-thirds fall to the workman and one-third to the 
masters of the shop), yet inconsiderate envy had more power in him 
than avarice: it ought indeed to have worked quite the other way, 
he being a peasant's son from lesi. He cursed his art and those who 
taught it him, vowing that thenceforth he would never work at large 
plate, but give his whole attention to those brothel gewgaws, since 
they were so well paid. Equally enraged on my side, I answered, that 
every bird sang its own note; that he talked after the fashion of the 
hovels he came from; but that I dared swear that I should succeed 
with ease in making his lubberly lumber, while he would never be 
successful in my brothel gewgaws. 3 Thus I flung off in a passion, 
telling him that I would soon show him that I spoke truth. The 
bystanders openly declared against him, holding him for a lout, as 
indeed he was, and me for a man, as I had proved myself. 

XXII 

Next day, I went to thank Madonna Porzia, and told her that her 
ladyship had done the opposite of what she said she would; for that 
while I wanted to make the devil laugh, she had made him once 
more deny God. We both laughed pleasantly at this, and she gave 
me other commissions for fine and substantial work. 

Meanwhile, I contrived, by means of a pupil of Raflaello da Ur- 
bino, to get an order from the Bishop of Salamanca for one of those 
great water-vessels called acquereccia, which are used for ornaments 
to place on sideboards. He wanted a pair made of equal size; and 
one of them he entrusted to Lucagnolo, the other to me. Giovan 

2 The packet was funnel-shaped, and Cellini poured the coins out from the broad 
end. 

3 The two slang phrases translated above are bordellerie and coglionerie. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 39 

Francesco, the painter I have mentioned, gave us the design. 1 
Accordingly I set hand with marvellous good-will to this piece of 
plate, and was accommodated with a part of his workshop by a 
Milanese named Maestro Giovan Piero della Tacca. Having made 
my preparations, I calculated how much money I should need for cer- 
tain affairs of my own, and sent all the rest to assist my poor father. 
It so happened that just when this was being paid to him in 
Florence, he stumbled upon one of those Radicals who were in the 
Eight at the time when I got into that little trouble there. It was 
the very man who had abused him so rudely, and who swore that 
I should certainly be sent into the country with the lances. Now 
this fellow had some sons of very bad morals and repute; wherefore 
my father said to him: "Misfortunes can happen to anybody, espe- 
cially to men of choleric humour when they are in the right, even 
as it happened to my son; but let the rest of his life bear witness 
how virtuously I have brought him up. Would God, for your well- 
being, that your sons may act neither worse nor better toward you 
than mine do to me. God rendered me able to bring them up as I 
have done; and where my own power could not reach, 'twas He 
who rescued them, against your expectation, out of your violent 
hands." On leaving the man, he wrote me all this story, begging 
me for God's sake to practise music at times, in order that I might 
not lose the fine accomplishment which he had taught me with such 
trouble. The letter so overflowed with expressions of the tenderest 
fatherly affection, that I was moved to tears of filial piety, resolving, 
before he died, to gratify him amply with regard to music. Thus 
God grants us those lawful blessings which we ask in prayer, nothing 
doubting. 

XXIII 

While I was pushing forward Salamanca's vase, I had only one 
little boy as help, whom I had taken at the entreaty of friends, and 
half against my own will, to be my workman. He was about four- 
teen years of age, bore the name of Paulino, and was son to a Roman 
burgess, who lived upon the income of his property. Paulino was 
the best-mannered, the most honest, and the most beautiful boy I 
ever saw in my whole life. His modest ways and actions, together 

1 That is, II Fattore. See above, p. 34. 



40 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

with his superlative beauty and his devotion to myself, bred in me as 
great an affection for him as a man's breast can hold. This pas- 
sionate love led me oftentimes to delight the lad with music; for I 
observed that his marvellous features, which by complexion wore a 
tone of modest melancholy, brightened up, and when I took my 
cornet, broke into a smile so lovely and so sweet, that I do not marvel 
at the silly stories which the Greeks have written about the deities of 
heaven. Indeed, if my boy had lived in those times, he would prob- 
ably have turned their heads still more. 1 He had a sister, named 
Faustina, more beautiful, I verily believe, than that Faustina about 
whom the old books gossip so. Sometimes he took me to their vine- 
yard, and, so far as I could judge, it struck me that Paulino's good 
father would have welcomed me as a son-in-law. This affair led me 
to play more than I was used to do. 

It happened at that time that one Giangiacomo of Cesena, a musi- 
cian in the Pope's band, and a very excellent performer, sent word 
through Lorenzo, the trumpeter of Lucca, who is now in our Duke's 
service, to inquire whether I was inclined to help them at the Pope's 
Ferragosto, playing soprano with my cornet in some motets of great 
beauty selected by them for that occasion. 2 Although I had the 
greatest desire to finish the vase I had begun, yet, since music has a 
wondrous charm of its own, and also because I wished to please my 
old father, I consented to join them. During eight days before the 
festival we practised two hours a day together; then on the first of 
August we went to the Belvedere, and while Pope Clement was at 
table, we played those carefully studied motets so well that his Holi- 
ness protested he had never heard music more sweetly executed or 
with better harmony of parts. He sent for Giangiacomo, and asked 
him where and how he had procured so excellent a cornet for 
soprano, and inquired particularly who I was. Giangiacomo told 
him my name in full. Whereupon the Pope said: "So, then, he is 
the son of Maestro Giovanni?" On being assured I was, the Pope 
expressed his wish to have me in his service with the other bands- 
men. Giangiacomo replied: "Most blessed Father, I cannot pretend 

1 GH Arebbe jatti piu tiscire de' gangheri; would have taken them still more off the 
hinges. 

2 The Ferragosto or Ferief Atigusti was a festival upon the first of August. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 4! 

for certain that you will get him, for his profession, to which he 
devotes himself assiduously, is that of a goldsmith, and he works in 
it miraculously well, and earns by it far more than he could do by 
playing." To this the Pope added: "I am the better inclined to him 
now that I find him possessor of a talent more than I expected. See 
that he obtains the same salary as the rest of you; and tell him from 
me to join my service, and that I will find work enough by the day 
for him to do in his other trade." Then stretching out his hand, he 
gave him a hundred golden crowns of the Camera in a handker- 
chief, and said: 3 "Divide these so that he may take his share." 

When Giangiacomo left the Pope, he came to us, and related in 
detail all that the Pope had said; and after dividing the money be- 
tween the eight of us, and giving me my share, he said to me : "Now 
I am going to have you inscribed among our company." I replied: 
"Let the day pass; to-morrow I will give my answer." When I left 
them, I went meditating whether I ought to accept the invitation, 
inasmuch as I could not but suffer if I abandoned the noble studies of 
my art. The following night my father appeared to me in a dream, 
and begged me with tears of tenderest affection, for God's love and 
his, to enter upon this engagement. Methought I answered that 
nothing would induce me to do so. In an instant he assumed so 
horrible an aspect as to frighten me out of my wits, and cried: "If 
you do not, you will have a father's curse; but if you do, may you 
be ever blessed by me!" When I woke, I ran, for very fright, to have 
myself inscribed. Then I wrote to my old father, telling him the 
news, which so affected him with extreme joy that a sudden fit of 
illness took him, and well-nigh brought him to death's door. In his 
answer to my letter, he told me that he too had dreamed nearly the 
same as I had. 

XXIV 

Knowing now that I had gratified my father's honest wish, I began 
to think that everything would prosper with me to a glorious and 
honourable end. Accordingly, I set myself with indefatigable indus- 
try to the completion of the vase I had begun for Salamanca. That 
prelate was a very extraordinary man, extremely rich, but difficult 
to please. He sent daily to learn what I was doing; and when his 

3 The Camera Apostolica was the Roman Exchequer. 



42 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

messenger did not find me at home, he broke into fury, saying that 
he would take the work out of my hands and give it to others to 
finish. This came of my slavery to that accursed music. Still I la- 
boured diligently night and day, until, when I had brought my work 
to a point when it could be exhibited, I submitted it to the inspec- 
tion of the Bishop. This so increased his desire to see it finished that 
I was sorry I had shown it. At the end of three months I had it ready, 
with little animals and foliage and masks, as beautiful as one could 
hope to see. No sooner was it done than I sent it by the hand of 
my workman, Paulino, to show that able artist Lucagnolo, of whom 
I have spoken above. Paulino, with the grace and beauty which be- 
longed to him, spoke as follows: "Messer Lucagnolo, Benvenuto 
bids me say that he has sent to show you his promises and your lum- 
ber, expecting in return to see from you his gewgaws." This message 
given, Lucagnolo took up the vase, and carefully examined it; then 
he said to Paulino: "Fair boy, tell your master that he is a great 
and able artist, and that I beg him to be willing to have me for a 
friend, and not to engage in aught else." The mission of that vir- 
tuous and marvellous lad caused me the greatest joy; and then the 
vase was carried to Salamanca, who ordered it to be valued. Lucag- 
nolo took part in the valuation, estimating and praising it far above 
my own opinion. Salamanca, lifting up the vase, cried like a true 
Spaniard: "I swear by God that I will take as long in paying him as 
he has lagged in making it." When I heard this, I was exceedingly 
put out, and fell to cursing all Spain and every one who wished well 
to it. 

Amongst other beautiful ornaments, this vase had a handle, made 
all of one piece, with most delicate mechanism, which, when a spring 
was touched, stood upright above the mouth of it. While the prelate 
was one day ostentatiously exhibiting my vase to certain Spanish 
gentlemen of his suite, it chanced that one of them, upon Mon- 
signor's quitting the room, began roughly to work the handle, and 
as the gentle spring which moved it could not bear his loutish 
violence, it broke in his hand. Aware what mischief he had done, 
he begged the butler who had charge of the Bishop's plate to take 
it to the master who had made it, for him to mend, and promised 
to pay what price he asked, provided it was set to rights at once. So 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 43 

the vase came once more into my hands, and I promised to put it 
forthwith in order, which indeed I did. It was brought to me before 
dinner; and at twenty-two o'clock the man who brought it returned, 
all in a sweat, for he had run the whole way, Monsignor having 
again asked for it to show to certain other gentlemen. 1 The butler, 
then, without giving me time to utter a word, cried : "Quick, quick, 
bring the vase." I, who wanted to act at leisure and not to give it up to 
him, said that I did not mean to be so quick. The serving-man got 
into such a rage that he made as though he would put one hand to 
his sword, while with the other he threatened to break the shop open. 
To this I put a stop at once with my own weapon, using therewith 
spirited language, and saying: "I am not going to give it to you! Go 
and tell Monsignor, your master, that I want the money for my work 
before I let it leave this shop." When the fellow saw he could not 
obtain it by swaggering, he fell to praying me, as one prays to the 
Cross, declaring that if I would only give it up, he would take 
care I should be paid. These words did not make me swerve from 
my purpose; but I kept on saying the same thing. At last, despairing 
of success, he swore to come with Spaniards enough to cut me in 
pieces. Then he took to his heels; while I, who inclined to believe 
partly in their murderous attack, resolved that I would defend myself 
with courage. So I got an admirable little gun ready, which I used 
for shooting game, and muttered to myself: "He who robs me of my 
property and labour may take my life too, and welcome." While I 
was carrying on this debate in my own mind, a crowd of Spaniards 
arrived, led by their major-domo, who, with the headstrong rashness 
of his race, bade them go in and take the vase and give me a good 
beating. Hearing these words, I showed them the muzzle of my 
gun, and prepared to fire, and cried in a loud voice : "Renegade Jews, 
traitors, is it thus that one breaks into houses and shops in our city 
of Rome? Come as many of you thieves as like, an inch nearer to 
this wicket, and I'll blow all their brains out with my gun." Then 
I turned the muzzle toward their major-domo, and making as 

1 The Italians reckoned time from sundown till sundown, counting twenty-four 
hours. Twenty-two o'clock was therefore two hours before nightfall. One hour of 
the night was one hour after nightfall, and so forth. By this system of reckoning, it 
is clear that the hours varied with the season of the year; and unless we know the 
exact month in which an event took place, we cannot translate any hour into terms 
of our own system. 



44 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

though I would discharge it, called out: "And you big thief, who 
are egging them on, I mean to kill you first." He clapped spurs to 
the jennet he was riding, and took flight headlong. The commotion 
we were making stirred up all the neighbours, who came crowding 
round, together with some Roman gentlemen who chanced to pass, 
and cried: "Do but kill the renegades, and we will stand by you." 
These words had the effect of frightening the Spaniards in good 
earnest. They withdrew, and were compelled by the circumstances 
to relate the whole affair to Monsignor. Being a man of inordinate 
haughtiness, he rated the members of his household, both because 
they had engaged in such an act of violence, and also because, having 
begun, they had not gone through with it. At this juncture the 
painter, who had been concerned in the whole matter, came in, and 
the Bishop bade him go and tell me that if I did not bring the vase 
at once, he would make mincemeat of me; 2 but if I brought it, he 
would pay its price down. These threats were so far from terrifying 
me, that I sent him word I was going immediately to lay my case 
before the Pope. 

In the meantime, his anger and my fear subsided; whereupon, 
being guaranteed by some Roman noblemen of high degree that the 
prelate would not harm me, and having assurance that I should be 
paid, I armed myself with a large poniard and my good coat of mail, 
and betook myself to his palace, where he had drawn up all his 
household. I entered, and Paulino followed with the silver vase. It 
was just like passing through the Zodiac, neither more nor less; for 
one of them had the face of the lion, another of the scorpion, a third 
of the crab. However, we passed onward to the presence of the ras- 
cally priest, who spouted out a torrent of such language as only 
priests and Spaniards have at their command. In return I never 
raised my eyes to look at him, nor answered word for word. That 
seemed to augment the fury of his anger; and causing paper to be 
put before me, he commanded me to write an acknowledgment to 
the effect that I had been amply satisfied and paid in full. Then I 
raised my head, and said I should be very glad to do so when I had 
received the money. The Bishop's rage continued to rise; threats and 

2 Lit., "the largest piece left of me should be my ears." 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 45 

recriminations were flung about; but at last the money was paid, and 
I wrote the receipt. Then I departed, glad at heart and in high 
spirits. 

xxv 

When Pope Clement heard the story he had seen the vase before, 
but it was not shown him as my work he expressed much pleasure 
and spoke warmly in my praise, publicly saying that he felt very 
favourably toward me. This caused Monsignor Salamanca to repent 
that he had hectored over me; and in order to make up our quarrel, 
he sent the same painter to inform me that he meant to give me 
large commissions. I replied that I was willing to undertake them, 
but that I should require to be paid in advance. This speech too came 
to Pope Clement's ears, and made him laugh heartily. Cardinal Cibo 
was in the presence, and the Pope narrated to him the whole history 
of my dispute with the Bishop. 1 Then he turned to one of his people, 
and ordered him to go on supplying me with work for the palace. 
Cardinal Cibo sent for me, and after some time spent in agreeable 
conversation, gave me the order for a large vase, bigger than Sala- 
manca's. I likewise obtained commissions from Cardinal Cornaro, 
and many others of the Holy College, especially Ridolfi and Salviati; 
they all kept me well employed, so that I earned plenty of money. 2 

Madonna Porzia now advised me to open a shop of my own. This 
I did; and I never stopped working for that excellent and gentle lady, 
who paid me exceedingly well, and by whose means perhaps it was 
that I came to make a figure in the world. 

I contracted close friendship with Signor Gabbriello Ceserino, at 
that time Gonfalonier of Rome, and executed many pieces for him. 
One, among the rest, is worthy of mention. It was a large golden 
medal to wear in the hat. I engraved upon it Leda with her swan; 
and being very well pleased with the workmanship, he said he 
should like to have it valued, in order that I might be properly paid. 
Now, since the medal was executed with consummate skill, the 

1 Innocenzio Cibo Malaspina, Archbishop of Genoa, and nephew of Lorenzo de 1 
Medici. He was a prelate of vast wealth and a great patron of arts and letters. 

2 Marco Cornaro was a brother of Caterina, the Queen of Cyprus. He obtained the 
hat in 1492. Niccolo Ridolfi was a nephew of Leo X. Giovanni Salviati, the son of 
Jacopo mentioned above, p. 14, was also a nephew of Leo X., who gave him the hat 
in 1517- 



46 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

valuers of the trade set a far higher price on it than he had thought 
of. I therefore kept the medal, and got nothing fo r my pains. The 
same sort of adventures happened in this case as in that of Sala- 
manca's vase. But I shall pass such matters briefly by, lest they hinder 
me from telling things of greater importance. 



XXVI 



Since I am writing my life, I must from time to time diverge from 
my profession in order to describe with brevity, if not in detail, some 
incidents which have no bearing on my career as artist. On the 
morning of Saint John's Day I happened to be dining with several 
men of our nation, painters, sculptors, goldsmiths, amongst the 
most notable of whom was Rosso and Gainfrancesco, the pupil 
of Raffaello. 1 I had invited them without restraint or ceremony to 
the place of our meeting, and they were all laughing and joking, as 
is natural when a crowd of men come together to make merry on 
so great a festival. It chanced that a light-brained swaggering young 
fellow passed by; he was a soldier of Rienzo da Ceri, who, when 
he heard the noise that we were making, gave vent to a string of 
opprobrious sarcasms upon the folk of Florence. 2 I, who was the 
host of those great artists and men of worth, taking the insult to 
myself, slipped out quietly without being observed, and went up to 
him. I ought to say that he had a punk of his there, and was going 
on with his stupid ribaldries to amuse her. When I met him, I asked 
if he was the rash fellow who was speaking evil of the Florentines. 
He answered at once: "I am that man." On this I raised my 
hand, struck him in the face, and said: "And I am this man." Then 
we each of us drew our swords with spirit; but the fray had hardly 
begun when a crowd of persons intervened, who rather took my 
part than not, hearing and seeing that I was in the right. 

On the following day a challenge to fight with him was brought 

1 St. John's Day was the great Florentine Festival, on which all the Guilds went in 
procession with pageants through the city. Of the Florentine painter, II Rosso, or 
Maitre Roux, this is the first mention by Cellini. He went to France in 1534, and died 
an obscure death there in 1541. 

2 This Rienzo, Renzo, or Lorenzo da Ceri, was a captain of adventurers or Con- 
dottiere, who hired his mercenary forces to paymasters. He defended Crema for the 
Venetians in 1514, and conquered Urbino for the Pope in 1515. Afterwards he fought 
for the French in the Italian wars. We shall hear more of him again during the sack 
of Rome. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 47 

me, which I accepted very gladly, saying that I expected to com- 
plete this job far quicker than those of the other art I practised. So 
I went at once to confer with a fine old man called Bevilacqua, who 
was reputed to have been the first sword of Italy, because he had 
fought more than twenty serious duels and had always come off with 
honour. This excellent man was a great friend of mine; he knew me 
as an artist and had also been concerned as intermediary in certain 
ugly quarrels between me and others. Accordingly, when he had 
learned my business, he answered with a smile: "My Benvenuto, if 
you had an affair with Mars, I am sure you would come out with 
honour, because through all the years that I have known you, I have 
never seen you wrongfully take up a quarrel." So he consented to be 
my second, and we repaired with sword in hand to the appointed 
place; but no blood was shed, for my opponent made the matter up, 
and I came with much credit out of the affair. 3 I will not add fur- 
ther particulars; for though they would be very interesting in their 
own way, I wish to keep both space and words for my art, which 
has been my chief inducement to write as I am doing, and about 
which I shall have only too much to say. 

The spirit of honourable rivalry impelled me to attempt some other 
masterpiece, which should equal, or even surpass, the productions of 
that able craftsman, Lucagnolo, whom I have mentioned. Still I did 
not on this account neglect my own fine art of jewellery; and so both 
the one and the other wrought me much profit and more credit, and 
in both of them I continued to produce things of marked originality. 
There was at that time in Rome a very able artist of Perugia named 
Lautizio, who worked only in one department, where he was sole 
and unrivalled throughout the world. 4 You must know that at Rome 
every cardinal has a seal, upon which his title is engraved, and these 
seals are made just as large as a child's hand of about twelve years 
of age; and, as I have already said, the cardinal's title is engraved 
upon the seal together with a great many ornamental figures. A 
well-made article of the kind fetches a hundred, or more than a 
hundred crowns. This excellent workman, like Lucagnolo, roused 
in me some honest rivalry, although the art he practised is far remote 

3 The Italian, restando dal tnio avversario, seems to mean that Cellini's opponent 
proposed an accommodation, apologized, or stayed the duel at a certain point. 

4 See Cellini's Treatise Oreficcria, cap. vi., for more particulars about this artist. 



48 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

from the other branches of gold-smithery, and consequently Lautizio 
was not skilled in making anything but seals. I gave my mind to 
acquiring his craft also, although I found it very difficult; and, unre- 
pelled by the trouble which it gave me, I went on zealously upon the 
path of profit and improvement. 

There was in Rome another most excellent craftsman of ability, 
who was a Milanese named Messer Caradosso. 5 He dealt in nothing 
but little chiselled medals, made of plates of metal, and such-like 
things. I have seen of his some paxes in half relief, and some Christs 
a palm in length wrought of the thinnest golden plates, so exquisitely 
done that I esteemed him the greatest master in that kind I had ever 
seen, and envied him more than all the rest together. There were 
also other masters who worked at medals carved in steel, which may 
be called the models and true guides for those who aim at striking 
coins in the most perfect style. All these divers arts I set myself with 
unflagging industry to learn. 

I must not omit the exquisite art of enamelling, in which I have 
never known any one excel save a Florentine, our countryman, 
called Amerigo. 6 I did not know him, but was well acquainted with 
his incomparable masterpieces. Nothing in any part of the world 
or by any craftsman that I have seen, approached the divine beauty 
of their workmanship. To this branch too I devoted myself with 
all my strength, although it is extremely difficult, chiefly because of 
the fire, which, after long time and trouble spent in other processes, 
has to be applied at last, and not unfrequently brings the whole to 
ruin. In spite of its great difficulties, it gave me so much pleasure 
that I looked upon them as recreation; and this came from the special 
gift which the God of nature bestowed on me, that is to say, a tem- 
perament so happy and of such excellent parts that I was freely able 
to accomplish whatever it pleased me to take in hand. The various 
departments of art which I have described are very different one 
from the other, so that a man who excels in one of them, if he 
undertakes the others, hardly ever achieves the same success; whereas 

5 His real name was Ambrogio Foppa. The nickname Caradosso is said to have 
stuck to him in consequence of a Spaniard calling him Bear's-face in his own tongue. 
He struck Leo X.'s coins; and we possess some excellent medallion portraits by his 
hand. 

6 For him, consult Cellini's Oreficeria. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 49 

I strove with all my power to become equally versed in all of 
them: and in the proper place I shall demonstrate that I attained 
my object. 



XXVII 



At that time, while I was still a young man of about twenty-three, 
there raged a plague of such extraordinary violence that many thou- 
sands died of it every day in Rome. Somewhat terrified at this 
calamity, I began to take certain amusements, as my mind suggested, 
and for a reason which I will presently relate. I had formed a habit 
of going on feast-days to the ancient buildings, and copying parts 
of them in wax or with the pencil; and since these buildings are all 
ruins, and the ruins house innumerable pigeons, it came into my 
head to use my gun against these birds. So then, avoiding all com- 
merce with people, in my terror of the plague, I used to put a 
fowling-piece on my boy Pagolino's shoulder, and he and I went 
out alone into the ruins; and oftentimes we came home laden with 
a cargo of the fattest pigeons. I did not care to charge my gun with 
more than a single ball; and thus it was by pure skill in the art that 
I filled such heavy bags. I had a fowling-piece which I had made 
myself; inside and out it was as bright as any mirror. I also used to 
make a very fine sort of powder, in doing which I discovered secret 
processes, beyond any which have yet been found; and on this point, 
in order to be brief, I will give but one particular, which will astonish 
good shots of every degree. This is, that when I charged my gun 
with powder weighing one-fifth of the ball, it carried two hundred 
paces point-blank. It is true that the great delight I took in this 
exercise bid fair to withdraw me from my art and studies; yet in 
another way it gave me more than it deprived me of, seeing that 
each time I went out shooting I returned with greatly better health, 
because the open air was a benefit to my constitution. My natural 
temperament was melancholy, and while I was taking these amuse- 
ments, my heart leapt up with joy, and I found that I could work 
better and with far greater mastery than when I spent my whole 
time in study and manual labour. In this way my gun, at the end 
of the game, stood me more in profit than in loss. 

It was also the cause of my making acquaintance with certain 



5O BENVENUTO CELLINI 

hunters after curiosities, who followed in the track 1 of those Lom- 
bard peasants who used to come to Rome to till the vineyards at the 
proper season. While digging the ground, they frequently turned 
up antique medals, agates, chrysoprases, cornelians, and cameos; also 
sometimes jewels, as, for instance, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, 
and rubies. The peasants used to sell things of this sort to the traders 
for a mere trifle; and I very often, when I met them, paid the latter 
several times as many golden crowns as they had given giulios for 
some object. Independently of the profit I made by this traffic, which 
was at least tenfold, it brought me also into agreeable relations with 
nearly all the cardinals of Rome. I will only touch upon a few of 
the most notable and rarest of these curiosities. There came into my 
hands, among many other fragments, the head of a dolphin about as 
big as a good-sized ballot-bean. Not only was the style of this head 
extremely beautiful, but nature had here far surpassed art; for the 
stone was an emerald of such good colour, that the man who bought 
it from me for tens of crowns sold it again for hundreds after setting 
it as a finger-ring. I will mention another kind of gem; this was a 
magnificent topaz; and here art equalled nature; it was as large as 
a big hazel-nut, with the head of Minerva in a style of inconceivable 
beauty. I remember yet another precious stone, different from these; 
it was a cameo, engraved with Hercules binding Cerberus of the 
triple throat; such was its beauty and the skill of its workman- 
ship, that our great Michel Agnolo protested he had never seen any- 
thing so wonderful. Among many bronze medals, I obtained one 
upon which was a head of Jupiter. It was the largest that had ever 
been seen; the head of the most perfect execution; and it had on the 
reverse side a very fine design of some little figures in the same style. 
I might enlarge at great length on this curiosity; but I will refrain 
for fear of being prolix. 

XXVIII 

As I have said above, the plague had broken out in Rome; but 
though I must return a little way upon my steps, I shall not therefore 
abandon the main path of my history. There arrived in Rome a sur- 
geon of the highest renown, who was called Maestro Giacomo da 

1 Stavano alle velette. Perhaps lay in wait for. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 51 

Carpi. 1 This able man, in the course of his other practice, undertook 
the most desperate cases of the so-called French disease. In Rome 
this kind of illness is very partial to the priests, and especially to the 
richest of them. When, therefore, Maestro Giacomo had made his 
talents known, he professed to work miracles in the treatment of 
such cases by means of certain fumigations; but he only undertook a 
cure after stipulating for his fees, which he reckoned not by tens, but 
by hundreds of crowns. He was a great connoisseur in the arts of 
design. Chancing to pass one day before my shop, he saw a lot of 
drawings which I had laid upon the counter, and among these were 
several designs for little vases in a capricious style, which I had 
sketched for my amusement. These vases were in quite a different 
fashion from any which had been seen up to that date. He was 
anxious that I should finish one or two of them for him in silver; 
and this I did with the fullest satisfaction, seeing they exactly suited 
my own fancy. The clever surgeon paid me very well, and yet the 
honour which the vases brought me was worth a hundred times 
as much; for the best craftsmen in the goldsmith's trade declared 
they had never seen anything more beautiful or better executed. 

No sooner had I finished them than he showed them to the Pope; 
and the next day following he betook himself away from Rome. He 
was a man of much learning, who used to discourse wonderfully 
about medicine. The Pope would fain have had him in his service, 
but he replied that he would not take service with anybody in the 
world, and that whoso had need of him might come to seek him out. 
He was a person of great sagacity, and did wisely to get out of Rome; 
for not many months afterwards, all the patients he had treated grew 
so ill that they were a hundred times worse off than before he came. 
He would certainly have been murdered if he had stopped. He 
showed my little vases to several persons of quality; amongst others, 
to the most excellent Duke of Ferrara, and pretended that he had 
got them from a great lord in Rome, by telling this nobleman that 
if he wanted to be cured, he must give him those two vases; and 
that the lord had answered that they were antique, and besought 

1 Giacomo Berengario da Carpi was, in fact, a great physician, surgeon, and student 
of anatomy. He is said to have been the first to use mercury in the cure of syphilis, a 
disease which was devastating Italy after the year 1495. He amassed a large fortune, 
which, when he died at Ferrara about 1530, he bequeathed to the Duke there. 



52 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

him to ask for anything else which it might be convenient for him 
to give, provided only he would leave him those; but, according to 
his own account, Maestro Giacomo made as though he would not 
undertake the cure, and so he got them. 

1 was told this by Messer Alberto Bendedio in Ferrara, who with 
great ostentation showed me some earthenware copies he possessed 
of them. 2 Thereupon I laughed, and as I said nothing, Messer Al- 
berto Bendedio, who was a haughty man, flew into a rage and said : 
"You are laughing at them, are you? And I tell you that during 
the last thousand years there has not been born a man capable of so 
much as copying them." I then, not caring to deprive them of so 
eminent a reputation, kept silence, and admired them with mute 
stupefaction. It was said to me in Rome by many great lords, some 
of whom were my friends, that the work of which I have been speak- 
ing was, in their opinion of marvellous excellence and genuine an- 
tiquity; whereupon, emboldened by their praises, I revealed that I 
had made them. As they would not believe it, and as I wished to 
prove that I had spoken truth, I was obliged to bring evidence and 
to make new drawings of the vases; for my word alone was not 
enough, inasmuch as Maestro Giacomo had cunningly insisted upon 
carrying off the old drawings with him. By this little job I earned 
a fair amount of money. 

XXIX 

The plague went dragging on for many months, but I had as yet 
managed to keep it at bay; for though several of my comrades were 
dead, I survived in health and freedom. Now it chanced one evening 
that an intimate comrade of mine brought home to supper a Bo- 
lognese prostitute named Faustina. She was a very fine woman, but 
about thirty years of age; and she had with her a little serving-girl of 
thirteen or fourteen. Faustina belonging to my friend, I would not 
have touched her for all the gold in the world; and though she de- 
clared she was madly in love with me, I remained steadfast in my 
loyalty. But after they had gone to bed, I stole away the little serving- 
girl, who was quite a fresh maid, and woe to her if her mistress had 
known of it! The result was that I enjoyed a very pleasant night, 

2 See below, Book II. Chap, viii., for a full account of this incident at Ferrara. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 53 

far more to my satisfaction than if I had passed it with Faustina. I 
rose upon the hour of breaking fast, and felt tired, for I had travelled 
many miles that night, and was wanting to take food, when a crush- 
ing headache seized me; several boils appeared on my left arm, 
together with a carbuncle which showed itself just beyond the palm 
of the left hand where it joins the wrist. Everybody in the house 
was in a panic; my friend, the cow and the calf, all fled. Left alone 
there with my poor little prentice, who refused to abandon me, I felt 
stifled at the heart, and made up my mind for certain I was a dead 
man. 

Just then the father of the lad went by, who was physician to the 
Cardinal lacoacci, 1 and lived as member of that prelate's household. 2 
The boy called out: "Come, father, and see Benvenuto; he is in bed 
with some trifling indisposition." Without thinking what my com- 
plaint might be, the doctor came up at once, and when he had felt 
my pulse, he saw and felt what was very contrary to his own wishes. 
Turning round to his son, he said: "O traitor of a child, you've 
ruined me; how can I venture now into the Cardinal's presence?" 
His son made answer: "Why, father, this man my master is worth 
far more than all the cardinals in Rome." Then the doctor turned 
to me and said: "Since I am here, I will consent to treat you. But 
of one thing only I warn you, that if you have enjoyed a woman, 
you are doomed." To this I replied: "I did so this very night." He 
answered: "With whom, and to what extent?" 3 I said: "Last night, 
and with a girl in her earliest maturity." Upon this, perceiving that 
he had spoken foolishly, he made haste to add: "Well, considering 
the sores are so new, and have not yet begun to stink, and that the 
remedies will be taken in time, you need not be too much afraid, 
for I have good hopes of curing you." When he had prescribed for 
me and gone away, a very dear friend of mine, called Giovanni 
Rigogli, came in, who fell to commiserating my great suffering and 
also my desertion by my comrade, and said: "Be of good cheer, my 
Benvenuto, for I will never leave your side until I see you restored 
to health." I told him not to come too close, since it was all over 
with me. Only I besought him to be so kind as to take a considerable 

1 Probably Domenico lacobacci, who obtained the hat in 1517. 

2 A sua provisione stava, i. e., he was in the Cardinal's regular pay. 

3 Quanta. Perhaps we ought to read quando when? 



54 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

quantity of crowns, which were lying in a little box near my bed, 
and when God had thought fit to remove me from this world, to 
send them to my poor father, writing pleasantly to him, in the way 
I too had done, so far as that appalling season of the plague per- 
mitted. 4 My beloved friend declared that he had no intention what- 
soever of leaving me, and that come what might, in life or death, he 
knew very well what was his duty toward a friend. And so we went 
on by the help of God: and the admirable remedies which I had 
used began to work a great improvement, and I soon came well out 
of that dreadful sickness. 

The sore was still open, with a plug of lint inside it and a plaster 
above, when I went out riding on a little wild pony. He was covered 
with hair four fingers long, and was exactly as big as a well-grown 
bear; indeed he looked just like a bear. I rode out on him to visit the 
painter Rosso, who was then living in the country, toward Civita 
Vecchia, at a place of Count Anguillara's called Cervetera. I found 
my friend, and he was very glad to see me; whereupon I said: "I am 
come to do to you that which you did to me so many months ago." 
He burst out laughing, embraced and kissed me, and begged me 
for the Count's sake to keep quiet. I stayed in that place about a 
month, with much content and gladness, enjoying good wines and 
excellent food, and treated with the greatest kindness by the Count; 
every day I used to ride out alone along the seashore, where I dis- 
mounted, and filled my pockets with all sorts of pebbles, snail shells, 
and sea shells of great rarity and beauty. 

On the last day (for after this I went there no more) I was attacked 
by a band of men, who had disguised themselves, and disembarked 
from a Moorish privateer. When they thought that they had run me 
into a certain passage, where it seemed impossible that I should 
escape from their hands, I suddenly mounted my pony, resolved to 
be roasted or boiled alive at that pass perilous, seeing I had little 
hope to evade one or the other of these fates; 5 but, as God willed, 

4 Come ancora io avevo jatto secondo i'usanza che promettava quell' arrabbiata 
stagione. I am not sure that I have given the right sense in the text above. Leclanche 
interprets the words thus: "that I too had fared according to the wont of that appalling 
season," i. e., had died of the plague. But I think the version in my sense is more 
true both to Italian and to Cellini's special style. 

5 *'. e., to escape either being drowned or shot. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 55 

my pony, who was the same I have described above, took an incred- 
ibly wide jump, and brought me off in safety, for which I heartily 
thanked God. I told the story to the Count; he ran to arms; but we 
saw the galleys setting out to sea. The next day following I went 
back sound and with good cheer to Rome. 



xxx 



The plague had by this time almost died out, so that the survivors, 
when they met together alive, rejoiced with much delight in one 
another's company. This led to the formation of a club of painters, 
sculptors, and goldsmiths, the best that were in Rome; and the 
founder of it was a sculptor with the name of Michel Agnolo. 1 He 
was a Sienese and a man of great ability, who could hold his own 
against any other workman in that art; but, above all, he was the 
most amusing comrade and the heartiest good fellow in the universe. 
Of all the members of the club, he was the eldest, and yet the 
youngest from the strength and vigour of his body. We often came 
together; at the very least twice a week. I must not omit to mention 
that our society counted Giulio Romano, the painter, and Gian Fran- 
cesco, both of them celebrated pupils of the mighty Raflfaello da 
Urbino. 

After many and many merry meetings, it seemed good to our 
worthy president that for the following Sunday we should repair to 
supper in his house, and that each one of us should be obliged to 
bring with him his crow (such was the nickname Michel Agnolo 
gave to women in the club), and that whoso did not bring one 
should be sconced by paying a supper to the whole company. Those 
of us who had no familiarity with women of the town, were forced 
to purvey themselves at no small trouble and expense, in order to 
appear without disgrace at that distinguished feast of artists. I had 
reckoned upon being well provided with a young woman of con- 
siderable beauty, called Pantasilea, who was very much in love with 
me; but I was obliged to give her up to one of my dearest friends, 
called II Bachiacca, who on his side had been, and still was, over 

1 This sculptor came to Rome with his compatriot Baldassare Peruzzi, and was em- 
ployed upon the monument of Pope Adrian VI., which he executed with some help 
from Tribolo. 



56 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

head and ears in love with her. 2 This exchange excited a certain 
amount of lover's anger, because the lady, seeing I had abandoned 
her at Bachiacca's first entreaty, imagined that I held in slight esteem 
the great affection which she bore me. In course of time a very 
serious incident grew out of this misunderstanding, through her 
desire to take revenge for the affront I had put upon her; whereof 
I shall speak hereafter in the proper place. 

Well, then, the hour was drawing nigh when we had to present 
ourselves before that company of men of genius, each with his own 
crow; and I was still unprovided; and yet I thought it would be 
stupid to fail of such a madcap bagatelle; 3 but what particularly 
weighed upon my mind was that I did not choose to lend the light 
of my countenance in that illustrious sphere to some miserable 
plume-plucked scarecrow. All these considerations made me devise 
a pleasant trick, for the increase of merriment and the diffusion of 
mirth in our society. 

Having taken this resolve, I sent for a stripling of sixteen years, 
who lived in the next house to mine; he was the son of a Spanish 
coppersmith. This young man gave his time to Latin studies, and 
was very diligent in their pursuit. He bore the name of Diego, had 
a handsome figure, and a complexion of marvellous brilliancy; the 
outlines of his head and face were far more beautiful than those of 
the antique Antinous: I had often copied them, gaining thereby 
much honour from the works in which I used them. The youth had 
no acquaintances, and was therefore quite unknown; dressed very 
ill and negligently; all his affections being set upon those wonderful 
studies of his. After bringing him to my house, I begged him to let 
me array him in the woman's clothes which I had caused to be laid 
out. He readily complied, and put them on at once, while I added 
new beauties to the beauty of his face by the elaborate and studied 
way in which I dressed his hair. In his ears I placed two little rings, 
set with two large and fair pearls; the rings were broken; they only 
clipped his ears, which looked as though they had been pierced. 

2 There were two artists at this epoch surnamed Bachiacca, the twin sons of Uber- 
tino Verdi, called respectively Francesco and Antonio. Francesco was an excellent 
painter of miniature oil-pictures; Antonio the first embroiderer of his age. The one 
alluded to here is probably Francesco. 

3 Mancare di una sipazza cosa. The pazza cosa may be the supper-party or the 
cornacchia. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 57 

Afterwards I wreathed his throat with chains of gold and rich jewels, 
and ornamented his fair hands with rings. Then I took him in a 
pleasant manner by one ear, and drew him before a great looking- 
glass. The lad, when he beheld himself, cried out with a burst of 
enthusiasm: "Heavens! is that Diego?" I said: "That is Diego, from 
whom until this day I never asked for any kind of favour; but 
now I only beseech Diego to do me pleasure in one harmless 
thing; and it is this I want him to come in those very clothes to 
supper with the company of artists whereof he has often heard me 
speak." The young man, who was honest, virtuous, and wise, 
checked his enthusiasm, bent his eyes to the ground, and stood for a 
short while in silence. Then with a sudden move he lifted up his 
face and said: "With Benvenuto I will go; now let us start." 

I wrapped his head in a large kind of napkin, which is called in 
Rome a summer-cloth; and when we reached the place of meeting, 
the company had already assembled, and everybody came forward 
to greet me. Michel Agnolo had placed himself between Giulio and 
Giovan Francesco. I lifted the veil from the head of my beauty; and 
then Michel Agnolo, who, as I have already said, was the most 
humorous and amusing fellow in the world, laid his two hands, the 
one on Giulio's and the other on Gian Francesco's shoulders, and 
pulling them with all his force, made them bow down, while he, on 
his knees upon the floor, cried out for mercy, and called to all 
the folk in words like these: "Behold ye of what sort are the 
angels of paradise! for though they are called angels, here shall 
ye see that they are not all of the male gender." Then with a 
loud voice he added: 

"Angel beauteous, angel best, 
Save me thou, make thou me blest." 

Upon this my charming creature laughed, and lifted the right hand 
and gave him a papal benediction, with many pleasant words to 
boot. So Michel Agnolo stood up, and said it was the custom to 
kiss the feet of the Pope and the cheeks of angels; and having done 
the latter to Diego, the boy blushed deeply, which immensely en- 
hanced his beauty. 
When this reception was over, we found the whole room full of 



58 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

sonnets, which every man of us had made and sent to Michel Agnolo. 
My lad began to read them, and read them all aloud so gracefully, 
that his infinite charms were heightened beyond the powers of lan- 
guage to describe. Then followed conversation and witty sayings, 
on which I will not enlarge, for that is not my business; only one 
clever word must be mentioned, for it was spoken by that admirable 
painter Giulio, who, looking round with meaning 4 in his eyes on 
the bystanders, and fixing them particularly upon the women, turned 
to Michel Agnolo and said: "My dear Michel Agnolo, your nick- 
name of crow very well suits those ladies to-day, though I vow they 
are somewhat less fair than crows by the side of one of the most 
lovely peacocks which fancy could have painted." 

When the banquet was served and ready, and we were going to 
sit down to table, Giulio asked leave to be allowed to place us. This 
being granted, he took the women by the hand, and arranged them 
all upon the inner side, with my fair in the centre; then he placed all 
the men on the outside and me in the middle, saying there was no 
honour too great for my deserts. As a background to the women, 
there was spread an espalier of natural jasmines in full beauty, 5 which 
set off their charms, and especially Diego's, to such great advantage, 
that words would fail to describe the effect. Then we all of us fell 
to enjoying the abundance of our host's well-furnished table. The 
supper was followed by a short concert of delightful music, voices 
joining in harmony with instruments; and forasmuch as they were 
singing and playing from the book, my beauty begged to be allowed 
to sing his part. He performed the music better than almost all the 
rest, which so astonished the company that Giulio and Michel 
Agnolo dropped their earlier tone of banter, exchanging it for well- 
weighed terms of sober heartfelt admiration. 

After the music was over, a certain Aurelio Ascolano, 6 remarkable 
for his gift as an improvisatory poet, began to extol the women in 
choice phrases of exquisite compliment. While he was chanting, the 

4 Virtnosamente. Cellini uses the word virtuoso in many senses, but always more 
with reference to intellectual than moral qualities. It denotes genius, artistic ability, 
masculine force, &c. 

5 Un tessuto di gelsumini naturali e bellissimi. Tessuto is properly something woven, 
a fabric; and I am not sure whether Cellini does not mean that the ladies had behind 
their backs a tapestry representing jasmines in a natural manner. 

6 Probably Eurialo d'Ascoli, a friend of Caro, Molza, Aretino. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 59 

two girls who had my beauty between them never left off chattering. 
One of them related how she had gone wrong; the other asked mine 
how it had happened with her, and who were her friends, and how 
long she had been settled in Rome, and many other questions of the 
kind. It is true that, if I chose to describe such laughable episodes, 
I could relate several odd things which then occurred through Pan- 
tasilea's jealousy on my account; but since they form no part of my 
design, I pass them briefly over. At last the conversation of those 
loose women vexed my beauty, whom we had christened Pomona 
for the nonce; and Pomona, wanting to escape from their silly talk, 
turned restlessly upon her chair, first to one side and then to the 
other. The female brought by Giulio asked whether she felt indis- 
posed. Pomona answered, yes, she thought she was a month or so 
with a child; this gave them the opportunity of feeling her body and 
discovering the real sex of the supposed woman. Thereupon they 
quickly withdrew their hands and rose from table, uttering such 
gibing words as are commonly addressed to young men of eminent 
beauty. The whole room rang with laughter and astonishment, in 
the midst of which Michel Agnolo, assuming a fierce aspect, called 
out for leave to inflict on me the penance he thought fit. When this 
was granted, he lifted me aloft amid the clamour of the company, 
crying: "Long live the gentleman! long live the gentleman!" and 
added that this was the punishment I deserved for having played so 
fine a trick. Thus ended that most agreeable supper-party, and each 
of us returned to his own dwelling at the close of day. 

XXXI 

It would take too long to describe in detail all the many and 
divers pieces of work which I executed for a great variety of men. 
At present I need only say that I devoted myself with sustained dili- 
gence and industry to acquiring mastery in the several branches of 
art which I enumerated a short while back. And so I went on 
labouring incessantly at all of them; but since no opportunity has 
presented itself as yet for describing my most notable performances, 
I shall wait to report them in their proper place before very long. 
The Sienese sculptor, Michel Agnolo, of whom I have recently been 
speaking, was at that time making the monument of the late Pope 



60 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

Adrian. Giulio Romano went to paint for the Marquis of Mantua. 
The other members of the club betook themselves in different direc- 
tions, each to his own business; so that our company of artists was 
well-nigh altogether broken up. 

About this time there fell into my hands some little Turkish 
poniards; the handle as well as the blade of these daggers was made 
of iron, and so too was the sheath. They were engraved by means 
of iron implements with foliage in the most exquisite Turkish style, 
very neatly filled in with gold. The sight of them stirred in me a 
great desire to try my own skill in that branch, so different from 
the others which I practised; and finding that I succeeded to my 
satisfaction, I executed several pieces. Mine were far more beautiful 
and more durable than the Turkish, and this for divers reasons. One 
was that I cut my grooves much deeper and with wider trenches 
in the steel; for this is not usual in Turkish work. Another was that 
the Turkish arabesques are only composed of arum leaves with a few 
small sunflowers; 1 and though these have a certain grace, they do 
not yield so lasting a pleasure as the patterns which we use. It is 
true that in Italy we have several different ways of designing foliage; 
the Lombards, for example, construct very beautiful patterns by 
copying the leaves of briony and ivy in exquisite curves, which are 
extremely agreeable to the eye; the Tuscans and the Romans make 
a better choice, because they imitate the leaves of the acanthus, com- 
monly called bear's-foot, with its stalks and flowers, curling in divers 
wavy lines; and into these arabesques one may excellently well insert 
the figures of little birds and different animals, by which the good 
taste of the artist is displayed. Some hints for creatures of this sort 
can be observed in nature among the wild flowers, as, for instance, 
in snap-dragons and some few other plants, which must be com- 
bined and developed with the help of fanciful imaginings by clever 
draughtsmen. Such arabesques are called grotesques by the ignorant. 
They have obtained this name of grotesques among the moderns 
through being found in certain subterranean caverns in Rome by 
students of antiquity; which caverns were formerly chambers, hot- 
baths, cabinets for study, halls, and apartments of like nature. The 
curious discovering them in such places (since the level of the ground 

1 Gichero, arum maculatum, and clizia, the sunflower. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 6 1 

has gradually been raised while they have remained below, and since 
in Rome these vaulted rooms are commonly called grottoes), it has 
followed that the word grotesque is applied to the patterns I have 
mentioned. But this is not the right term for them, inasmuch as the 
ancients, who delighted in composing monsters out of goats, cows, 
and horses, called these chimerical hybrids by the name of monsters; 
and the modern artificers of whom I speak, fashioned from the 
foliage which they copied monsters of like nature; for these the 
proper name is therefore monsters, and not grotesques. Well, then, 
I designed patterns of this kind, and filled them in with gold, as I 
have mentioned; and they were far more pleasing to the eye than 
the Turkish. 

It chanced at that time that I lighted upon some jars or little 
antique urns filled with ashes, and among the ashes were some iron 
rings inlaid with gold (for the ancients also used that art), and in 
each of the rings was set a tiny cameo of shell. On applying to men 
of learning, they told me that these rings were worn as amulets by 
folk desirous of abiding with mind unshaken in any extraordinary 
circumstance, whether of good or evil fortune. Hereupon, at the 
request of certain noblemen who were my friends, I undertook to 
fabricate some trifling rings of this kind; but I made them of refined 
steel; and after they had been well engraved and inlaid with gold, 
they produced a very beautiful effect; and sometimes a single ring 
brought me more than forty crowns, merely in payment for my 
labour. 

It was the custom at that epoch to wear little golden medals, upon 
which every nobleman or man of quality had some device or fancy 
of his own engraved; and these were worn in the cap. Of such pieces 
I made very many, and found them extremely difficult to work. I 
have already mentioned the admirable craftsman Caradosso, who 
used to make such ornaments; and as there were more than one 
figure on each piece, he asked at least a hundred gold crowns for 
his fee. This being so not, however, because his prices were so 
high, but because he worked so slowly I began to be employed by 
certain noblemen, for whom, among other things, I made a medal in 
competition with that great artist, and it had four figures, upon 
which I had expended an infinity of labour. These men of quality, 



62 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

when they compared my piece with that of the famous Caradosso, 
declared that mine was by far the better executed and more beautiful, 
and bade me ask what I liked as the reward of my trouble; for since 
I had given them such perfect satisfaction, they wished to do the 
like by me. I replied that my greatest reward and what I most de- 
sired was to have rivalled the masterpieces of so eminent an artist; 
and that if their lordships thought I had, I acknowledged myself 
to be most amply rewarded. With this I took my leave, and they 
immediately sent me such a very liberal present, that I was well 
content; indeed there grew in me so great a spirit to do well, that 
to this event I attributed what will afterwards be related of my 
progress. 

XXXII 

I shall be obliged to digress a little from the history of my art, 
unless I were to omit some annoying incidents which have happened 
in the course of my troubled career. One of these, which I am about 
to describe, brought me into the greatest risk of my life. I have 
already told the story of the artists' club, and of the farcical adven- 
tures which happened owing to the woman whom I mentioned, 
Pantasilea, the one who felt for me that false and fulsome love. She 
was furiously enraged because of the pleasant trick by which I 
brought Diego to our banquet, and she swore to be revenged on me. 
How she did so is mixed up with the history of a young man called 
Luigi Pulci, who had recently come to Rome. He was the son of one 
of the Pulcis, who had been beheaded for incest with his daughter; 
and the youth possessed extraordinary gifts for poetry together with 
sound Latin scholarship; he wrote well, was graceful in manners, 
and of surprising personal beauty; he had just left the service of some 
bishop, whose name I do not remember, and was thoroughly tainted 
with a very foul disease. While he was yet a lad and living in 
Florence, they used in certain places of the city to meet together 
during the nights of summer on the public streets; and he, ranking 
among the best of the improvisatori, sang there. His recitations were 
so admirable, that the divine Michel Agnolo Buonarroti, that prince 
of sculptors and of painters, went, wherever he heard that he would 
be, with the greatest eagerness and delight to listen to him. There 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 63 

was a man called Piloto, a goldsmith, very able in his art, who, 
together with myself, joined Buonarroti upon these occasions. 1 Thus 
acquaintance sprang up between me and Luigi Pulci; and so, after 
the lapse of many years, he came, in the miserable plight which I have 
mentioned, to make himself known to me again in Rome, beseeching 
me for God's sake to help him. Moved to compassion by his great 
talents, by the love of my fatherland, and by my own natural tender- 
ness of heart, I took him into my house, and had him medically 
treated in such wise that, being but a youth, he soon regained his 
health. While he was still pursuing his cure, he never omitted his 
studies, and I provided him with books according to the means at 
my disposal. The result was that Luigi, recognising the great ben- 
efits he had received from me, oftentimes with words and tears re- 
turned me thanks, protesting that if God should ever put good for- 
tune in his way, he would recompense me for my kindness. To 
this I replied that I had not done for him as much as I desired, but 
only what I could, and that it was the duty of human beings to 
be mutually serviceable. Only I suggested that he should repay the 
service I had rendered him by doing likewise to some one who might 
have the same need of him as he had had of me. 

The young man in question began to frequent the Court of Rome, 
where he soon found a situation, and enrolled himself in the suite of 
a bishop, a man of eighty years, who bore the title of Gurgensis. 2 
This bishop had a nephew called Messer Giovanni: he was a noble- 
man of Venice; and the said Messer Giovanni made show of mar- 
vellous attachment to Luigi Pulci's talents; and under the pretence 
of these talents, he brought him as familiar to himself as his own 
flesh and blood. Luigi having talked of me, and of his great obli- 
gations to me, with Messer Giovanni, the latter expressed a wish to 
make my acquaintance. Thus then it came to pass, that when I had 
upon a certain evening invited that woman Pantasilea to supper, and 
had assembled a company of men of parts who were my friends, just 
at the moment of our sitting down to table, Messer Giovanni and 

1 Piloto, of whom we shall hear more hereafter, was a prominent figure in the 
Florentine society of artists, and a celebrated practical joker. Vasari says that a young 
man of whom he had spoken ill murdered him. Lasca's Novelle, Le Cene, should be 
studied by those who seek an insight into this curious Bohemia of the sixteenth century. 

2 Girolamo Balbo, of the noble Venetian family, Bishop of Gurck, in Carinthia. 



64 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

Luigi Pulci arrived, and after some complimentary speeches, they 
both remained to sup with us. The shameless strumpet, casting her 
eyes upon the young man's beauty, began at once to lay her nets for 
him; perceiving which, when the supper had come to an agreeable 
end, I took Luigi aside, and conjured him, by the benefits he said 
he owed me, to have nothing whatever to do with her. To this he 
answered: "Good heavens, Benvenuto! do you then take me for a 
madman?" I rejoined: "Not for a madman, but for a young fellow;" 
and I swore to him by God: "I do not give that woman the least 
thought; but for your sake I should be sorry if through her you 
came to break your neck." Upon these words he vowed and prayed 
to God, that, if ever he but spoke with her, he might upon the mo- 
ment break his neck. I think the poor lad swore this oath to God 
with all his heart, for he did break his neck, as I shall presently relate. 
Messer Giovanni showed signs too evident of loving him in a dis- 
honourable way; for we began to notice that Luigi had new suits 
of silk and velvet every morning, and it was known that he aban- 
doned himself altogether to bad courses. He neglected his fine tal- 
ents, and pretended not to see or recognise me, because I had once 
rebuked him, and told him he was giving his soul to foul vices, 
which would make him break his neck, as he had vowed. 

XXXIII 

Now Messer Giovanni bought his favourite a very fine black horse, 
for which he paid 150 crowns. The beast was admirably trained to 
hand, so that Luigi could go daily to caracole around the lodgings 
of that prostitute Pantasilea. Though I took notice of this, I paid 
it no attention, only remarking that all things acted as their nature 
prompted; and meanwhile I gave my whole mind to my studies. It 
came to pass one Sunday evening that we were invited to sup to- 
gether with the Sienese sculptor, Michel Agnolo, and the time of 
the year was summer. Bachiacca, of whom I have already spoken, 
was present at the party; and he had brought with him his old 
flame, Pantasilea. When we were at table, she sat between me and 
Bachiacca; but in the very middle of the banquet she rose, and 
excused herself upon the pretext of a natural need, saying she would 
speedily return. We, meanwhile, continued talking very agreeably 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 65 

and supping; but she remained an unaccountably long time absent. 
It chanced that, keeping my ears open, I thought I heard a sort of 
subdued tittering in the street below. I had a knife in hand, which 
I was using for my service at the table. The window was so close 
to where I sat, that, by merely rising, I could see Luigi in the street, 
together with Pantasilea; and I heard Luigi saying: "Oh, if that 
devil Benvenuto only saw us, shouldn't we just catch it!" She an- 
swered: "Have no fear; only listen to the noise they're making; we 
are the last thing they're thinking of." At these words, having made 
them both well out, I leaped from the window, and took Luigi by 
the cape; and certainly I should then have killed him with the knife 
I held, but that he was riding a white horse, to which he clapped 
spurs, leaving his cape in my grasp, in order to preserve his life. 
Pantasilea took to her heels in the direction of a neighbouring 
church. The company at supper rose immediately, and came down, 
entreating me in a body to refrain from putting myself and them to 
inconvenience for a strumpet. I told them that I should not have 
let myself be moved on her account, but that I was bent on punishing 
the infamous young man, who showed how little he regarded me. 
Accordingly I would not yield to the remonstrances of those in- 
genious and worthy men, but took my sword, and went alone toward 
Prati: the house where we were supping, I should say, stood close 
to the Castello gate, which led to Prati. 1 Walking thus upon the 
road to Prati, I had not gone far before the sun sank, and I re-entered 
Rome itself at a slow pace. Night had fallen; darkness had come on; 
but the gates of Rome were not yet shut. 

Toward two hours after sunset, I walked along Pantasilea's lodg- 
ing, with the intention, if Luigi Pulci were there, of doing something 
to the discontent of both. When I heard and saw that no one but 
a poor servant-girl called Canida was in the house, I went to put 
away my cloak and the scabbard of my sword, and then returned 
to the house, which stood behind the Banchi on the river Tiber. Just 
opposite stretched a garden belonging to an innkeeper called Romolo. 

1 The Porta Castello was the gate called after the Castle of S. Angelo. Prati, so far 
as I can make out, was an open space between the Borgo and the Bridge of S. Angelo. 
In order to get inside Rome itself, Cellini had to pass a second gate. His own lodging 
and Pantasilea's house were in the quarter of the Bianchi, where are now the Via 
Giulia and Via de' Banchi Vecchi. 



66 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

It was enclosed by a thick hedge of thorns, in which I hid myself, 
standing upright, and waiting till the woman came back with Luigi. 
After keeping watch awhile there, my friend Bachiacca crept up to 
me; whether led by his own suspicions or by the advice of others, 
I cannot say. In a low voice he called out to me: "Gossip" (for so we 
used to name ourselves for fun) ; and then he prayed me for God's 
love, using the words which follow, with tears in the tone of his 
voice: "Dear gossip, I entreat you not to injure that poor girl; she 
at least has erred in no wise in this matter no, not at all." When I 
heard what he was saying, I replied: "If you don't take yourself of? 
now, at this first word I utter, I will bring my sword here down upon 
your head." Overwhelmed with fright, my poor gossip was sud- 
denly taken ill with the colic, and withdrew to ease himself apart; 
indeed, he could not but obey the call. There was a glorious heaven 
of stars, which shed good light to see by. All of a sudden I was aware 
of the noise of many horses; they were coming toward me from the 
one side and the other. It turned out to be Luigi and Pantasilea, 
attended by a certain Messer Benvegnato of Perugia, who was cham- 
berlain to Pope Clement, and followed by four doughty captains of 
Perugia, with some other valiant soldiers in the flower of youth; 
altogether reckoned, there were more than twelve swords. When 
I understood the matter, and saw not how to fly, I did my best to 
crouch into the hedge. But the thorns pricked and hurt me, goading 
me to madness like a bull; and I had half resolved to take a leap and 
hazard my escape. Just then Luigi, with his arm round Pantasilea's 
neck, was heard crying: "I must kiss you once again, if only to insult 
that traitor Benvenuto." At that moment, annoyed as I was by the 
prickles, and irritated by the young man's words, I sprang forth, 
lifted my sword on high, and shouted at the top of my voice: "You 
are all dead folk!" My blow descended on the shoulder of Luigi; 
but the satyrs who doted on him, had steeled his person round with 
coats of mail and such-like villainous defences; still the stroke fell 
with crushing force. Swerving aside, the sword hit Pantasilea full 
in nose and mouth. Both she and Luigi grovelled on the ground, 
while Bachiacca, with his breeches down to heels, screamed out and 
ran away. Then I turned upon the others boldly with my sword; 
and those valiant fellows, hearing a sudden commotion in the tav- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 67 

ern, thought there was an army coming of a hundred men; and 
though they drew their swords with spirit, yet two horses which 
had taken fright in the tumult cast them into such disorder that a 
couple of the best riders were thrown, and the remainder took to 
flight. I, seeing that the affair was turning out well for me, ran as 
quickly as I could, and came off with honour from the engagement, 
not wishing to tempt fortune more than was my duty. During this 
hurly-burly, some of the soldiers and captains wounded themselves 
with their own arms; and Messer Benvegnato, the Pope's chamber- 
lain, was kicked and trampled by his mule. One of the servants also, 
who had drawn his sword, fell down together with his master, and 
wounded him badly in the hand. Maddened by the pain, he swore 
louder than all the rest in his Perugian jargon, crying out: "By the 
body of God, I will take care that Benvegnato teaches Benvenuto 
how to live." He afterwards commissioned one of the captains who 
were with him (braver perhaps than the others, but with less aplomb, 
as being but a youth) to seek me out. The fellow came to visit me 
in the place of my retirement; that was the palace of a great Nea- 
politan nobleman, who had become acquainted with me in my art, 
and had besides taken a fancy to me because of my physical and 
mental aptitude for fighting, to which my lord himself was per- 
sonally well inclined. So, then, finding myself made much of, and 
being precisely in my element, I gave such answer to the captain 
as I think must have made him earnestly repent of having come to 
look me up. After a few days, when the wounds of Luigi, and the 
strumpet, and the rest were healing, this great Neapolitan nobleman 
received overtures from Messer Benvegnato; for the prelate's anger 
had cooled, and he proposed to ratify a peace between me and Luigi 
and the soldiers, who had personally no quarrel with me, and only 
wished to make my acquaintance. Accordingly my friend the noble- 
man replied that he would bring me where they chose to appoint, 
and that he was very willing to effect a reconciliation. He stipulated 
that no words should be bandied about on either side, seeing that 
would be little to their credit; it was enough to go through the form 
of drinking together and exchanging kisses; he for his part under- 
took to do the talking, and promised to settle the matter to their 
honour. This arrangement was carried out. On Thursday evening 



68 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

my protector took me to the house of Messer Benvegnato, where 
all the soldiers who had been present at that discomfiture were 
assembled, and already seated at table. My nobleman was attended 
by thirty brave fellows, all well armed; a circumstance which Messer 
Benvegnato had not anticipated. When we came into the hall, he 
walking first, I following, he spake to this effect: "God save you, 
gentlemen; we have come to see you, I and Benvenuto, whom I love 
like my own brother; and we are ready to do whatever you propose." 
Messer Benvegnato, seeing the hall filled with such a crowd of men, 
called out: "It is only peace, and nothing else, we ask of you." Ac- 
cordingly he promised that the governor of Rome and his catchpoles 
should give me no trouble. Then we made peace, and I returned to 
my shop, where I could not stay an hour without that Neapolitan 
nobleman either coming to see me or sending for me. 

Meanwhile Luigi Pulci, having recovered from his wound, rode 
every day upon the black horse which was so well trained to heel 
and bridle. One day, among others, after it had rained a little, and 
he was making his horse curvet just before Pantasilea's door, he 
slipped and fell, with the horse upon him. His right leg was broken 
short off in the thigh; and after a few days he died there in Pan- 
tasilea's lodgings, discharging thus the vow he registered so heartily 
to Heaven. Even so may it be seen that God keeps account of the 
good and the bad, and gives to each one what he merits. 

xxxiv 

The whole world was now in warfare. 1 Pope Clement had sent to 
get some troops from Giovanni de' Medici, and when they came, 
they made such disturbances in Rome, that it was ill living in open 
shops. 2 On this account I retired to a good snug house behind the 
Banchi, where I worked for all the friends I had acquired. Since I 
produced few things of much importance at that period, I need not 
waste time in talking about them. I took much pleasure in music 
and amusements of the kind. On the death of Giovanni de' Medici 

1 War had broken out in 1521 between Charles V. and Francis I., which disturbed 
all Europe and involved the States of Italy in serious complications. At the moment 
when this chapter opens, the Imperialist army under the Constable of Bourbon was 
marching upon Rome in 1527. 

2 These troops entered Rome in October 1526. They were disbanded in March, 1527. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 69 

in Lombardy, the Pope, at the advice of Messer Jacopo Salviati, dis- 
missed the five bands he had engaged; and when the Constable of 
Bourbon knew there were no troops in Rome, he pushed his army 
with the utmost energy up to the city. The whole of Rome upon 
this flew to arms. I happened to be intimate with Alessandro, the 
son of Piero del Bene, who, at the time when the Colonnesi entered 
Rome, had requested me to guard his palace. 3 On this more serious 
occasion, therefore, he prayed me to enlist fifty comrades for the 
protection of the said house, appointing me their captain, as I had 
been when the Colonnesi came. So I collected fifty young men of 
the highest courage, and we took up our quarters in his palace, with 
good pay and excellent appointments. 

Bourbon's army had now arrived before the walls of Rome, and 
Alessandro begged me to go with him to reconnoitre. So we went 
with one of the. stoutest fellows in our Company; and on the way a 
youth called Cecchino della Casa joined himself to us. On reaching 
the walls by the Campo Santo, we could see that famous army, 
which was making every effort to enter the town. Upon the ram- 
parts where we took our station several young men were lying killed 
by the besiegers; the battle raged there desperately, and there was 
the densest fog imaginable. I turned to Alessandro and said : "Let us 
go home as soon as we can, for there is nothing to be done here; you 
see the enemies are mounting, and our men are in flight." Ales- 
sandro, in a panic, cried: "Would God that we had never come 
here!" and turned in maddest haste to fly. I took him up somewhat 
sharply with these words : "Since you have brought me here, I must 
perform some action worthy of a man;" and directing my arquebuse 
where I saw the thickest and most serried troop of fighting men, I 
aimed exactly at one whom I remarked to be higher than the rest; 
the fog prevented me from being certain whether he was on horse- 
back or on foot. Then I turned to Alessandro and Cecchino, and 
bade them discharge their arquebuses, showing them how to avoid 
being hit by the besiegers. When we had fired two rounds apiece, I 
crept cautiously up to the wall, and observing among the enemy a 

3 Cellini here refers to the attack made upon Rome by the great Ghibelline house of 
Colonna, led by their chief captain, Pompeo, in September 1526. They took possession 
of the city and drove Clement into the Castle of S. Angelo, where they forced him to 
agree to terms favouring the Imperial cause. It was customary for Roman gentlemen 
to hire bravi for the defence of their palaces when any extraordinary disturbance was 
expected, as, for example, upon the vacation of the Papal Chair. 




7O BENVENUTO CELLINI 

most extraordinary confusion, I discovered afterwards that one of 
our shots had killed the Constable of Bourbon; and from what I sub- 
sequently learned, he was the man whom I had first noticed above 
the heads of the rest. 4 

Quitting our position on the ramparts, we crossed the Campo 
Santo, and entered the city by St. Peter's; then coming out exactly 
at the church of Santo Agnolo, we got with the greatest difficulty 
to the great gate of the castle; for the generals Renzo di Ceri and 
Orazio Baglioni were wounding and slaughtering everybody who 
abandoned the defence of the walls. 5 By the time we had reached 
the great gate, part of the foemen had already entered Rome, and 
we had them in our rear. The castellan had ordered the portcullis 
to be lowered, in order to do which they cleared a little space, and 
this enabled us four to get inside. On the instant that I entered, the 
captain Pallone de' Medici claimed me as being of the Papal house- 
hold, and forced me to abandon Alessandro, which I had to do, much 
against my will. I ascended to the keep, and at the same instant Pope 
Clement came in through the corridors into the castle; he had refused 
to leave the palace of St. Peter earlier, being unable to believe that 
his enemies would effect their entrance into Rome. 6 Having got 
into the castle in this way, I attached myself to certain pieces of artil- 
lery, which were under the command of a bombardier called Giu- 
liano Fiorentino. Leaning there against the battlements, the un- 
happy man could see his poor house being sacked, and his wife 
and children outraged; fearing to strike his own folk, he dared not 
discharge the cannon, and flinging the burning fuse upon the ground, 
he wept as though his heart would break, and tore his cheeks with 

4 All historians of the sack of Rome agree in saying that Bourbon was shot dead 
while placing ladders against the outworks near the shop Cellini mentions. But the 
honour of firing the arquebuse which brought him down cannot be assigned to any 

one in particular. Very different stories were current on the subject. See Gregorovius, 
Stadt Rom., vol. viii. p. 522. 

5 For Renzo di Ceri see above, p. 46. Orazio Baglioni, of the semi-princely Perugian 
family, was a distinguished Condottiere. He subsequently obtained the captaincy of 
the Bande Nere, and died fighting near Naples in 1528. Orazio murdered several of 
his cousins in order to acquire the lordship of Perugia. His brother Malatesta undertook 
to defend Florence in the siege of 1530, and sold the city by treason to Clement. 

6 Giovio, in his Life of the Cardinal Prospero Colonna, relates how he accompanied 
Clement in his flight from the Vatican to the castle. While passing some open portions 
of the gallery, he threw his violet mantle and cap of a Monsignore over the white stole 
of the Pontiff, for fear he might be shot at by the soldiers in the streets below. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY Jl 

both his hands. 7 Some of the other bombardiers were behaving in like 
manner; seeing which, I took one of the matches, and got the assist- 
ance of a few men who were not overcome by their emotions. I 
aimed some swivels and falconets at points where I saw it would 
be useful, and killed with them a good number of the enemy. Had 
it not been for this, the troops who poured into Rome that morning, 
and were marching straight upon the castle, might possibly have 
entered it with ease, because the artillery was doing them no damage. 
I went on firing under the eyes of several cardinals and lords, who 
kept blessing me and giving me the heartiest encouragement. In 
my enthusiasm I strove to achieve the impossible; let it suffice that it 
was I who saved the castle that morning, and brought the other 
bombardiers back to their duty. 8 I worked hard the whole of that 
day; and when the evening came, while the army was marching 
into Rome through the Trastevere, Pope Clement appointed a great 
Roman nobleman named Antonio Santacroce to be captain of all the 
gunners. The first thing this man did was to come to me, and having 
greeted me with the utmost kindness, he stationed me with five fine 
pieces of artillery on the highest point of the castle, to which the 
name of the Angel specially belongs. This circular eminence goes 
round the castle, and surveys both Prati and the town of Rome. The 
captain put under my orders enough men to help in managing my 
guns, and having seen me paid in advance, he gave me rations of 
bread and a little wine, and begged me to go forward as I had, begun. 
I was perhaps more inclined by nature to the profession of arms 
than to the one , I had adopted, and I took such pleasure in its duties 
that I discharged them better than those of my own art. Night 
came, the enemy had entered Rome, and we who were in the castle 
(especially myself, who have always taken pleasure in extraordinary 
sights) stayed gazing on the indescribable scene of tumult and con- 
flagration in the streets below. People who were anywhere else but 
where we were, could not have formed the least imagination of 
what it was. I will not, however, set myself to describe that tragedy, 

7 The short autobiography of Rafraello da Montelupo, a man in many respects re- 
sembling Cellini, confirms this part of our author's narrative. It is one of the most 
interesting pieces of evidence regarding what went on inside the castle during the sack 
of Rome. Montelupo was also a gunner, and commanded two pieces. 

8 This is an instance of Cellini's exaggeration. He did more than yeoman's service, 
no doubt. But we cannot believe that, without him, the castle would have been taken. 



72 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

but will content myself with continuing the history of my own life 
and the circumstances which properly belong to it. 

XXXV 

During the course of my artillery practice, which I never inter- 
mitted through the whole month passed by us beleaguered in the 
castle, I met with a great many very striking accidents, all of them 
worthy to be related. But since I do not care to be too prolix, or to 
exhibit myself outside the sphere of my profession, I will omit the 
larger part of them, only touching upon those I cannot well neglect, 
which shall be the fewest in number and the most remarkable. The 
first which comes to hand is this: Messer Antonio Santacroce had 
made me come down from the Angel, in order to fire on some 
houses in the neighbourhood, where certain of our besiegers had 
been seen to enter. While I was firing, a cannon shot reached me, 
which hit the angle of a battlement, and carried off enough of it to 
be the cause why I sustained no injury. The whole mass struck me 
in the chest and took my breath away. I lay stretched upon the 
ground like a dead man, and could hear what the bystanders were 
saying. Among them all, Messer Antonio Santacroce lamented 
greatly, exclaiming: "Alas, alas! we have lost the best defender that 
we had." Attracted by the uproar, one of my comrades ran up; he 
was called Gianfrancesco, and was a bandsman, but was far more 
naturally given to medicine than to music. On the spot he flew off, 
crying for a stoop of the very best Greek wine. Then he made a 
tile red-hot, and cast upon it a good handful of wormwood; after 
which he sprinkled the Greek wine; and when the wormwood was 
well soaked, he laid it on my breast, just where the bruise was 
visible to all. Such was the virtue of the wormwood that I immedi- 
ately regained my scattered faculties. I wanted to begin to speak; 
but could not; for some stupid soldiers had filled my mouth with 
earth, imagining that by so doing they were giving me the sacra- 
ment; and indeed they were more like to have excommunicated me, 
since I could with difficulty come to myself again, the earth doing 
me more mischief than the blow. However, I escaped that danger, 
and returned to the rage and fury of the guns, pursuing my work 
there with all the ability and eagerness that I could summon. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 73 

Pope Clement, by this, had sent to demand assistance from the 
Duke of Urbino, who was with the troops of Venice; he commis- 
sioned the envoy to tell his Excellency that the Castle of S. Angelo 
would send up every evening three beacons from its summit accom- 
panied by three discharges of the cannon thrice repeated, and that so 
long as this signal was continued, he might take for granted that the 
castle had not yielded. I was charged with lighting the beacons and 
firing the guns for this purpose; and all this while I pointed my 
artillery by day upon the places where mischief could be done. The 
Pope, in consequence, began to regard me with still greater favour, 
because he saw that I discharged my functions as intelligently as the 
task demanded. Aid from the Duke of Urbino 1 never came; on 
which, as it is not my business, I will make no further comment. 



XXXVI 

While I was at work upon that diabolical task of mine, there came 
from time to time to watch me some of the cardinals who were 
invested in the castle; and most frequently the Cardinal of Ravenna 
and the Cardinal de' Gaddi. 2 I often told them not to show them- 
selves, since their nasty red caps gave a fair mark to our enemies. 
From neighbouring buildings, such as the Torre de' Bini, we ran 
great peril when they were there; and at last I had them locked off, 
and gained thereby their deep ill-will. I frequently received visits 
also from the general, Orazio Baglioni, who was very well affected 
toward me. One day while he was talking with me, he noticed 
something going forward in a drinking-place outside the Porta di 
Castello, which bore the name of Baccanello. This tavern had for 
sign a sun painted between two windows, of a bright red colour. 

1 Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, commanded a considerable army as 
general of the Church, and was now acting for Venice. Why he effected no diversion 
while the Imperial troops were marching upon Rome, and why he delayed to relieve 
the city, was never properly explained. Folk attributed his impotent conduct partly to 
a natural sluggishness in warfare, and partly to his hatred for the house of Medici. Leo 
X. had deprived him of his dukedom, and given it to a Medicean prince. It is to this 
that Cellini probably refers in the cautious phrase which ends the chapter. 

2 Benedetto Accolti of Arezzo, Archbishop of Ravenna in 1524, obtained the hat in 
1527, three days before the sack of Rome. He was a distinguished man of letters. 
Niccolo Gaddi was created Cardinal on the same day as Accolti. We shall hear more of 
him in Cellini's pages. 



74 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

The windows being closed, Signor Orazio concluded that a band of 
soldiers were carousing at table just between them and behind the 
sun. So he said to me: "Benvenuto, if you think that you could hit 
that wall an ell's breadth from the sun with your demi-cannon here, 
I believe you would be doing a good stroke of business, for there is 
a great commotion there, and men of much importance must prob- 
ably be inside the house." I answered that I felt quite capable of 
hitting the sun in its centre, but that a barrel full of stones, which 
was standing close to the muzzle of the gun, might be knocked 
down by the shock of the discharge and the blast of the artillery. 
He rejoined: "Don't waste time, Benvenuto. In the first place, it is 
not possible, where it is standing, that the cannon's blast should bring 
it down; and even if it were to fall, and the Pope himself was 
underneath, the mischief would not be so great as you imagine. 
Fire, then, only fire!" Taking no more thought about it, I struck 
the sun in the centre, exactly as I said I should. The cask was dis- 
lodged, as I predicted, and fell precisely between Cardinal Farnese 
and Messer Jacopo Salviati. 3 It might very well have dashed out 
the brains of both of them, except that just at that very moment 
Farnese was reproaching Salviati with having caused the sack of 
Rome, and while they stood apart from one another to exchange 
opprobrious remarks, my gabion fell without destroying them. When 
he heard the uproar in the court below, good Signor Orazio dashed 
off in a hurry; and I, thrusting my neck forward where the cask 
had fallen, heard some people saying: "It would not be a bad job 
to kill that gunner!" Upon this I turned two falconets toward the 
staircase, with mind resolved to let blaze on the first man who 
attempted to come up. The household of Cardinal Farnese must 
have received orders to go and do me some injury; accordingly I 
prepared to receive them, with a lighted match in hand. Recog- 
nising some who were approaching, I called out: "You lazy lubbers, 
if you don't pack off from there, and if but a man's child among 
you dares to touch the staircase, I have got two cannon loaded, which 
will blow you into powder. Go and tell the Cardinal that I was 
acting at the order of superior officers, and that what we have done 

3 Alessandro Farnese, Dean of the Sacred College, and afterwards Pope Paul III. 
Of Giacopo Salviati we have already heard, p. 14. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 75 

and are doing is in defence of them priests, 4 and not to hurt them." 
They made away; and then came Signer Orazio Baglioni, running. 
I bade him stand back, else I'd murder him; for I knew very well 
who he was. He drew back a little, not without a certain show of 
fear, and called out: "Benvenuto, I am your friend!" To this I 
answered: "Sir, come up, but come alone, and then come as you 
like." The general, who was a man of mighty pride, stood still a 
moment, and then said angrily: "I have a good mind not to come 
up again, and to do quite the opposite of that which I intended 
toward you." I replied that just as I was put there to defend my 
neighbours, I was equally well able to defend myself too. He said 
that he was coming alone; and when he arrived at the top of the 
stairs, his features were more discomposed that I thought reasonable. 
So I kept my hand upon my sword, and stood eyeing him askance. 
Upon this he began to laugh, and the colour coming back into his 
face, he said to me with the most pleasant manner: "Friend Ben- 
venuto, I bear you as great love as I have it in my heart to give; and 
in God's good time I will render you proof of this. Would to God 
that you had killed those two rascals; for one of them is the cause 
of all this trouble, and the day perchance will come when the other 
will be found the cause of something even worse." He then begged 
me, if I should be asked, not to say that he was with me when I 
fired the gun; and for the rest bade me be of good cheer. The com- 
motion which the affair made was enormous, and lasted a long 
while. However, I will not enlarge upon it further, only adding 
that I was within an inch of revenging my father on Messer Jacopo 
Salviati, who had grievously injured him, according to my father's 
complaints. As it was, unwittingly I gave the fellow a great fright. 
Of Farnese I shall say nothing here, because it will appear in its 
proper place how well it would have been if I had killed him. 

XXXVII 

I pursued my business of artilleryman, and every day performed 
some extraordinary feat, whereby the credit and the favour I acquired 
with the Pope was something indescribable. There never passed a 
day but what I killed one or another of our enemies in the besieging 

4 Loro preti. Perhaps their priests. 



76 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

army. On one occasion the Pope was walking round the circular 
keep, 1 when he observed a Spanish Colonel in the Prati; he recog- 
nised the man by certain indications, seeing that this officer had 
formerly been in his service; and while he fixed his eyes on him, he 
kept talking about him. I, above by the Angel, knew nothing of 
all this, but spied a fellow down there, busying himself about the 
trenches with a javelin in his hand; he was dressed entirely in rose- 
colour; and so, studying the worst that I could do against him, I 
selected a gerfalcon which I had at hand; it is a piece of ordnance 
larger and longer than a swivel, and about the size of a demi- 
culverin. This I emptied, and loaded it again with a good charge of 
fine powder mixed with the coarser sort; then I aimed it exactly 
at the man in red, elevating prodigiously, because a piece of that 
calibre could hardly be expected to carry true at such a distance. I 
fired, and hit my man exactly in the middle. He had trussed his 
sword in front, 2 for swagger, after a way those Spaniards have; and 
my ball, when it struck him, broke upon the blade, and one could 
see the fellow cut in two fair halves. The Pope, who was expecting 
nothing of this kind, derived great pleasure and amazement from 
the sight, both because it seemed to him impossible that one should 
aim and hit the mark at such a distance, and also because the man 
was cut in two, and he could not comprehend how this should 
happen. He sent for me, and asked about it. I explained all the 
devices I had used in firing; but told him that why the man was cut 
in halves, neither he nor I could know. Upon my bended knees I 
then besought him to give me the pardon of his blessing for that 
homicide; and for all the others I had committed in the castle in the 
service of the Church. Thereat the Pope, raising his hand, and 
making a large open sign of the cross upon my face, told me that 
he blessed me, and that he gave me pardon for all murders I had ever 
perpetrated, or should ever perpetrate, in the service of the Apostolic 
Church. When I left him, I went aloft, and never stayed from firing 
to the utmost of my power; and few were the shots of mine that 
missed their mark. My drawing, and my fine studies in my craft, 
and my charming art of music, all were swallowed up in the din of 

1 The Mastio or main body of Hadrian's Mausoleum, which was converted into a 
fortress during the Middle Ages. 

2 S'aveva tnesso la spada dinanzi. Perhaps was bearing his sword in front of him. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 77 

that artillery; and if I were to relate in detail all the splendid things 
I did in that infernal work of cruelty, I should make the world 
stand by and wonder. But, not to be too prolix, I will pass them over. 
Only I must tell a few of the most remarkable, which are, as it 
were, forced in upon me. 

To begin then: pondering day and night what I could render for 
my own part in defence of Holy Church, and having noticed that 
the enemy changed guard and marched past through the great gate 
of Santo Spirito, which was within a reasonable range, I thereupon 
directed my attention to that spot; but, having to shoot sideways, I 
could not do the damage that I wished, although I killed a fair per- 
centage every day. This induced our adversaries, when they saw 
their passage covered by my guns, to load the roof of a certain house 
one night with thirty gabions, which obstructed the view I formerly 
enjoyed. Taking better thought than I had done of the whole 
situation, I now turned all my five pieces of artillery directly on the 
gabions, and waited till the evening hour, when they changed guard. 
Our enemies, thinking they were safe, came on at greater ease and 
in a closer body than usual; whereupon I set fire to my blow-pipes. 3 
Not merely did I dash to pieces the gabions which stood in my 
way; but, what was better, by that one blast I slaughtered more 
than thirty men. In consequence of this manoeuvre, which I repeated 
twice, the soldiers were thrown into such disorder, that being, more- 
over, encumbered with the spoils of that great sack, and some of 
them desirous of enjoying the fruits of their labour, they oftentimes 
showed a mind to mutiny and take themselves away from Rome. 
However, after coming to terms with their valiant captain, Gian di 
Urbino, 4 they were ultimately compelled, at their excessive incon- 
venience, to take another road when they changed guard. It cost 
them three miles of march, whereas before they had but half a mile. 
Having achieved this feat, I was entreated with prodigious favours 
by all the men of quality who were invested in the castle. This inci- 
dent was so important that I thought it well to relate it, before 

3 Soffioni, the cannon being like tubes to blow a fire up. 

4 This captain was a Spaniard, who played a very considerable figure in the war, 
distinguishing himself at the capture of Genoa and the battle of Lodi in 1522, and 
afterwards acting as Lieutenant-General to the Prince of Orange. He held Naples 
against Orazio Baglioni in 1528, and died before Spello in 1529. 



78 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

finishing the history of things outside my art, the which is the real 
object of my writing: forsooth, if I wanted to ornament my biog- 
raphy with such matters, I should have far too much to tell. There 
is only one more circumstance which, now that the occasion offers, 
I propose to record. 

XXXVIII 

I shall skip over some intervening circumstances, and tell how 
Pope Clement, wishing to save the tiaras and the whole collection 
of the great jewels of the Apostolic Camera, had me called, and shut 
himself up together with me and the Cavalierino in a room alone. 1 
This Cavalierino had been a groom in the stable of Filippo Strozzi; 
he was French, and a person of the lowest birth; but being a most 
faithful servant, the Pope had made him very rich, and confided in 
him like himself. So the Pope, the Cavaliere, and I, being shut up 
together, they laid before me the tiaras and jewels of the regalia; 
and his Holiness ordered me to take all the gems out of their gold 
settings. This I accordingly did; afterwards I wrapt them separately 
up in bits of paper and we sewed them into the linings of the Pope's 
and the Cavaliere's clothes. Then they gave me all the gold, which 
weighed about two hundred pounds, and bade me melt it down as 
secretly as I was able. I went up to the Angel, where I had my 
lodging, and could lock the door so as to be free from interruption. 
There I built a little draught-furnace of bricks, with a largish pot, 
shaped like an open dish, at the bottom of it; and throwing the gold 
upon the coals, it gradually sank through and dropped into the pan. 
While the furnace was working I never left off watching how to 
annoy our enemies; and as their trenches were less than a stone's- 
throw right below us, I was able to inflict considerable damage on 
them with some useless missiles, 2 of which there were several piles, 
forming the old munition of the castle. I chose a swivel and a 
falconet, which were both a little damaged in the muzzle, and filled 
them with the projectiles I have mentioned. When I fired my guns, 
they hurtled down like mad, occasioning all sorts of unexpected 

1 This personage cannot be identified. The Filippo Strozzi mentioned as having 
been his master was the great opponent of the Medicean despotism, who killed himself 
in prison after the defeat of Montemurlo in 1539. He married in early life a daughter 
of Piero de' Medici. 2 Passatojacci. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 79 

mischief in the trenches. Accordingly I kept these pieces always 
going at the same time that the gold was being melted down; and a 
little before vespers I noticed some one coming along the margin of 
the trench on muleback. The mule was trotting very quickly, and 
the man was talking to the soldiers in the trenches. I took the pre- 
caution of discharging my artillery just before he came immediately 
opposite; and so, making a good calculation, I hit my mark. One 
of the fragments struck him in the face; the rest were scattered on 
the mule, which fell dead. A tremendous uproar rose up from the 
trench; I opened fire with my other piece, doing them great hurt. 
The man turned out to be the Prince of Orange, who was carried 
through the trenches to a certain tavern in the neighbourhood, 
whither in a short while all the chief folk of the army came together. 

When Pope Clement heard what I had done, he sent at once to 
call for me, and inquired into the circumstance. I related the whole, 
and added that the man must have been of the greatest consequence, 
because the inn to which they carried him had been immediately 
filled by all the chiefs of the army, so far at least as I could judge. 
The Pope, with a shrewd instinct, sent for Messer Antonio Santa- 
croce, the nobleman who, as I have said, was chief and commander 
of the gunners. He bade him order all us bombardiers to point our 
pieces, which were very numerous, in one mass upon the house, and 
to discharge them all together upon the signal of an arquebuse being 
fired. He judged that if we killed the generals, the army, which was 
already almost on the point of breaking up, would take flight. God 
perhaps had heard the prayers they kept continually making, and 
meant to rid them in this manner of those impious scoundrels. 

We put our cannon in order at the command of Santacroce, and 
waited for the signal. But when Cardinal Orsini 3 became aware of 
what was going forward, he began to expostulate with the Pope, 
protesting that the thing by no means ought to happen, seeing they 
were on the point of concluding an accommodation, and that if the 
generals were killed, the rabble of the troops without a leader would 
storm the castle and complete their utter ruin. Consequently they 
could by no means allow the Pope's plan to be carried out. The poor 

3 Franciotto Orsini was educated in the household of his kinsman Lorenzo de' 
Medici. He followed the profession of arms, and married; but after losing his wife 
took orders, and received the hat in 1517. 



80 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

Pope, in despair, seeing himself assassinated both inside the castle 
and without, said that he left them to arrange it. On this, our orders 
were countermanded; but I, who chafed against the leash, 4 when I 
knew that they were coming round to bid me stop from firing, let 
blaze one of my demi-cannons, and struck a pillar in the courtyard 
of the house, around which I saw a crowd of people clustering. This 
shot did such damage to the enemy that it was like to have made 
them evacuate the house. Cardinal Orsini was absolutely for having 
me hanged or put to death; but the Pope took up my cause with 
spirit. The high words that passed between them, though I well 
know what they were, I will not here relate, because I make no pro- 
fession of writing history. It is enough for me to occupy myself with 
my own affairs. 

xxxix 

After I had melted down the gold, I took it to the Pope, who 
thanked me cordially for what I had done, and ordered the Cava- 
lierino to give me twenty-five crowns, apologising to me for his 
inability to give me more. A few days afterwards the articles of 
peace were signed. I went with three hundred comrades in the train 
of Signor Orazio Baglioni toward Perugia; and there he wished to 
make me captain of the company, but I was unwilling at the 
moment, saying that I wanted first to go and see my father, and to 
redeem the ban which was still in force against me at Florence. 
Signor Orazio told me that he had been appointed general of the 
Florentines; and Sir Pier Maria del Lotto, the envoy from Florence, 
was with him, to whom he specially recommended me as his man. 1 

In course of time I came to Florence in the company of several 
comrades. The plague was raging with indescribable fury. When I 
reached home, I found my good father, who thought either that I 
must have been killed in the sack of Rome, or else that I should 
come back to him a beggar. However, I entirely defeated both these 
expectations; for I was alive, with plenty of money, a fellow to wait 
on me, and a good horse. My joy on greeting the old man was so 
intense, that, while he embraced and kissed me, I thought that I 

4 Io che non potevo stare alle mosse. 

1 Pier Maria di Lotto of S. Miniato was notary to the Florentine Signoria. He col- 
lected the remnants of the Bande Nere, and gave them over to Orazio Baglioni, who 
contrived to escape from S. Angelo in safety to Perugia. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 8 1 

must die upon the spot. After I had narrated all the devilries of that 
dreadful sack, and had given him a good quantity of crowns which 
I had gained by my soldiering, and when we had exchanged our 
tokens of affection, he went off to the Eight to redeem my ban. It so 
happened that one of those magistrates who sentenced me, was now 
again a member of the board. It was the very man who had so incon- 
siderately told my father he meant to march me out into the country 
with the lances. My father took this opportunity of addressing him 
with some meaning words, in order to mark his revenge, relying on 
the favour which Orazio Baglioni showed me. 

Matters standing thus, I told my father how Signer Orazio had 
appointed me captain, and that I ought to begin to think of enlisting 
my company. At these words the poor old man was greatly dis- 
turbed, and begged me for God's sake not to turn my thoughts to 
such an enterprise, although he knew I should be fit for this or yet 
a greater business, adding that his other son, my brother, was already 
a most valiant soldier, and that I ought to pursue the noble art in 
which I had laboured so many years and with such diligence of 
study. Although I promised to obey him, he reflected, like a man of 
sense, that if Signor Orazio came to Florence, I could not withdraw 
myself from military service, partly because I had passed my word, 
as well as for other reasons. He therefore thought of a good expedi- 
ent for sending me away, and spoke to me as follows : "Oh, my dear 
son, the plague in this town is raging with immitigable violence, and 
I am always fancying you will come home infected with it. I 
remember, when I was a young man, that I went to Mantua, where 
I was very kindly received, and stayed there several years. I pray and 
command you, for the love of me, to pack off and go thither; and 
I would have you do this to-day rather than to-morrow." 

XL 

I had always taken pleasure in seeing the world; and having 
never been in Mantua, I went there very willingly. Of the money 
I had brought to Florence, I left the greater part with my good 
father, promising to help him wherever I might be, and confiding 
him to the care of my elder sister. Her name was Cosa; and since 
she never cared to marry, she was admitted as a nun in Santa Orsola; 



82 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

but she put off taking the veil, in order to keep house for our old 
father, and to look after my younger sister, who was married to one 
Bartolommeo, a surgeon. So then, leaving home with my father's 
blessing, I mounted my good horse, and rode off on it to Mantua. 

It would take too long to describe that little journey in detail. The 
whole world being darkened over with plague and war, I had the 
greatest difficulty in reaching Mantua. However, in the end, I got 
there, and looked about for work to do, which I obtained from a 
Maestro Niccolo of Milan, goldsmith to the Duke of Mantua. Hav- 
ing thus settled down to work, I went after two days to visit Messer 
Giulio Romano, that most excellent painter, of whom I have already 
spoken, and my very good friend. He received me with the tender- 
est caresses, and took it very ill that I had not dismounted at his 
house. He was living like a lord, and executing a great work for 
the Duke outside the city gates, in a place called Del Te. It was a 
vast and prodigious undertaking, as may still, I suppose, be seen by 
those who go there. 1 

Messer Giulio lost no time in speaking of me to the Duke in terms 
of the warmest praise. 2 That Prince commissioned me to make a 
model for a reliquary, to hold the blood of Christ, which they have 
there, and say was brought them by Longinus. Then he turned to 
Giulio, bidding him supply me with a design for it. To this Giulio 
replied: "My lord, Benvenuto is a man who does not need other 
people's sketches, as your Excellency will be very well able to judge 
when you shall see his model." I set hand to the work, and made 
a drawing for the reliquary, well adapted to contain the sacred phial. 
Then I made a little waxen model of the cover. This was a seated 
Christ, supporting his great cross aloft with the left hand, while he 
seemed to lean against it, and with the fingers of his right hand he 
appeared to be opening the wound in his side. When it was finished, 
it pleased the Duke so much that he heaped favours on me, and 
gave me to understand that he would keep me in his service with 
such appointments as should enable me to live in affluence. 

Meanwhile, I had paid my duty to the Cardinal his brother, who 

1 This is the famous Palazzo del Te, outside the walls of Mantua. It still remains the 
chief monument of Giulio Romano's versatile genius. 

2 Federigo Gonzago was at this time Marquis of Mantua. Charles V. erected his 
fief into a duchy in 1530. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 83 

begged the Duke to allow me to make the pontifical seal of his most 
reverend lordship. 3 This I began; but while I was working at it I 
caught a quartan fever. During each access of this fever I was 
thrown into delirium, when I cursed Mantua and its master and 
whoever stayed there at his own liking. These words were reported 
to the Duke by the Milanese goldsmith, who had not omitted to 
notice that the Duke wanted to employ me. When the Prince heard 
the ravings of my sickness, he flew into a passion against me; and 
I being out of temper with Mantua, our bad feeling was reciprocal. 
The seal was finished after four months, together with several other 
little pieces I made for the Duke under the name of the Cardinal. 
His Reverence paid me well, and bade me return to Rome, to that 
marvellous city where we had made acquaintance. 

I quitted Mantua with a good sum of crowns, and reached Gov- 
erno, where the most valiant general Giovanni had been killed. 4 
Here I had a slight relapse of fever, which did not interrupt my 
journey, and coming now to an end, it never returned on me again. 
When I arrived at Florence, I hoped to find my dear father, and 
knocking at the door, a hump-backed woman in a fury showed her 
face at the window; she drove me off with a torrent of abuse, scream- 
ing that the sight of me was a consumption to her. To this mis- 
shapen hag I shouted: "Ho! tell me, cross-grained hunchback, is 
there no other face to see here but your ugly visage?" "No, and 
bad luck to you." Whereto I answered in a loud voice : "In less than 
two hours may it 5 never vex us more!" Attracted by this dispute, a 
neighbour put her head out, from whom I learned that my father 
and all the people in the house had died of the plague. As I had 
partly guessed it might be so, my grief was not so great as it would 
otherwise have been. The woman afterwards told me that only my 
sister Liperata had escaped, and that she had taken refuge with a 
pious lady named Mona Andrea de' Bellacci. 6 

3 Ercole Gonzaga, created Cardinal in 1527. After the death of his brother, Duke 
Federigo, he governed Mantua for sixteen years as regent for his nephews, and became 
famous as a patron of arts and letters. He died at Trento in 1563 while presiding over 
the Council there, in the pontificate of Pius IV. 

4 Giovanni de' Medici, surnamed Delle Bande Nere. 

5 /'. e,, your ugly visage. 

6 Carpani states that between May and November 1527 about 40,000 persons died of 
plague in Florence. 



84 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

I took my way from thence to the inn, and met by accident a very 
dear friend of mine, Giovanni Rigogli. Dismounting at his house, 
we proceeded to the piazza, where I received intelligence that my 
brother was alive, and went to find him at the house of a friend of 
his called Bertino Aldobrandini. On meeting, we made demonstra- 
tions of the most passionate affection; for he had heard that I was 
dead, and I had heard that he was dead; and so our joy at embracing 
one another was extravagant. Then he broke out into a loud fit of 
laughter, and said: "Come, brother, I will take you where I'm sure 
you'd never guess! You must know that I have given our sister 
Liperata away again in marriage, and she holds it for absolutely 
certain that you are dead." On our way we told each other all the 
wonderful adventures we had met with; and when we reached the 
house where our sister dwelt, the surprise of seeing me alive threw 
her into a fainting fit, and she fell senseless in my arms. Had not 
my brother been present, her speechlessness and sudden seizure must 
have made her husband imagine I was some one different from a 
brother as indeed at first it did. Cecchino, however, explained mat- 
ters, and busied himself in helping the swooning woman, who soon 
come to. Then, after shedding some tears for father, sister, husband, 
and a little son whom she had lost, she began to get the supper 
ready; and during our merry meeting all that evening we talked no 
more about dead folk, but rather discoursed gaily about weddings. 
Thus, then, with gladness and great enjoyment we brought our 
supper-party to an end. 

XLI 

On the entreaty of my brother and sister, I remained at Florence, 
though my own inclination led me to return to Rome. The dear 
friend, also, who had helped me in some of my earlier troubles, as I 
have narrated (I mean Piero, son of Giovanni Landi) he too 
advised me to make some stay in Florence; for the Medici were in 
exile, that is to say, Signer Ippolito and Signor Alessandro, who were 
afterwards respectively Cardinal and Duke of Florence; and he 
judged it would be well for me to wait and see what happened. 1 

I 1 may remind my readers that the three Medici of the ruling house were now ille- 
gitimate. Clement VII. was the bastard son of Giuliano, brother of Lorenzo the Mag- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 85 

At that time there arrived in Florence a Sienese, called Girolamo 
Marretti, who had lived long in Turkey and was a man of lively intel- 
lect. He came to my shop, and commissioned me to make a golden 
medal to be worn in the hat. The subject was to be Hercules wrench- 
ing the lion's mouth. While I was working at this piece, Michel 
Agnolo Buonarroti came oftentimes to see it. I had spent infinite 
pains upon the design, so that the attitude of the figure and the fierce 
passion of the beast were executed in quite a different style from that 
of any craftsman who had hitherto attempted such groups. This, 
together with the fact that the special branch of art was totally 
unknown to Michel Agnolo, made the divine master give such praises 
to my work that I felt incredibly inspired for further effort. However, 
I found little else to do but jewel-setting; and though I gained more 
thus than in any other way, yet I was dissatisfied, for I would fain 
have been employed upon some higher task than that of setting 
precious stones. 

Just then I met with Federigo Ginori, a young man of a very 
lofty spirit. He had lived some years in Naples, and being endowed 
with great charms of person and presence, had been the lover of a 
Neapolitan princess. He wanted to have a medal made, with Atlas 
bearing the world upon his shoulders, and applied to Michel Agnolo 
for a design. Michel Agnolo made this answer : "Go and find out a 
young goldsmith named Benvenuto; he will serve you admirably, 
and certainly he does not stand in need of sketches by me. However, 
to prevent your thinking that I want to save myself the trouble of 
so slight a matter, I will gladly sketch you something; but mean- 
while speak to Benvenuto, and let him also make a model; he can 
then execute the better of the two designs." Federigo Ginori came 
to me, and told me what he wanted, adding thereto how Michel 
Agnolo had praised me, and how he had suggested I should make 
a waxen model while he undertook to supply a sketch. The words 
of that great man so heartened me, that I set myself to work at once 
with eagerness upon the model; and when I had finished it, a 

nificent. Ippolito, the Cardinal, was the bastard of Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, son 
of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Alessandro was the reputed bastard of Lorenzo, Duke of 
Urbino, grandson of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Alessandro became Duke of Florence, 
and after poisoning his cousin, Cardinal Ippolito, was murdered by a distant cousin, 
Lorenzino de' Medici. In this way the male line of Lorenzo the Magnificent was 
extinguished. 



86 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

painter who was intimate with Michel Agnolo, called Giuliano 
Bugiardini, brought me the drawing of Atlas. 2 On the same occasion 
I showed Giuliano my little model in wax, which was very different 
from Michel Agnolo's drawing; and Federigo, in concert with 
Bugiardini, agreed that I should work upon my model. So I took 
it in hand, and when Michel Agnolo saw it, he praised me to the 
skies. This was a figure, as I have said, chiselled on a plate of gold; 
Atlas had the heaven upon his back, made out of a crystal ball, 
engraved with the zodiac upon a field of lapis-lazuli. The whole 
composition produced an indescribably fine effect; and under it ran 
the legend Summa tulisse juvatl* Federigo was so thoroughly well 
pleased that he paid me very liberally. Aluigi Alamanni was at that 
time in Florence. Federigo Ginori, who enjoyed his friendship, 
brought him often to my workshop, and through this introduction 
we became very intimate together. 4 

XLII 

Pope Clement had now declared war upon the city of Florence, 
which thereupon was put in a state of defence; and the militia being 
organised in each quarter of the town, I too received orders to serve 
in my turn. I provided myself with a rich outfit, and went about 
with the highest nobility of Florence, who showed a unanimous 
desire to fight for the defence of our liberties. Meanwhile the 
speeches which are usual upon such occasions were made in every 
quarter; 1 the young men met together more than was their wont, 
and everywhere we had but one topic of conversation. 

It happened one day, about noon, that a crowd of tall men and 
lusty young fellows, the first in the city, were assembled in my work- 
shop, when a letter from Rome was put into my hands. It came 
from a man called Maestro Giacopino della Barca. His real name 
was Giacopo della Sciorina, but they called him della Barca in Rome, 

2 This painter was the pupil of Bertoldo, a man of simple manners and of some 
excellence in his art. The gallery at Bologna has a fine specimen of his painting. 
Michel Agnolo delighted in his society. 

3 Cellini says Summam. 

4 This was the agreeable didactic poet Luigi Alamanni, who had to fly from Florence 
after a conspiracy against Cardinal Giulio de' Medici in 1522. He could never recon- 
cile himself to the Medicean tyranny, and finally took refuge in France, where he was 
honoured by Fran?ois I. He died at Amboise in 1556. 

1 Fecesi qudle orazioni. It may mean "the prayers were offered up." 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 87 

because he kept a ferry boat upon the Tiber between Ponte Sisto and 
Ponte Santo Agnolo. He was a person of considerable talent, dis- 
tinguished by his pleasantries and striking conversation, and he had 
formerly been a designer of patterns for the cloth-weavers in Flor- 
ence. This man was intimate with the Pope, who took great pleas- 
ure in hearing him talk. Being one day engaged in conversation, 
they touched upon the sack and the defence of the castle. This 
brought me to the Pope's mind, and he spoke of me in the very 
highest terms, adding that if he knew where I was, he should be 
glad to get me back. Maestro Giacopo said I was in Florence; 
whereupon the Pope bade the man write and tell me to return to 
him. The letter I have mentioned was to the effect that I should 
do well if I resumed the service of Clement, and that this was sure 
to turn out to my advantage. 

The young men who were present were curious to know what the 
letter contained; wherefore I concealed it as well as I could. After- 
wards I wrote to Maestro Giacopo, begging him by no means, 
whether for good or evil, to write to me again. He however grew 
more obstinate in his officiousness, and wrote me another letter, so 
extravagantly worded, that if it had been seen, I should have got 
into serious trouble. The substance of it was that the Pope required 
me to come at once, wanting to employ me on work of the greatest 
consequence; also that if I wished to act aright, I ought to throw up 
everything, and not to stand against a Pope in the party of those 
hare-brained Radicals. This letter, when I read it, put me in such 
a fright, that I went to seek my dear friend Piero Landi. Directly 
he set eyes on me, he asked what accident had happened to upset 
me so. I told my friend that it was quite* impossible for me to 
explain what lay upon my mind, and what was causing me this 
trouble; only I entreated him to take the keys I gave him, and to 
return the gems and gold in my drawers to such and such persons, 
whose names he would find inscribed upon my memorandum-book; 
next, I begged him to pack up the furniture of my house, and keep 
account of it with his usual loving-kindness; and in a few days he 
should hear where I was. The prudent young man, guessing per- 
haps pretty nearly how the matter stood, replied: "My brother, go 
your ways quickly; then write to me, and have no further care about 



00 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

your things." I did as he advised. He was the most loyal friend, the 
wisest, the most worthy, the most discreet, the most affectionate that 

1 have ever known. I left Florence and went to Rome, and from 
there I wrote to him. 

XLIII 

Upon my arrival in Rome, 1 I found several of my former friends, 
by whom I was very well received and kindly entertained. No time 
was lost before I set myself to work at things which brought me 
profit, but were not notable enough to be described. There was a 
fine old man, a goldsmith, called Raffaello del Moro, who had con- 
siderable reputation in the trade, and was to boot a very worthy 
fellow. He begged me to consent to enter his workshop, saying he 
had some commissions of importance to execute, on which high 
profits might be looked for; so I accepted his proposal with good- 
will. 

More than ten days had elapsed, and I had not presented myself 
to Maestro Giacopino della Barca. Meeting me one day by accident, 
he gave me a hearty welcome, and asked me how long I had been 
in Rome. When I told him I had been there about a fortnight, he 
took it very ill, and said that I showed little esteem for a Pope who 
had urgently compelled him to write three times for me. I, who 
had taken his persistence in the matter still more ill, made no reply, 
but swallowed down my irritation. The man, who suffered from a 
flux of words, began one of his long yarns, and went on talking, 
till at the last, when I saw him tired out, I merely said that he might 
bring me to the Pope when he saw fit. He answered that any time 
would do for him; and I, that I was always ready. So we took our 
way toward the palace. It was a Maundy Thursday; and when we 
reached the apartments of the Pope, he being known there and I 
expected, we were at once admitted. 

1 Cellini has been severely taxed for leaving Florence at this juncture and taking 
service under Pope Clement, the oppressor of her liberties. His own narrative admits 
some sense of shame. Yet we should remember that he never took any decided part 
in politics, and belonged to a family of Medicean sympathies. His father served Lo- 
renzo and Piero; his brother was a soldier of Giovanni delle Bande Nere and Duke 
Alessandro. Many most excellent Florentines were convinced that the Medicean gov- 
ernment was beneficial; and an artist had certainly more to expect from it than from 
the Republic. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 89 

The Pope was in bed, suffering from a slight indisposition, and 
he had with him Messer Jacopo Salviati and the Archbishop of 
Capua. 2 When the Pope set eyes on me, he was exceedingly glad. 
I kissed his feet, and then, as humbly as I could, drew near to him, 
and let him understand that I had things of consequence to utter. 
On this he waved his hand, and the two prelates retired to a distance 
from us. I began at once to speak: "Most blessed Father, from the 
time of the sack up to this hour, I have never been able to confess 
or to communicate, because they refuse me absolution. The case is 
this. When I melted down the gold and worked at the unsetting of 
those jewels, your Holiness ordered the Cavalierino to give me a 
modest reward for my labours, of which I received nothing, but on 
the contrary he rather paid me with abuse. When then I ascended 
to the chamber where I had melted down the gold, and washed the 
ashes, I found about a pound and a half of gold in tiny grains like 
millet-seeds; and inasmuch as I had not money enough to take me 
home respectably, I thought I would avail myself of this, and give it 
back again when opportunity should offer. Now I am here at the 
feet of your Holiness, who is the only true confessor. I entreat you 
to do me the favour of granting me indulgence, so that I may be 
able to confess and communicate, and by the grace of your Holiness 
regain the grace of my Lord God." Upon this the Pope, with a 
scarcely perceptible sigh, remembering perhaps his former trials, 
spoke as follows: "Benvenuto, I thoroughly believe what you tell 
me; it is in my power to absolve you of any unbecoming deed you 
may have done, and, what is more, I have the will. So, then, speak 
out with frankness and perfect confidence; for if you had taken the 
value of a whole tiara, I am quite ready to pardon you." Thereupon 
I answered: "I took nothing, most blessed Father, but what I have 
confessed; and this did not amount to the value of 140 ducats, for 
that was the sum I received from the Mint in Perugia, and with it 
I went home to comfort my poor old father." The Pope said : "Your 
father has been as virtuous, good, and worthy a man as was ever 
born, and you have not degenerated from him. I am very sorry that 
the money was so little; but such as you say it was, I make you a 

2 Nicolas Schomberg, a learned Dominican and disciple of Savonarola, made Arch- 
bishop of Capua in 1520. He was a faithful and able minister of Clement. Paul III. 
gave him the hat in 1535, and he died in 1537. 



90 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

present of it, and give you my full pardon. Assure your confessor 
of this, if there is nothing else upon your conscience which concerns 
me. Afterwards, when you have confessed and communicated, you 
shall present yourself to me again, and it will be to your advantage." 

When I parted from the Pope, Messer Giacopo and the Arch- 
bishop approached, and the Pope spoke to them in the highest terms 
imaginable about me; he said that he had confessed and absolved 
me; then he commissioned the Archbishop of Capua to send for me 
and ask if I had any other need beyond this matter, giving him full 
leave to absolve me amply, and bidding him, moreover, treat me 
with the utmost kindness. 

While I was walking away with Maestro Giacopino, he asked me 
very inquisitively what was the close and lengthy conversation I had 
had with his Holiness. After he had repeated the question more 
than twice, I said that I did not mean to tell him, because they were 
matters with which he had nothing to do, and therefore he need not 
go on asking me. Then I went to do what had been agreed on with 
the Pope; and after the two festivals were over, I again presented 
myself before his Holiness. He received me even better than before, 
and said: "If you had come a little earlier to Rome, I should have 
commissioned you to restore my two tiaras, which were pulled to 
pieces in the castle. These, however, with the exception of the 
gems, are objects of little artistic interest; so I will employ you on a 
piece of the very greatest consequence, where you will be able to 
exhibit all your talents. It is a button for my priest's cope, which 
has to be made round like a trencher, and as big as a little trencher, 
one-third of a cubit wide. Upon this I want you to represent a God 
the Father in half -relief, and in the middle to set that magnificent big 
diamond, which you remember, together with several other gems of 
the greatest value. Caradosso began to make me one, but did not 
finish it; I want yours to be finished quickly, so that I may enjoy 
the use of it a little while. Go, then, and make me a fine model." 
He had all the jewels shown me, and then I went ofif like a shot 3 to 
set myself to work. 

3 Affusolato. Lit., straight as a spindle. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 91 

XLIV 

During the time when Florence was besieged, Federigo Ginori, 
for whom I made that medal of Atlas, died of consumption, and 
the medal came into the hands of Messer Luigi Alamanni, who, 
after a litde while, took it to present in person to Francis, king of 
France, accompanied by some of his own finest compositions. The 
King was exceedingly delighted with the gift; whereupon Messer 
Luigi told his Majesty so much about my personal qualities, as well 
as my art, and spoke so favourably, that the King expressed a wish 
to know me. 

Meanwhile I pushed my model for the button forward with all the 
diligence I could, constructing it exactly of the size which the jewel 
itself was meant to have. In the trade of the goldsmiths it roused 
considerable jealousy among those who thought that they were 
capable of matching it. A certain Micheletto had just come to 
Rome; 1 he was very clever at engraving cornelians, and was, more- 
over, a most intelligent jeweller, an old man and of great celebrity. 
He had been employed upon the Pope's tiaras; and while I was 
working at my model, he wondered much that I had not applied to 
him, being as he was a man of intelligence and of large credit with 
the Pope. At last, when he saw that I was not coming to him, he 
came to me, and asked me what I was about. "What the Pope has 
ordered me," I answered. Then he said: "The Pope has commis- 
sioned me to superintend everything which is being made for his 
Holiness." I only replied that I would ask the Pope, and then should 
know what answer I ought to give him. He told me that I should 
repent, and departing in anger, had an interview with all the masters 
of the art; they deliberated on the matter, and charged Michele with 
the conduct of the whole affair. As was to be expected from a person 
of his talents, he ordered more than thirty drawings to be made, 
all differing in their details, for the piece the Pope had commis- 
sioned. 

Having already access to his Holiness's ear, he took into his 
counsel another jeweller, named Pompeo, a Milanese, who was in 
favour with the Pope, and related to Messer Traiano, the first 

1 Vasari calls this eminent engraver of gems Michelino. 



92 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

chamberlain of the court; 2 these two together, then, began to insinu- 
ate that they had seen my model, and did not think me up to a work 
of such extraordinary import. The Pope replied that he would also 
have to see it, and that if he then found me unfit for the purpose, he 
should look around for one who was fit. Both of them put in that 
they had several excellent designs ready; to which the Pope made 
answer, that he was very pleased to hear it, but that he did not care 
to look at them till I had completed my model; afterwards, he would 
take them all into consideration at the same time. 

After a few days I finished my model, and took it to the Pope 
one morning, when Messer Traiano made me wait till he had sent 
for Micheletto and Pompeo, bidding them make haste and bring 
their drawings. On their arrival we were introduced, and Micheletto 
and Pompeo immediately unrolled their papers, which the Pope 
inspected. The draughtsmen who had been employed were not in 
the jeweller's trade, and therefore, knew nothing about giving their 
right place to precious stones; and the jewellers, on their side, had 
not shown them how; for I ought to say that a jeweller, when he 
has to work with figures, must of necessity understand design, else 
he cannot produce anything worth looking at: and so it turned out 
that all of them had stuck that famous diamond in the middle of 
the breast of God the Father. The Pope, who was an excellent con- 
noisseur, observing this mistake, approved of none of them; and 
when he had looked at about ten, he flung the rest down, and said 
to me, who was standing at a distance: "Now show me your model, 
Benvenuto, so that I may see if you have made the same mistake as 
those fellows." I came forward, and opened a little round box; 
whereupon one would have thought that a light from heaven had 
struck the Pope's eyes. He cried aloud : "If you had been in my own 
body, you could not have done it better, as this proves. Those men 
there have found the right way to bring shame upon themselves!" 
A crowd of great lords pressing round, the Pope pointed out the 
difference between my model and the drawings. When he had 
sufficiently commended it, the others standing terrified and stupid 
before him, he turned to me and said: "I am only afraid of one 
thing, and that is of the utmost consequence. Friend Benvenuto, 

2 Messer Traiano Alicorno. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 93 

wax is easy to work in; the real difficulty is to execute this in gold." 
To those words I answered without a moment's hesitation: "Most 
blessed Father, if I do not work it ten times better than the model, 
let it be agreed beforehand that you pay me nothing." When they 
heard this, the noblemen made a great stir, crying out that I was 
promising too much. Among them was an eminent philosopher, 
who spoke out in my favour: "From the fine physiognomy and 
bodily symmetry which I observed in this young man, I predict that 
he will accomplish what he says, and think that he will even go 
beyond it." The Pope put in : "And this is my opinion also." Then 
he called his chamberlain, Messer Traiano, and bade him bring five 
hundred golden ducats of the Camera. 

While we were waiting for the money, the Pope turned once more 
to gaze at leisure on the dexterous device I had employed for com- 
bining the diamond with the figure of God the Father. I had put 
the diamond exactly in the center of the piece; and above it God the 
Father was shown seated, leaning nobly in a sideways attitude, 3 
which made a perfect composition, and did not interfere with the 
stone's effect. Lifting his right hand, he was in the act of giving 
the benediction. Below the diamond I had placed three children, 
who, with their arms upraised, were supporting the jewel. One of 
them, in the middle, was in full relief, the other two in half-relief. 
All around I set a crowd of cherubs, in divers attitudes, adapted to 
the other gems. A mantle undulated to the wind around the figure 
of the Father, from the folds of which cherubs peeped out; and 
there were other ornaments besides which made a very beautiful 
effect. The work was executed in white stucco on a black stone. 
When the money came, the Pope gave it to me with his own hand, 
and begged me in the most winning terms to let him have it finished 
in his own days, adding that this should be to my advantage. 

XLV 

I took the money and the model home, and was in the utmost 
impatience to begin my work. After I had laboured diligently for 
eight days, the Pope sent word by one of his chamberlains, a very 
great gentleman of Bologna, that I was to come to him and bring 

3 In un certo bel modo svolto. That means: turned aside, not fronting the spectator. 



94 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

what I had got in hand. On the way, the chamberlain, who was the 
most gentle-mannered person in the Roman court, told me that the 
Pope not only wanted to see what I was doing, but also intended to 
intrust me with another task of the highest consequence, which was, 
in fact, to furnish dies for the money of the Mint; and bade me arm 
myself beforehand with the answer I should give; in short, he 
wished me to be prepared, and therefore he had spoken. When we 
came into the presence, I lost no time in exhibiting the golden plate, 
upon which I had as yet carved nothing but my figure of God the 
Father; but this, though only in the rough, displayed a grander 
style than that of the waxen model. The Pope regarded it with stupe- 
faction, and exclaimed: "From this moment forward I will believe 
everything you say." Then loading me with marks of favour, he 
added: "It is my intention to give you another commission, which, 
if you feel competent to execute it, I shall have no less at heart than 
this, or more." He proceeded to tell me that he wished to make 
dies for the coinage of his realm, and asked me if I had ever tried 
my hand at such things, and if I had the courage to attempt them. 
I answered that of courage for the task I had no lack, and that I had 
seen how dies were made, but that I had not ever made any. There 
was in the presence a certain Messer Tommaso, of Prato, his Holi- 
ness's Datary; 1 and this man, being a friend of my enemies, put in: 
"Most blessed Father, the favours you are showering upon this young 
man (and he by nature so extremely overbold) are enough to make 
him promise you a new world. You have already given him one 
great task, and now, by adding a greater, you are like to make them 
clash together." The Pope, in a rage, turned round on him, and 
told him to mind his own business. Then he commanded me to 
make the model for a broad doubloon of gold, upon which he 
wanted a naked Christ with his hands tied, and the inscription 
Ecce Homo; the reverse was to have a Pope and Emperor in the 
act together of propping up a cross which seemed to fall, and this 
legend: Unus spiritus et una fides erat in eis. 

1 His full name was Tommaso Cortese. The Papal Datario was the chief secretary 
of the office for requests, petitions and patents. His title was derived from its being 
his duty to affix the Datum Romas to documents. The fees of this office, which was 
also called Datario, brought in a large revenue to the Papacy. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 95 

After the Pope had ordered this handsome coin, Bandinello the 
sculptor came up; he had not yet been made a knight; and, with his 
wonted presumption muffled up in ignorance, said : "For these gold- 
smiths one must make drawings for such fine things as that." I 
turned round upon him in a moment, and cried out that I did not 
want his drawings for my art, but that I hoped before very long to 
give his art some trouble by my drawings. The Pope expressed high 
satisfaction at these words, and turning to me said: "Go then, my 
Benvenuto, and devote yourself with spirit to my service, and do not 
lend an ear to the chattering of these silly fellows." 

So I went off, and very quickly made two dies of steel; then I 
stamped a coin in gold, and one Sunday after dinner took the coin 
and the dies to the Pope, who, when he saw the piece, was aston- 
ished and greatly gratified, not only because my work pleased him 
excessively, but also because of the rapidity with which I had per- 
formed it. For the further satisfaction and amazement of his holi- 
ness, I had brought with me all the old coins which in former times 
had been made by those able men who served Popes Giulio and 
Leo; and when I noticed that mine pleased him far better, I drew 
forth from my bosom a patent, 2 in which I prayed for the post of 
stamp-master 3 in the Mint. This place was worth six golden crowns 
a month, in addition to the dies, which were paid at the rate of a 
ducat for three by the Master of the Mint. The Pope took my 
patent and handed it to the Datary, telling him to lose no time in 
dispatching the business. The Datary began to put it in his pocket, 
saying: "Most blessed Father, your Holiness ought not to go so fast; 
these are matters which deserve some reflection." To this the Pope 
replied: "I have heard what you have got to say; give me here that 
patent." He took it, and signed it at once with his own hand; then, 
giving it back, added: "Now, you have no answer left; see that you 
dispatch it at once, for this is my pleasure; and Benvenuto's shoes 
are worth more than the eyes of all those other blockheads." So, 
having thanked his Holiness, I went back, rejoicing above measure, 
to my work. 

2 Moto propio. Cellini confuses his petition with the instrument, which he had 
probably drawn up ready for signature. 

3 Maestro delle stampe della zecca, i. e., the artist who made the dies. 



96 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

XLVI 

I was still working in the shop of Raff aello del Moro. This worthy 
man had a very beautiful young daughter, with regard to whom he 
had designs on me; and I, becoming partly aware of his intentions, 
was very willing; but, while indulging such desires, I made no show 
of them: on the contrary, I was so discreet in my behaviour that I 
made him wonder. It so happened that the poor girl was attacked 
by a disorder in her right hand, which ate into the two bones be- 
longing to the little finger and the next. 1 Owing to her father's care- 
lessness, she had been treated by an ignorant quack-doctor, who 
predicted that the poor child would be crippled in the whole of her 
right arm, if even nothing worse should happen. When I noticed 
the dismay of her father, I begged him not to believe all that this 
ignorant doctor had said. He replied that he had no acquaintance 
with physicians or with surgeons, and entreated me, if I knew of one, 
to bring him to the house. 2 I sent at once for a certain Maestro Gia- 
como of Perugia, a man of great skill in surgery, who examined the 
poor girl. 3 She was dreadfully frightened through having gained 
some inkling of the quack's predictions; whereas, my intelligent doc- 
tor declared that she would suffer nothing of consequence, and would 
be very well able to use her right hand; also that though the two 
last fingers must remain somewhat weaker than the others, this 
would be of no inconvenience at all to her. So he began his treat- 
ment; and after a few days, when he was going to extract a portion 
of the diseased bones, her father called for me, and begged me to 
be present at the operation. Maestro Giacomo was using some 
coarse steel instruments; and when I observed that he was making 
little way and at the same time was inflicting severe pain on the 
patient, I begged him to stop and wait half a quarter of an hour 
for me. I ran into the shop, and made a little scalping-iron of steel, 
extremely thin and curved; it cut like a razor. On my return, the 
surgeon used it, and began to work with so gentle a hand that she 

1 Ossicina che segultano il dito, &c. Probably metacarpal bones. 

2 Che gnene avviasse. 

3 Giacomo Rastelli was a native of Rimini, but was popularly known as of Perugia, 
since he had resided long in that city. He was a famous surgeon under several Popes 
until the year 1566, when he died at Rome, aged seventy -five. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 97 

felt no pain, and in a short while the operation was over. In conse- 
quence of this service, and for other reasons, the worthy man con- 
ceived for me as much love, or more, as he had for two male chil- 
dren; and in the meanwhile he attended to the cure of his beautiful 
young daughter. 

I was on terms of the closest intimacy with one Messer Giovanni 
Gaddi, who was a clerk of the Camera, and a great connoisseur of 
the arts, although he had no practical acquaintance with any. 4 In 
his household were a certain Messer Giovanni, a Greek of eminent 
learning, Messer Lodovico of Fano, no less distinguished as a man 
of letters, Messer Antonio Allegretti, and Messer Annibale Caro, 5 at 
that time in his early manhood. Messer Bastiano of Venice, a most 
excellent painter, and I were admitted to their society; and almost 
every day we met together in Messer Giovanni's company. 6 

Being aware of this intimacy, the worthy goldsmith Raffaello said 
to Messer Giovanni: "Good sir, you know me; now I want to marry 
my daughter to Benvenuto, and can think of no better intermediary 
than your worship. So I am come to crave your assistance, and to beg 
you to name for her such dowry from my estate as you may think 
suitable." The light-headed man hardly let my good friend finish 
what he had to say, before he put in quite at random : "Talk no more 
about it, Raffaello; you are farther from your object than January 
from mulberries." The poor man, utterly discouraged, looked about 
at once for another husband for his girl; while she and the mother 
and all the family lived on in a bad humour with me. Since I did 
not know the real cause of this I imagined they were paying me 
with bastard coin for the many kindnesses I had shown them I 
conceived the thought of opening a workshop of my own in their 

4 Giovanni Gaddi of the Florentine family was passionately attached to men of art 
and letters. Yet he seems to have been somewhat disagreeable in personal intercourse; 
for even Annibale Caro, who owed much to his patronage, and lived for many years in 
his house, never became attached to him. We shall see how he treated Cellini during 
a fever. 

5 Some poems of Allegretti's survive. He was a man of mark in the literary society 
of the age. Giovanni Greco may have been a Giovanni Vergezio, who presented Duke 
Cosimo with some Greek characters of exquisite finish. Lodovico da Fano is men- 
tioned as an excellent Latin scholar. Annibale Caro was one of the most distinguished 
writers of Italian prose and verse in the later Renaissance. He spent the latter portion 
of his life in the service of the Farnesi. 

6 Messer Bastiano is the celebrated painter Sebastian del Piombo, born 1485, died 
1547- 



90 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

neighbourhood. Messer Giovanni told me nothing till the girl was 
married, which happened in a few months. 

Meanwhile, I laboured assiduously at the work I was doing for 
the Pope, and also in the service of the Mint; for his Holiness had 
ordered another coin, of the value of two carlins, on which his own 
portrait was stamped, while the reverse bore a figure of Christ upon 
the waters, holding out his hand to S. Peter, with this inscription 
Quare dubitasti? My design won such applause that a certain sec- 
retary of the Pope, a man of the greatest talent, called II Sanga, 7 was 
moved to this remark: "Your Holiness can boast of having a cur- 
rency superior to any of the ancients in all their glory." The Pope 
replied: "Benvenuto, for his part, can boast of serving an emperor 
like me, who is able to discern his merit." I went on at my great 
piece in gold, showing it frequently to the Pope, who was very eager 
to see it, and each time expressed greater admiration. 

XLVII 

My brother, at this period, was also in Rome, serving Duke Ales- 
sandro, on whom the Pope had recently conferred the Duchy of 
Penna. This prince kept in his service a multitude of soldiers, worthy 
fellows, brought up to valour in the school of that famous general 
Giovanni de' Medici; and among these was my brother, whom the 
Duke esteemed as highly as the bravest of them. One day my brother 
went after dinner to the shop of a man called Baccino clella Croce 
in the Banchi, which all those men-at-arms frequented. He had 
flung himself upon a settee, and was sleeping. Just then the guard 
of the Bargello passed by; 1 they were taking to prison a certain 
Captain Cisti, a Lombard, who had also been a member of Gio- 

7 Battista Sanga, a Roman, secretary to Gianmatteo Giberti, the good Archbishop of 
Verona, and afterwards to Clement VII. He was a great Latinist, and one of those 
ecclesiastics who earnestly desired a reform of the Church. He died, poisoned, at an 
early age. 

1 The Bargello was the chief constable or sheriff in Italian towns. I shall call him 
Bargello always in my translation, since any English equivalent would be misleading. 
He did the rough work of policing the city, and was consequently a mark for all the 
men of spirit who disliked being kept in order. Giovio, in his Life of Cardinal Pompeo 
Colonna, quite gravely relates how it was the highest ambition of young Romans of 
spirit to murder the Bargello. He mentions, in particular, a certain Pietro Margano, 
who had acquired great fame and popularity by killing the Bargello of his day, one 
Cencio, in the Campo di Fiore. This man became an outlaw, and was favourably 
received by Cardinal Colonna, then at war with Clement VII. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 99 

vanni's troop, but was not in the service of the Duke. The captain, 
Cattivanza degli Strozzi, chanced to be in the same shop; 2 and when 
Cisti caught sight o him, he whispered: "I was bringing you those 
crowns I owed; if you want them, come for them before they go with 
me to prison." Now Cattivanza had a way of putting his neighbours 
to the push, not caring to hazard his own person. So, rinding there 
around him several young fellows of the highest daring, more eager 
than apt for so serious an enterprise, he bade them catch up Captain 
Cisti and get the money from him, and if the guard resisted, over- 
power the men, provided they had pluck enough to do so. 

The young men were but four, and all four of them without a 
beard. The first was called Bertino Aldobrandi, another Anguillotto 
of Lucca; I cannot recall the names of the rest. Bertino had been 
trained like a pupil by my brother; and my brother felt the most 
unbounded love for him. So then, off dashed the four brave lads, 
and came up with the guard of the Bargello upwards of fifty con- 
stables, counting pikes, arquebuses, and two-handed-swords. After a 
few words they drew their weapons, and the four boys so harried 
the guard, that if Captain Cattivanza had but shown his face, with- 
out so much as drawing, they would certainly have put the whole 
pack to flight. But delay spoiled all; for Bertino received some ugly 
wounds and fell; at the same time, Anguillotto was also hit in the 
right arm, and being unable to use his sword, got out of the fray as 
well as he was able. The others did the same. Bertino Aldobrandi 
was lifted from the ground seriously injured. 

XLVIII 

While these things were happening, we were all at table; for that 
morning we had dined more than an hour later than usual. On hear- 
ing the commotion, one of the old man's sons, the elder, rose from 
table to go and look at the scuffle. He was called Giovanni; and I 
said to him: "For Heaven's sake, don't go! In such matters one is 
always certain to lose, while there is nothing to be gained." His 
father spoke to like purpose: "Pray, my son, don't go!" But the lad, 
without heeding any one, ran down the stairs. Reaching the Banchi, 

2 His baptismal name was Bernardo. Cattivanza was a nickname. He fought 
bravely for Florence in the siege. 



TOO BENVENUTO CELLINI 

where the great scrimmage was, and seeing Bertino lifted from the 
ground, he ran towards home, and met my brother Cecchino on the 
way, who asked what was the matter. Though some of the by- 
standers signed to Giovanni not to tell Cecchino, he cried out like a 
madman how it was that Bertino Aldobrandi had been killed by the 
guard. My poor brother gave vent to a bellow which might have 
been heard ten miles away. Then he turned to Giovanni: "Ah me! 
but could you tell me which of those men killed him for me?" 1 
Giovanni said, yes, that it was a man who had a big two-handed 
sword, with a blue feather in his bonnet. My poor brother rushed 
ahead, and having recognised the homicide by those signs, he threw 
himself with all his dash and spirit into the middle of the band, and 
before his man could turn on guard, ran him right through the guts, 
and with the sword's hilt thrust him to the ground. Then he turned 
upon the rest with such energy and daring, that his one arm was 
on the point of putting the whole band to flight, had it not been 
that, while wheeling round to strike an arquebusier, this man fired 
in self-defence, and hit the brave unfortunate young fellow above 
the knee of his right leg. While he lay stretched upon the ground, 
the constables scrambled off in disorder as fast as they were able, 
lest a pair to my brother should arrive upon the scene. 

Noticing that the tumult was not subsiding, I too rose from the 
table, and girding on my sword for everybody wore one then I 
went to the bridge of Sant' Agnolo, where I saw a group of several 
men assembled. On my coming up and being recognised by some 
of them, they gave way before me, and showed me what I least of 
all things wished to see, albeit I made mighty haste to view the sight. 
On the instant I did not know Cecchino, since he was wearing a 
different suit of clothes from that in which I had lately seen him. 
Accordingly, he recognised me first, and said: "Dearest brother, do 
not be upset by my grave accident; it is only what might be expected 
in my profession: get me removed from here at once, for I have but 
few hours to live." They had acquainted me with the whole event 
while he was speaking, in brief words befitting such occasion. So 
I answered: "Brother, this is the greatest sorrow and the greatest 

1 Oime, saprestimi tu dire che di quelli me I'ha morto? The me is so emphatic, 
that, though it makes poor English, I have preserved it in my version. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY IOI 

trial that could happen to me in the whole course of my life. But 
be of good cheer; for before you lose sight of him who did the mis- 
chief, you shall see yourself revenged by my hand." Our words on 
both sides were to the purport, but of the shortest. 

XLIX 

The guard was now about fifty paces from us; for Mafno, their 
officer, had made some of them turn back to take up the corporal 
my brother killed. Accordingly, I quickly traversed that short space, 
wrapped in my cape, which I had tightened round me, and came 
up with Marfio, whom I should most certainly have murdered, for 
there were plenty of people round, and I had wound my way among 
them. With the rapidity of lightning, I had half drawn my sword 
from the sheath, when Berlinghier Berlinghieri, a young man of the 
greatest daring and my good friend, threw himself from behind upon 
my arms; he had four other fellows of like kidney with him, who 
cried out to Mafno: "Away with you, for this man here alone was 
killing you!" He asked: "Who is he?" and they answered: "Own 
brother to the man you see there." Without waiting to hear more, 
he made haste for Torre di Nona; 1 and they said: "Benvenuto, we 
prevented you against your will, but did it for your good; now let 
us go to succour him who must die shortly." Accordingly, we turned 
and went back to my brother, whom I had at once conveyed into a 
house. The doctors who were called in consultation, treated him 
with medicaments, but could not decide to amputate the leg, which 
might perhaps have saved him. 

As soon as his wound had been dressed, Duke Alessandro ap- 
peared and most affectionately greeted him. My brother had not 
as yet lost consciousness; so he said to the Duke: "My lord, this only 
grieves me, that your Excellency is losing a servant than whom 
you may perchance find men more valiant in the profession of 
arms, but none more lovingly and loyally devoted to your service 
than I have been." The Duke bade him do all he could to keep 
alive; for the rest, he well knew him to be a man of worth and 

1 The Torre di Nona was one of the principal prisons in Rome, used especially for 
criminals condemned to death. 



102 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

courage. He then turned to his attendants, ordering them to see that 
the brave young fellow wanted for nothing. 

When he was gone, my brother lost blood so copiously, for nothing 
could be done to stop it, that he went of! his head, and kept raving 
all the following night, with the exception that once, when they 
wanted to give him the communion, he said: "You would have 
done well to confess me before; now it is impossible that I should 
receive the divine sacrament in this already ruined frame; it will 
be enough if I partake of it by the divine virtue of the eyesight, 
whereby it shall be transmitted into my immortal soul, which only 
prays to Him for mercy and forgiveness." Having spoken thus, the 
host was elevated; but he straightway relapsed into the same delirious 
ravings as before, pouring forth a torrent of the most terrible frenzies 
and horrible imprecations that the mind of man could imagine; nor 
did he cease once all that night until the day broke. 

When the sun appeared above our horizon, he turned to me and 
said: "Brother, I do not wish to stay here longer, for these fellows 
will end by making me do something tremendous, which may cause 
them to repent of the annoyance they have given me." Then he 
kicked out both his legs the injured limb we had enclosed in a 
very heavy box and made as though he would fling it across a 
horse's back. Turning his face round to me, he called out thrice 
"Farewell, farewell!" and with the last word that most valiant spirit 
passed away. 

At the proper hour, toward nightfall, I had him buried with due 
ceremony in the church of the Florentines; and afterwards I erected 
to his memory a very handsome monument of marble, upon which I 
caused trophies and banners to be carved. I must not omit to men- 
tion that one of his friends had asked him who the man was that 
had killed him, and if he could recognise him; to which he answered 
that he could, and gave his description. My brother, indeed, at- 
tempted to prevent this coming to my ears; but I got it very well 
impressed upon my mind, as will appear in the sequel. 2 

2 Varchi, in his Storia Florentina, lib. xi., gives a short account of Cecchino Cellini's 
death in Rome, mentioning also Bertino Aldobrandi, in the attempt to revenge whom 
he lost his life. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 103 



Returning to the monument, I should relate that certain famous 
men of letters, who knew my brother, composed for me an epitaph, 
telling me that the noble young man deserved it. The inscription ran 
thus: 

"Francisco Cellino Florentine, qui quod in teneris annis ad loannem 
Medicem ducem plures victorias retulit et signijer fuit, facile docu- 
mentum dedit quantce jortitudinis et consilii vir juturus erat, ni crudehs 
fati archibuso transfossus, quinto cetatis lustro jaceret, Benvenutus jrater 
posuit. Obiit die xxvii Maii MD.XXIX." 

He was twenty-five years of age; and since the soldiers called him 
Cecchino del Piffero, 1 his real name being Giovanfrancesco Cellini, 
I wanted to engrave the former, by which he was commonly known, 
under the armorial bearings of our family. This name then I had 
cut in fine antique characters, all of which were broken save the 
first and last. I was asked by the learned men who had composed 
that beautiful epitaph, wherefore I used these broken letters; and 
my answer was, because the marvellous framework of his body was 
spoiled and dead; and the reason why the first and last remained 
entire was, that the first should symbolise the great gift God had 
given him, namely, of a human soul, inflamed with his divinity, 
the which hath never broken, while the second represented the 
glorious renown of his brave actions. The thought gave satisfaction, 
and several persons have since availed themselves of my device. 
Close to the name I had the coat of us Cellini carved upon the 
stone, altering it in some particulars. In Ravenna, which is a most 
ancient city, there exist Cellini of our name in the quality of very 
honourable gentry, who bear a lion rampant or upon a field of azure, 
holding a lily gules in his dexter paw, with a label in chief and three 
little lilies or. 2 These are the true arms of the Cellini. My father 
showed me a shield as ours which had the paw only, together with 
the other bearings; but I should prefer to follow those of the Cellini 
of Ravenna, which I have described above. Now to return to what 
I caused to be engraved upon my brother's tomb: it was the lion's 

1 That is, Frank, the Fifer's son. 

2 1 believe Cellini meant here to write "on a chief argent a label of four points, and 
three lilies gules." He has tricked the arms thus in a MS. of the Palatine Library. 
See Leclanche, p. 103; see also Piatti, vol. i. p. 233, and Plon, p. 2. 



IO4 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

paw, but instead of a lily, I made the lion hold an axe, with the field 
of the scutcheon quartered; and I put the axe in solely that I might 
not be unmindful to revenge him. 



LI 

I went on applying myself with the utmost diligence upon the 
gold-work for Pope Clement's button. He was very eager to have it, 
and used to send for me two or three times a week, in order to inspect 
it; and his delight in the work always increased. Often would he 
rebuke and scold me, as it were, for the great grief in which my 
brother's loss had plunged me; and one day, observing me more 
downcast and out of trim than was proper, he cried aloud: "Ben- 
venuto, oh! I did not know that you were mad. Have you only 
just learned that there is no remedy against death? One would 
think that you were trying to run after him." When I left the pres- 
ence, I continued working at the jewel and the dies 1 for the Mint; 
but I also took to watching the arquebusier who shot my brother, 
as though he had been a girl I was in love with. The man had 
formerly been in the light cavalry, but afterwards had joined the 
arquebusiers as one of the Bargello's corporals; and what increased 
my rage was that he had used these boastful words: "If it had not 
been for me, who killed that brave young man, the least trifle of 
delay would have resulted in his putting us all to flight with great 
disaster." When I saw that the fever caused by always seeing him 
about was depriving me of sleep and appetite, and was bringing me 
by degrees to sorry plight, I overcame my repugnance to so low and 
not quite praiseworthy an enterprise, and made my mind up one 
evening to rid myself of the torment. The fellow lived in a house 
near a place called Torre Sanguigua, next door to the lodging of one 
of the most fashionable courtesans in Rome, named Signora Antea. 
It had just struck twenty-four, and he was standing at the house- 
door, with his sword in hand, having risen from supper. With 
great address I stole up to him, holding a large Pistojan dagger, 2 and 
dealt him a back-handed stroke, with which I meant to cut his head 

1 Tern. I have translated this word dies', but it seems to mean all the coining 
instruments, stampe or conii being the dies proper. 

2 Pugnal pistolese; it came in time to mean a cutlass. 



AUTOB IOGR APH Y 1 05 

clean off; but as he turned round very suddenly, the blow fell upon 
the point of his left shoulder and broke the bone. He sprang up, 
dropped his sword, half-stunned with the great pain, and took to 
flight. I followed after, and in four steps caught him up, when I 
lifted my dagger above his head, which he was holding very low, 
and hit him in the back exactly at the juncture of the nape-bone 
and the neck. The poniard entered this point so deep into the bone, 
that, though I used all my strength to pull it out, I was not able. 
For just at that moment four soldiers with drawn swords sprang 
out from Antea's lodging, and obliged me to set hand to my own 
sword to defend my life. Leaving the poniard then, I made off, and 
fearing I might be recognised, took refuge in the palace of Duke 
Alessandro, which was between Piazza Navona and the Rotunda. 3 
On my arrival, I asked to see the Duke; who told me that, if I was 
alone, I need only keep quiet and have no further anxiety, but to 
go on working at the jewel which the Pope had set his heart on, and 
stay eight days indoors. He gave this advice the more securely, be- 
cause the soldiers had now arrived who interrupted the completion 
of my deed; they held the dagger in their hand, and were relating 
how the matter happened, and the great trouble they had to pull 
the weapon from the neck and head-bone of the man, whose 
name they did not know. Just then Giovan Bandini came up, and 
said to them. 4 "That poniard is mine, and I lent it to Benvenuto, 
who was bent on revenging his brother." The soldiers were profuse 
in their expressions of regret at having interrupted me, although 
my vengeance had been amply satisfied. 

More than eight days elapsed, and the Pope did not send for me 
according to his custom. Afterwards he summoned me through his 
chamberlain, the Bolognese nobleman I have already mentioned, 
who let me, in his own modest manner, understand that his Holi- 
ness knew all, but was very well inclined toward me, and that I 
had only to mind my work and keep quiet. When we reached the 

3 That is, the Pantheon. 

4 Bandini bears a distinguished name in Florentine annals. He served Duke Ales- 
sandro in affairs of much importance; but afterwards he betrayed the interests of his 
master, Duke Cosimo, in an embassy to Charles V. in 1543. It seems that he had then 
been playing into the hands of Filippo Strozzi, for which offence he passed fifteen 
years in a dungeon. See Varchi and Segni; also Montazio's Prigionieri del Mastio di 
Voiterra, cap. vii. 



106 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

presence, the Pope cast so menacing a glance towards me, that the 
mere look of his eyes made me tremble. Afterwards, upon examin- 
ing my work his countenance cleared, and he began to praise me 
beyond measure, saying that I had done a vast amount in a short 
time. Then, looking me straight in the face, he added: "Now that 
you are cured, Benvenuto, take heed how you live." 5 I, who under- 
stood his meaning, promised that I would. Immediately upon this, 
I opened a very fine shop in the Banchi, opposite RafTaello, and there 
I finished the jewel after the lapse of a few months. 

LII 

The Pope had sent me all those precious stones, except the dia- 
mond, which was pawned to certain Genoese bankers for some 
pressing need he had of money. The rest were in my custody, to- 
gether with a model of the diamond. I had five excellent journey- 
men, and in addition to the great piece, I was engaged on several 
jobs; so that my shop contained property of much value in jewels, 
gems, and gold and silver. I kept a shaggy dog, very big and hand- 
some, which Duke Alessandro gave me; the beast was capital as a 
retriever, since he brought me every sort of birds and game I shot, 
but he also served most admirably for a watchdog. It happened, as 
was natural at the age of twenty-nine, that I had taken into my 
service a girl of great beauty and grace, whom I used as a model in 
my art, and who was also complaisant of her personal favours to me. 
Such being the case, I occupied an apartment far away from my 
workmen's rooms, as well as from the shop; and this communicated 
by a little dark passage with the maid's bedroom. I used frequently 
to pass the night with her; and though I sleep as lightly as ever yet 
did man upon this earth, yet, after indulgence in sexual pleasure, 
my slumber is sometimes very deep and heavy. 

So it chanced one night: for I must say that a thief, under the pre- 
text of being a goldsmith, had spied on me, and cast his eyes upon 
the precious stones, and made a plan to steal them. Well, then, this 
fellow broke into the shop, where he found a quantity of little things 
in gold and silver. He was engaged in bursting open certain boxes 

5 This was the Pope's hint to Cellini that he was aware of the murder he had just 
committed. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1 07 

to get at the jewels he had noticed, when my dog jumped upon him, 
and put him to much trouble to defend himself with his sword. The 
dog, unable to grapple with an armed man, ran several times through 
the house, and rushed into the rooms of the journeymen, which had 
been left open because of the great heat. When he found they paid 
no heed to his loud barking, he dragged their bed-clothes off; and 
when they still heard nothing, he pulled first one and then another 
by the arm till he roused them, and, barking furiously, ran before 
to show them where he wanted them to go. At last it became clear 
that they refused to follow; for the traitors, cross at being disturbed, 
threw stones and sticks at him; and this they could well do, for I 
had ordered them to keep all night a lamp alight there; and in the 
end they shut their rooms tight; so the dog, abandoning all hope of 
aid from such rascals, set out alone again on his adventure. He ran 
down, and not finding the thief in the shop, flew after him. When 
he got at him, he tore the cape off his back. It would have gone hard 
with the fellow had he not called for help to certain tailors, praying 
them for God's sake to save him from a mad dog; and they, believing 
what he said, jumped out and drove the dog off with much trouble. 
After sunrise my workmen went into the shop, and saw that it 
had been broken open and all the boxes smashed. They began to 
scream at the top of their voices: "Ah, woe is me! Ah, woe is me!" 
The clamour woke me, and I rushed out in a panic. Appearing 
thus before them, they cried out: "Alas to us! for we have been 
robbed by some one, who has broken and borne everything away!" 
These words wrought so forcibly upon my mind that I dared not 
go to my big chest and look if it still held the jewels of the Pope. 
So intense was the anxiety, that I seemed to lose my eyesight, and 
told them they themselves must unlock the chest, and see how many 
of the Pope's gems were missing. The fellows were all of them in 
their shirts; and when, on opening the chest, they saw the precious 
stones and my work with them, they took heart of joy and shouted: 
"There is no harm done; your piece and all the stones are here; but 
the thief has left us naked to the shirt, because last night, by reason 
of the burning heat, we took our clothes off in the shop and left them 
here." Recovering my senses, I thanked God, and said: "Go and 
get yourselves new suits of clothes; I will pay when I hear at leisure 



108 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

how the whole thing happened." What caused me the most pain, 
and made me lose my senses, and take fright so contrary to my 
real nature was the dread lest peradventure folk should fancy I 
had trumped a story of the robber up to steal the jewels. It had 
already been said to Pope Clement by one of his most trusted serv- 
ants, and by others, that is, by Francesco del Nero, Zana de' Biliotti 
his accountant, the Bishop of Vasona, and several such men i 1 "Why, 
most blessed Father, do you confide gems of that vast value to a 
young fellow, who is all fire, more passionate for arms than for his 
art, and not yet thirty years of age?" The Pope asked in answer if 
any one of them knew that I had done aught to justify such sus- 
picions. Whereto Francesco del Nero, his treasurer, replied: 2 "No, 
most blessed Father, because he has not as yet had an opportunity." 
Whereto the Pope rejoined: "I regard him as a thoroughly honest 
man; and if I saw with my own eyes some crime he had committed, 
I should not believe it." This was the man who 3 caused me the 
greatest torment, and who suddenly came up before my mind. 

After telling the young men to provide themselves with fresh 
clothes, I took my piece, together with the gems, setting them as 
well as I could in their proper places, and went off at once with 
them to the Pope. Francesco del Nero had already told him some- 
thing of the trouble in my shop, and had put suspicions in his head. 
So then, taking the thing rather ill than otherwise, he shot a furious 
glance upon me, and cried haughtily: "What have you come to do 
here? What is up?" "Here are all your precious stones, and not one 
of them is missing." At this the Pope's face cleared, and he said: 
"So then, you're welcome." I showed him the piece, and while he 
was inspecting it, I related to him the whole story of the thief and 
of my agony, and what had been my greatest trouble in the matter. 
During this speech, he oftentimes turned round to look me sharply 

1 Of these people, we can trace the Bishop of Vasona. He was Girolamo Schio or 
Schedo, a native of Vicenza, the confidential agent and confessor of Clement VII., who 
obtained the See of Vaison in the county of Avignon in 1523, and died at Rome 
in 1533. His successor in the bishopric was Tomaso Cortesi, the Datary, mentioned 
above. 

2 Varchi gives a very ugly account of this man, Francesco del Nero, who was nick- 
named the Cra del Piccadiglio, in his History of Florence, book Hi. "In the whole city 
of Florence there never was born, in my belief, a man of such irreligion or of such 
sordid avarice." Giovio confirms the statement. 

3 Questo fu quello che. This may be neuter: This was the circumstance which. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1 09 

in the eyes; and Francesco del Nero being also in the presence, this 
seemed to make him half sorry that he had not guessed the truth. 
At last, breaking into laughter at the long tale I was telling, he sent 
me off with these words: "Go, and take heed to be an honest man, 
as indeed I know that you are." 



LIII 



I went on working assiduously at the button, and at the same time 
laboured for the Mint, when certain pieces of false money got abroad 
in Rome, stamped with my own dies. They were brought at once 
to the Pope, who, hearing things against me, said to Giacopo Bal- 
ducci, the Master of the Mint, "Take every means in your power 
to find the criminal; for we are sure that Benvenuto is an honest 
fellow." That traitor of a master, being in fact my enemy, replied: 
"Would God, most blessed Father, that it may turn out as you say; 
for we have some proofs against him." Upon this the Pope turned 
to the Governor of Rome, and bade him see he found the malefactor. 
During those days the Pope sent for me, and leading cautiously in 
conversation to the topic of the coins, asked me at the fitting mo- 
ment: "Benvenuto, should you have the heart to coin false money?" 
To this I replied that I thought I could do so better than all the 
rascals who gave their minds to such vile work; for fellows who 
practise lewd trades of that sort are not capable of earning money, 
nor are they men of much ability. I, on the contrary, with my poor 
wits could gain enough to keep me comfortably; for when I set dies 
for the Mint, each morning before dinner I put at least three crowns 
into my pocket; this was the customary payment for the dies, and 
the Master of the Mint bore me a grudge, because he would have 
liked to have them cheaper; so then, what I earned with God's grace 
and the world's, sufficed me, and by coining false money I should 
not have made so much. The Pope very well perceived my drift; 
and whereas he had formerly given orders that they should see I did 
not fly from Rome, he now told them to look well about and have 
no heed of me, seeing he was ill-disposed to anger me, and in this 
way run the risk of losing me. The officials who received these orders 
were certain clerks of the Camera, who made the proper search, as 
was their duty, and soon found the rogue. He was a stamper in the 



IIO BENVENUTO CELLINI 

service of the Mint, named Cesare Macherone, and a Roman citizen. 
Together with this man they detected a metal-founder of the Mint. 1 



LIV 



On that very day, as I was passing through the Piazza Navona, 
and had my fine retriever with me, just when we came opposite the 
gate of the Bargello, my dog flew barking loudly inside the door 
upon a youth, who had been arrested at the suit of a man called 
Donnino (a goldsmith from Parma, and a former pupil of Cara- 
dosso), on the charge of having robbed him. The dog strove so 
violently to tear the fellow to pieces, that the constables were moved 
to pity. It so happened that he was pleading his own cause with 
boldness, and Donnino had not evidence enough to support the 
accusation; and what was more, one of the corporals of the guard, 
a Genoese, was a friend of the young man's father. The upshot was 
that, what with the dog and with those other circumstances, they 
were on the point of releasing their prisoner. When I came up, the 
dog had lost all fear of sword or staves, and was flying once more at 
the young man; so they told me if I did not call the brute off they 
would kill him. I held him back as well as I was able; but just then 
the fellow, in the act of readjusting his cape, let fall some paper 
packets from the hood, which Donnino recognised as his property. 
I too recognised a little ring; whereupon I called out: "This is the 
thief who broke into my shop and robbed it; and therefore my dog 
knows him;" then I loosed the dog, who flew again upon the robber. 
On this the fellow craved for mercy, promising to give back whatever 
he possessed of mine. When I had secured the dog, he proceeded 
to restore the gold and silver and the rings which he had stolen from 
me, and twenty-five crowns in addition. Then he cried once more 
to me for pity. I told him to make his peace with God, for I should 
do him neither good nor evil. So I returned to my business; and a 
few days afterwards, Cesare Macherone, the false coiner, was hanged 
in the Banchi opposite the Mint; his accomplice was sent to the 
galleys; the Genoese thief was hanged in the Campo di Fiore, while 
I remained in better repute as an honest man than I had enjoyed 
before. 

! The word in Cellini is ovolatore di zecca. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY III 

LV 

When I had nearly finished my piece, there happened that terrible 
inundation which flooded the whole of Rome. 1 I waited to see what 
would happen; the day was well-nigh spent, for the clocks struck 
twenty-two and the water went on rising formidably. Now the front 
of my house and shop faced the Banchi, but the back was several 
yards higher, because it turned toward Monte Giordano; accord- 
ingly, bethinking me first of my own safety and in the next place 
of my honour, I rilled my pockets with the jewels, and gave the gold- 
piece into the custody of my workmen, and then descended barefoot 
from the back-windows, and waded as well as I could until I reached 
Monte Cavallo. There I sought out Messer Giovanni Gaddi, clerk 
of the Camera, and Bastiano Veneziano, the painter. To the former 
I confided the precious stones, to keep in safety: he had the same 
regard for me as though I had been his brother. A few days later, 
when the rage of the river was spent, I returned to my workshop, 
and finished the piece with such good fortune, through God's grace 
and my own great industry, that it was held to be the finest master- 
piece which had been ever seen in Rome. 2 

When then I took it to the Pope, he was insatiable in praising me, 
and said: "Were I but a wealthy emperor, I would give my Ben- 
venuto as much land as his eyes could survey; yet being nowadays 
but needy bankrupt potentates, we will at any rate give him bread 
enough to satisfy his modest wishes." I let the Pope run on to the 
end of his rhodomontade, 3 and then asked him for a mace-bearer's 
place which happened to be vacant. He replied that he would grant 
me something of far greater consequence. I begged his Holiness to 
bestow this little thing on me meanwhile by way of earnest. He 
began to laugh, and said he was willing, but that he did not wish 
me to serve, and that I must make some arrangement with the other 
mace-bearers to be exempted. He would allow them through me a 
certain favour, for which they had already petitioned, namely, the 

1 This took place on the 8th and gth October, 1530. 

2 This famous masterpiece was preserved in the Castle of S. Angelo during the 
Papal Government of Rome. It was brought out on Christmas, Easter, and S. Peter's 
days. 

3 Quella sua smania di parole. 



112 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

right of recovering their fees at law. This was accordingly done; 
and that mace-bearer's office brought me in little less than 200 crowns 
a year. 4 

LVI 

I continued to work for the Pope, executing now one trifle and 
now another, when he commissioned me to design a chalice of 
exceeding richness. So I made both drawing and model for the piece. 
The latter was constructed of wood and wax. Instead of the usual 
top, I fashioned three figures of a fair size in the round; they repre- 
sented Faith, Hope, and Charity. Corresponding to these, at the 
base of the cup, were three circular histories in bas-relief. One was 
the Nativity of Christ, the second the Resurrection, and the third S. 
Peter crucified head downwards; for thus I had received commis- 
sion. While I had this work in hand, the Pope was often pleased 
to look at it; wherefore, observing that his Holiness had never 
thought again of giving me anything, and knowing that a post in 
the Piombo was vacant, I asked for this one evening. The good 
Pope, quite oblivious of his extravagances at the termination of the 
last piece, said to me : "That post in the Piombo is worth more than 
800 crowns a year, so that if I gave it you, you would spend your 
time in scratching your paunch, 1 and your magnificent handicraft 
would be lost, and I should bear the blame." I replied at once as 
thus: "Cats of a good breed mouse better when they are fat than 
starving; and likewise honest men who possess some talent, exercise 
it to far nobler purport when they have the wherewithal to live 
abundantly; wherefore princes who provide such folk with com- 
petences, let your Holiness take notice, are watering the roots of 
genius; for genius and talent, at their birth, come into this world 
lean and scabby; and your Holiness should also know that I never 
asked for the place with the hope of getting it. Only too happy I 
to have that miserable post of mace-bearer. On the other I built but 
castles in the air. Your Holiness will do well, since you do not care 

4 Cellini received this post among the Mazzieri (who walked like beadles before 
the Pope) on April 14, 1531. He resigned it in favour of Pietro Cornaro of Venice 

in 1535- 

1 Grattare il corpo, which I have translated scratch your paunch, is equivalent to 
twirl your thumbs. 






AUTOBIOGRAPHY 113 

to give it me, to bestow it on a man of talent who deserves it, and 
not upon some fat ignoramus who will spend his time scratching 
his paunch, if I may quote your Holiness's own words. Follow the 
example of Pope Giulio's illustrious memory, who conferred an 
office of the same kind upon Bramante, that most admirable archi- 
tect." 

Immediately on finishing this speech, I made my bow, and went 
oflF in a fury. Then Bastiano Veneziano the painter approached, and 
said : "Most blessed Father, may your Holiness be willing to grant it 
to one who works assiduously in the exercise of some talent; and as 
your Holiness knows that I am diligent in my art, I beg that I may 
be thought worthy of it." The Pope replied : "That devil Benvenuto 
will not brook rebuke. I was inclined to give it him, but it is not 
right to be so haughty with a Pope. Therefore I do not well know 
what I am to do." The Bishop of Vasona then came up, and put in 
a word for Bastiano, saying: "Most blessed Father, Benvenuto is 
but young; and a sword becomes him better than a friar's frock. 
Let your Holiness give the place to this ingenious person Bastiano. 
Some time or other you will be able to bestow on Benvenuto a good 
thing, perhaps more suitable to him than this would be." Then the 
Pope turning to Messer Bartolommeo Valori, told him : "When next 
you meet Benvenuto, let him know from me that it was he who 
got that office in the Piombo for Bastiano the painter, and add that 
he may reckon on obtaining the next considerable place that falls; 
meanwhile let him look to his behaviour, and finish my commis- 



sions." 2 



The following evening, two hours after sundown, I met Messer 
Bartolommeo Valori 3 at the corner of the Mint; he was preceded 
by two torches, and was going in haste to the Pope, who had sent 
for him. On my taking off my hat, he stopped and called me, and 

2 The office of the Piombo in Rome was a bureau in which leaden seals were 
appended to Bulls and instruments of state. It remained for a long time in the hands 
of the Cistercians; but it used also to be conferred on laymen, among whom were 
Bremante and Sebastiano del Piombo. When the latter obtained it, he neglected his 
art and gave himself up to "scratching his paunch," as Cellini predicted. 

3 Bartolommeo or Baccio Valori, a devoted adherent of the Medici, played an 
important part in Florentine history. He was Clement's commissary to the Prince 
of Orange during the siege. Afterwards, feeling himself ill repaid for his services, 
he joined Filippo Strozzi in his opposition to the Medicean rule, and was beheaded in 
1537, together with his son and a nephew. 



114 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

reported in the most friendly manner all the messages the Pope had 
sent me. I replied that I should complete my work with greater 
diligence and application than any I had yet attempted, but without 
the least hope of having any reward whatever from the Pope. Messer 
Bartolommeo reproved me, saying that this was not the way in 
which one ought to reply to the advances of a Pope. I answered that 
I should be mad to reply otherwise mad if I based my hopes on 
such promises, being certain to get nothing. So I departed, and 
went off to my business. 

Messer Bartolommeo must have reported my audacious speeches 
to the Pope, and more perhaps than I had really said; for his Holi- 
ness waited above two months before he sent to me, and during that 
while nothing would have induced me to go uncalled for to the 
palace. Yet he was dying with impatience to see the chalice, and 
commissioned Messer Ruberto Pucci to give heed to what I was 
about. 4 That right worthy fellow came daily to visit me, and always 
gave me some kindly word, which I returned. The time was draw- 
ing nigh now for the Pope to travel toward Bologna; 5 so at last, per- 
ceiving that I did not mean to come to him, he made Messer Ruberto 
bid me bring my work, that he might see how I was getting on. 
Accordingly, I took it; and having shown, as the piece itself proved, 
that the most important part was finished, I begged him to advance 
me five hundred crowns, partly on account, and partly because I 
wanted gold to complete the chalice. The Pope said : "Go on, go on 
at work till it is finished." I answered, as I took my leave, that I 
would finish it if he paid me the money. And so I went away. 



LVII 

When the Pope took his journey to Bologna, he left Cardinal 
Salviati as Legate of Rome, and gave him commission to push the 
work that I was doing forward, adding: "Benvenuto is a fellow who 
esteems his own' great talents but slightly, and us less; look to it then 

4 Roberto Pucci was another of the devoted Medicean partisans who remained true 
to his colours. He sat among the forty-eight senators of Alessandro, and was made a 
Cardinal by Paul III. in 1534. 

5 On November 18, 1532, Clement went to meet Charles V. at Bologna, where, in 
1529, he had already given him the Imperial crown. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 115 

that you keep him always going, so that I may find the chalice 
finished on my return." 

That beast of a Cardinal sent for me after eight days, bidding me 
bring the piece up. On this I went to him without the piece. No 
sooner had I shown my face, than he called out: "Where is that 
onion-stew of yours ? 1 Have you got it ready ?" I answered : "O most 
reverend Monsignor, I have not got my onion-stew ready, nor shall I 
make it ready, unless you give me onions to concoct it with." At 
these words the Cardinal, who looked more like a donkey than a 
man, turned uglier by half than he was naturally; and wanting at 
once to cut the matter short, cried out : "I'll send you to a galley, and 
then perhaps you'll have the grace 2 to go on with your labour." The 
bestial manners of the man made me a beast too; and I retorted: 
"Monsignor, send me to the galleys when I've done deeds worthy of 
them; but for my present laches, I snap my fingers at your galleys: 
and what is more, I tell you that, just because of you, I will not set 
hand further to my piece. Don't send for me again, for I won't 
appear, no, not if you summon me by the police." 

After this, the good Cardinal tried several times to let me know 
that I ought to go on working, and to bring him what I was doing 
to look at. I only told his messengers: "Say to Monsignor that he 
must send me onions, if he wants me to get my stew ready." Nor 
gave I ever any other answer; so that he threw up the commission 
in despair. 

LVIII 

The Pope came back from Bologna, and sent at once for me, be- 
cause the Cardinal had written the worst he could of my affairs in 
his despatches. He was in the hottest rage imaginable, and bade 
me come upon the instant with my piece. I obeyed. Now, while the 
Pope was staying at Bologna, I had suffered from an attack of in- 
flammation in the eyes, so painful that I scarce could go on living 
for the torment; and this was the chief reason why I had not carried 
out my work. The trouble was so serious that I expected for certain 

1 Cipollata. Literally, a show of onions and pumpkins; metaphorically, a mess, 
gallimaufry. 

2 Arai di grazia di. I am not sure whether I have given the right shade of meaning 
in the text above. It may mean: You will be permitted. 



Il6 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

to be left without my eyesight; and I had reckoned up the sum on 
which I could subsist, if I were blind for life. Upon the way to the 
Pope, I turned over in my mind what I should put forward to excuse 
myself for not having been able to advance his work. I thought 
that while he was inspecting the chalice, I might tell him of my 
personal embarrassments. However, I was unable to do so; for when 
I arrived in the presence, he broke out coarsely at me: "Come here 
with your work; is it finished?" I displayed it; and his temper rising, 
he exclaimed: "In God's truth I tell thee, thou that makest it thy 
business to hold no man in regard, that, were it not for decency and 
order, I would have thee chucked together with thy work there out 
of windows." Accordingly, when I perceived that the Pope had 
become no better than a vicious beast, my chief anxiety was how I 
could manage to withdraw from his presence. So, while he went on 
bullying, I tucked the piece beneath my cape, and muttered under 
my breath: "The whole world could not compel a blind man to 
execute such things as these." Raising his voice still higher, the Pope 
shouted: "Come here; what say'st thou?" I stayed in two minds, 
whether or not to dash at full speed down the staircase; then I took 
my decision and threw myself upon my knees, shouting as loudly 
as I could, for he too had not ceased from shouting: "If an infirmity 
has blinded me, am I bound to go on working?" He retorted: "You 
saw well enough to make your way hither, and I don't believe one 
word of what you say." I answered, for I noticed he had dropped 
his voice a little: "Let your Holiness inquire of your physician, and 
you will find the truth out." He said: "So ho! softly; at leisure we 
shall hear if what you say is so." Then, perceiving thatj he was 
willing to give me hearing, I added: "I am convinced that the only 
cause of this great trouble which has happened to me is Cardinal 
Salviati; for he sent to me immediately after your Holiness's de- 
parture, and when I presented myself, he called my work a stew of 
onions, and told me he would send me to complete it in a galley; 
and such was the effect upon me of his knavish words, that in my 
passion I felt my face in flame, and so intolerable a heat attacked 
my eyes that I could not find my own way home. Two days after- 
wards, cataracts fell on both my eyes; I quite lost my sight, and after 
your Holiness's departure I have been unable to work at all." 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 117 

Rising from my knees, I left the presence without further license. 
It was afterwards reported to me that the Pope had said: "One can 
give commissions, but not the prudence to perform them. I did not 
tell the Cardinal to go so brutally about this business. 1 If it is true 
that he is suffering from his eyes, of which I shall get information 
through my doctor, one ought to make allowance for him." A great 
gentleman, intimate with the Pope, and a man of very distinguished 
parts, happened to be present. He asked who I was, using terms 
like these: "Most blessed Father, pardon if I put a question. I have 
seen you yield at one and the same time to the hottest anger I ever 
observed, and then to the warmest compassion; so I beg your Holi- 
ness to tell me who the man is; for if he is a person worthy to be 
helped, I can teach him a secret which may cure him of that infirm- 
ity." The Pope replied : "He is the greatest artist who was ever born 
in his own craft; one day, when we are together, I will show you 
some of his marvellous works, and the man himself to boot; and I 
shall be pleased if we can see our way toward doing something to 
assist him." Three days after this, the Pope sent for me after dinner- 
time, and I found that great noble in the presence. On my arrival, 
the Pope had my cope-button brought, and I in the meantime drew 
forth my chalice. The nobleman said, on looking at it, that he had 
never seen a more stupendous piece of work. When the button came, 
he was still more struck with wonder : and looking me straight in the 
face, he added : "The man is young, I trow, to be so able in his art, 
and still apt enough to learn much." He then asked me what my 
name was. I answered : "My name is Benvenuto." He replied : "And 
Benvenuto shall I be this day to you. Take flower-de-luces, stalk, 
blossom, root, together; then decoct them over a slack fire; and with 
the liquid bathe your eyes several times a day; you will most cer- 
tainly be cured of that weakness; but see that you purge first, and 
then go forward with the lotion." The Pope gave me some kind 
words, and so I went away half satisfied. 

LIX 

It was true indeed that I had got the sickness; but I believe I 
caught it from that fine young servant-girl whom I was keeping 

1 Che mettessi tanta mazza. 



Il8 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

when my house was robbed. The French disease, for it was that, 
remained in me more than four months dormant before it showed 
itself, and then it broke out over my whole body at one instant. 
It was not like what one commonly observes, but covered my flesh 
with certain blisters, of the size of six-pences, and rose-coloured. 
The doctors would not call it the French disease, albeit I told them 
why I thought it was that. I went on treating myself according to 
their methods, but derived no benefit. At last, then, I resolved on 
taking the wood, against the advice of the first physicians in Rome; 1 
and I took it with the most scrupulous discipline and rules of absti- 
nence that could be thought of; and after a few days, I perceived in 
me a great amendment. The result was that at the end of fifty days 
I was cured and as sound as a fish in the water. 

Some time afterwards I sought to mend my shattered health, and 
with this view I betook myself to shooting when the winter came 
in. That amusement, however, led me to expose myself to wind 
and water, and to staying out in marsh-lands; so that, after a few 
days, I fell a hundred times more ill than I had been before. I put 
myself once more under doctors' orders, and attended to their direc- 
tions, but grew always worse. When the fever fell upon me, I re- 
solved on having recourse again to the wood; but the doctors for- 
bade it, saying that if I took it with the fever on me, I should not 
have a week to live. However, I made my mind up to disobey their 
orders, observed the same diet as I had formerly adopted, and after 
drinking the decoction four days, was wholly rid of fever. My 
health improved enormously; and while I was following this cure, I 
went on always working at the models of the chalice. I may add 
that, during the time of that strict abstinence, I produced finer things 
and of more exquisite invention than at any other period of my life. 
After fifty days my health was re-established, and I continued with 
the utmost care to keep it and confirm it. When at last I ventured 
to relax my rigid diet, I found myself as wholly free from those in- 
firmities as though I had been born again. Although I took pleasure 
in fortifying the health I so much longed for, yet I never left off 
working; both the chalice and the Mint had certainly as much of my 
attention as was due to them and to myself. 

1 That is, Guiacum, called by the Italians legno santo. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 119 



LX 



It happened that Cardinal Salviati, who, as I have related, enter- 
tained an old hostility against me, had been appointed Legate to 
Parma. In that city a certain Milanese goldsmith, named Tobbia, 
was taken up for false coining, and condemned to the gallows and 
the stake. Representations in his favour, as being a man of great 
ability, were made to the Cardinal, who suspended the execution of 
the sentence, and wrote to the Pope, saying the best goldsmith in the 
world had come into his hands, sentenced to death for coining false 
money, but that he was a good simple fellow, who could plead in 
his excuse that he had taken counsel with his confessor, and had 
received, as he said, from him permission to do this. Thereto he 
added : "If you send for this great artist to Rome, your Holiness will 
bring down the overweening arrogance of your favourite Benvenuto, 
and I am quite certain that Tobbia's work will please you far more 
than his." The Pope accordingly sent for him at once; and when the 
man arrived, he made us both appear before him, and commissioned 
each of us to furnish a design for mounting an unicorn's horn, the 
finest which had ever been seen, and which had been sold for 17,000 
ducats of the Camera. The Pope meant to give it to King Francis; 
but first he wished it richly set in gold, and ordered us to make 
sketches for this purpose. When they were finished, we took them 
to the Pope. That of Tobbia was in the form of a candlestick, the 
horn being stuck in it like a candle, and at the base of the piece he 
had introduced four little unicorns' heads of a very poor design. 
When I saw the thing, I could not refrain from laughing gently in 
my sleeve. The Pope noticed this, and cried : "Here, show me your 
sketch!" It was a single unicorn's head, proportioned in size to the 
horn. I had designed the finest head imaginable; for I took it partly 
from the horse and partly from the stag, enriching it with fantastic 
mane and other ornaments. Accordingly, no sooner was it seen, than 
every one decided in my favour. There were, however, present at 
the competition certain Milanese gentlemen of the first consequence, 
who said : "Most blessed Father, your Holiness is sending this mag- 
nificent present into France; please to reflect that the French are 
people of no culture, and will not understand the excellence of Ben- 



I2O BENVENUTO CELLINI 

venuto's work; pyxes like this one of Tobbia's will suit their taste 
well, and these too can be finished quicker. 1 Benvenuto will devote 
himself to completing your chalice, and you will get two pieces done 
in the same time; moreover, this poor man, whom you have brought 
to Rome, will have the chance to be employed." The Pope, who 
was anxious to obtain his chalice, very willingly adopted the advice 
of the Milanese gentlefolk. 

Next day, therefore, he commissioned Tobbia to mount the uni- 
corn's horn, and sent his Master of the Wardrobe to bid me finish 
the chalice. 2 I replied that I desired nothing in the world more than 
to complete the beautiful work I had begun: and if the material 
had been anything but gold, I could very easily have done so myself; 
but it being gold, his Holiness must give me some of the metal if he 
wanted me to get through with my work. To this the vulgar courtier 
answered: "Zounds! don't ask the Pope for gold, unless you mean 
to drive him into such a fury as will ruin you." I said: "Oh, my 
good lord, will your lordship please to tell me how one can make 
bread without flour ? Even so without gold this piece of mine cannot 
be finished." The Master of the Wardrobe, having an inkling that I 
had made a fool of him, told me he should report all I had spoken 
to his Holiness; and this he did. The Pope flew into a bestial pas- 
sion, and swore he would wait to see if I was so mad as not to finish 
it. More than two months passed thus; and though I had declared I 
would not give a stroke to the chalice, I did not do so, but always 
went on working with the greatest interest. When he perceived I 
was not going to bring it, he began to display real displeasure, and 
protested he would punish me in one way or another. 

A jeweller from Milan in the Papal service happened to be present 
when these words were spoken. He was called Pompeo, and was 
closely related to Messer Trajano, the most favoured servant of Pope 
Clement. The two men came, upon a common understanding, to 
him and said: "If your Holiness were to deprive Benvenuto of the 
Mint, perhaps he would take it into his head to complete the chalice." 

1 The word I have translated pyxes is ciborii, vessels for holding the Eucharist. 

2 The Master of the Wardrobe was at that time Giovanni Aleotti. I need hardly 
remind my readers that Guardaroba or wardrobe was the apartment in a palace where 
arms, plate, furniture, and clothes were stored. We shall find, when we come to 
Cellini's service under Duke Cosimo, that princes spent much of their time in this 
place. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 121 

To this the Pope answered: "No; two evil things would happen: 
first, I should be ill served in the Mint, which concerns me greatly; 
and secondly, I should certainly not get the chalice." The two 
Milanese, observing the Pope indisposed towards me, at last so far 
prevailed that he deprived me of the Mint, and gave it to a young 
Perugian, commonly known as Fagiuolo. 3 Pompeo came to inform 
me that his Holiness had taken my place in the Mint away, and 
that if I did not finish the chalice, he would deprive me of other 
things besides. I retorted: "Tell his Holiness that he has deprived 
himself and not me of the Mint, and that he will be doing the same 
with regard to those other things of which he speaks; and that if 
he wants to confer the post on me again, nothing will induce me to 
accept it." The graceless and unlucky fellow went off like an arrow 
to find the Pope and report this conversation; he added also some- 
thing of his own invention. Eight days later, the Pope sent the same 
man to tell me that he did not mean me to finish the chalice, and 
wanted to have it back precisely at the point to which I had already 
brought it. I told Pompeo : "This thing is not like the Mint, which 
it was in his power to take away; but five hundred crowns which I 
received belong to his Holiness, and I am ready to return them; the 
piece itself is mine, and with it I shall do what I think best." Pompeo 
ran off to report my speech, together with some biting words which 
in my righteous anger I had let fly at himself. 

LXI 

After the lapse of three days, on a Thursday, there came to me two 
favourite Chamberlains of his Holiness; one of them is alive now, 
and a bishop; he was called Messer Pier Giovanni, and was an officer 
of the wardrobe; the other could claim nobler birth, but his name 
has escaped me. On arriving they spoke as follows : The Pope hath 
sent us, Benvenuto; and since you have not chosen to comply with 
his request on easy terms, his commands now are that either you 
should give us up his piece, or that we should take you to prison." 
Thereupon I looked them very cheerfully in the face, replying: "My 
lords, if I were to give the work to his Holiness, I should be giving 

3 Vasari mentions a Girolamo Fagiuoli, who flourished at this period but calls him 
a Bolognese. 



122 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

what is mine and not his, and at present I have no intention to make 
him this gift. I have brought it far forward with great labour, and 
do not want it to go into the hands of some ignorant beast who will 
destroy it with no trouble." While I spoke thus, the goldsmith Tob- 
bia was standing by, who even presumptuously asked me for the 
models also of my work. What I retorted, in words worthy of such 
a rascal, need not here be repeated. Then, when those gentlemen, the 
Chamberlains, kept urging me to do quickly what I meant to do, 
I told them I was ready. So I took my cape up, and before I left the 
shop, I turned to an image of Christ, with solemn reverence and cap 
in hand, praying as thus: "O gracious and undying, just and holy 
our Lord, all the things thou doest are according to thy justice, which 
hath no peer on earth. Thou knowest that I have exactly reached 
the age of thirty, and that up to this hour I was never threatened 
with a prison for any of my actions. Now that it is thy will that I 
should go to prison, with all my heart I thank thee for this dispensa- 
tion." Thereat I turned round to the two Chamberlains, and ad- 
dressed them with a certain lowering look I have: "A man of my 
quality deserved no meaner catchpoles than your lordships: place 
me between you, and take me as your prisoner where you like." 
Those two gentlemen, with the most perfect manners, burst out 
laughing, and put me between them; and so we went off, talking 
pleasantly, until they brought me to the Governor of Rome, who was 
called II Magalotto. 1 When I reached him (and the Procurator- 
Fiscal was with him, both waiting for me), the Pope's Chamber- 
lains, still laughing, said to the Governor: "We give up to you this 
prisoner; now see you take good care of him. We are very glad to 
have acted in the place of your agents; for Benvenuto has told us that 
this being his first arrest, he deserved no catchpoles of inferior station 
than we are." Immediately on leaving us, they sought the Pope; and 
when they had minutely related the whole matter, he made at first 
as though he would give way to passion, but afterwards he put 
control upon himself and laughed, because there were then in the 
presence certain lords and cardinals, my friends, who had warmly 
espoused my cause. 

1 Gregorio Magalotti was a Roman. The Procurator-Fiscal was then Benedetto 
Valenti. Magalotti is said to have discharged his office with extreme severity, and to 
have run great risks of his life in consequence. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 123 

Meanwhile, the Governor and the Fiscal were at me, partly bully- 
ing, partly expostulating, partly giving advice, and saying it was 
only reason that a man who ordered work from another should be 
able to withdraw it at his choice, and in any way which he thought 
best. To this I replied that such proceedings were not warranted by 
justice, neither could a Pope act thus; for that a Pope is not of the 
same kind as certain petty tyrant princes, who treat their folk as 
badly as they can, without regard to law or justice; and so a Vicar 
of Christ may not commit any of these acts of violence. Thereat the 
Governor, assuming his police-court style of threatening and bul- 
lying, began to say: "Benvenuto, Benvenuto, you are going about 
to make me treat you as you deserve." "You will treat me with 
honour and courtesy, if you wish to act as I deserve." Taking me up 
again, he cried: "Send for the work at once, and don't wait for a 
second order." I responded: "My lords, grant me the favour of being 
allowed to say four more words in my defence." The Fiscal, who 
was a far more reasonable agent of police than the Governor, turned 
to him and said: "Monsignor, suppose we let him say a hundred 
words, if he likes : so long as he gives up the work, that is enough for 
us." I spoke: "If any man you like to name had ordered a palace or 
a house to be built, he could with justice tell the master-mason: 'I 
do not want you to go on working at my house or palace;' and after 
paying him his labour, he would have the right to dismiss him. 
Likewise, if a nobleman gave commission for a jewel of a thousand 
crowns' value to be set, when he saw that the jeweller was not serv- 
ing him according to his desire, he could say: 'Give me back my 
stone, for I do not want your work.' But in a case of this kind none 
of those considerations apply; there is neither house nor jewel here; 
nobody can command me further than that I should return the five 
hundred crowns which I have had. Therefore, monsignori, do 
everything you can do; for you will get nothing from me beyond 
the five hundred crowns. Go and say this to the Pope. Your threats 
do not frighten me at all; for I am an honest man, and stand in no 
fear of my sins." The Governor and Fiscal rose, and said they were 
going to the Pope, and should return with orders which I should 
soon learn to my cost. So I remained there under guard. I walked 
up and down a large hall, and they were about three hours away 



124 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

before they came back from the Pope. In that while the flower o 
our nation among the merchants came to visit me, imploring me not 
to persist in contending with a Pope, for this might be the ruin of 
me. I answered them that I had made my mind up quite well what 
I wished to do. 

LXII 

No sooner had the Governor returned, together with the Procura- 
tor, from the palace, than he sent for me, and spoke to this effect: 
"Benvenuto, I am certainly sorry to come back from the Pope with 
such commands as I have received; you must either produce the 
chalice on the instant, or look to your affairs." Then I replied that 
"inasmuch as I had never to that hour believed a holy Vicar of Christ 
could commit an unjust act, so I should like to see it before I did 
believe it; therefore do the utmost that you can." The Governor 
rejoined: "I have to report a couple of words more from the Pope 
to you, and then I will execute the orders given me. He says that 
you must bring your work to me here, and that after I have seen 
it put into a box and sealed, I must take it to him. He engages his 
word not to break the seal, and to return the piece to you untouched. 
But this much he wants to have done, in order to preserve his own 
honour in the affair." In return to this speech, I answered, laughing, 
that I would very willingly give up my work in the way he men- 
tioned, because I should be glad to know for certain what a Pope's 
word was really worth. 

Accordingly, I sent for my piece, and having had it sealed as de- 
scribed, gave it up to him. The Governor repaired again to the 
Pope, who took the box, according to what the Governor himself 
told me, and turned it several times about. Then he asked the Gov- 
ernor if he had seen the work; and he replied that he had, and that it 
had been sealed up in his presence, and added that it had struck him 
as a very admirable piece. Thereupon the Pope said: "You shall tell 
Benvenuto that Popes have authority to bind and loose things of far 
greater consequence than this;" and while thus speaking he opened 
the box with some show of anger, taking off the string and seals 
with which it was done up. Afterwards he paid it prolonged atten- 
tion; and, as I subsequently heard, showed it to Tobbia the gold- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 125 

smith, who bestowed much praise upon it. Then the Pope asked 
him if he felt equal to producing a piece in that style. On his saying 
yes, the Pope told him to follow it out exactly; then turned to the 
Governor and said: "See whether Benvenuto will give it up; for if 
he does, he shall be paid the value fixed on it by men of knowledge 
in this art; but if he is really bent on finishing it himself, let him 
name a certain time; and if you are convinced that he means to do 
it, let him have all the reasonable accommodations he may ask for." 
The Governor replied: "Most blessed Father, I know the violent 
temper of this young man; so let me have authority to give him a 
sound rating after my own fashion." The Pope told him to do what 
he liked with words, though he was sure he would make matters 
worse; and if at last he could do nothing else, he must order me to 
take the five hundred crowns to his jeweller, Pompeo. 

The Governor returned, sent for me into his cabinet, and casting 
one of his catchpole's glances, began to speak as follows: "Popes 
have authority to loose and bind the whole world, and what they do 
is immediately ratified in heaven. Behold your box, then, which has 
been opened and inspected by his Holiness." I lifted up my voice 
at once, and said: "I thank God that now I have learned and can 
report what the faith of Popes is made of." Then the Governor 
launched out into brutal bullying words and gestures; but perceiving 
that they came to nothing, he gave up his attempt as desperate, and 
spoke in somewhat milder tones after this wise: "Benvenuto, I am 
very sorry that you are so blind to your own interest; but since it is 
so, go and take the five hundred crowns, when you think fit, to 
Pompeo." I took my piece up, went away, and carried the crowns 
to Pompeo on the instant. It is most likely that the Pope had counted 
on some want of money or other opportunity preventing me from 
bringing so considerable a sum at once, and was anxious in this way 
to repiece the broken thread of my obedience. When then he saw 
Pompeo coming to him with a smile upon his lips and the money 
in his hand, he soundly rated him, and lamented that the affair had 
turned out so. Then he said: "Go find Benvenuto in his shop, and 
treat him with all the courtesies of which your ignorant and brutal 
nature is capable, and tell him that if he is willing to finish that piece 
for a reliquary to hold the Corpus Domini when I walk in pro- 



126 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

cession, I will allow him the conveniences he wants in order to com- 
plete it; provided only that he goes on working." Pompeo came 
to me, called me outside the shop, and heaped on me the most 
mawkish caresses of a donkey, 1 reporting everything the Pope had 
ordered. I lost no time in answering that "the greatest treasure I 
could wish for in the world was to regain the favour of so great a 
Pope, which had been lost to me, not indeed by my fault, but by 
the fault of my overwhelming illness and the wickedness of those 
envious men who take pleasure in making mischief; and since the 
Pope has plenty of servants, do not let him send you round again, 
if you value your life . . . nay, look well to your safety. I shall not 
fail, by night or day, to think and do everything I can in the Pope's 
service; and bear this well in mind, that when you have reported 
these words to his Holiness, you never in any way whatever meddle 
with the least of my affairs, for I will make you recognise your errors 
by the punishment they merit." The fellow related everything to the 
Pope, but in far more brutal terms than I had used; and thus the 
matter rested for a time while I again attended to my shop and 
business. 



LXIII 

Tobbia the goldsmith meanwhile worked at the setting and the 
decoration of the unicorn's horn. The Pope, moreover, commissioned 
him to begin the chalice upon the model he had seen in mine. But 
when Tobbia came to show him what he had done, he was very 
discontented, and greatly regretted that he had broken with me, 
blaming all the other man's works and the people who had intro- 
duced them to him; and several times Baccino della Croce came 
from him to tell me that I must not neglect the reliquary. I answered 
that I begged his Holiness to let me breathe a little after the great 
illness I had suffered, and from which I was not as yet wholly free, 
adding that I would make it clear to him that all the hours in which 
I could work should be spent in his service. I had indeed begun to 
make his portrait, and was executing a medal in secret. I fashioned 
the steel dies for stamping this medal in my own house; while I kept 

* Le piii isvenevole carezze d'asino. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 127- 

a partner in my workshop, who had been my prentice and was called 
Felice. 

At that time, as is the wont o young men, I had fallen in love with 
a Sicilian girl, who was exceedingly beautiful. On it becoming clear 
that she returned my affection, her mother perceived how the matter 
stood, and grew suspicious of what might happen. The truth is that 
I had arranged to elope with the girl for a year to Florence, un- 
known to her mother; but she, getting wind of this, left Rome 
secretly one night, and went off in the direction of Naples. She gave 
out that she was gone by Civita Vecchia, but she really went by Ostia. 
I followed them to Civita Vecchia, and did a multitude of mad 
things to discover her. It would be too long to narrate them all in 
detail; enough that I was on the point of losing my wits or dying. 
After two months she wrote to me that she was in Sicily, extremely 
unhappy. I meanwhile was indulging myself in all the pleasures 
man can think of, and had engaged in another love affair, merely to 
drown the memory of my real passion. 

LXIV 

It happened through a variety of singular accidents that I became 
intimate with a Sicilian priest, who was a man of very elevated 
genius and well instructed in both Latin and Greek letters. In the 
course of conversation one day we were led to talk about the art of 
necromancy; apropos of which I said: "Throughout my whole life 
I have had the most intense desire to see or learn something of this 
art." Thereto the priest replied: "A stout soul and a steadfast must 
the man have who sets himself to such an enterprise." I answered 
that of strength and steadfastness of soul I should have enough and 
to spare, provided I found the opportunity. Then the priest said: 
"If you have the heart to dare it, I will amply satisfy your curiosity." 
Accordingly we agreed upon attempting the adventure. 

The priest one evening made his preparations, and bade me find 
a comrade, or not more than two. I invited Vincenzio Romoli, a 
very dear friend of mine, and the priest took with him a native of 
Pistoja, who also cultivated the black art. We went together to the 
Coliseum; and there the priest, having arrayed himself in necro- 
mancer's robes, began to describe circles on the earth with the finest 



128 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

ceremonies that can be imagined. I must say that he had made us 
bring precious perfumes and fire, and also drugs of fetid odour. 
When the preliminaries were completed, he made the entrance into 
the circle; and taking us by the hand, introduced us one by one inside 
it. Then he assigned our several functions; to the necromancer, his 
comrade, he gave the pentacle to hold; the other two of us had to 
look after the fire and the perfumes; and then he began his incan- 
tations. This lasted more than an hour and a half; when several 
legions appeared, and the Coliseum was all full of devils. I was 
occupied with the precious perfumes, and when the priest perceived 
in what numbers they were present, he turned to me and said: "Ben- 
venuto, ask them something." I called on them to reunite me with 
my Sicilian Angelica. That night we obtained no answer; but I 
enjoyed the greatest satisfaction of my curiosity in such matters. The 
necromancer said that we should have to go a second time, and that 
I should obtain the full accomplishment of my request; but he wished 
me to bring with me a little boy of pure virginity. 

I chose one of my shop-lads, who was about twelve years old, and 
invited Vincenzio Romoli again; and we also took a certain Agno- 
lino Gaddi, who was a very intimate friend of both. When we came 
once more to the place appointed, the necromancer made just the 
same preparations, attended by the same and even more impressive 
details. Then he introduced us into the circle, which he had recon- 
structed with art more admirable and yet more wondrous cere- 
monies. Afterwards he appointed my friend Vincenzio to the order- 
ing of the perfumes and the fire, and with him Agnolino Gaddi. 
He next placed in my hand the pentacle, which he bid me turn 
toward the points he indicated, and under the pentacle I held the 
little boy, my workman. Now the necromancer began to utter those 
awful invocations, calling by name on multitudes of demons who 
are captains of their legions, and these he summoned by the virtue 
and potency of God, the Uncreated, Living, and Eternal, in phrases 
of the Hebrew, and also of the Greek and Latin tongues; insomuch 
that in a short space of time the whole Coliseum was full of a 
hundredfold as many as had appeared upon the first occasion. Vin- 
cenzio Romoli, together with Agnolino, tended the fire and heaped 
on quantities of precious perfumes. At the advice of the necro- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 129 

mancer, I again demanded to be reunited with Angelica. The sor- 
cerer turned to me and said: "Hear you what they have replied; that 
in the space o one month you will be where she is?" Then once 
more he prayed me to stand firm by him, because the legions were 
a thousandfold more than he had summoned, and were the most 
dangerous of all the denizens of hell; and now that they had settled 
what I asked, it behoved us to be civil to them and dismiss them 
gently. On the other side, the boy, who was beneath the pentacle, 
shrieked out in terror that a million of the fiercest men were swarm- 
ing round and threatening us. He said, moreover, that four huge 
giants had appeared, who were striving to force their way inside the 
circle. Meanwhile the necromancer, trembling with fear, kept doing 
his best with mild and soft persuasions to dismiss them. Vincenzio 
Romoli, who quaked like an aspen leaf, looked after the perfumes. 
Though I was quite as frightened as the rest of them, I tried to show 
it less, and inspired them all with marvellous courage; but the truth 
is that I had given myself up for dead when I saw the terror of the 
necromancer. The boy had stuck his head between his knees, ex- 
claiming: "This is how I will meet death, for we are certainly dead 
men." Again I said to him: "These creatures are all inferior to us, 
and what you see is only smoke and shadow; so then raise your 
eyes." When he had raised them he cried out : "The whole Coliseum 
is in flames, and the fire is advancing on us;" then covering his face 
with his hands, he groaned again that he was dead, and that he 
could not endure the sight longer. The necromancer appealed for 
my support, entreating me to stand firm by him, and to have assa- 
fetida flung upon the coals; so I turned to Vincenzio Romoli, and 
told him to make the fumigation at once. While uttering these 
words I looked at Agnolino Gaddi, whose eyes were starting from 
their sockets in his terror, and who was more than half dead, and 
said to him : " Agnolo, in time and place like this we must not yield 
to fright, but do the utmost to bestir ourselves; therefore, up at once, 
and fling a handful of that assafetida upon the fire." Agnolo, at the 
moment when he moved to do this, let fly such a volley from his 
breech, that it was far more effectual than the assafetida. 1 The boy, 
roused by that great stench and noise, lifted his face a little, and 

1 Fece una istrombazzata di coregge con tanta abundanzia di merda. 



130 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

hearing me laugh, he plucked up courage, and said the devils were 
taking to flight tempestuously. So we abode thus until the matin- 
bells began to sound. Then the boy told us again that but few 
remained, and those were at a distance. When the necromancer 
had concluded his ceremonies, he put off his wizard's robe, and 
packed up a great bundle of books which he had brought with him; 
then, all together, we issued with him from the circle, huddling as 
close as we could to one another, especially the boy, who had got 
into the middle, and taken the necromancer by his gown and me 
by the cloak. All the while that we were going toward our houses 
in the Banchi, he kept saying that two of the devils he had seen in 
the Coliseum were gamboling in front of us, skipping now along 
the roofs and now upon the ground. The necromancer assured me 
that, often as he had entered magic circles, he had never met with 
such a serious aflair as this. He also tried to persuade me to assist 
him in consecrating a book, by means of which we should extract 
immeasurable wealth, since we could call up fiends to show us where 
treasures were, whereof the earth is full; and after this wise we 
should become the richest of mankind: love affairs like mine were 
nothing but vanities and follies without consequence. I replied that 
if I were a Latin scholar I should be very willing to do what he 
suggested. He continued to persuade me by arguing that Latin 
scholarship was of no importance, and that, if he wanted, he could 
have found plenty of good Latinists; but that he had never met with 
a man of soul so firm as mine, and that I ought to follow his counsel. 
Engaged in this conversation, we reached our homes, and each one 
of us dreamed all that night of devils. 

LXV 

As we were in the habit of meeting daily, the necromancer kept 
urging me to join in his adventure. Accordingly, I asked him how 
long it would take, and where we should have to go. To this he 
answered that we might get through with it in less than a month, 
and that the most suitable locality for the purpose was the hill 
country of Norcia; 1 a master of his in the art had indeed conse- 

1 This district of the Central Apennines was always famous for witches, poisoners, 
and so forth. The Farfa mentioned below is a village of the Sabine hills. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

crated such a book quite close to Rome, at a place called the 
Badia di Farfa; but he had met with some difficulties there, 
which would not occur in the mountains of Norcia; the peasants 
also of that district are people to be trusted, and have some prac- 
tice in these matters, so that at a pinch they are able to render 
valuable assistance. 

This priestly sorcerer moved me so by his persuasions that I was 
well disposed to comply with his request; but I said I wanted first 
to finish the medals I was making for the Pope. I had confided 
what I was doing about them to him alone, begging him to keep 
my secret. At the same time I never stopped asking him if he be- 
lieved that I should be reunited to my Sicilian Angelica at the time 
appointed; for the date was drawing near, and I thought it singular 
that I heard nothing about her. The necromancer told me that it 
was quite certain I should find myself where she was, since the 
devils never break their word when they promise, as they did on 
that occasion; but he bade me keep my eyes open, and be on the 
look out against some accident which might happen to me in that 
connection, and put restraint upon myself to endure somewhat 
against my inclination, for he could discern a great and imminent 
danger in it: well would it be for me if I went with him to conse- 
crate the book, since this would avert the peril that menaced me, and 
would make us both most fortunate. 

1 was beginning to hanker after the adventure more than he did; 
but I said that a certain Maestro Giovanni of Castel Bolognese had 
just come to Rome, very ingenious in the art of making medals of 
the sort I made in steel, and that I thirsted for nothing more than 
to compete with him and take the world by storm with some great 
masterpiece, which I hoped would annihilate all those enemies of 
mine by the force of genius and not the sword. 2 The sorcerer on his 
side went on urging: "Nay, prithee, Benvenuto, come with me and 
shun a great disaster which I see impending over you." However, I 
had made my mind up, come what would, to finish my medal, and 
we were now approaching the end of the month. I was so absorbed 

2 Gio. Bernard! had been in the Duke of Ferrara's service. Giovio brought him to 
Rome, where he was patronised by the Cardinals Salviati and De' Medici. He made 
a famous medal of Clement VII., and was a Pontifical mace-bearer. He died at 
Faenza in 1555. 



132 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

and enamoured by my work that I thought no more about Angelica 
or anything of that kind, but gave my whole self up to it. 

LXVI 

It happened one day, close on the hours of vespers, that I had to 
go at an unusual time for me from my house to my workshop; for 
I ought to say that the latter was in the Banchi, while I lived behind 
the Banchi, and went rarely to the shop; all my business there I left 
in the hands of my partner, Felice. Having stayed a short while in 
the workshop, I remembered that I had to say something to Ales- 
sandro del Bene. So I arose, and when I reached the Banchi, I met 
a man called Ser Benedetto, who was a great friend of mine. He 
was a notary, born in Florence, son of a blind man who said prayers 
about the streets for alms, and a Sienese by race. This Ser Benedetto 
had been very many years at Naples; afterwards he had settled in 
Rome, where he transacted business for some Sienese merchants 
of the Chigi. 1 My partner had over and over again asked him for 
some moneys which were due for certain little rings confided to Ser 
Benedetto. That very day, meeting him in the Banchi, he demanded 
his money rather roughly, as his wont was. Benedetto was walking 
with his masters, and they, annoyed by the interruption, scolded him 
sharply, saying they would be served by somebody else, in order not 
to have to listen to such barking. Ser Benedetto did the best he could 
to excuse himself, swore that he had paid the goldsmith, and said he 
had no power to curb the rage of madmen. The Sienese took his 
words ill, and dismissed him on the spot. Leaving them, he ran like 
an arrow to my shop, probably to take revenge upon Felice. It 
chanced that just in the middle of the street we met. I, who had 
heard nothing of the matter, greeted him most kindly, according to 
my custom, to which courtesy he replied with insults. Then what 
the sorcerer had said flashed all at once upon my mind; and bridling 
myself as well as I was able, in the way he bade me, I answered: 
"Good brother Benedetto, don't fly into a rage with me, for I have 
done you no harm, nor do I know anything about these affairs of 
yours. Please go and finish what you have to do with Felice. He is 
quite capable of giving you a proper answer; but inasmuch as I 

1 The MS. has Figi; but this is probably a mistake of the amanuensis. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 133 

know nothing about it, you are wrong to abuse me in this way, 
especially as you are well aware that I am not the man to put up 
with insults." He retorted that I knew everything, and that he was 
the man to make me bear a heavier load than that, and that Felice 
and I were two great rascals. By this time a crowd had gathered 
round to hear the quarrel. Provoked by his ugly words, I stooped 
and took up a lump of mud for it had rained and hurled it with 
a quick and unpremeditated movement at his face. He ducked his 
head, so that the mud hit him in the middle of the skull. There was 
a stone in it with several sharp angles, one of which striking him, 
he fell stunned like a dead man: whereupon all the bystanders, 
seeing the great quantity of blood, judged that he was really dead. 



LXVII 



While he was still lying on the ground, and people were pre- 
paring to carry him away, Pompeo the jeweller passed by. The 
Pope had sent for him to give orders about some jewels. Seeing the 
fellow in such a miserable plight, he asked who had struck him; on 
which they told him: "Benvenuto did it, but the stupid creature 
brought it down upon himself." No sooner had Pompeo reached 
the Pope than he began to speak: "Most blessed Father, Benvenuto 
has this very moment murdered Tobbia; I saw it with my own 
eyes." On this the Pope in a fury ordered the Governor, who was 
in the presence, to take and hang me at once in the place where the 
homicide had been committed, adding that he must do all he 
could to catch me, and not appear again before him until he had 
hanged me. 

When I saw the unfortunate Benedetto stretched upon the ground, 
I thought at once of the peril I was in, considering the power of my 
enemies, and what might ensue from this disaster. Making ofl, I 
took refuge in the house of Messer Giovanni Gaddi, clerk of the 
Camera, with the intention of preparing as soon as possible to escape 
from Rome. He, however, advised me not to be in such a hurry, 
for it might turn out perhaps that the evil was not so great as I 
imagined; and calling Messer Annibal Caro, who lived with him, 
bade him go for information. 

While these arrangements were being made, a Roman gentleman 



134 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

appeared, who belonged to the household of Cardinal de' Medici, 
and had been sent by him. 1 Taking Messer Giovanni and me apart, 
he told us that the Cardinal had reported to him what the Pope said, 
and that there was no way of helping me out of the scrape; it would 
be best for me to shun the first fury of the storm by flight, and not 
to risk myself in any house in Rome. Upon this gentleman's depar- 
ture, Messer Giovanni looked me in the face as though he were 
about to cry, and said: "Ah me! Ah woe is me! There is nothing 
I can do to aid you!" I replied: "By God's means, I shall aid myself 
alone; only I request you to put one of your horses at my disposition." 
They had already saddled a black Turkish horse, the finest and the 
best in Rome- I mounted with an arquebuse upon the saddle-bow, 
wound up in readiness to fire, if need were. 2 When I reached Ponte 
Sisto, I found the whole of the Bargello's guard there, both horse 
and foot. So, making a virtue of necessity, I put my horse boldly 
to a sharp trot, and with God's grace, being somehow unperceived 
by them, passed freely through. Then, with all the speed I could, 
I took the road to Palombara, a fief of my lord Giovanbatista Savello, 
whence I sent the horse back to Messer Giovanni, without, how- 
ever, thinking it well to inform him where I was. 3 Lord Giovan- 
batista, after very kindly entertaining me two days, advised me to 
remove and go toward Naples till the storm blew over. So, providing 
me with company, he set me on the way to Naples. 

While travelling, I met a sculptor of my acquaintance, who was 
going to San Germano to finish the tomb of Piero de' Medici at 
Monte Cassino. 4 His name was Solosmeo, and he gave me the news 
that on the very evening of the fray, Pope Clement sent one of his 

1 Ippolito de' Medici was a Cardinal, much against his natural inclination. When 
he went as Papal Legate to Hungary in 1532, he assumed the airs and style of a 
Condottiere. His jealousy of his cousin Alessandro led to his untimely death by 
poison in 1535. 

2 The gun was an arquebuso a ruola, which had a wheel to cock it. 

3 A village in the Sabina, north of Tivoli. Giov. Battista Savelli, of a great Roman 
house, was a captain of cavalry in the Papal service after 1530. In 1540 he entered 
the service of Duke Cosimo, and died in 1553. 

4 This sculptor was Antonio Solosmeo of Settignano. The monument erected to 
Piero de' Medici (drowned in the Garigliano, 1504) at Monte Cassino is by no means 
a brilliant piece of Florentine art. Piero was the exiled son of Lorenzo the Magnificent; 
and the Medici, when they regained their principality, erected this monument to his 
memory, employing Antonio da San Gallo, Francesco da San Gallo and a Neapolitan, 
Matteo de' Quaranta. The work was begun in 1532. Solosmeo appears from this 
passage in Cellini to have taken the execution of it over. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 135 

chamberlains to inquire how Tobbia was getting on. Finding him at 
work, unharmed, and without even knowing anything about the 
matter, the messenger went back and told the Pope, who turned 
round to Pompeo and said: "You are a good-for-nothing rascal; but 
I promise you well that you have stirred a snake up which will sting 
you, and serve you right!" Then he addressed himself to Cardinal 
de' Medici, and commissioned him to look after me, adding that he 
should be very sorry to let me slip through his fingers. And so 
Solosmeo and I went on our way singing toward Monte Cassino, 
intending to pursue our journey thence in company toward Naples. 



LXVIII 

When Solosmeo had inspected his afTairs at Monte Cassino, we 
resumed our journey; and having come within a mile of Naples, we 
were met by an innkeeper, who invited us to his house, and said he 
had been at Florence many years with Carlo Ginori; 1 adding, that if 
we put up at his inn, he would treat us most kindly, for the reason 
that we both were Florentines. We told him frequently that we 
did not want to go to him. However, he kept passing, sometimes in 
front and sometimes behind, perpetually repeating that he would 
have us stop at his hostelry. When this began to bore me, I asked 
if he could tell me anything about a certain Sicilian woman called 
Beatrice, who had a beautiful daughter named Angelica, and both 
were courtesans. Taking it into his head that I was jeering him, 
he cried out: "God send mischief to all courtesans and such as favour 
them!" Then he set spurs to his horse, and made off as though he 
was resolved to leave us. I felt some pleasure at having rid myself 
in so fair a manner of that ass of an innkeeper; and yet I was rather 
the loser than the gainer; for the great love I bore Angelica had 
come back to my mind, and while I was conversing, not without 
some lover's sighs, upon this subject with Solosmeo, we saw the man 
returning to us at a gallop. When he drew up, he said: "Two or 
perhaps three days ago a woman and a girl came back to a house in 
my neighbourhood; they had the names you mentioned, but whether 
they are Sicilians I cannot say." I answered: "Such power over me 

1 A Gonfalonier of the Republic in 1527. 



136 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

has that name of Angelica, that I am now determined to put up at 
your inn." 

We rode on all together with mine host into the town of Naples, 
and descended at his house. Minutes seemed years to me till I had 
put my things in order, which I did in the twinkling of an eye; 
then I went to the house, which was not far from our inn, and found 
there my Angelica, who greeted me with infinite demonstrations 
of the most unbounded passion. I stayed with her from evenfall 
until the following morning, and enjoyed such pleasure as I never 
had before or since; but while drinking deep of this delight, it 
occurred to my mind how exactly on that day the month expired, 
which had been prophesied within the necromantic circle by the 
devils. So then let every man who enters into relation with those 
spirits weigh well the inestimable perils I have passed through! 

LXIX 

I happened to have in my purse a diamond, which I showed about 
among the goldsmiths; and though I was but young, my reputation 
as an able artist was so well known even at Naples that they wel- 
comed me most warmly. Among others, I made acquaintance with a 
most excellent companion, a jeweller, Messer Domenico Fontana by 
name. This worthy man left his shop for the three days that I spent 
in Naples, nor ever quitted my company, but showed me many 
admirable monuments of antiquity in the city and its neighbour- 
hood. Moreover, he took me to pay my respects to the Viceroy of 
Naples, who had let him know that he should like to see me. When 
I presented myself to his Excellency, he received me with much 
honour; 1 and while we were exchanging compliments, the diamond 
which I have mentioned caught his eye. He made me show it him, 
and prayed me, if I parted with it, to give him the refusal. Having 
taken back the stone, I offered it again to his Excellency, adding that 
the diamond and I were at his service. Then he said that the 
diamond pleased him well, but that he should be much better pleased 
if I were to stay with him; he would make such terms with me as 

1 The Spanish Viceroy was at this time Pietro Alvarez de Toledo, Marquis of 
Villafranca, and uncle of the famous Duke of Alva. He governed Naples for 
twenty years, from 1532 onwards. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 137 

would cause me to feel satisfied. We spoke many words of courtesy 
on both sides; and then coming to the merits of the diamond, his 
Excellency bade me without hesitation name the price at which I 
valued it. Accordingly I said that it was worth exactly two hundred 
crowns. He rejoined that in his opinion I had not overvalued it; 
but that since I had set it, and he knew me for the first artist in the 
world, it would not make the same effect when mounted by another 
hand. To this I said that I had not set the stone, and that it was 
not well set; its brilliancy was due to its own excellence; and that if 
I were to mount it afresh, I could make it show far better than it 
did. Then I put my thumb-nail to the angles of its facets, took it 
from the ring, cleaned it up a little, and handed it to the Viceroy. 
Delighted and astonished, he wrote me out a cheque 2 for the two 
hundred crowns I had demanded. 

When I returned to my lodging, I found letters from the Cardinal 
de' Medici, in which he told me to come back post-haste to Rome, 
and to dismount without delay at the palace of his most reverend 
lordship. I read the letter to my Angelica, who begged me with 
tears of affection either to remain in Naples or to take her with me. 
I replied that if she was disposed to come with me, I would give up 
to her keeping the two hundred ducats I had received from the 
Viceroy. Her mother perceiving us in this close conversation, drew 
nigh and said: "Benvenuto, if you want to take my daughter to 
Rome, leave me a sum of fifteen ducats, to pay for my lying-in, and 
then I will travel after you." I told the old harridan that I would 
very gladly leave her thirty if she would give me my Angelica. We 
made the bargain, and Angelica entreated me to buy her a gown of 
black velvet, because the stuff was cheap at Naples. I consented to 
everything, sent for the velvet, settled its price and paid for it; then 
the old woman, who thought me over head and ears in love, begged 
for a gown of fine cloth for herself, as well as other outlays for her 
sons, and a good bit more money than I had offered. I turned to 
her with a pleasant air and said : "My dear Beatrice, are you satisfied 
with what I offered?" She answered that she was not; thereupon I 
said that what was not enough for her would be quite enough for 

2 Mi fece una polizza. A polizza was an order for money, practically identical with 
our cheque. 



138 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

me; and having kissed Angelica, we parted, she with tears, and I 
with laughter, and off at once I set for Rome. 



LXX 



I left Naples by night with my money in my pocket, and this I 
did to prevent being set upon or murdered, as is the way there; but 
when I came to Selciata, 1 I had to defend myself with great address 
and bodily prowess from several horsemen who came out to assassi- 
nate me. During the following days, after leaving Solosmeo at his 
work in Monte Cassino, I came one morning to breakfast at the 
inn of Adanagni; 2 and when I was near the house, I shot some birds 
with my arquebuse. An iron spike, which was in the lock of my 
musket, tore my right hand. Though the wound was not of any 
consequence, it seemed to be so, because it bled abundantly. Going 
into the inn, I put my horse up, and ascended to a large gallery, 
where I found a party of Neapolitan gentlemen just upon the point 
of sitting down to table; they had with them a young woman of 
quality, the loveliest I ever saw. At the moment when I entered the 
room, I was followed by a very brave young serving-man of mine 
holding a big partisan in his hand. The sight of us, our arms, and 
the blood, inspired those poor gentlemen with such terror, par- 
ticularly as the place was known to be a nest of murderers, that they 
rose from table and called on God in a panic to protect them. I began 
to laugh, and said that God had protected them already, for that I 
was a man to defend them against whoever tried to do them harm. 
Then I asked them for something to bind up my wounded hand; 
and the charming lady took out a handkerchief richly embroidered 
with gold, wishing to make a bandage with it. I refused; but she 
tore the piece in half, and in the gentlest manner wrapt my hand up 
with her fingers. The company thus having regained confidence, 
we dined together very gaily; and when the meal was over, we all 
mounted and went off together. The gentlemen, however, were not 
as yet quite at their ease; so they left me in their cunning to entertain 
the lady, while they kept at a short distance behind. I rode at her 

1 Ponte a Selice, between Capua and Aversa. 

2 Anagni, where Boniface VIII. was outraged to the death by the French partisans 
of Philip le Bel. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 139 

side upon a pretty little horse of mine, making signs to my servant 
that he should keep somewhat apart, which gave us the opportunity 
of discussing things that are not sold by the apothecary. 3 In this way 
I journeyed to Rome with the greatest enjoyment I have ever had. 

When I got to Rome, I dismounted at the palace of Cardinal de' 
Medici, and having obtained an audience of his most reverend lord- 
ship, paid my respects, and thanked him warmly for my recall. I 
then entreated him to secure me from imprisonment, and even from 
a fine if that were possible. The Cardinal was very glad to see me; 
told me to stand in no fear; then turned to one of his gentlemen, 
called Messer Pier Antonio Pecci of Siena, ordering him to tell the 
Bargello not to touch me. 4 He then asked him how the man was 
going on whose head I had broken with the stone. Messer Pier 
Antonio replied that he was very ill, and that he would probably be 
even worse; for when he heard that I was coming back to Rome, 
he swore he would die to serve me an ill turn. When the Cardinal 
heard that, he burst into a fit of laughter, and cried: "The fellow 
could not have taken a better way than this to make us know that he 
was born a Sienese." After that he turned to me and said : "For our 
reputation and your own, refrain these four or five days from going 
about in the Banchi; after that go where you like, and let fools die 
at their own pleasure." 

I went home and set myself to finishing the medal which I had 
begun, with the head of Pope Clement and a figure of Peace on the 
reverse. The figure was a slender woman, dressed in very thin 
drapery, gathered at the waist, with a little torch in her hand, which 
was burning a heap of arms bound together like a trophy. In the 
background I had shown part of a temple, where was Discord 
chained with a load of fetters. Round about it ran a legend in these 
words: Clauduntur belli portce? 

During the time that I was finishing this medal, the man whom 
I had wounded recovered, and the Pope kept incessantly asking for 
me. I, however, avoided visiting Cardinal de' Medici; for whenever 

3 /. e., private and sentimental. 

4 This Pecci passed into the service of Caterina de' Medici. In 1551 he schemed 
to withdraw Siena from the Spanish to the French cause, and was declared a rebel. 

5 The medal was struck to celebrate the peace in Christendom between 1530 and 
1536. 



140 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

I showed my face before him, his lordship gave me some commission 
of importance, which hindered me from working at my medal to the 
end. Consequently Messer Pier Carnesecchi, who was a great fav- 
ourite of the Pope's, undertook to keep me in sight, and let me 
adroitly understand how much the Pope desired my services. 6 I told 
him that in a few days I would prove to his Holiness that his 
service had never been neglected by me. 

LXXI 

Not many days had passed before, my medal being finished, I 
stamped it in gold, silver, and copper. After I had shown it to 
Messer Pietro, he immediately introduced me to the Pope. It was 
on a day in April after dinner, and the weather very fine; the Pope 
was in the Belvedere. After entering the presence, I put my medals 
together with the dies of steel into his hand. He took them, and 
recognising at once their mastery of art, looked Messer Pietro in the 
face and said : "The ancients never had such medals made for them 
as these." 

While he and the others were inspecting them, taking up now the 
dies and now the medals in their hands, I began to speak as sub- 
missively as I was able: "If a greater power had not controlled the 
working of my inauspicious stars, and hindered that with which they 
violently menaced me, your Holiness, without your fault or mine, 
would have lost a faithful and loving servant. It must, most blessed 
Father, be allowed that in those cases where men are risking all upon 
one throw, it is not wrong to do as certain poor and simple men are 
wont to say, who tell us we must mark seven times and cut once. 1 
Your Holiness will remember how the malicious and lying tongue of 
my bitter enemy so easily aroused your anger, that you ordered the 
Governor to have me taken on the spot and hanged; but I have no 
doubt that when you had become aware of the irreparable act by 
which you would have wronged yourself, in cutting off from you a 
servant such as even now your Holiness hath said he is, I am sure, 

6 Pietro Carnesecchi was one of the martyrs of free-thought in Italy. He adopted 
Protestant opinions, and was beheaded and burned in Rome, August 1567. 

1 Segnar sette e tagliar uno. A proverb derived possibly from felling trees; or, as 
some commentators interpret, from the points made by sculptors on their marble 
before they block the statue out. 






AUTOBIOGRAPHY 14! 

I repeat, that, before God and the world, you would have felt no 
trifling twinges of remorse. Excellent and virtuous fathers, and 
masters of like quality, ought not to let their arm in wrath descend 
upon their sons and servants with such inconsiderate haste, seeing 
that subsequent repentance will avail them nothing. But now that 
God has overruled the malign influences of the stars and saved me 
for your Holiness, I humbly beg you another time not to let yourself 
so easily be stirred to rage against me." 

The Pope had stopped from looking at the medals and was now 
listening attentively to what I said. There were many noblemen of 
the greatest consequence present, which made him blush a little, as 
it were for shame; and not knowing how else to extricate himself 
from this entanglement, he said that he could not remember having 
given such an order. I changed the conversation in order to cover 
his embarrassment. His Holiness then began to speak again about 
the medals, and asked what method I had used to stamp them so 
marvellously, large as they were; for he had never met with ancient 
pieces of that size. We talked a little on this subject; but being not 
quite easy that I might not begin another lecture sharper than the 
last, he praised my medals, and said they gave him the greatest 
satisfaction, but that he should like another reverse made according 
to a fancy of his own, if it were possible to stamp them with two 
different patterns. I said that it was possible to do so. Then his 
Holiness commissioned me to design the history of Moses when he 
strikes the rock and water issues from it, with this motto: Ut bibat 
populus? At last he added: "Go Benvenuto; you will not have 
finished it before I have provided for your fortune." After I had 
taken leave, the Pope proclaimed before the whole company that 
he would give me enough to live on wealthily without the need of 
labouring for any one but him. So I devoted myself entirely to 
working out this reverse with the Moses on it. 

LXXII 

In the meantime the Pope was taken ill, and his physicians thought 
the case was dangerous. Accordingly my enemy began to be afraid 
of me, and engaged some Neapolitan soldiers to do to me what he 
2 The medal commemorated a deep well sunk by Clement at Orvieto. 



142 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

was dreading I might do to him. 1 I had therefore much trouble to 
defend my poor life. In course of time, however, I completed the 
reverse; and when I took it to the Pope, I found him in bed in a 
most deplorable condition. Nevertheless, he received me with the 
greatest kindness, and wished to inspect the medals and the dies. He 
sent for spectacles and lights, but was unable to see anything clearly. 
Then he began to fumble with his fingers at them, and having felt 
them a short while, he fetched a deep sigh, and said to his attendants 
that he was much concerned about me, but that if God gave him. 
back his health he would make it all right. 

Three days afterwards the Pope died, and I was left with all my 
labour lost; yet I plucked up courage, and told myself that these 
medals had won me so much celebrity, that any Pope who was 
elected would give me work to do, and peradventure bring me better 
fortune. Thus I encouraged and put heart into myself, and buried in 
oblivion all the injuries which Pompeo had done me. Then putting 
on my arms and girding my sword, I went to San Piero, and kissed 
the feet of the dead Pope, not without shedding tears. Afterwards I 
returned to the Banchi to look on at the great commotion which 
always happens on such occasions. 

While I was sitting in the street with several of my friends, 
Pompeo went by, attended by ten men very well armed; and when 
he came just opposite, he stopped, as though about to pick a quarrel 
with myself. My companions, brave and adventurous young men, 
made signs to me to draw my sword; but it flashed through my 
mind that if I drew, some terrible mischief might result for persons 
who were wholly innocent. Therefore I considered that it would 
be better if I put my life to risk alone. When Pompeo had stood 
there time enough to say two Ave Marias, he laughed derisively in 
my direction; and going ofT, his fellows also laughed and wagged 
their heads, with many other insolent gestures. My companions 
wanted to begin the fray at once; but I told them hotly that I was 
quite able to conduct my quarrels to an end by myself, and that I 
had no need of stouter fighters than I was; so that each of them 
might mind his business. My friends were angry and went off 

1 The meaning of this is, that if Clement died, Cellini would have had his 
opportunity of vengeance during the anarchy which followed a vacancy of the Papal 
See. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 143 

muttering. Now there was among them my dearest comrade, named 
Albertaccio del Bene, own brother to Alessandro and Albizzo, who 
is now a very rich man in Lyons. He was the most redoubtable 
young man I ever knew, and the most high-spirited, and loved me 
like himself; and insomuch as he was well aware that my forbear- 
ance had not been inspired by want of courage, but by the most 
daring bravery, for he knew me down to the bottom of my nature, 
he took my words up and begged me to favour him so far as to 
associate him with myself in all I meant to do. I replied: "Dear 
Albertaccio, dearest to me above all men that live, the time will very 
likely come when you shall give me aid; but in this case, if you love 
me, do not attend to me, but look to your own business, and go at 
once like our other friends, for now there is no time to lose." These 
words were spoken in one breath. 



LXXIII 



In the meanwhile my enemies had proceeded slowly toward 
Chiavica, as the place was called, and had arrived at the crossing of 
several roads, going in different directions; but the street in which 
Pompeo's house stood was the one which leads straight to the Campo 
di Fiore. Some business or other made him enter the apothecary's 
shop which stood at the corner of Chiavica, and there he stayed a 
while transacting it. I had just been told that he had boasted of the 
insult which he fancied he had put upon me; but be that as it may, 
it was to his misfortune; for precisely when I came up to the corner, 
he was leaving the shop and his bravi had opened their ranks and 
received him in their midst. I drew a little dagger with a sharpened 
edge, and breaking the line of his defenders, laid my hands upon 
his breast so quickly and coolly, that none of them were able to pre- 
vent me. Then I aimed to strike him in the face; but fright made 
him turn his head round; and I stabbed him just beneath the ear. 
I only gave two blows, for he fell stone dead at the second. I had 
not meant to kill him; but as the saying goes, knocks are not dealt 
by measure. With my left hand I plucked back the dagger, and with 
my right hand drew my sword to defend my life. However, all those 
bravi ran up to the corpse and took no action against me; so I went 



144 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

back alone through Strada Giulia, considering how best to put 
myself in safety. 

I had walked about three hundred paces, when Piloto the gold- 
smith, my very good friend, came up and said: "Brother, now that 
the mischief's done, we must see to saving you." I replied: "Let us 
go to Albertaccio del Bene's house; it is only a few minutes since I 
told him I should soon have need of him." When we arrived there, 
Albertaccio and I embraced with measureless affection; and soon the 
whole flower of the young men of the Banchi, of all nations except 
the Milanese, came crowding in; and each and all made proffer of 
their own life to save mine. Messer Luigi Rucellai also sent with 
marvellous promptitude and courtesy to put his services at my dis- 
posal, as did many other great folk of his station; for they all agreed 
in blessing my hands, 1 judging that Pompeo had done me too great 
and unforgivable an injury, and marvelling that I had put up with 
him so long. 

LXXIV 

Cardinal Cornaro, on hearing of the affair, despatched thirty sol- 
diers, with as many partisans, pikes, and arquebuses, to bring me 
with all due respect to his quarters. 2 This he did unasked; where- 
upon I accepted the invitation, and went off with them, while more 
than as many of the young men bore me company. Meanwhile, 
Messer Traiano, Pompeo's relative and first chamberlain to the Pope, 
sent a Milanese of high rank to Cardinal de' Medici, giving him 
news of the great crime I had committed, and calling on his most 
reverend lordship to chastise me. The Cardinal retorted on the spot : 
"His crime would indeed have been great if he had not committed 
this lesser one; thank Messer Traiano from me for giving me this 
information of a fact of which I had not heard before." Then he 
turned and in presence of the nobleman said to the Bishop of 
Frulli, 3 his gentleman and intimate acquaintance: "Search diligently 
after my friend Benvenuto; I want to help and defend him; and 

1 Tutti d'accordo mi benedissono le mam. This is tantamount to approving Cellini's 
handiwork in murdering Pompeo. 

2 This was Francesco, brother to Cardinal Marco Cornaro. He received the hat in 
1528, while yet a layman, and the Bishopric of Brescia in 1531. 

3 Forli. The Bishop was Bernardo de' Medici. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 145 

whoso acts against him acts against myself." The Milanese noble- 
man went back, much disconcerted, while the Bishop of Frulli come 
to visit me at Cardinal Cornaro's palace. Presenting himself to the 
Cardinal, he related how Cardinal de' Medici had sent for Ben- 
venuto, and wanted to be his protector. Now Cardinal Cornaro, who 
had the touchy temper of a bear, flew into a rage, and told the Bishop 
he was quite as well able to defend me as Cardinal de' Medici. The 
Bishop, in reply, entreated to be allowed to speak with me on some 
matters of his patron which had nothing to do with the affair. Cor- 
naro bade him for that day make as though he had already talked 
with me. 

Cardinal de' Medici was very angry. However, I went the follow- 
ing night, without Cornaro's knowledge, and under good escort, to 
pay him my respects. Then I begged him to grant me the favour of 
leaving me where I was, and told him of the great courtesy which 
Cornaro had shown me; adding that if his most reverend lordship 
suffered me to stay, I should gain one friend the more in my hour of 
need; otherwise his lordship might dispose of me exactly as he 
thought best. He told me to do as I liked; so I returned to Cornaro's 
palace, and a few days afterwards the Cardinal Farnese was elected 
Pope. 4 

After he had put affairs of greater consequence in order, the new 
Pope sent for me, saying that he did not wish any one else to strike 
his coins. To these words of his Holiness a gentleman very privately 
acquainted with him, named Messer Latino Juvinale, made answer 
that I was in hiding for a murder committed on the person of one 
Pompeo of Milan, and set forth what could be argued for my justi- 
fication in the most favourable terms. 5 The Pope replied: "I knew 
nothing of Pompeo's death, but plenty of Benvenuto's provocation; 
so let a safe-conduct be at once made out for him, in order that he 
may be placed in perfect security." A great friend of Pompeo's, who 
was also intimate with the Pope, happened to be there; he was a 
Milanese, called Messer Ambrogio. 6 This man said: "In the first 

4 Paul III., elected October 13, 1534. 

5 Latino Giovenale de' Manetti was a Latin poet and a man of humane learning, 
much esteemed by his contemporaries. 

6 Ambrogio Recalcati. He was for many years the trusted secretary and diplomatic 
agent of Paul III. 



146 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

days of your papacy it were not well to grant pardons of this kind." 
The Pope turned to him and answered: "You know less about such 
matters than I do. Know then that men like Benvenuto, unique in 
their profession, stand above the law; and how far more he, then, 
who received the provocation I have heard of?" When my safe 
conduct had been drawn out, I began at once to serve him, and was 
treated with the utmost favour. 



LXXV 

Messer Latino Juvinale came to call on me, and gave me orders to 
strike the coins of the Pope. This roused up all my enemies, who 
began to look about how they should hinder me; but the Pope, per- 
ceiving their drift, scolded them, and insisted that I should go on 
working. I took the dies in hand, designing a S. Paul, surrounded 
with this inscription: Vas dectionis. This piece of money gave far 
more satisfaction than the models of my competitors; so that the 
Pope forbade any one else to speak to him of coins, since he wished 
me only to have to do with them. This encouraged me to apply 
myself with untroubled spirit to the task; and Messer Latino Juvi- 
nale, who had received such orders from the Pope, used to introduce 
me to his Holiness. I had it much at heart to recover the post of 
stamper to the Mint; but on this point the Pope took advice, and 
then told me I must first obtain pardon for the homicide, and this 
I should get at the holy Maries' day in August through the Caporioni 
of Rome. 1 I may say that it is usual every year on this solemn festival 
to grant the freedom of twelve outlaws to these officers. Meanwhile 
he promised to give me another safe-conduct, which should keep me 
in security until that time. 

When my enemies perceived that they were quite unable to devise 
the means of keeping me out of the Mint, they resorted to another 
expedient. The deceased Pompeo had left three thousand ducats as 
dowry to an illegitimate daughter of his; and they contrived that a 
certain favourite of Signer Pier Luigi, the Pope's son, should ask 

1 Le sante Marie. So the Feast of the Assumption is called at Florence, because 
devotion is paid on that day to the various images of the Virgin scattered through the 
town. The Caporioni of Rome were, like aldermen, wardens of the districts into 
which the city was divided. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 147 

her hand in marriage through the medium of his master. 2 Accord- 
ingly the match came of?; but this fellow was an insignificant coun- 
try lad, who had been brought up by his lordship; and, as folk said, 
he got but little of the money, since his lordship laid his hands on 
it and had the mind to use it. Now the husband of the girl, to please 
his wife, begged the prince to have me taken up; and he promised 
to do so when the first flush of my favour with the Pope had passed 
away. Things stood so about two months, the servant always suing 
for his wife's dower, the master putting him off with pretexts, but 
assuring the woman that he would certainly revenge her father's 
murder. I obtained an inkling of these designs; yet I did not omit 
to present myself pretty frequently to his lordship, who made show 
of treating me with great distinction. He had, however, decided to 
do one or other of two things either to have me assassinated, or 
to have me taken up by the Bargello. Accordingly he commissioned 
a certain little devil of a Corsican soldier in his service to do the 
trick as cleverly as he could; 3 and my other enemies, with Messer 
Traiano at the head of them, promised the fellow a reward of one 
hundred crowns. He assured them that the job would be as easy as 
sucking a fresh egg. Seeing into their plot, I went about with my 
eyes open and with good attendance, wearing an under-coat and 
armlets of mail, for which I had obtained permission. 

The Corsican, influenced by avarice, hoped to gain the whole sum 
of money without risk, and imagined himself capable of carrying 
the matter through alone. Consequently, one day after dinner, he 
had me sent for in the name of Signor Pier Luigi. I went off at once, 
because his lordship had spoken of wanting to order several big 
silver vases. Leaving my home in a hurry, armed, however, as usual, 
I walked rapidly through Strada Giulia toward the Palazzo Farnese, 
not expecting to meet anybody at that hour of day. I had reached the 
end of the street and was making toward the palace, when, my habit 
being always to turn the corners wide, I observed the Corsican get 
up and take his station in the middle of the road. Being prepared, 

2 Pier Luigi Farnese, Paul III.'s bastard, was successively created Gonfaloniere of 
the Church, Duke of Castro, Marquis of Novara, and finally Duke of Parma and 
Piacenza in 1545. He was murdered at Parma by his own courtiers in 1547. He was 
a man of infamous habits, quite unfit for the high dignities conferred on him. 

3 Che la j aces si pin netta che poteva. 



148 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

I was not in the least disconcerted; but kept upon my guard, and 
slackening pace a little, drew nearer toward the wall, in order to give 
the fellow a wide berth. He on his side came closer to the wall, and 
when we were now within a short distance of each other, I perceived 
by his gestures that he had it in his mind to do me mischief, and 
seeing me alone thus, thought he should succeed. Accordingly, I 
began to speak and said: "Brave soldier, if it had been night, you 
might have said you had mistaken me, but since it is full day, you 
know well enough who I am. I never had anything to do with you, 
and never injured you, but should be well disposed to do you service." 
He replied in a high-spirited way, without, however, making room 
for me to pass, that he did not know what I was saying. Then I 
answered: "I know very well indeed what you want, and what you 
are saying; but the job which you have taken in hand is more 
dangerous and difficult than you imagine, and may peradventure 
turn out the wrong way for you. Remember that you have to do with 
a man who would defend himself against a hundred; and the adven- 
ture you are on is not esteemed by men of courage like yourself." 
Meanwhile I also was looking black as thunder, and each of us 
had changed colour. Folk too gathered round us, for it had become 
clear that our words meant swords and daggers. He then, not having 
the spirit to lay hands on me, cried out: "We shall meet another 
time." I answered: "I am always glad to meet honest men and 
those who show themselves as such." 

When we parted, I went to his lordship's palace, and found he 
had not sent for me. When I returned to my shop, the Corsican 
informed me, through an intimate friend of his and mine, that I 
need not be on my guard against him, since he wished to be my good 
brother; but that I ought to be much upon my guard against others, 
seeing I was in the greatest peril, for folk of much consequence had 
sworn to have my life. I sent to thank him, and kept the best look- 
out I could. Not many days after, a friend of mine informed me that 
Signor Pier Luigi had given strict orders that I should be taken 
that very evening. They told me this at twenty; whereupon I spoke 
with some of my friends, who advised me to be off at once. The 
order had been given for one hour after sunset; accordingly at twenty- 
three I left in the post for Florence. It seems that when the Corsican 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 149 

showed that he had not pluck enough to do the business as he prom- 
ised, Signer Pier Luigi on his own authority gave orders to have me 
taken, merely to stop the mouth of Pompeo's daughter, who was 
always clamouring to know where her dower had gone to. When 
he was unable to gratify her in this matter of revenge on either of 
the two plans he had formed, he bethought him of another, which 
shall be related in its proper place. 



LXXVI 

I reached Florence in due course, and paid my respects to the Duke 
Alessandro, who greeted me with extraordinary kindness and pressed 
me to remain in his service. There was then at Florence a sculptor 
called II Tribolino, and we were gossips, for I had stood godfather to 
his son. 1 In course of conversation he told me that a certain Giacopo 
del Sansovino, his first master, had sent for him; and whereas he had 
never seen Venice, and because of the gains he expected, he was very 
glad to go there. 2 On his asking me if I had ever been at Venice, I 
said no; this made him invite me to accompany him, and I agreed. 
So then I told Duke Alessandro that I wanted first to go to Venice, 
and that afterwards I would return to serve him. He exacted a 
formal promise to this effect, and bade me present myself before I 
left the city. Next day, having made my preparations, I went to take 
leave of the Duke, whom I found in the palace of the Pazzi, at that 
time inhabited by the wife and daughters of Signor Lorenzo Cibo. 3 
Having sent word to his Excellency that I wished to set off for 
Venice with his good leave, Signor Cosimino de' Medici, now Duke 
of Florence, returned with the answer that I must go to Niccolo de 

1 Niccolo de' Pericoli, a Florentine, who got the nickname of Tribolo in his boyhood, 
was a sculptor of some distinction. He worked on the bas-reliefs of San Petronio at 
Bologna, and helped Michel Agnolo da Siena to execute the tomb of Adrian VI. at 
Rome. Afterwards he was employed upon the sculpture of the Santa Casa at 
Loreto. He also made some excellent bronzework for the Medicean villas at Cestello 
and Petraja. All through his life Tribolo served the Medici, and during the siege 
of Florence in 1530 he constructed a cork model of the town for Clement VII. Born 
1485, died 1550. 

2 This is the famous Giacopo Tatti, who took his artist's surname from his master, 
Andrea da Monte a Sansovino. His works at Florence, Rome, and Venice are justly 
famous. He died in 1570, aged ninety -three. 

3 A brother of the Cardinal, and himself Marquis of Massa. 



I5O BENVENUTO CELLINI 

Monte Aguto, who would give me fifty golden crowns, which his 
Excellency bestowed on me in sign of his good-will, and afterward? 
I must return to serve him. 

I got the money from Niccolo, and then went to fetch Tribolo, 
whom I found ready to start; and he asked me whether I had bound 
my sword. I answered that a man on horseback about to take a 
journey ought not to bind his sword. He said that the custom was 
so in Florence, since a certain Ser Maurizio then held office, who was 
capable of putting S. John the Baptist to the rack for any trifling 
peccadillo. 4 Accordingly one had to carry one's sword bound till 
the gates were passed. I laughed at this, and so we set off, joining 
the courier to Venice, who was nicknamed II Lamentone. In his 
company we travelled through Bologna, and arrived one evening at 
Ferrara. There we halted at the inn of the Piazza, which Lamentone 
went in search of some Florentine exiles, to take them letters and 
messages from their wives. The Duke had given orders that only 
the courier might talk to them, and no one else, under penalty of 
incurring the same banishment as they had. Meanwhile, since it was 
a little past the hour of twenty-two, Tribolo and I went to see the 
Duke of Ferrara come back from Belfiore, where he had been at a 
jousting match. There we met a number of exiles, who stared at us 
as though they wished to make us speak with them. Tribolo, who 
was the most timorous man that I have ever known, kept on saying: 
"Do not look at them or talk to them, if you care to go back to 
Florence." So we stayed, and saw the Duke return; afterwards, 
when we regained our inn, we found Lamentone there. After night- 
fall there appeared Niccolo Benintendi, and his brother Piero, and 
another old man, whom I believe to have been Jacopo Nardi, 5 
together with some young fellows, who began immediately to ask 
the courier news, each man of his own family in Florence. 6 Tribolo 
and I kept at a distance, in order to avoid speaking with them. After 

4 Ser Maurizio was entitled Chancellor, but really superintended the criminal 
magistracy of Florence. Varchi and Segni both speak of him as harsh and cruel in 
the discharge of his office. 

5 Jacopo Nardi was the excellent historian of Florence, a strong anti-Medicean 
partisan, who was exiled in 1530. 

6 1 have translated the word brigata by family above, because I find Cellini in one 
of his letters alluding to his family as la mia brigatina. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

they had talked a while with Lamentone, Niccolo Benintendi 7 said : 
"I know those two men there very well; what's the reason they give 
themselves such beastly airs, and will not talk to us?" Tribolo kept 
begging me to hold my tongue, while Lamentone told them that we 
had not the same permission as he had. Benintendi retorted it was 
idiotic nonsense, adding "Pox take them," and other pretty flowers 
of speech. Then I raised my head as gently as I could, and said: 
"Dear gentlemen, you are able to do us serious injury, while we 
cannot render you any assistance; and though you have flung words 
at us which we are far from deserving, we do not mean on that 
account to get into a rage with you." Thereupon old Nardi said 
that I had spoken like a worthy young man as I was. But Niccolo 
Benintendi shouted : "I snap my fingers at them and the Duke." 8 I 
replied that he was in the wrong toward us, since we had nothing 
to do with him or his affairs. Old Nardi took our part, telling 
Benintendi plainly that he was in the wrong, which made him go 
on muttering insults. On this I bade him know that I could say and 
do things to him which he would not like, and therefore he had 
better mind his business, and let us alone. Once more he cried out 
that he snapped his fingers at the Duke and us, and that we were 
all of us a heap of donkeys. 9 I replied by giving him the lie direct 
and drawing my sword. The old man wanting to be first upon the 
staircase, tumbled down some steps, and all the rest of them came 
huddling after him. I rushed onward, brandishing my sword along 
the walls with fury, and shouting: "I will kill you all!" but I took 
good care not to do them any harm, as I might too easily have done. 
In the midst of this tumult the innkeeper screamed out; Lamentone 
cried, "For God's sake, hold!" some of them exclaimed, "Oh me, 
my head!" others, "Let me get out from here." In short, it was an 
indescribable confusion; they looked like a herd of swine. Then the 
host came with a light, while I withdrew upstairs and put my 
sword back in its scabbard. Lamentone told Niccolo Benintendi that 
he had behaved very ill. The host said to him: "It is as much as 
one's life is worth to draw swords here; and if the Duke were to 

7 Niccolo Benintendi, who had been a member of the Eight in 1529, was exiled by 
the Medici in 1530. 

8 The Florentine slang is lo ho in culo loro e il duca. 9 Un monte di asini. 



152 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

know of your brawling, he would have you hanged. I will not do 
to you what you deserve; but take care you never show yourself again 
in my inn, or it will be the worse for you." Our host then came up 
to me, and when I began to make him my excuses, he would not 
suffer me to say a word, but told me that he knew I was entirely in 
the right, and bade me be upon my guard against those men upon 
my journey. 

LXXVII 

After we had supped, a barge-man appeared, and offered to take us 
to Venice. I asked if he would let us have the boat to ourselves; he 
was willing, and so we made our bargain. In the morning we rose 
early, and mounted our horses for the port, which is a few miles 
distant from Ferrara. On arriving there, we found Niccolo Benin- 
tendi's brother, with three comrades, waiting for me. They had 
among them two lances, and I had bought a stout pike in Ferrara. 
Being very well armed to boot, I was not at all frightened, as Tribolo 
was, who cried: "God help us! those fellows are waiting here to 
murder us." Lamentone turned to me and said: "The best that you 
can do is to go back to Ferrara, for I see that the affair is likely to be 
ugly; for Heaven's sake, Benvenuto, do not risk the fury of these 
mad beasts." To which I replied: "Let us go forward, for God helps 
those who have the right on their side; and you shall see how I will 
help myself. Is not this boat engaged for us?" "Yes," said Lamen- 
tone. "Then we will stay in it without them, unless my manhood 
has deserted me." I put spurs to my horse, and when I was within 
fifty paces, dismounted and marched boldly forward with my pike. 
Tribolo stopped behind, all huddled up upon his horse, looking the 
very image of frost. Lamentone, the courier, meanwhile, was swell- 
ing and snorting like the wind. That was his usual habit; but now 
he did so more than he was wont, being in doubt how this devilish 
affair would terminate. When I reached the boat, the master pre- 
sented himself and said that those Florentine gentlemen wanted to 
embark in it with us, if I was willing. I answered: "The boat is 
engaged for us and no one else, and it grieves me to the heart that 
I am not able to have their company." At these words a brave young 
man of the Magalotti family spoke out: "Benvenuto, we will make 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 153 

you able to have it." To which I answered: "If God and my good 
cause, together with my own strength of body and mind, possess the 
will and the power, you shall not make me able to have what you 
say." So saying I leapt into the boat, and turning my pike's point 
against them, added : "I'll show you with this weapon that I am not 
able." Wishing to prove he was in earnest, Magalotti then seized his 
own and came toward me. I sprang upon the gunwale and hit him 
such a blow, that, if he had not tumbled backward, I must have 
pierced his body. His comrades, in lieu of helping him, turned to 
fly; and when I saw that I could kill him, instead of striking, I said: 
"Get up, brother; take your arms and go away. I have shown you 
that I cannot do what I do not want, and what I had the power to 
do I have not chosen to do." Then I called for Tribolo, the boatman, 
and Lamentone to embark; and so we got under way for Venice. 
When we had gone ten miles on the Po, we sighted those young 
men, who had got into a skiff and caught us up; and when they were 
alongside, that idiot Piero Benintendi sang out to me : "Go thy ways 
this time, Benvenuto; we shall meet in Venice." "Set out betimes 
then," I shouted, "for I am coming, and any man can meet me where 
he lists." In due course we arrived at Venice, when I applied to a 
brother of Cardinal Cornaro, begging him to procure for me the 
favour of being allowed to carry arms. He advised me to do so 
without hesitation, saying that the worst risk I ran was that I might 
lose my sword. 



LXXVIII 



Accordingly I girded on my sword, and went to visit Jacopo del 
Sansovino, the sculptor, who had sent for Tribolo. He received me 
most kindly, and invited us to dinner, and we stayed with him. 
In course of conversation with Tribolo, he told him that he had no 
work to give him at the moment, but that he might call again. Hear- 
ing this, I burst out laughing, and said pleasantly to Sansovino: 
"Your house is too far off from his, if he must call again." Poor 
Tribolo, all in dismay, exclaimed : "I have got your letter here, which 
you wrote to bid me come." Sansovino rejoined that men of his 
sort, men of worth and genius, were free to do that and greater 
things besides. Tribolo shrugged up his shoulders and muttered: 



154 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

"Patience, patience," several times. Thereupon, without regarding 
the copious dinner which Sansovino had given me, I took the part 
of my comrade Tribolo, for he was in the right. All the while at 
table Sansovino had never stopped chattering about his great achieve- 
ments, abusing Michel Agnolo and the rest of his fellow-sculptors, 
while he bragged and vaunted himself to the skies. This had so 
annoyed me that not a single mouthful which I ate had tasted well; 
but I refrained from saying more than these two words: "Messer 
Jacopo, men of worth act like men of worth, and men of genius, 
who produce things beautiful and excellent, shine forth far better 
when other people praise them than when they boast so confidently 
of their own achievements." Upon this he and I rose from table 
blowing of? the steam of our choler. The same day, happening to 
pass near the Rialto, I met Piero Benintendi in the company of some 
men; and perceiving that they were going to pick a quarrel with 
me, I turned into an apothecary's shop till the storm blew over. 
Afterwards I learned that the young Magalotti, to whom I showed 
that courtesy, had scolded them roundly; and thus the affair ended. 

LXXIX 

A few days afterwards we set out on our return to Florence. We 
lay one night at a place on this side Chioggia, on the left hand as you 
go toward Ferrara. Here the host insisted upon being paid before 
we went to bed, and in his own way; and when I observed that it 
was the custom everywhere else to pay in the morning, he answered : 
"I insist on being paid overnight, and in my own way." I retorted 
that men who wanted everything their own way ought to make a 
world after their own fashion, since things were differently managed 
here. Our host told me not to go on bothering his brains, because 
he was determined to do as he had said. Tribolo stood trembling 
with fear, and nudged me to keep quiet, lest they should do some- 
thing worse to us; so we paid them in the way they wanted, and 
afterwards we retired to rest. We had, I must admit, the most 
capital beds, new in every particular, and as clean as they could be. 
Nevertheless I did not get one wink of sleep, because I kept on 
thinking how I could revenge myself. At one time it came into my 
head to set fire to his house; at another to cut the throats of four 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 155 

fine horses which he had in the stable; I saw well enough that it 
was easy for me to do all this; but I could not see how it was easy to 
secure myself and my companion. At last I resolved to put my things 
and my comrade's on board the boat; and so I did. When the to wing- 
horses had been harnessed to the cable, I ordered the people not to 
stir before I returned, for I had left a pair of slippers in my bed- 
room. Accordingly I went back to the inn and called our host, who 
told me he had nothing to do with us, and that we might go to 
Jericho. 1 There was a ragged stable-boy about, half asleep, who cried 
out to me : "The master would not move to please the Pope, because 
he has got a wench in bed with him, whom he has been wanting 
this long while." Then he asked me for a tip, and I gave him a few 
Venetian coppers, and told him to make the barge-man wait till I 
had found my slippers and returned. I went upstairs, took out a 
little knife as sharp as a razor, and cut the four beds that I found 
there into ribbons. I had the satisfaction of knowing I had done a 
damage of more than fifty crowns. Then I ran down to the boat 
with some pieces of the bed-covers 2 in my pouch, and bade the 
bargee start at once without delay. We had not gone far before my 
gossip Tribolo said that he had left behind some little straps belong- 
ing to his carpet-bag, and that he must be allowed to go back for 
them. I answered that he need not take thought for a pair of little 
straps, since I could make him as many big ones as he liked. 3 He 
told me I was always joking, but that he must really go back for his 
straps. Then he began ordering the bargee to stop, while I kept 
ordering him to go on. Meanwhile I informed my friend what kind 
of trick I had played our host, and showed him specimens of the 
bed-covers and other things, which threw him into such a quaking 
fright that he roared out to the bargee: "On with you, on with you, 
as quick as you can!" and never thought himself quite safe until we 
reached the gates of Florence. 

When we arrived there, Tribolo said: "Let us bind our swords up, 
for the love of God; and play me no more of your games, I beg; 
for all this while I've felt as though my guts were in the saucepan." 
I made answer: "Gossip Tribolo, you need not tie your sword up, 

1 E che not andassimo al bordello. 

2 Sarge. Sargia is interpreted sopraccoperta del letto. 

3 The Italian for straps, coregge, has a double meaning, upon which Cellini plays. 



156 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

for you have never loosed it;" and this I said at random, because I 
never once had seen him act the man upon that journey. When he 
heard the remark, he looked at his sword and cried out: "In God's 
name, you speak true! Here it is tied, just as I arranged it before I 
left my house." My gossip deemed that I had been a bad travelling 
companion to him, because I resented affronts and defended myself 
against folk who would have done us injury. But I deemed that he 
had acted a far worse part with regard to me by never coming to 
my assistance at such pinches. Let him judge between us who stands 
by and has no personal interest in our adventures. 

LXXX 

No sooner had I dismounted than I went to visit Duke Alessandro, 
and thanked him greatly for his present of the fifty crowns, telling 
his Excellency that I was always ready to serve him according to my 
abilities. He gave me orders at once to strike dies for his coinage; 
and the first I made was a piece of forty soldi, with the Duke's head 
on one side and San Cosimo and San Damiano on the other. 1 This 
was in silver, and it gave so much satisfaction that the Duke did not 
hesitate to say they were the best pieces of money in Christendom. 
The same said all Florence and every one who saw them. Conse- 
quently I asked his Excellency to make me appointments, 2 and to 
grant me the lodgings of the Mint. He bade me remain in his 
service, and promised he would give me more than I demanded. 
Meanwhile he said he had commissioned the Master of the Mint, a 
certain Carlo Acciaiuoli, and that I might go to him for all the 
money that I wanted. This I found to be true; but I drew my 
monies so discreetly, that I had always something to my credit, 
according to my account. 

I then made dies for a giulio, 3 it had San Giovanni in profile, 
seated with a book in his hand, finer in my judgment than anything 
which I had done ; and on the other side were the armorial bearings 
of Duke Alessandro. Next I made dies for half-giulios on which I 

1 These were the special patrons of the Medicean family, being physician-saints. 

2 Che mi fermassi una provvisione. 

d The giulio was a coin of 56 Italian centimes or 8 Tuscan crazie, which in Florence 
was also called barile or gabellotto, because the sum had to be paid as duty on a 
barrel of wine. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 157 

struck the full face of San Giovanni in small. This was the first 
coin with a head in full face on so thin a piece of silver that had yet 
been seen. The difficulty of executing it is apparent only to the eyes 
of such as are past-masters in these crafts. Afterwards I made dies 
for the golden crowns; this crown had a cross upon one side with 
some little cherubim, and on the other side his Excellency's arms. 

When I had struck these four sorts, I begged the Duke to make 
out my appointments and to assign me the lodgings I have men- 
tioned, if he was contented with my service. He told me very 
graciously that he was quite satisfied, and that he would grant me 
my request. While we were thus talking, his Excellency was in his 
wardrobe, looking at a remarkable little gun that had been sent him 
out of Germany. 4 When he noticed that I too paid particular atten- 
tion to this pretty instrument, he put it in my hands, saying that he 
knew how much pleasure I took in such things, and adding that I 
might choose for earnest of his promises an arquebuse to my own 
liking from the armoury, excepting only this one piece; he was well 
aware that I should find things of greater beauty, and not less excel- 
lent, there. Upon this invitation, I accepted with thanks; and when 
he saw me looking round, he ordered his Master of the Wardrobe, 
a certain Pretino of Lucca, to let me take whatever I liked. 5 Then 
he went away with the most pleasant words at parting, while I 
remained, and chose the finest and best arquebuse I ever saw, or 
ever had, and took it back with me to home. 

Two days afterward I brought some drawings which his Excel- 
lency had commissioned for gold-work he wanted to give his wife, 
who was at that time still in Naples. 6 I again asked him to settle 
my affairs. Then his Excellency told me that he should like me first 
to execute the die of his portrait in fine style, as I had done for Pope 
Clement. I began it in wax; and the Duke gave orders, while I was 
at work upon it, that whenever I went to take his portrait, I should 
be admitted. Perceiving that I had a lengthy piece of business on 
my hands, I sent for a certain Pietro Pagolo from Monte Ritondo, in 
the Roman district, who had been with me from his boyhood in 

4 See above, p. 120, for the right meaning of wardrobe. 

5 Messer Francesco of Lucca, surnamed II Pretino. 

6 Margaret of Austria, natural daughter to Charles V., was eventually married in 
1536 to Alessandro de' Medici. 



158 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

Rome. 7 I found him with one Bernardonaccio, 8 a goldsmith, who 
did not treat him well; so I brought him away from there, and 
taught him minutely how to strike coins from those dies. Mean- 
while, I went on making the Duke's portrait; and oftentimes I 
found him napping after dinner with that Lorenzino of his, who 
afterwards murdered him, and no other company; and much I 
marvelled that a Duke of that sort showed such confidence about 
his safety. 9 



LXXXI 



It happened at this time Ottaviano de' Medici, 1 who to all appear- 
ances had got the government of everything in his own hands, 
favoured the old Master of the Mint against the Duke's will. This 
man was called Bastiano Cennini, an artist of the antiquated school, 
and of little skill in his craft. 2 Ottaviano mixed his stupid dies with 
mine in the coinage of crown-pieces. I complained of this to the 
Duke, who, when he saw how the matter stood, took it very ill, and 
said to me: "Go, tell this to Ottaviano de' Medici, and show him 
how it is." 3 I lost no time; and when I had pointed out the injury 
that had been done to my fine coins, he answered, like the donkey 
that he was: "We choose to have it so." I replied that it ought not 
to be so, and that I did not choose to have it so. He said: "And if 
the Duke likes to have it so?" I answered: "It would not suit me, 
for the thing is neither just nor reasonable." He told me to take 
myself off, and that I should have to swallow it in this way, even if 
I burst. Then I returned to the Duke, and related the whole unpleas- 
ant conversation between Ottaviano de' Medici and me, entreating 
his Excellency not to allow the fine coins which I had made for him 
to be spoiled, and begging for permission to leave Florence. He 

7 Pietro Pagolo Galleotti, much praised by Vasari for his artistic skill. 

8 Perhaps Bernardo Sabatini. 

9 This is the famous Tuscan Brutus who murdered Alessandro. He was descended 
from Lorenzo de' Medici, the brother of Cosimo, Pater Patrice, and the uncle of 
Lorenzo the Magnificent. 

1 This Ottaviano was not descended from either Cosimo or Lorenzo de' Medici, 
but from an elder, though less illustrious, branch of the great family. He married 
Francesca Salviati, the aunt of Duke Cosimo. Though a great patron of the arts 
and an intimate friend of M. A. Buonarroti, he was not popular, owing to his pride 
of place. 

2 Cellini praises this man, however, in the preface to the Oreficeria. 

3 Mostragnene. This is perhaps equivalent to mostraglido. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 159 

replied: "Ottaviano is too presuming: you shall have what you want; 
for this is an injury offered to myself." 

That very day, which was a Thursday, I received from Rome a full 
safe-conduct from the Pope, with advice to go there at once and 
get the pardon of Our Lady's feast in mid-August, in order that I 
might clear myself from the penalties attaching to my homicide. I 
went to the Duke, whom I found in bed, for they told me he was 
suffering the consequence of a debauch. In little more than two 
hours I finished what was wanted for his waxen medal; and when I 
showed it to him, it pleased him extremely. Then I exhibited the 
safe-conduct sent me at the order of the Pope, and told him how his 
Holiness had recalled me to execute certain pieces of work; on this 
account I should like to regain my footing in the fair city of Rome, 
which would not prevent my attending to his medal. The Duke 
made answer half in anger: "Benvenuto, do as I desire: stay here; 
I will provide for your appointments, and will give you the lodgings 
in the Mint, with much more than you could ask for, because your 
requests are only just and reasonable. And who do you think will 
be able to strike the beautiful dies which you have made for me?" 
Then I said : "My lord, I have thought of everything, for I have here 
a pupil of mine, a young Roman whom I have taught the art; he will 
serve your Excellency very well till I return with your medal finished, 
to remain for ever in your service. I have in Rome a shop open, with 
journeymen and a pretty business; as soon as I have got my pardon, 
I will leave all the devotion of Rome 4 to a pupil of mine there, and 
will come back, with your Excellency's good permission, to you." 
During this conversation, the Lorenzino de' Medici whom I have 
above mentioned was present, and no one else. The Duke frequently 
signed to him that he should join in pressing me to stay; but Loren- 
zino never said anything except: "Benvenuto, you would do better to 
remain where you are." I answered that I wanted by all means to 
regain my hold on Rome. He made no reply, but continued eyeing 
the Duke with very evil glances. When I had finished the medal 
to my liking, and shut it in its little box, I said to the Duke: "My 
lord, pray let me have your good-will, for I will make you a much 

4 Tutta la divozione di Roma. It is not very clear what this exactly means. Perhaps 
"all the affection and reverence I have for the city of Rome," or merely "all my ties 
in Rome." 



l6o BENVENUTO CELLINI 

finer medal than the one I made for Pope Clement. It is only 
reasonable that I should since that was the first I ever made. Messer 
Lorenzo here will give me some exquisite reverse, as he is a person 
learned and of the greatest genius." To these words Lorenzo sud- 
denly made answer: "I have been thinking of nothing else but how 
to give you a reverse worthy of his Excellency." The Duke laughed 
a little, and looking at Lorenzo, said: "Lorenzo, you shall give him 
the reverse, and he shall do it here and shall not go away." Lorenzo 
took him up at once, saying: "I will do it as quickly as I can, and 
I hope to do something that shall make the whole world wonder." 
The Duke, who held him sometimes for a fool and sometimes for 
a coward, turned about in bed, and laughed at his bragging words. 
I took my leave without further ceremony, and left them alone 
together. The Duke, who did not believe that I was really going, 
said nothing further. Afterwards, when he knew that I was gone, 
he sent one of his servants, who caught me up at Siena, and gave 
me fifty golden ducats with a message from the Duke that I should 
take and use them for his sake, and should return as soon as possible; 
"and from Messer Lorenzo I have to tell you that he is preparing 
an admirable reverse for that medal which you want to make." I 
had left full directions to Petro Pagolo, the Roman above mentioned, 
how he had to use the dies; but as it was a very delicate affair, he 
never quite succeeded in employing them. I remained creditor to 
the Mint in a matter of more than seventy crowns on account of 
dies supplied by me. 

LXXXII 

On the journey to Rome I carried with me that handsome arque- 
buse which the Duke gave me; and very much to my own pleasure, 
I used it several times by the way, performing incredible feats by 
means of it. The little house I had in Strada Giulia was not ready; 
so I dismounted at the house of Messer Giovanni Gaddi, clerk of 
the Camera, to whose keeping I had committed, on leaving Rome, 
many of my arms and other things I cared for. So I did not choose to 
alight at my shop, but sent for Felice, my partner, and got him to 
put my little dwelling forthwith into excellent order. The day 
following, I went to sleep there, after well providing myself with 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY l6l 

clothes and all things requisite, since I intended to go and thank 
the Pope next morning. 

I had two young serving-lads, and beneath my lodgings lived a 
laundress who cooked extremely nicely for me. That evening I 
entertained several friends at supper, and having passed the time 
with great enjoyment, betook myself to bed. The night had hardly 
ended, indeed it was more than an hour before daybreak, when I 
heard a furious knocking at the house-door, stroke succeeding stroke 
without a moment's pause. Accordingly I called my elder servant, 
Cencio 1 (he was the man I took into the necromantic circle), and 
bade him to go and see who the madman was that knocked so 
brutally at that hour of the night. While Cencio was on this errand, 
I lighted another lamp, for I always keep one by me at night; then 
I made haste to pass an excellent coat of mail over my shirt, and 
above that some clothes which I caught up at random. Cencio 
returned, exclaiming: "Heavens, master! it is the Bargello and all his 
guard; and he says that if you do not open at once, he will knock 
the door down. They have torches, and a thousand things 
besides with them!" I answered: "Tell them that I am huddling 
my clothes on, and will come out to them in my shirt." Supposing 
it was a trap laid to murder me, as had before been done by Signer 
Pier Luigi, I seized an excellent dagger with my right hand, and 
with the left I took the safe-conduct; then I ran to the back- window, 
which looked out on gardens, and there I saw more than thirty 
constables; wherefore I knew that I could not escape upon that side. 
I made the two lads go in front, and told them to open the door 
exactly when I gave the word to do so. Then taking up an attitude 
of defence, with the dagger in my right hand and the safe-conduct 
in my left, I cried to the lads: "Have no fear, but open!" The 
Bargello, Vittorio, and the officers sprang inside at once, thinking 
they could easily lay hands upon me; but when they saw me pre- 
pared in that way to receive them, they fell back, exclaiming: "We 
have a serious job on hand here!" Then I threw the safe-conduct to 
them, and said: "Read that! and since you cannot seize me, I do 
not mean that you shall touch me." The Bargello upon this ordered 
some of his men to arrest me, saying he would look to the safe- 

1 i. e., Vincenzio Romoli. 



1 62 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

conduct later. Thereat I presented my arms boldly, calling aloud: 
"Let God defend the right! Either I shall escape your hands alive, or 
be taken a dead corpse!" The room was crammed with men; they 
made as though they would resort to violence; I stood upon my 
guard against them; so that the Bargello saw he would not be able 
to have me except in the way I said. Accordingly he called his clerk, 
and while the safe-conduct was being read, he showed by signs two 
or three times that he meant to have me secured by his officers; but 
this had no effect of shaking my determination. At last they gave 
up the attempt, threw my safe-conduct on the ground, and went 
away without their prize. 

LXXXIII 

When I returned to bed, I felt so agitated that I could not get to 
sleep again. My mind was made up to let blood as soon as day 
broke. However, I asked advice of Messer Gaddi, and he referred 
to a wretched doctor-fellow he employed, 1 who asked me if I had 
been frightened. Now, just consider what a judicious doctor this 
was, after I had narrated an occurrence of that gravity, to ask me 
such a question! He was an empty fribbler, who kept perpetually 
laughing about nothing at all. Simpering and sniggering, then, he 
bade me drink a good cup of Greek wine, keep my spirits up, and 
not be frightened. Messer Giovanni, however, said: "Master, a man 
of bronze or marble might be frightened in such circumstances. How 
much more one of flesh and blood!" The quack responded: "Mon- 
signor, we are not all made after the same pattern; this fellow is no 
man of bronze or marble, but of pure iron." Then he gave one of 
his meaningless laughs, and putting his fingers on my wrist, said: 
"Feel here; this is not a man's pulse, but a lion's or a dragon's." At 
this, I, whose blood was thumping in my veins, probably far beyond 
anything which that fool of a doctor had learned from his Hip- 
pocrates or Galen, knew at once how serious was my situation; yet, 
wishing not to add to my uneasiness and to the harm I had already 
taken, I made show of being in good spirits. While this was happen- 
ing, Messer Giovanni had ordered dinner, and we all of us sat down 
to eat in company. I remembered that Messer Lodovico da Fano, 

1 Possibly Bernardino Lilii of Todi. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 163 

Messer Antonio Allegretti, Messer Giovanni Greco, all of them men 
of the finest scholarship, and Messer Annibal Caro, who was then 
quite young, were present. At table the conversation turned entirely 
upon my act of daring. They insisted on hearing the whole story 
over and over again from my apprentice Cencio, who was a youth of 
superlative talent, bravery, and extreme personal beauty. Each time 
that he described my truculent behaviour, throwing himself into the 
attitudes I had assumed, and repeating the words which I had used, 
he called up some fresh detail to my memory. They kept asking 
him if he had been afraid; to which he answered that they ought 
to ask me if I had been afraid, because he felt precisely the same as 
I had. 

All this chattering grew irksome to me; and since I still felt 
strongly agitated, I rose at last from table, saying that I wanted to 
go and get new clothes of blue silk and stuff for him and me; 
adding that I meant to walk in procession after four days at the 
feast of Our Lady, and meant Cencio to carry a white lighted torch 
on the occasion. Accordingly I took my leave, and had the blue 
cloth cut, together with a handsome jacket of blue sarcenet and a 
little doublet of the same; and I had a similar jacket and waistcoat 
made for Cencio. 

When these things had been cut out, I went to see the Pope, who 
told me to speak with Messer Ambruogio; for he had given orders 
that I should execute a large piece of golden plate. So I went to find 
Messer Ambruogio, who had heard the whole of the affair of the 
Bargello, and had been in concert with my enemies to bring me 
back to Rome, and had scolded the Bargello for not laying hands 
on me. The man excused himself by saying that he could not do so 
in the face of the safe-conduct which I held. Messer Ambruogio now 
began to talk about the Pope's commission, and bade me make 
drawings for it, saying that the business should be put at once in 
train. Meanwhile the feast of Our Lady came round. Now it is the 
custom for those who get a pardon upon this occasion to give them- 
selves up to prison; in order to avoid doing which I returned to the 
Pope, and told his Holiness that I was very unwilling to go to 
prison, and that I begged him to grant me the favour of a dispen- 
sation. The Pope answered that such was the custom, and that I 



164 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

must follow it. Thereupon I fell again upon my knees, and thanked 
him for the safe-conduct he had given me, saying at the same time 
that I should go back with it to serve my Duke in Florence, who was 
waiting for me so impatiently. On hearing this, the Pope turned 
to one of his confidential servants and said: "Let Benvenuto get his 
grace without the prison, and see that his moto proprio is made out 
in due form." As soon as the document had been drawn up, his 
Holiness signed it; it was then registered at the Capitol; afterwards, 
upon the day appointed, I walked in procession very honourably 
between two gentlemen, and so got clear at last. 



LXXXIV 



Four days had passed when I was attacked with violent fever 
attended by extreme cold; and taking to my bed, I made my mind 
up that I was sure to die. I had the first doctors of Rome called in, 
among whom was Francesco da Norcia, a physician of great age, and 
of the best repute in Rome. 1 I told them what I believed to be the 
cause of my illness, and said that I had wished to let blood, but that 
I had been advised against it; and if it was not too late, I begged 
them to bleed me now. Maestro Francesco answered that it would 
not be well for me to let blood then, but that if I had done so 
before, I should have escaped without mischief; at present they 
would have to treat the case with other remedies. So they began to 
doctor me as energetically as they were able, while I grew daily 
worse and worse so rapidly, that after eight days the physicians 
despaired of my life, and said that I might be indulged in any whim 
I had to make me comfortable. Maestro Francesco added : "As long 
as there is breath in him, call me at all hours; for no one can divine 
what Nature is able to work in a young man of this kind; moreover, 
if he should lose consciousness, administer these five remedies one 
after the other, and send for me, for I will come at any hour of 
the night; I would rather save him than any of the cardinals in 
Rome." 

Every day Messer Giovanni Gaddi came to see me two or three 
times, and each time he took up one or other of my handsome 
fowling-pieces, coats of mail, or swords, using words like these: 

1 Francesco Fusconi, physician to Popes Adrian VI., Clement VII., and Paul III. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 165 

"That is a handsome thing, that other is still handsomer;" and like- 
wise with my models and other trifles, so that at last he drove me 
wild with annoyance. In his company came a certain Matio 
Franzesi 2 and this man also appeared to be waiting impatiently for 
my death, not indeed because he would inherit anything from me, 
but because he wished for what his master seemed to have so much 
at heart. 

Felice, my partner, was always at my side, rendering the greatest 
services which it is possible for one man to give another. Nature 
in me was utterly debilitated and undone; I had not strength enough 
to fetch my breath back if it left me; and yet my brain remained as 
clear and strong as it had been before my illness. Nevertheless, 
although I kept my consciousness, a terrible old man used to come 
to my bedside, and make as though he would drag me by force 
into a huge boat he had with him. This made me call out to my 
Felice to draw near and chase that malignant old man away. 
Felice, who loved me most affectionately, ran weeping and crying: 
"Away with you, old traitor; you are robbing me of all the good I 
have in this world." Messer Giovanni Gaddi, who was present, 
then began to say : "The poor fellow is delirious, and has only a few 
hours to live." His fellow, Mattio Franzesi, remarked: "He has 
read Dante, and in the prostration of his sickness this apparition has 
appeared to him" 3 then he added laughingly: "Away with you, old 
rascal, and don't bother our friend Benvenuto." When I saw that 
they were making fun of me, I turned to Messer Gaddi and said: 
"My dear master, know that I am not raving, and that it is true that 
this old man is really giving me annoyance; but the best that you 
can do for me would be to drive that miserable Mattio from my side, 
who is laughing at my affliction, afterwards if your lordship deigns 
to visit me again, let me beg you to come with Messer Antonio 
Allegretti, or with Messer Annibal Caro, or with some other of your 
accomplished friends, who are persons of quite different intelligence 
and discretion from that beast." Thereupon Messer Giovanni told 
Mattio in jest to take himself out of his sight for ever; but because 
Mattio went on laughing, the joke turned to earnest, for Messer 

2 Franzesi was a clever Italian poet. His burlesque Capitoli are printed with those 
of Berni and others. 

3 Inferno, iii., the verses about Charon. 



1 66 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

Giovanni would not look upon him again, but sent for Messer 
Antonio Allegretti, Messer Ludovico, and Messer Annibal Caro. On 
the arrival of these worthy men, I was greatly comforted, and talked 
reasonably with them awhile, not however without frequently urging 
Felice to drive the old man away. Messer Ludovico asked me what 
it was I seemed to see, and how the man was shaped. While I por- 
trayed him accurately in words, the old man took me by the arm and 
dragged me violently towards him. This made me cry out for aid, 
because he was going to fling me under hatches in his hideous boat. 
On saying that last word, I fell into a terrible swoon, and seemed to 
be sinking down into the boat. They say that during that fainting- 
fit I flung myself about and cast bad words at Messer Giovanni 
Gaddi, to wit, that he came to rob me, and not from any motive of 
charity, and other insults of the kind, which caused him to be much 
ashamed. Later on, they say I lay still like one dead; and after 
waiting by me more than an hour, thinking I was growing cold, 
they left me for dead. When they returned home, Mattio Franzesi 
was informed, who wrote to Florence to Messer Benedetto Varchi, 
my very dear friend, that they had seen me die at such and such an 
hour of the night. When he heard the news, that most accomplished 
man and my dear friend composed an admirable sonnet upon my 
supposed but not real death, which shall be reported in its proper 
place. 

More than three long hours passed, and yet I did not regain con- 
sciousness. Felice having used all the remedies prescribed by Maestro 
Francesco, and seeing that I did not come to, ran post-haste to the 
physician's door, and knocked so loudly that he woke him up, and 
made him rise, and begged him with tears to come to the house, for 
he thought that I was dead. Whereto Maestro Francesco, who was 
a very choleric man, replied: "My son, of what use do you think I 
should be if I came? If he is dead, I am more sorry than you are. 
Do you imagine that if I were to come with my medicine I could 
blow breath up through his guts 4 and bring him back to life for 
you?" But when he saw that the poor young fellow was going 
away weeping, he called him back and gave him an oil with which 
to anoint my pulses and my heart, telling him to pinch my little 

4 /? ali possa soffiare in culo. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 167 

fingers and toes very tightly, and to send at once to call him if I 
should revive. Felice took his way, and did as Maestro Francesco 
had ordered. It was almost bright day when, thinking they would 
have to abandon hope, they gave orders to have my shroud made 
and to wash me. Suddenly I regained consciousness, and called out 
to Felice to drive away the old man on the moment, who kept 
tormenting me. He wanted to send for Maestro Francesco, but I 
told him not to do so, but to come close up to me, because that old 
man was afraid of him and went away at once. So Felice drew near 
to the bed; I touched him, and it seemed to me that the infuriated old 
man withdrew; so I prayed him not to leave me for a second. 

When Maestro Francesco appeared, he said it was his dearest wish 
to save my life, and that he had never in all his days seen greater 
force in a young man than I had. Then he sat down to write, and 
prescribed for me perfumes, lotions, unctions, plasters, and a heap 
of other precious things. Meanwhile I came to life again by the 
means of more than twenty leeches applied to my buttocks, but with 
my body bore through, bound, and ground to powder. Many of 
my friends crowded in to behold the miracle of the resuscitated dead 
man, and among them people of the first importance. 

In their presence I declared that the small amount of gold and 
money I possessed, perhaps some eight hundred crowns, what with 
gold, silver, jewels, and cash, should be given by my will to my poor 
sister in Florence, called Mona Liperata; all the remainder of my 
property, armour and everything besides, I left to my dearest Felice, 
together with fifty golden ducats, in order that he might buy mourn- 
ing. At those words Felice flung his arms around my neck, pro- 
testing that he wanted nothing but to have me as he wished alive 
with him. Then I said : "If you want me alive, touch me as you did 
before, and threaten the old man, for he is afraid of you." At these 
words some of the folk were terrified, knowing that I was not 
raving, but talking to the purpose and with all my wits. Thus my 
wretched malady went dragging on, and I got but little better. 
Maestro Francesco, that most excellent man, came four or five times 
a day; Messer Giovanni Gaddi, who felt ashamed, did not visit me 
again. My brother-in-law, the husband of my sister, arrived; he 
came from Florence for the inheritance; but as he was a very 



1 68 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

worthy man, he rejoiced exceedingly to have found me alive. The 
sight of him did me a world of good, and he began to caress me at 
once, saying he had only come to take care of me in person; and 
this he did for several days. Afterwards I sent him away, having 
almost certain hope of my recovery. On this occasion he left the 
sonnet of Messer Benedetto Varchi, which runs as follows: 5 

"Who shall, Mattio, yield our pain relief? 
Who shall forbid the sad expense of tears? 
Alas! 'tis true that in his youthful years 
Our friend hath flown, and left us here to grief. 

"He hath gone up to heaven, who was the chief 
Of men renowned in art's immortal spheres; 
Among the mighty dead he had no peers, 
Nor shall earth see his like, in my belief. 

"O gentle sprite! if love still sway the blest, 

Look down on him thou here didst love, and view 
These tears that mourn my loss, not thy great good. 

"There dost thou gaze on His beatitude 
Who made our universe, and findest true 
The form of Him thy skill for men expressed." 

LXXXV 

My sickness had been of such a very serious nature that it seemed 
impossible for me to fling it off. That worthy man Maestro Fran- 
cesco da Norcia redoubled his efforts, and brought me every day 
fresh remedies, trying to restore strength to my miserable unstrung 
frame. Yet all these endeavours were apparently insufficient to over- 
come the obstinacy of my malady, so that the physicians were in 
despair and at their wits' ends what to do. I was tormented by thirst, 
but had abstained from drinking for many days according to the 
doctors' orders. Felice, who thought he had done wonders in 

5 This sonnet is so insipid, so untrue to Cellini's real place in art, so false to the 
far from saintly character of the man, that I would rather have declined translating 
it, had I not observed it to be a good example of that technical and conventional 
insincerity which was invading Italy at this epoch. Varchi was really sorry to hear 
the news of Cellini's death; but for his genuine emotion he found spurious vehicles 
of utterance. Cellini, meanwhile, had a right to prize it, since it revealed to him 
what friendship was prepared to utter after his decease. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 169 

restoring me, never left my side. That old man ceased to give so 
much annoyance, yet sometimes he appeared to me in dreams. 

One day Felice had gone out of doors, leaving me under the care 
of a young apprentice and a servant-maid called Beatrice. I asked 
the apprentice what had become of my lad Cencio, and what was 
the reason why I had never seen him in attendance on me. The boy 
replied that Cencio had been far more ill than I was, and that he was 
even at death's door. Felice had given them orders not to speak to 
me of this. On hearing the news, I was exceedingly distressed; then 
I called the maid Beatrice, a Pistojan girl, and asked her to bring 
me a great crystal water-cooler which stood near, full of clear and 
fresh water. She ran at once, and brought it to me full; I told her to 
put it to my lips, adding that if she let me take a draught according 
to my heart's content, I would give her a new gown. This maid had 
stolen from me certain little things of some importance, and in her 
fear of being detected, she would have been very glad if I had died. 
Accordingly she allowed me twice to take as much as I could of the 
water, so that in good earnest I swallowed more than a flask full. 1 
I then covered myself, and began to sweat, and fell into a deep sleep. 
After I had slept about an hour, Felice came home and asked the 
boy how I was getting on. He answered : "I do not know. Beatrice 
brought him that cooler full of water, and he has drunk almost the 
whole of it. I don't know now whether he is alive or dead." They 
say that my poor friend was on the point of falling to the ground, so 
grieved was he to hear this. Afterwards he took an ugly stick and 
began to beat the serving-girl with all his might, shouting out: "Ah! 
traitress, you have killed him for me then?" While Felice was 
cudgelling and she screaming, I was in a dream; I thought the old 
man held ropes in his hand, and while he was preparing to bind me, 
Felice had arrived and struck him with an axe, so that the old man 
fled exclaiming: "Let me go, and I promise not to return for a long 
while." Beatrice in the meantime had run into my bedroom shriek- 
ing loudly. This woke me up, and I called out: "Leave her alone; 
perhaps, when she meant to do me harm, she did me more good 
than you were able to do with all your efforts. She may indeed have 
saved my life; so lend me a helping hand, for I have sweated; and 

1 Un fiasco, holding more than a quart. 



I7O BENVENUTO CELLINI 

be quick about it." Felice recovered his spirits, dried and made me 
comfortable; and I, being conscious of a great improvement in my 
state, began to reckon on recovery. 

When Maestro Francesco appeared and saw my great improve- 
ment, and the servant-girl in tears, and the prentice running to and 
fro, and Felice laughing, all this disturbance made him think that 
something extraordinary must have happened, which had been the 
cause of my amendment. Just then the other doctor, Bernardino, 
put in his appearance, who at the beginning of my illness had refused 
to bleed me. Maestro Francesco, that most able man, exclaimed: 
"Oh, power of Nature! She knows what she requires, and the 
physicians know nothing." That simpleton, Maestro Bernardino, 
made answer, saying: "If he had drunk another bottle he would 
have been cured upon the spot." Maestro Francesco da Norcia, a 
man of age and great authority, said: "That would have been a 
terrible misfortune, and would to God that it may fall on you!" 
Afterwards he turned to me and asked if I could have drunk more 
water. I answered : "No, because I had entirely quenched my thirst." 
Then he turned to Maestro Bernardino, and said: "Look you how 
Nature has taken precisely what she wanted, neither more nor less. 
In like manner she was asking for what she wanted when the poor 
young man begged you to bleed him. If you knew that his recovery 
depended upon his drinking two flasks of water, why did you not 
say so before? You might then have boasted of his cure." At these 
words the wretched quack sulkily departed, and never showed his 
face again. 

Maestro Francesco then gave orders that I should be removed 
from my room and carried to one of the hills there are in Rome. 
Cardinal Cornaro, when he heard of my improvement, had me 
transported to a place of his on Monte Cavallo. The very evening I 
was taken with great precautions in a chair, well wrapped up and 
protected from the cold. No sooner had I reached the place than I 
began to vomit, during which there came from my stomach a hairy 
worm about a quarter of a cubit in length : the hairs were long, and 
the worm was very ugly, speckled of divers colours, green, black, and 
red. They kept and showed it to the doctor, who said he had never 
seen anything of the sort before, and afterwards remarked to Felice : 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

"Now take care of your Benvenuto, for he is cured. Do not permit 
him any irregularities; for though he has escaped this time, another 
disorder now would be the death of him. You see his malady has 
been so grave, that if we had brought him the extreme unction, we 
might not have been in time. Now I know that with a little patience 
and time he will live to execute more of his fine works." Then he 
turned to me and said: "My Benvenuto, be prudent, commit no 
excesses, and when you are quite recovered, I beg you to make me a 
Madonna with your own hand, and I will always pay my devotions 
to it for your sake." This I promised to do, and then asked him 
whether it would be safe for me to travel so far as to Florence. He 
advised me to wait till I was stronger, and till we could observe 
how Nature worked in me. 



LXXXVI 



When eight days had come and gone, my amendment was so 
slight that life itself became almost a burden to me; indeed I had 
been more than fifty days in that great suffering. So I made my 
mind up, and prepared to travel. My dear Felice and I went toward 
Florence in a pair of baskets; 1 and as I had not written, when I 
reached my sister's house, she wept and laughed over me all in one 
breath. That day many friends came to see me; among others Pier 
Landi, who was the best and dearest friend I ever had. Next day 
there came a certain Niccolo da Monte Aguto, who was also a very 
great friend of mine. Now he had heard the Duke say : "Benvenuto 
would have done much better to die, because he is come to put his 
head into a noose, and I will never pardon him." Accordingly when 
Niccolo arrived, he said to me in desperation: "Alas! my dear Ben- 
venuto, what have you come to do here? Did you not know what 
you have done to displease the Duke ? I have heard him swear that 
you were thrusting your head into a halter." Then I replied: 
"Niccolo, remind his Excellency that Pope Clement wanted to do 
as much to me before, and quite as unjustly; tell him to keep his 
eye on me, and give me time to recover; then I will show his Excel- 

1 Un paio di ceste, a kind of litter, here described in the plural, because two of 
them were perhaps put together. I have thought it best to translate the phrase literally. 
From a letter of Varchi to Bembo, we learn that Cellini reached Florence, November 
9 1535- 



172 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

lency that I have been the most faithful servant he will ever have 
in all his life; and forasmuch as some enemy must have served me 
this bad turn through envy, let him wait till I get well; for I shall 
then be able to give such an account of myself as will make him 
marvel." 

This bad turn had been done me by Giorgetto Vassellario of 
Arezzo, 2 the painter; perchance in recompense for many benefits 
conferred on him. I had harboured him in Rome and provided for 
his costs, while he had turned my whole house upside down; for 
the man was subject to a species of dry scab, which he was always 
in the habit of scratching with his hands. It happened, then, that 
sleeping in the same bed as an excellent workman, named Manno, 
who was in my service, when he meant to scratch himself, he tore 
the skin from one of Manno's legs with his filthy claws, the nails 
of which he never used to cut. The said Manno left my service, and 
was resolutely bent on killing him. I made the quarrel up, and 
afterwards got Giorgio into Cardinal de' Medici's household, and 
continually helped him. For these deserts, then, he told Duke Ales- 
sandro that I had abused his Excellency, and had bragged I meant 
to be the first to leap upon the walls of Florence with his foes the 
exiles. These words, as I afterwards learned, had been put into 
Vasari's lips by that excellent fellow, 3 Ottaviano de' Medici, who 
wanted to revenge himself for the Duke's irritation against him, on 
account of the coinage and my departure from Florence. I, being 
innocent of the crime falsely ascribed to me, felt no fear whatever. 
Meanwhile that able physician Francesco da Monte Varchi attended 
to my cure with great skill. He had been brought by my very 
dear friend Luca Martini, who passed the larger portion of the 
day with me. 4 

LXXXVII 

During this while I had sent my devoted comrade Felice back to 
Rome, to look after our business there. When I could raise my 

2 This is the famous Giorgio Vasari, a bad painter and worse architect, but dear 
to all lovers of the arts for his anecdotic work upon Italian artists. 

3 Galantnomo, used ironically. 

4 Luca Martini was a member of the best literary society in his days, and the author 
of some famous burlesque pieces. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 173 

head a little from the bolster, which was at the end o fifteen days, 
although I was unable to walk upon my feet, I had myself carried 
to the palace of the Medici, and placed upon the little upper terrace. 
There they seated me to wait until the Duke went by. Many of my 
friends at court came up to greet me, and expressed surprise that I 
had undergone the inconvenience of being carried in that way, while 
so shattered by illness; they said that I ought to have waited till I was 
well, and then to have visited the Duke. A crowd of them collected, 
all looking at me as a sort of miracle; not merely because they had 
heard that I was dead, but far more because I had the look of a 
dead man. Then publicly, before them all, I said how some wicked 
scoundrel had told my lord the Duke that I had bragged I meant 
to be the first to scale his Excellency's walls, and also that I had 
abused him personally; wherefore I had not the heart to live or die 
till I had purged myself of that infamy, and found out who the 
audacious rascal was who had uttered such calumnies against me. 
At these words a large number of those gentlemen came round, 
expressing great compassion for me; one said one thing, one another, 
and I told them I would never go thence before I knew who had 
accused me. At these words Maestro Agostino, the Duke's tailor, 
made his way through all those gentlemen, and said: "If that is all 
you want to know, you shall know it at this very moment." 

Giorgio the painter, whom I have mentioned, happened just then 
to pass, and Maestro Agostino exclaimed: "There is the man who 
accused you; now you know yourself if it be true or not." As 
fiercely as I could, not being able to leave my seat, I asked Giorgio if 
it was true that he had accused me. He denied that it was so, and 
that he had ever said anything of the sort. Maestro Agostino 
retorted: "You gallows-bird! don't you know that I know it for most 
certain?" Giorgio made off as quickly as he could, repeating that he 
had not accused me. Then, after a short while, the Duke came by; 
whereupon I had myself raised up before his Excellency, and he 
halted. I told him that I had come there in that way solely in order 
to clear my character. The Duke gazed at me, and marvelled I was 
still alive; afterwards he bade me take heed to be an honest man 
and regain my health. 

When I reached home, Niccolo da Monte Aguto came to visit 



174 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

me, and told me that I had escaped one of the most dreadful perils 
in the world, quite contrary to all his expectations, for he had seen 
my ruin written with indelible ink; now I must make haste to get 
well, and afterwards take French leave, because my jeopardy came 
from a quarter and a man who was able to destroy me. He then 
said, "Beware," and added: "What displeasure have you given to 
that rascal Ottaviano de' Medici?" I answered that I had done noth- 
ing to displease him, but that he had injured me; and told him all 
the affair about the Mint. He repeated: "Get hence as quickly as 
you can, and be of good courage, for you will see your vengeance 
executed sooner than you expect." I paid the best attention to my 
health, gave Pietro Pagolo advice about stamping the coins, and 
then went off upon my way to Rome without saying a word to the 
Duke or anybody else. 

LXXXVIII 

When I reached Rome, and had enjoyed the company of my 
friends awhile, I began the Duke's medal. In a few days I finished 
the head in steel, and it was the finest work of the kind which I had 
ever produced. At least once every day there came to visit me a sort 
of blockhead named Messer Francesco Soderini. 1 When he saw what 
I was doing, he used frequently to exclaim: "Barbarous wretch! you 
want them to immortalise that ferocious tyrant! You have never 
made anything so exquisite, which proves you our inveterate foe and 
their devoted friend; and yet the Pope and he have had it twice in 
mind to hang you without any fault of yours. That was the Father 
and the Son; now beware of the Holy Ghost." It was firmly believed 
that Duke Alessandro was the son of Pope Clement. Messer Fran- 
cesco used also to say and swear by all his saints that, if he could, 
he would have robbed me of the dies for that medal. I responded 
that he had done well to tell me so, and that I would take such care 
of them that he should never see them more. 

I now sent to Florence to request Lorenzino that he would send 
me the reverse of the medal. Niccolo da Monte Aguto, to whom I 
had written, wrote back, saying that he had spoken to that mad 
melancholy philosopher Lorenzino for it; he had replied that he was 

1 He had been banished in 1530 as a foe to the Medicean house. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 175 

thinking night and day of nothing else, and that he would finish it 
as soon as he was able. Nevertheless, I was not to set my hopes upon 
his reverse, but I had better invent one out o my own head, and 
when I had finished it, I might bring it without hesitation to the 
Duke, for this would be to my advantage. 

I composed the design of a reverse which seemed to me appro- 
priate, and pressed the work forward to my best ability. Not being, 
however, yet recovered from that terrible illness, I gave myself 
frequent relaxation by going out on fowling expeditions with my 
friend Felice. This man had no skill in my art; but since we were 
perpetually day and night together, everybody thought he was a 
first-rate craftsman. This being so, as he was a fellow of much 
humour, we used often to laugh together about the great credit he 
had gained. His name was Felice Guadagni (Gain), which made 
him say in jest: "I should be called Felice Gain-little if you had not 
enabled me to acquire such credit that I can call myself Gain-much." 
I replied that there are two ways of gaining: the first is that by 
which one gains for one's self, the second that by which one gains 
for others; so I praised him much more for the second than the first, 
since he had gained for me my life. 

We often held such conversations; but I remember one in par- 
ticular on the day of Epiphany, when we were together near La 
Magliana. It was close upon nightfall, and during the day I had 
shot a good number of ducks and geese; then, as I had almost made 
my mind up to shoot no more that time, we were returning briskly 
toward Rome. Calling to my dog by his name, Barucco, and not 
seeing him in front of me, I turned round and noticed that the well- 
trained animal was pointing at some geese which had settled in a 
ditch. I therefore dismounted at once, got my fowling-piece ready, 
and at a very long range brought two of them down with a single 
ball. I never used to shoot with more than one ball, and was usually 
able to hit my mark at two hundred cubits, which cannot be done by 
other ways of loading. Of the two geese, one was almost dead, and 
the other, though badly wounded, was flying lamely. My dog re- 
trieved the one and brought it to me; but noticing that the other 
was diving down into the ditch, I sprang forward to catch it. Trust- 
ing to my boots, which came high up the leg, I put one foot for- 



176 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

ward; it sank in the oozy ground; and so, although I got the goose, 
the boot of my right leg was full of water. I lifted my foot and let 
the water run out; then, when I had mounted, we made haste for 
Rome. The cold, however, was very great, and I felt my leg freeze, 
so that I said to Felice: "We must do something to help this leg, for 
I don't know how to bear it longer." The good Felice, without a 
word, leapt from his horse, and gathering some thistles and bits of 
stick, began to build a fire. I meanwhile was waiting, and put my 
hands among the breast-feathers of the geese, and felt them very 
warm. So I told him not to make the fire, but filled my boot with 
the feathers of the goose, and was immediately so much comforted 
that I regained vitality. 



LXXXIX 



We mounted, and rode rapidly toward Rome; and when we had 
reached a certain gently rising ground night had already fallen 
looking in the direction of Florence, both with one breath exclaimed 
in the utmost astonishment: "O God of heaven! what is that great 
thing one sees there over Florence?" It resembled a huge beam of 
fire, which sparkled and gave out extraordinary lustre. 

I said to Felice: "Assuredly we shall hear to-morrow that some- 
thing of vast importance has happened in Florence." As we rode 
into Rome, the darkness was extreme; and when we came near the 
Banchi and our own house, my little horse was going in an amble 
at a furious speed. Now that day they had thrown a heap of plaster 
and broken tiles in the middle of the road, which neither my horse 
nor myself perceived. In his fiery pace the beast ran up it; but on 
coming down upon the other side he turned a complete somer- 
sault. He had his head between his legs, and it was only through the 
power of God himself that I escaped unhurt. The noise we made 
brought the neighbours out with lights; but I had already jumped 
to my feet; and so, without remounting, I ran home, laughing to 
have come unhurt out of an accident enough to break my neck. 

On entering the house, I found some friends of mine there, to 
whom, while we were supping together, I related the adventures 
of the day's chase and the diabolical apparition of the fiery beam 
which we had seen. They exclaimed: "What shall we hear to-morrow 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY I J7 

which this portent has announced?" I answered: "Some revolution 
must certainly have occurred in Florence." So we supped agree- 
ably; and late the next day there came the news to Rome of Duke 
Alessandro's death. 1 Upon this many of my acquaintances came to 
me and said: "You were right in conjecturing that something of 
great importance had happened at Florence." Just then Francesco 
Soderini appeared jogging along upon a wretched mule he had, 
and laughing all the way like a madman. He said to me: "This is 
the reverse of that vile tyrant's medal which your Lorenzino de' 
Medici promised you." Then he added : "You wanted to immortalise 
the dukes for us; but we mean to have no more dukes;" and there- 
upon he jeered me, as though I had been the captain of the factions 
which make dukes. Meanwhile a certain Baccio Bettini, 2 who had 
an ugly big head like a bushel, came up and began to banter me 
in the same way about dukes, calling out : "We have dis-duked them, 
and won't have any more of them; and you were for making them 
immortal for us!" with many other tiresome quips of the same kind. 
I lost my patience at this nonsense, and said to them: "You block- 
heads! I am a poor goldsmith, who serve whoever pays me; and 
you are jeering me as though I were a party-leader. However, this 
shall not make me cast in your teeth the insatiable greediness, idiotcy, 
and good-for-nothingness of your predecessors. But this one answer 
I will make to all your silly railleries; that before two or three days 
at the longest have passed by, you will have another duke, much 
worse perhaps than he who now has left you." 3 

The following day Bettini came to my shop and said: "There is 
no need to spend money in couriers, for you know things before 
they happen. What spirit tells them to you?" Then he informed 
me that Cosimo de' Medici, the son of Signer Giovanni, was made 
Duke; but that certain conditions had been imposed at his election, 
which would hold him back from kicking up his heels at his own 
pleasure. I now had my opportunity for laughing at them, and 
saying: "Those men of Florence have set a young man upon a 

1 Alessandro was murdered by his cousin Lorenzino at Florence on the 5th of 
January 1537. 

2 Bettini was an intimate friend of Buonarroti and a considerable patron of the arts. 

3 This exchange of ironical compliments testifies to Cellini's strong Medicean 
leanings, and also to the sagacity with which he judged the political situation. 



178 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

mettlesome horse; next they have buckled spurs upon his heels, and 
put the bridle freely in his hands, and turned him out upon a mag- 
nificent field, full of flowers and fruits and all delightful things; 
next they have bidden him not to cross certain indicated limits: now 
tell me, you, who there is that can hold him back, whenever he has 
but the mind to cross them ? Laws cannot be imposed on him who 
is the master of the law." So they left me alone, and gave me no 
further annoyance. 4 

xc 

I now began to attend to my shop, and did some business, not 
however of much moment, because I had still to think about my 
health, which was not yet established after that grave illness I had 
undergone. About this time the Emperor returned victorious from 
his expedition against Tunis, and the Pope sent for me to take my 
advice concerning the present of honour it was fit to give him. 1 I 
answered that it seemed to me most appropriate to present his Im- 
perial Majesty with a golden crucifix, for which I had almost finished 
an ornament quite to the purpose, and which would confer the 
highest honour upon his Holiness and me. I had already made three 
little figures of gold in the round, about a palm high; they were 
those which I had begun for the chalice of Pope Clement, repre- 
senting Faith, Hope, and Charity. To these I added in wax what 
was wanting for the basement of the cross. I carried the whole to the 
Pope, with the Christ in wax, and many other exquisite decorations 
which gave him complete satisfaction. Before I took leave of his 
Holiness, we had agreed on every detail, and calculated the price of 
the work. 

This was one evening four hours after nightfall, and the Pope 
had ordered Messer Latino Juvenale to see that I had money paid 
to me next morning. This Messer Latino, who had a pretty big 
dash of the fool in his composition, bethought him of furnishing the 
Pope with a new idea, which was, however, wholly of his own inven- 

4 Cellini only spoke the truth on this occasion; for Cosimo soon kicked down the 
ladder which had lifted him to sovereignty, and showed himself the absolute master 
of Florence. Cosimo was elected Duke upon the 9th of January 1537. 

1 Cellini returns to the year 1535, when Charles V. arrived in November from 
Tunis. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 179 

tion. So he altered everything which had been arranged; and next 
morning, when I went for the money, he said with his usual brutal 
arrogance: "It is our part to invent, and yours to execute; before I 
left the Pope last night we thought of something far superior." 
To these first words I answered, without allowing him to proceed 
farther: "Neither you nor the Pope can think of anything better 
than a piece of which Christ plays a part; so you may go on with 
your courtier's nonsense till you have no more to say." 

Without uttering one word, he left me in a rage, and tried to get 
the work given to another goldsmith. The Pope, however, refused, 
and sent for me at once, and told me I had spoken well, but that 
they wanted to make use of a Book of Hours of Our Lady, which 
was marvellously illuminated, and had cost the Cardinal de' Medici 
more than two thousand crowns. They thought that this would be 
an appropriate present to the Empress, and that for the Emperor 
they would afterwards make what I had suggested, which was 
indeed a present worthy of him; but now there was no time to lose, 
since the Emperor was expected in Rome in about a month and a 
half. He wanted the book to be enclosed in a case of massive gold, 
richly worked, and adorned with jewels valued at about six thousand 
crowns. Accordingly, when the jewels and the gold were given me, 
I began the work, and driving it briskly forward, in a few days 
brought it to such beauty that the Pope was astonished, and showed 
me the most distinguished signs of favour, conceding at the same 
time that that beast Juvenale should have nothing more to do 
with me. 

I had nearly brought my work to its completion when the Em- 
peror arrived, and numerous triumphal arches of great magnificence 
were erected in his honour. He entered Rome with extraordinary 
pomp, the description of which I leave to others, since I mean to 
treat of those things only which concern myself. 2 Immediately after 
his arrival, he gave the Pope a diamond which he had bought for 
twelve thousand crowns. This diamond the Pope committed to my 
care, ordering me to make a ring to the measure of his Holiness's 
finger; but first he wished me to bring the book in the state to which 
I had advanced it. I took it accordingly, and he was highly pleased 

2 The entry into Rome took place April 6, 1536. 



l8o BENVENUTO CELLINI 

with it; then he asked my advice concerning the apology which could 
be reasonably made to the Emperor for the unfinished condition of 
my work. I said that my indisposition would furnish a sound excuse, 
since his Majesty, seeing how thin and pale I was, would very readily 
believe and accept it. To this the Pope replied that he approved of 
the suggestion, but that I should add on the part of his Holiness, 
when I presented the book to the Emperor, that I made him the 
present of myself. Then he told me in detail how I had to behave, 
and the words I had to say. These words I repeated to the Pope, 
asking him if he wished me to deliver them in that way. He replied : 
"You would acquit yourself to admiration if you had the courage 
to address the Emperor as you are addressing me." Then I said that 
I had the courage to speak with far greater ease and freedom to the 
Emperor, seeing that the Emperor was clothed as I was, and that 
I should seem to be speaking to a man formed like myself; this was 
not the case when I addressed his Holiness, in whom I beheld a far 
superior deity, both by reason of his ecclesiastical adornments, which 
shed a certain aureole about him, and at the same time because of 
his Holiness's dignity of venerable age; all these things inspired in 
me more awe than the Imperial Majesty. To these words the Pope 
responded: "Go, my Benvenuto; you are a man of ability; do us 
honour, and it will be well for you." 

xci 

The Pope ordered out two Turkish horses, which had belonged to 
Pope Clement, and were the most beautiful that ever came to 
Christendom. Messer Durante, 1 his chamberlain, was bidden to 
bring them through the lower galleries of the palace, and there to 
give them to the Emperor, repeating certain words which his Holi- 
ness dictated to him. We both went down together, and when we 
reached the presence of the Emperor, the horses made their entrance 
through those halls with so much spirit and such a noble carriage 
that the Emperor and every one were struck with wonder. There- 
upon Messer Durante advanced in so graceless a manner, and de- 
livered his speech with so much of Brescian lingo, mumbling his 

1 Messer Durante Duranti, Prefect of the Camera under Paul III., who gave him 
the hat in 1544, and the Bishopric of Brescia afterwards. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY l8l 

words over in his mouth, that one never saw or heard anything 
worse; indeed the Emperor could not refrain from smiling at him. 
I meanwhile had already uncovered my piece; and observing that 
the Emperor had turned his eyes towards me with a very gracious 
look, I advanced at once and said: "Sacred Majesty, our most holy 
Father, Pope Paolo, sends this book of the Virgin as a present to 
your Majesty, the which is written in a fair clerk's hand, and illu- 
minated by the greatest master who ever professed that art; and 
this rich cover of gold and jewels is unfinished, as you here behold 
it, by reason of my illness: wherefore his Holiness, together with 
the book, presents me also, and attaches me to your Majesty in order 
that I may complete the work; nor this alone, but everything which 
you may have it in your mind to execute so long as life is left me, 
will I perform at your service." Thereto the Emperor responded: 
"The book is acceptable to me, and so are you; but I desire you to 
complete it for me in Rome; when it is finished, and you are restored 
to health, bring it me and come to see me." Afterwards, in course 
of conversation, he called me by my name, which made me wonder, 
because no words had been dropped in which my name occurred; 
and he said that he had seen that fastening of Pope Clement's cope, 
on which I had wrought so many wonderful figures. We continued 
talking in this way a whole half hour, touching on divers topics 
artistic and agreeable; then, since it seemed to me that I had acquitted 
myself with more honour than I had expected, I took the occasion 
of a slight lull in the conversation to make my bow and to retire. 
The Emperor was heard to say: "Let five hundred golden crowns 
be given at once to Benvenuto." The person who brought them up 
asked who the Pope's man was who had spoken to the Emperor. 
Messer Durante came forward and robbed me of my five hundred 
crowns. I complained to the Pope, who told me not to be uneasy, for 
he knew how everything had happened, and how well I had con- 
ducted myself in addressing the Emperor, and of the money I should 
certainly obtain my share. 

xcn 

When I returned to my shop, I set my hand with diligence to 
finishing the diamond ring, concerning which the four first jewellers 



1 82 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

of Rome were sent to consult with me. This was because the Pope 
had been informed that the diamond had been set by the first jeweller 
of the world in Venice; he was called Maestro Miliano Targhetta; 
and the diamond being somewhat thin, the job of setting it was too 
difficult to be attempted without great deliberation. I was well 
pleased to receive these four jewellers, among whom was a man of 
Milan called Gaio. He was the most presumptuous donkey in the 
world, the one who knew least and who thought he knew most; the 
others were very modest and able craftsmen. In the presence of us 
all this Gaio began to talk, and said: "Miliano's foil should be pre- 
served, and to do that, Benvenuto, you shall doff your cap; 1 for just 
as giving diamonds a tint is the most delicate and difficult thing in 
the jeweller's art, so is Miliano the greatest jeweller that ever lived, 
and this is the most difficult diamond to tint." I replied that it was 
all the greater glory for me to compete with so able a master in such 
an excellent profession. Afterwards I turned to the other jewellers 
and said: "Look here! I am keeping Miliano's foil, and I will see 
whether I can improve on it with some of my own manufacture; if 
not, we will tint it with the same you see here." That ass Gaio 
exclaimed that if I made a foil like that he would gladly doff his cap 
to it. To which I replied: "Supposing then I make it better, it will 
deserve two bows." "Certainly so," said he; and I began to compose 
my foils. 

I took the very greatest pains in mixing the tints, the method of 
doing which I will explain in the proper place. 2 It is certain that the 
diamond in question offered more difficulties than any others which 
before or afterwards have come into my hands, and Miliano's foil 
was made with true artistic skill. However, that did not dismay me; 
but having sharpened my wits up, I succeeded not only in making 
something quite as good, but in exceeding it by far. Then, when I 
saw that I had surpassed him, I went about to surpass myself, and 
produced a foil by new processes which was a long way better than 
what I had previously made. Thereupon I sent for the jewellers; and 
first I tinted the diamond with Miliano's foil: then I cleaned it well 

1 In the Oreficfria Cellini gives an account of how these foils were made and 
applied. They were composed of paste, and coloured so as to enhance the effect of 
precious stones, particularly diamonds. 

2 Oreficcria, cap. i. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 183 

and tinted it afresh with my own. When I showed it to the jewellers, 
one of the best among them, who was called Raffael del Moro, took 
the diamond in his hand and said to Gaio: "Benvenuto has outdone 
the foil of Miliano." Gaio, unwilling to believe it, took the diamond 
and said: "Benvenuto, this diamond is worth two thousand ducats 
more than with the foil of Miliano." I rejoined: "Now that I have 
surpassed Miliano, let us see if I can surpass myself." Then I begged 
them to wait for me a while, went up into a little cabinet, and having 
tinted the diamond anew unseen by them, returned and showed it to 
the jewellers. Gaio broke out at once: "This is the most marvellous 
thing that I have ever seen in the course of my whole lifetime. The 
stone is worth upwards of eighteen thousand crowns, whereas we 
valued it at barely twelve thousand." The others jewellers turned 
to him and said: "Benvenuto is the glory of our art, and it is only 
due that we should doff our caps to him and to his foils." Then Gaio 
said: "I shall go and tell the Pope, and I mean to procure for him 
one thousand golden crowns for the setting of this diamond." Ac- 
cordingly he hurried to the Pope and told him the whole story; 
whereupon his Holiness sent three times on that day to see if the 
ring was finished. 

At twenty-three o'clock I took the ring to the palace; and since 
the doors were always open to me, I lifted the curtain gently, and 
saw the Pope in private audience with the Marchese del Guasto. 3 
The Marquis must have been pressing something on the Pope which 
he was unwilling to perform; for I heard him say: "I tell you, no; 
it is my business to remain neutral, and nothing else." I was retiring 
as quickly as I could, when the Pope himself called me back; so I 
entered the room, and presented the diamond ring, upon which he 
drew me aside, and the Marquis retired to a distance. While looking 
at the diamond, the Pope whispered to me : "Benvenuto, begin some 
conversation with me on a subject which shall seem important, and 
do not stop talking so long as the Marquis remains in this room." 
Then he took to walking up and down, and the occasion making 
for my advantage, I was very glad to discourse with him upon the 
methods I had used to tint the stone. The Marquis remained stand- 

3 Alfonson d'Avalos, successor and heir to the famous Ferdinando d'Avalos, Marquis 
of Pescara. He acted for many years as Spanish Viceroy of Milan. 



184 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

ing apart, leaning against a piece of tapestry; and now he balanced 
himself about on one foot, now on the other. The subject I had 
chosen to discourse upon was of such importance, if fully treated, 
that I could have talked about it at least three hours. The Pope was 
entertained to such a degree that he forgot the annoyance of the 
Marquis standing there. I seasoned what I had to say with that part 
of natural philosophy which belongs to our profession; and so having 
spoken for near upon an hour, the Marquis grew tired of waiting, 
and went off fuming. Then the Pope bestowed on me the most 
familiar caresses which can be imagined, and exclaimed: "Have pa- 
tience, my dear Benvenuto, for I will give you a better reward for 
your virtues than the thousand crowns which Gaio tells me your 
work is worth." 

On this I took my leave; and the Pope praised me in the presence 
of his household, among whom was the fellow Latino Juvenale, 
whom I have previously mentioned. This man, having become 
my enemy, assiduously strove to do me hurt; and noticing that the 
Pope talked of me with so much affection and warmth, he put in his 
word : "There is no doubt at all that Benvenuto is a person of very re- 
markable genius; but while every one is naturally bound to feel more 
goodwill for his own countrymen than for others, still one ought to 
consider maturely what language it is right and proper to use when 
speaking of a Pope. He has had the audacity to say that Pope 
Clement indeed was the handsomest sovereign that ever reigned, 
and no less gifted; only that luck was always against him: and he 
says that your Holiness is quite the opposite; that the tiara seems to 
weep for rage upon your head; that you look like a truss of straw 
with clothes on, and that there is nothing in you except good luck." 
These words, reported by a man who knew most excellently how to 
say them, had such force that they gained credit with the Pope. 
Far from having uttered them, such things had never come into my 
head. If the Pope could have done so without losing credit, he would 
certainly have taken fierce revenge upon me; but being a man of 
great tact and talent, he made a show of turning it off with a laugh. 
Nevertheless he harboured in his heart a deep vindictive feeling 
against me, of which I was not slow to be aware, since I had no 
longer the same easy access to his apartments as formerly, but found 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 185 

the greatest difficulty in procuring audience. As I had now for many 
years been familiar with the manners of the Roman court, I con- 
ceived that some one had done me a bad turn; and on making dex- 
terous inquiries, I was told the whole, but not the name of my 
calumniator. I could not imagine who the man was; had I but 
found him out, my vengeance would not have been measured by troy 
weight. 4 



XCIII 



I went on working at my book, and when I had finished it I took 
it to the Pope, who was in good truth unable to refrain from com- 
mending it greatly. I begged him to send me with it to the Em- 
peror, as he had promised. He replied that he would do what he 
thought fit, and that I had performed my part of the business. So 
he gave orders that I should be well paid. These two pieces of work, 
on which I had spent upwards of two months, brought me in five 
hundred crowns: for the diamond I was paid one hundred and fifty 
crowns and no more; the rest was given me for the cover of the 
book, which, however, was worth more than a thousand, being en- 
riched with multitudes of figures, arabesques, enamellings, and jew- 
els. I took what I could get and made my mind up to leave Rome 
without permission. The Pope meanwhile sent my book to the Em- 
peror by the hand of his grandson Signer Sforza. 1 Upon accepting 
it, the Emperor expressed great satisfaction, and immediately asked 
for me. Young Signor Sforza, who had received his instructions, 
said that I had been prevented by illness from coming. All this was 
reported to me. 

My preparations for the journey into France were made; and I 
wished to go alone, but was unable on account of a lad in my service 
called Ascanio. He was of very tender age, and the most admirable 
servant in the world. When I took him he had left a former mas- 
ter, named Francesco, a Spaniard and a goldsmith. I did not much 
like to take him, lest I should get into a quarrel with the Spaniard, 
and said to Ascanio : "I do not want to have you, for fear of offending 
your master." He contrived that his master should write me a note 

4 lo ne arei jatte vendette a misura di carbone. 

1 Sforza Sforza, son of Bosio, Count of Santa Fiore, and of Costanza Farnese, the 
Pope's natural daughter. He was a youth of sixteen at this epoch. 



1 86 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

informing me that I was free to take him. So he had been with me 
some months; and since he came to us both thin and pale of face, we 
called him "the little old man;" indeed I almost thought he was one, 
partly because he was so good a servant, and partly because he was 
so clever that it seemed unlikely he should have such talent at 
thirteen years, which he affirmed his age to be. Now to go back to 
the point from which I started, he improved in person during those 
few months, and gaining in flesh, became the handsomest youth in 
Rome. Being the excellent servant which I have described, and show- 
ing marvellous aptitude for our art, I felt a warm and fatherly aflec- 
tion for him, and kept him clothed as if he had been my own son. 
When the boy perceived the improvement he had made, he esteemed 
it a good piece of luck that he had come into my hands; and he used 
frequently to go and thank his former master, who had been the 
cause of his prosperity. Now this man had a handsome young 
woman to wife, who said to him: "Surgetto" (that was what they 
called him when he lived with them), "what have you been doing 
to become so handsome?" Ascanio answered: "Madonna Francesca, 
it is my master who has made me so handsome, and far more good 
to boot." In her petty spiteful way she took it very ill that Ascanio 
should speak so; and having no reputation for chastity, she contrived 
to caress the lad more perhaps than was quite seemly, which made 
me notice that he began to visit her more frequently than his wont 
had been. 

One day Ascanio took to beating one of our little shopboys, who, 
when I came home from out of doors, complained to me with tears 
that Ascanio had knocked him about without any cause. Hearing 
this, I said to Ascanio : "With cause or without cause, see you never 
strike any one of my family, or else I'll make you feel how I can 
strike myself." He bandied words with me, which made me jump on 
him and give him the severest drubbing with both fists and feet that 
he had ever felt. As soon as he escaped my clutches, he ran away 
without cape or cap, and for two days I did not know where he was, 
and took no care to find him. After that time a Spanish gentleman, 
called Don Diego, came to speak to me. He was the most generous 
man in the world. I had made, and was making, some things for 
him, which had brought us well acquainted He told me that As- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1 87 

canio had gone back to his old master, and asked me, if I thought 
it proper, to send him the cape and cap which I had given him. 
Thereupon I said that Francesco had behaved badly, and like a low- 
bred fellow; for if he had told me, when Ascanio first came back 
to him, that he was in his house, I should very willingly have given 
him leave; but now that he had kept him two days without inform- 
ing me, I was resolved he should not have him; and let him take 
care that I do not set eyes upon the lad in his house. This message 
was reported by Don Diego, but it only made Francesco laugh. 
The next morning I saw Ascanio working at some trifles in wire at 
his master's side. As I was passing he bowed to me, and his master 
almost laughed me in the face. He sent again to ask through Don 
Diego whether I would not give Ascanio back the clothes he had 
received from me; but if not, he did not mind, and Ascanio should 
not want for clothes. When I heard this, I turned to Don Diego and 
said: "Don Diego, sir, in all your dealings you are the most liberal 
and worthy man I ever knew, but that Francesco is quite the oppo- 
site of you; he is nothing better than a worthless and dishonoured 
renegade. Tell him from me that if he does not bring Ascanio here 
himself to my shop before the bell for vespers, I will assuredly kill 
him; and tell Ascanio that if he does not quit that house at the hour 
appointed for his master, I will treat him much in the same way." 
Don Diego made no answer, but went and inspired such terror in 
Francesco that he knew not what to do with himself. Ascanio mean- 
while had gone to find his father, who had come to Rome from 
Tagliacozzo, his birthplace; and this man also, when he heard about 
the row, advised Francesco to bring Ascanio back to me. Fran- 
cesco said to Ascanio: "Go on your own account, and your father 
shall go with you." Don Diego put in: "Francesco, I foresee that 
something very serious will happen; you know better than I do 
what a man Benvenuto is; take the lad back courageously, and I 
will come with you." I had prepared myself, and was pacing up and 
down the shop waiting for the bell to vespers; my mind was made 
up to do one of the bloodiest deeds which I had ever attempted in 
my life. Just then arrived Don Diego, Francesco, Ascanio, and his 
father, whom I did not know. When Ascanio entered, I gazed at the 
whole company with eyes of rage, and Francesco, pale as death, 



1 88 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

began as follows: "See here, I have brought back Ascanio, whom 
I kept with me, not thinking that I should offend you." Ascanio 
added humbly: "Master, pardon me; I am at your disposal here, to 
do whatever you shall order." Then I said: "Have you come to 
work out the time you promised me?" He answered yes, and that 
he meant never to leave me. Then I turned and told the shopboy 
he had beaten to hand him the bundle of clothes, and said to him: 
"Here are all the clothes I gave you; take with them your discharge, 
and go where you like." Don Diego stood astonished at this, which 
was quite the contrary of what he had expected; while Ascanio with 
his father besought me to pardon and take him back. On my asking 
who it was who spoke for him, he said it was his father; to whom, 
after many entreaties, I replied : "Because you are his father, for your 
sake I will take him back." 

xciv 

I had formed the resolution, as I said a short while back, to go 
toward France; partly because I saw that the Pope did not hold me 
in the same esteem as formerly, my faithful service having been 
besmirched by lying tongues; and also because I feared lest those 
who had the power might play me some worse trick. So I was deter- 
mined to seek better fortune in a foreign land, and wished to leave 
Rome without company or license. On the eve of my projected de- 
parture, I told my faithful friend Felice to make free use of all my 
effects during my absence; and in the case of my not returning, left 
him everything I possessed. Now there was a Perugian workman in 
my employ, who had helped me on those commissions from the 
Pope; and after paying his wages, I told him he must leave my 
service. He begged me in reply to let him go with me, and said he 
would come at his own charges; if I stopped to work for the King 
of France, it would certainly be better for me to have Italians by 
me, and in particular such persons as I knew to be capable of giving 
me assistance. His entreaties and arguments persuaded me to take 
him on the journey in the manner he proposed. Ascanio, who was 
present at this debate, said, half in tears: "When you took me back, 
I said I wished to remain with you my lifetime, and so I have it in my 






AUTOBIOGRAPHY 109 

mind to do." I told him that nothing in the world would make me 
consent; but when I saw that the poor lad was preparing to follow 
on foot, I engaged a horse for him too, put a small valise upon the 
crupper, and loaded myself with far more useless baggage than I 
should otherwise have taken. 1 

From home I travelled to Florence, from Florence to Bologna, 
from Bologna to Venice, and from Venice to Padua. There my dear 
friend Albertaccio del Bene made me leave the inn for his house; 
and next day I went to kiss the hand of Messer Pietro Bembo, who 
was not yet a Cardinal. 2 He received me with marks of the warmest 
affection which could be bestowed on any man; then turning to 
Albertaccio, he said: "I want Benvenuto to stay here, with all his 
followers, even though they be a hundred men; make then your 
mind up, if you want Benvenuto also, to stay here with me, for I 
do not mean elsewise to let you have him." Accordingly I spent a 
very pleasant visit at the house of that most accomplished gentle- 
man. He had a room prepared for me which would have been too 
grand for a cardinal, and always insisted on my taking my meals 
beside him. Later on, he began to hint in very modest terms that 
he should greatly like me to take his portrait. I, who desired nothing 
in the world more, prepared some snow-white plaster in a little box, 
and set to work at once. The first day I spent two hours on end at 
my modelling, and blocked out the fine head of that eminent man 
with so much grace of manner that his lordship was fairly astounded. 
Now, though he was a man of profound erudition and without a 
rival in poetry, he understood nothing at all about my art; this made 
him think that I had finished when I had hardly begun, so that I 
could not make him comprehend what a long time it took to exe- 
cute a thing of that sort thoroughly. At last I resolved to do it as 
well as I was able, and to spend the requisite time upon it; but since 
he wore his beard short after the Venetian fashion, I had great 
trouble in modelling a head to my own satisfaction. However, I 
finished it, and judged it about the finest specimen I had produced 

! He left Rome, April i, 1537. 

2 I need hardly say that this is the Bembo who ruled over Italian literature like 
a dictator from the reign of Leo X. onwards. He was of a noble Venetian house; 
Paul III. made him Cardinal in 1539. He died, aged seventy-seven, in 1547. 



190 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

in all the points pertaining to my art. Great was the astonishment 
of Messer Pietro, who conceived that I should have completed the 
waxen model in two hours and the steel in ten, when he found that 
I employed two hundred on the wax, and then was begging for 
leave to pursue my journey toward France. This threw him into 
much concern, and he implored me at least to design the reverse 
for his medal, which was to be a Pegasus encircled with a wreath 
of myrtle. I performed my task in the space of some three hours, 
and gave it a fine air of elegance. He was exceedingly delighted, and 
said : "This horse seems to me ten times more difficult to do than the 
little portrait on which you have bestowed so much pains. I can- 
not understand what made it such a labour." All the same, he kept 
entreating me to execute the piece in steel, exclaiming: "For Heav- 
en's sake, do it; I know that, if you choose, you will get it quickly 
finished." I told him that I was not willing to make it there, but 
promised without fail to take it in hand wherever I might stop to 
work. 

While this debate was being carried on I went to bargain for three 
horses which I wanted on my travels; and he took care that a secret 
watch should be kept over my proceedings, for he had vast authority 
in Padua; wherefore, when I proposed to pay for the horses, which 
were to cost five hundred ducats, their owner answered: "Illustrious 
artist, I make you a present of the three horses." I replied: "It is 
not you who give them me; and from the generous donor I cannot 
accept them, seeing I have been unable to present him with any 
specimen of my craft." The good fellow said that, if I did not take 
them, I should get no other horses in Padua, and should have to 
make my journey on foot. Upon that I returned to the magnificent 
Messer Pietro, who affected to be ignorant of the affair, and only 
begged me with marks of kindness to remain in Padua. This was 
contrary to my intention, for I had quite resolved to set out; there- 
fore I had to accept the three horses, and with them we began our 
journey. 

xcv 

I chose the route through the Grisons, all other passes being unsafe 
on account of war. We crossed the mountains of the Alba and Ber- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

lina; it was the 8th of May, and the snow upon them lay in masses. 1 
At the utmost hazard of our lives we succeeded in surmounting 
those two Alpine ridges; and when they had been traversed, we 
stopped at a place which, if I remember rightly, is called Valdista. 
There we took up quarters, and at nightfall there arrived a Floren- 
tine courier named Busbacca. I had heard him mentioned as a man 
of character and able in his profession, but I did not know that he 
had forfeited that reputation by his rogueries. When he saw me in 
the hostelry, he addressed me by my name, said he was going on 
business of importance to Lyons, and entreated me to lend him 
money for the journey. I said I had no money to lend, but that if 
he liked to join me, I would pay his expenses as far as Lyons. The 
rascal wept, and wheedled me with a long story, saying: "If a poor 
courier employed on affairs of national consequence has fallen short 
of money, it is the duty of a man like you to assist him." Then he 
added that he was carrying things of the utmost importance from 
Messer Filippo Strozzi; 2 and showing me a leather case for a cup 
he had with him, whispered in my ear that it held a goblet of silver 
which contained jewels to the value of many thousands of ducats, 
together with letters of vast consequence, sent by Messer Filippo 
Strozzi. I told him that he ought to let me conceal the jewels about 
his own person, which would be much less dangerous than carrying 
them in the goblet; he might give that up to me, and, its value being 
probably about ten crowns, I would supply him with twenty-five on 
the security. To these words the courier replied that he would go 
with me, since he could not do otherwise, for to give up the goblet 
would not be to his honour. 

Accordingly we struck the bargain so; and taking horse next morn- 
ing, came to a lake between Valdistate and Vessa; it is fifteen miles 
long when one reaches Vessa. On beholding the boats upon that 
lake I took fright; because they are of pine, of no great size and no 
great thickness, loosely put together, and not even pitched. If I had 
not seen four German gentlemen, with their four horses, embarking 

1 1 have retained Cellini's spelling of names upon this journey. He passed the 
Bernina and Albula mountains, descended the valley of the Rhine to Wallenstadt, 
travelled by Weesen and probably Glarus to Lachen and Zurich, thence to Solothurn, 
Lausanne, Geneva, Lyons. 

2 Filippo Strozzi was leader of the anti-Medicean party, now in exile. He fell into 
the hands of Duke Cosimo on the ist of August in this year, 1537. 



192 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

in one of the same sort as ours, I should never have set my foot in it; 
indeed I should far more likely have turned tail; but when I sav* 
their hare-brained recklessness, I took it into my head that those 
German waters would not drown folk, as ours do in Italy. How- 
ever, my two young men kept saying to me : "Benvenuto, it is surely 
dangerous to embark in this craft with four horses." I replied : "You 
cowards, do you not observe how those four gentlemen have taken 
boat before us, and are going on their way with laughter? If this 
were wine, as indeed 'tis water, I should say that they were going 
gladly to drown themselves in it; but as it is but water, I know 
well that they have no more pleasure than we have in drowning 
there." The lake was fifteen miles long and about three broad; on 
one side rose a mountain very tall and cavernous, on the other some 
flat land and grassy. When we had gone about four miles, it began 
to storm upon the lake, and our oarsmen asked us to help in row- 
ing; this we did awhile. I made gestures and directed them to land 
us on the farther shore; they said it was not possible, because there 
was not depth of water for the boat, and there were shoals there, 
which would make it go to pieces and drown us all; and still they 
kept on urging us to help them. The boatmen shouted one to the 
other, calling for assistance. When I saw them thus dismayed, my 
horse being an intelligent animal, I arranged the bridle on his neck 
and took the end of the halter with my left hand. The horse, like 
most of his kind, being not devoid of reason, seemed to have an 
instinct of my intention; for having turned his face towards the fresh 
grass, I meant that he should swim and draw me after him. Just 
at that moment a great wave broke over the boat. Ascanio shrieked 
out: "Mercy, my father; save me," and wanted to throw himself upon 
my neck. Accordingly, I laid hand to my little dagger, and told 
them to do as I had shown them, seeing that the horses would save 
their lives as well as I too hoped to escape with mine by the same 
means; but that if he tried to jump on me, I should kill him. So we 
went forward several miles in this great peril of our lives. 

xcvi 

When we had reached the middle of the lake, we found a little 
bit of level ground where we could land, and I saw that those four 
German gentlemen had already come to shore there; but on our 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 193 

wishing to disembark, the boatmen would hear nothing of it. Then 
I said to my young men: "Now is the time to show what stuff we 
are made of; so draw your swords, and force these fellows to put 
us on shore." This we did, not however without difficulty, for they 
offered a stubborn resistance. When at last we got to land, we had 
to climb that mountain for two miles, and it was more troublesome 
than getting up a ladder. I was completely clothed in mail, with 
big boots, and a gun in my hand; and it was raining as though the 
fountains of the heavens were opened. Those devils, the German 
gentlemen, leading their little horses by the bridle, accomplished 
miracles of agility; but our animals were not up to the business, and 
we burst with the fatigue of making them ascend that hill of diffi- 
culty. We had climbed a little way, when Ascanio's horse, an excel- 
lent beast of Hungarian race, made a false step. He was going a 
few paces before the courier Busbacca to whom Ascanio had given 
his lance to carry for him. Well, the path was so bad that the horse 
stumbled, and went on scrambling backwards, without being able 
to regain his footing, till he stuck upon the point of the lance, which 
that rogue of a courier had not the wit to keep out of his way. The 
weapon passed right through his throat; and when my other work- 
man went to help him, his horse also, a black-coloured animal, 
slipped towards the lake, and held on by some shrub which offered 
but a slight support. This horse was carrying a pair of saddle-bags, 
which contained all my money and other valuables. I cried out to 
the young man to save his own life, and let the horse go to the devil. 
The fall was more than a mile of precipitous descent above the waters 
of the lake. Just below the place our boatmen had taken up their 
station; so that if the horse fell, he would have come precisely on 
them. I was ahead of the whole company, and we waited to see 
the horse plunge headlong; it seemed certain that he must go to per- 
dition. During this I said to my young men: "Be under no concern; 
let us save our lives, and give thanks to God for all that happens. I 
am only distressed for that poor fellow Busbacca, who tied his goblet 
and his jewels to the value of several thousands of ducats on the 
horse's saddle-bow, thinking that the safest place. My things are but 
a few hundred crowns, and I am in no fear whatever, if only I get 
God's protection." Then Busbacca cried out : "I am not sorry for my 
own loss, but for yours." "Why," said I to him, "are you sorry for 



194 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

my trifles, and not for all that property of yours?" He answered: 
"I will tell you in God's name; in these circumstances and at the 
point of peril we have reached, truth must be spoken. I know that 
yours are crowns, and are so in good sooth; but that case in which 
I said I had so many jewels and other lies, is all full of caviare." On 
hearing this I could not hold from laughing; my young men laughed 
too; and he began to cry. The horse extricated itself by a great effort 
when we had given it up for lost. So then, still laughing, we sum- 
moned our forces, and bent ourselves to making the ascent. The 
four German gentlemen, having gained the top before us, sent down 
some folk who gave us aid. Thus at length we reached our lodging 
in the wilderness. Here, being wet to the skin, tired out, and fam- 
ished, we were most agreeably entertained; we dried ourselves, took 
rest, and satisfied our hunger, while certain wild herbs were applied 
to the wounded horse. They pointed out to us the plant in question, 
of which the hedges were full; and we were told that if the wound 
was kept continually plugged with its leaves, the beast would not 
only recover, but would serve us just as if it had sustained no injury. 
We proceeded to do as they advised. Then having thanked those 
gentlemen, and feeling ourselves entirely refreshed, we quitted the 
place, and travelled onwards, thanking God for saving us from such 
great perils. 

xcvn 

We reached a town beyond Vessa, where we passed the night, and 
heard a watchman through all the hours singing very agreeably; for 
all the houses of that city being built of pine wood, it was the watch- 
man's only business to warn folk against fire. Busbacca's nerves had 
been quite shaken by the day's adventures; accordingly, each hour 
when the watchman sang, he called out in his sleep: "Ah God, I am 
drowning!" That was because of the fright he had had; and besides, 
he had got drunk in the evening, because he would sit boozing with 
all the Germans who were there; and sometimes he cried: "I am 
burning," and sometimes: "I am drowning;" and at other times he 
thought he was in hell, and tortured with that caviare suspended 
round his throat. 

This night was so amusing that it turned all our troubles into 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 195 

laughter. In the morning we rose with very fine weather, and 
went to dine in a smiling little place called Lacca. Here we ob- 
tained excellent entertainment, and then engaged guides, who were 
returning to a town called Surich. The guide who attended us 
went along the dyked bank of a lake; there was no other road; and 
the dyke itself was covered with water, so that the reckless fellow 
slipped, and fell together with his horse beneath the water. I, who 
was but a few steps behind him, stopped my horse, and waited to 
see the donkey get out of the water. Just as if nothing had happened, 
he began to sing again, and made signs to me to follow. I broke 
away upon the right hand, and got through some hedges, making 
my young men and Busbacca take that way. ( The guide shouted in 
German that if the folk of those parts saw me they would put me to 
death. However, we passed forward, and escaped that other storm. 

So we arrived at Surich, a marvellous city, bright and polished 
like a little gem. There we rested a whole day, then left betimes one 
morning, and reached another fair city called Solutorno. Thence we 
came to Usanna, from Usanna to Ginevra, from Ginevra to Lione, 
always singing and laughing. At Lione I rested four days, and had 
much pleasant intercourse with some of my friends there; I was 
also repaid what I had spent upon Busbacca; afterwards I set out 
upon the road to Paris. This was a delightful journey, except that 
when we reached Palissa 1 a band of venturers tried to murder us, 2 
and it was only by great courage and address that we got free from 
them. From that point onward we travelled to Paris without the 
least trouble in the world. Always singing and laughing, we arrived 
safely at our destination. 

xcvur 

After taking some repose in Paris, I went to visit the painter Rosso, 
who was in the King's service. I thought to find in him one of the 
sincerest friends I had in the world, seeing that in Rome I had done 
him the greatest benefits which one man can confer upon another. 
As these may be described briefly, I will not here omit their mention, 
in order to expose the shamelessness of such ingratitude. While he 

1 La Palice. 

2 Cellini, in the narrative of his second French journey, explains that these 
venturieri were a notable crew of very daring brigands in the Lyonese province. 



196 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

was in Rome, then, being a man given to back-biting, he spoke so 
ill of Raffaello da Urbino's works, that the pupils of the latter were 
quite resolved to murder him. From this peril I saved him by keep- 
ing a close watch upon him day and night. Again, the evil things 
said by Rosso against San Gallo, 1 that excellent architect, caused the 
latter to get work taken from him which he had previously procured 
for him from Messer Agnolo da Cesi; and after this San Gallo used 
his influence so strenuously against him that he must have been 
brought to the verge of starvation, had not I pitied his condition and 
lent him some scores of crowns to live upon. So then, not having 
been repaid, and knowing that he held employment under the King, 
I went, as I have said, to look him up. I did not merely expect him 
to discharge his debt, but also to show me favour and assist in placing 
me in that great monarch's service. 

When Rosso set eyes on me, his countenance changed suddenly, 
and he exclaimed: "Benvenuto, you have taken this long journey at 
great charges to your loss; especially at this present time, when all 
men's thoughts are occupied with war, and not with the bagatelles 
of our profession." I replied that I had brought money enough to 
take me back to Rome as I had come to Paris, and that this was not 
the proper return for the pains I had endured for him, and that now 
I began to believe what Maestro Antonio da San Gallo said of him. 
When he tried to turn the matter into jest on this exposure of his 
baseness, I showed him a letter of exchange for five hundred crowns 
upon Ricciardo del Bene. Then the rascal was ashamed, and wanted 
to detain me almost by force; but I laughed at him, and took my 
leave in the company of a painter whom I found there. This man 
was called Sguazzella: 2 he too was a Florentine; and I went to lodge 
in his house, with three horses and three servants, at so much per 
week. He treated me very well, and was even better paid by me in 
return. 

Afterwards I sought audience of the King, through the introduc- 
tion of his treasurer, Messer Giuliano Buonaccorti. 3 I met, however, 
with considerable delays, owing, as I did not then know, to the stren- 

1 Antonio da San Gallo, one of the best architects of the later Renaissance. 

2 A pupil of Andrea del Sarto, who went with him to France and settled there. 

3 A Florentine exile mentioned by Varchi. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 197 

uous exertions Rosso made against my admission to his Majesty. 
When Messer Giuliano became aware of this, he took me down at 
once to Fontana Bilio, 4 and brought me into the presence of the King, 
who granted me a whole hour of very gracious audience. Since he 
was then on the point of setting out for Lyons, he told Messer 
Giuliano to take me with him, adding that on the journey we could 
discuss some works of art his Majesty had it in his head to execute. 
Accordingly, I followed the court; and on the way I entered into 
close relations with the Cardinal of Ferrara, who had not at that 
period obtained the hat. 5 Every evening I used to hold long con- 
versations with the Cardinal, in the course of which his lordship 
advised me to remain at an abbey of his in Lyons, and there to abide 
at ease until the King returned from this campaign, adding that he 
was going on to Grenoble, and that I should enjoy every convenience 
in the abbey. 

When we reached Lyons I was already ill, and my lad Ascanio 
had taken a quartan fever. The French and their court were 
both grown irksome to me, and I counted the hours till I could 
find myself again in Rome. On seeing my anxiety to return home, 
the Cardinal gave me money sufficient for making him a silver bason 
and jug. So we took good horses, and set our faces in the direction 
of Rome, passing the Simplon, and travelling for some while in the 
company of certain Frenchmen; Ascanio troubled by his quartan, 
and I by a slow fever which I found it quite impossible to throw 
off. I had, moreover, got my stomach out of order to such an extent, 
that for the space of four months, as I verily believe, I hardly ate 
one whole loaf of bread in the week; and great was my longing 
to reach Italy, being desirous to die there rather than in France. 



xcix 

When we had crossed the mountains of the Simplon, we came 
to a river near a place called Indevedro. 1 It was broad and very 
deep, spanned by a long narrow bridge without ramparts. That 

4 Fontainebleau. Cellini always writes it as above. 

5 Ippolito d'Este, son of Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara; Archbishop of Milan at the age 
of fifteen; Cardinal in 1539; spent a large part of his life in France. 
1 Probably the Doveria in the Valdivedro. 



198 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

morning a thick white frost had fallen; and when I reached the 
bridge, riding before the rest, I recognised how dangerous it was, 
and bade my servants and young men dismount and lead their 
horses. So I got across without accident, and rode on talking with 
one of the Frenchmen, whose condition was that of a gentleman. 
The other, who was a scrivener, lagged a little way behind, jeering 
the French gentleman and me because we had been so frightened 
by nothing at all as to give ourselves the trouble of walking. I 
turned round, and seeing him upon the middle of the bridge, begged 
him to come gently, since the place was very dangerous. The fel- 
low, true to his French nature, cried out in French that I was a 
man of poor spirit, and that there was no danger whatsoever. While 
he spoke these words and urged his horse forward, the animal sud- 
denly slipped over the bridge, and fell with legs in air close to a 
huge rock there was there. Now God is very often merciful to 
madmen; so the two beasts, human and equine, plunged together 
into a deep wide pool, where both of them went down below the 
water. On seeing what had happened, I set off running at full 
speed, scrambled with much difficulty on to the rock, and dangling 
over from it, seized the skirt of the scrivener's gown and pulled him 
up, for he was still submerged beneath the surface. He had drunk 
his bellyful of water, and was within an ace of being drowned. I 
then, beholding him out of danger, congratulated the man upon 
my having been the means of rescuing his life. The fellow to this 
answered me in French, that I had done nothing; the important 
things to save were his writings, worth many scores of crowns; 
and these words he seemed to say in anger, dripping wet and splut- 
tering the while. Thereupon, I turned round to our guides, and 
ordered them to help the brute, adding that I would see them paid. 
One of them with great address and trouble set himself to the busi- 
ness, and picked up all the fellow's writings, so that he lost not 
one of them : the other guide refused to trouble himself by rendering 
any assistance. 

I ought here to say that we had made a purse up, and that I per- 
formed the part of paymaster. So, when we reached the place I 
mentioned, and had dined, I drew some coins from the common 
purse and gave them to the guide who helped to draw him from 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 199 

the water. Thereupon the fellow called out that I might pay them 
out of my own pocket; he had no intention of giving the man 
more than what had been agreed on for his services as guide. Upon 
this I retorted with insulting language. Then the other guide, who 
had done nothing, came up and demanded to be rewarded also. 
I told him that the one who had borne the cross deserved the recom- 
pense. He cried out that he would presently show me a cross 
which should make me repent. I replied that I would light a candle 
at that cross, which should, I hoped, make him to be the first to 
weep his folly. The village we were in lay on the frontier between 
Venice and the Germans. So the guide ran of? to bring the folk 
together, and came, followed by a crowd, with a boar-spear in his 
hand. Mounted on my good steed, I lowered the barrel of my 
arquebuse, and turning to my comrades, cried: "At the first shot I 
shall bring that fellow down; do you likewise your duty, for these 
are highway robbers, who have used this little incident to contrive 
our murder." The innkeeper at whose house we had dined called 
one of the leaders, an imposing old man, and begged him to put 
a stop to the disorder, saying: "This is a most courageous young 
man; you may cut him to pieces, but he will certainly kill a lot of 
you, and perhaps will escape your hands after doing all the mischief 
he is able." So matters calmed down : and the old man, their leader, 
said to me: "Go in peace; you would not have much to boast of 
against us, even if you had a hundred men to back you." I recog- 
nised the truth of his words, and had indeed made up my mind to 
die among them; therefore, when no further insults were cast at me, 
I shook my head and exclaimed: "I should certainly have done my 
utmost to prove I am no statue, but a man of flesh and spirit." 
Then we resumed our journey; and that evening, at the first lodg- 
ing we came to, settled our accounts together. There I parted for 
ever from that beast of a Frenchman, remaining on very friendly 
terms with the other, who was a gentleman. Afterwards I reached 
Ferrara, with my three horses and no other company. 

Having dismounted, I went to court in order to pay my reverence 
to the Duke, and gain permission to depart next morning for Loreto. 
When I had waited until two hours after nightfall, his Excellency 
appeared. I kissed his hands; he received me with much courtesy, 



2OO BENVENUTO CELLINI 

and ordered that water should be brought for me to wash my hands 
before eating. To this compliment I made a pleasant answer : "Most 
excellent lord, it is now more than four months that I have eaten 
only just enough to keep life together; knowing therefore that I 
could not enjoy the delicacies of your royal table, I will stay and 
talk with you while your Excellency is supping; in this way we 
shall both have more pleasure than if I were to sup with you." Ac- 
cordingly, we entered into conversation, and prolonged it for the next 
three hours. At that time I took my leave, and when I got back to 
the inn, found a most excellent meal ready; for the Duke had sent 
me the plates from his own banquet, together with some famous 
wine. Having now fasted two full hours beyond my usual hour for 
supping, I fell to with hearty appetite; and this was the first time 
since four months that I felt the power or will to eat. 



Leaving Ferrara in the morning, I went to Santa Maria at Loreto; 
and thence, having performed my devotions, pursued the journey to 
Rome. There I found my most faithful Felice, to whom I aban- 
doned my old shop with all its furniture and appurtenances, and 
opened another, much larger and roomier, next to Sugherello, the 
perfumer. I thought for certain that the great King Francis would 
not have remembered me. Therefore I accepted commissions from 
several noblemen; and in the meanwhile began the bason and jug 
ordered by the Cardinal Ferrara. I had a crowd of workmen, and 
many large affairs on hand in gold and silver. 

Now the arrangement I had made with that Perugian workman 1 
was that he should write down all the monies which had been dis- 
bursed on his account, chiefly for clothes and divers other sundries; 
and these, together with the costs of travelling, amounted to about 
seventy crowns. We agreed that he should discharge the debt by 
monthly payments of three crowns; and this he was well able to do, 
since he gained more than eight through me. At the end of two 
months the rascal decamped from my shop, leaving me in the lurch 
with a mass of business on my hands, and saying that he did not 
mean to pay me a farthing more. I was resolved to seek redress, 

1 In his Ricordi Cellini calls the man Girolamo Pascucci. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2OI 

but allowed myself to be persuaded to do so by the way of justice. 
At first I thought of lopping off an arm of his; and assuredly I should 
have done so, if my friends had not told me that it was a mistake, 
seeing I should lose my money and perhaps Rome too a second time, 
forasmuch as blows cannot be measured, and that with the agree- 
ment I held of his I could at any moment have him taken up. I 
listened to their advice, though I should have liked to conduct the 
affair more freely. As a matter of fact, I sued him before the auditor 
of the Camera, and gained my suit; in consequence of that decree, 
for which I waited several months, I had him thrown into prison. 
At the same time I was overwhelmed with large commissions; 
among others, I had to supply all the ornaments of gold and jewels 
for the wife of Signor Gierolimo Orsino, father of Signor Paolo, who 
is now the son-in-law of our Duke Cosimo. 2 These things I had 
nearly finished; yet others of the greatest consequence were always 
coming in. I employed eight work-people, and worked day and night 
together with them, for the sake alike of honour and of gain. 

ci 

While I was engaged in prosecuting my affairs with so much 
vigour, there arrived a letter sent post-haste to me by the Cardinal 
of Ferrara, which ran as follows : 

"Benvenuto, our dear friend, During these last days the most 
Christian King here made mention of you, and said that he should 
li\e to have you in his service. Whereto I answered that you had 
promised me, whenever I sent for you to serve his Majesty, that you 
would come at once. His Majesty then answered: 'It is my tvill\ 
that provision for his journey, according to his merits, should 
be sent him;' and immediately ordered his Admiral to maJ^e me 
out an order for one thousand golden crowns upon the treasurer 
of the Exchequer. The Cardinal de' Gaddi, who was present at 
this conversation, advanced immediately, and told his Majesty that 
it was not necessary to ma\e these dispositions, seeing that he had 
sent you money enough, and that you were already on the 'journey. 
If then, as I thin\ probable, the facts are quite contrary to those 

2 He was Duke of Bracciano, father of Duke Paolo, who married Isabella de' Medici, 
and murdered her before his second marriage with Vittoria Accoramboni. See my 
Renaissance in Italy, vol. vi. 



2O2 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

assertions of Cardinal Gaddi, reply to me without delay upon the 
receipt of this letter; for I will undertake to gather up the fallen 
thread, and have the promised money given you by this magnani- 
mous King." 

Now let the world take notice, and all the folk that dwell on it, 
what power malignant stars with adverse fortune exercise upon us 
human beings! I had not spoken twice in my lifetime to that little 
simpleton of a Cardinal de' Gaddi; nor do I think that he meant 
by this bumptiousness of his to do me any harm, but only, through 
lightheadedness and senseless folly, to make it seem as though he 
also held the affairs of artists, whom the King was wanting, under 
his own personal supervision, just as the Cardinal of Ferrara did. 
But afterwards he was so stupid as not to tell me anything at all 
about the matter; elsewise, it is certain that my wish to shield a silly 
mannikin from reproach, if only for our country's sake, would have 
made me find out some excuse to mend the bungling of his foolish 
self-conceit. 

Immediately upon the receipt of Cardinal Ferrara's letter, I an- 
swered that about Cardinal de' Gaddi I knew absolutely nothing, 
and that even if he had made overtures of that kind to me, I should 
not have left Italy without informing his most reverend lordship. I 
also said that I had more to do in Rome than at any previous time; 
but that if his most Christian Majesty made sign of wanting me, 
one word of his, communicated by so great a prince as his most rev- 
erend lordship, would suffice to make me set off upon the spot, leav- 
ing all other concerns to take their chance. 

After I had sent my letter, that traitor, the Perugian workman, 
devised a piece of malice against me, which succeeded at once, owing 
to the avarice of Pope Paolo da Farnese, but also far more to that of 
his bastard, who was then called Duke of Castro. 1 The fellow in 
question informed one of Signer Pier Luigi's secretaries that, having 
been with me as workman several years, he was acquainted with 
all my affairs, on the strength of which he gave his word to Signer 
Pier Luigi that I was worth more than eighty thousand ducats, and 
that the greater part of this property consisted in jewels, which 
jewels belonged to the Church, and that I had stolen them in Castel 

1 He had been invested with the Duchy of Castro in 1537. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2O3 

Sant' Angelo during the sack of Rome, and that all they had to do 
was to catch me on the spot with secrecy. 

It so happened that I had been at work one morning, more than 
three hours before daybreak, upon the trousseau of the bride I men- 
tioned; then, while my shop was being opened and swept out, I put 
my cape on to go abroad and take the air. Directing my steps along 
the Strada Giulia, I turned into Chiavica, and at this corner Cres- 
pino, the Bargello, with all his constables, made up to me, and said : 
"You are the Pope's prisoner." I answered: "Crespino, you have 
mistaken your man." "No," said Crespino, "you are the artist Ben- 
venuto, and I know you well, and I have to take you to the Castle 
of Sant' Angelo, where lords go, and men of accomplishments, your 
peers." Upon that four of his under-ofEcers rushed on me, and would 
have seized by force a dagger which I wore, and some rings I car- 
ried on my finger; but Crespino rebuked them: "Not a man of you 
shall touch him: it is quite enough if you perform your duty, and 
see that he does not escape me." Then he came up, and begged me 
with words of courtesy to surrender my arms. While I was engaged 
in doing this, it crossed my mind that exactly on that very spot I had 
assassinated Pompeo. They took me straightway to the castle, and 
locked me in an upper chamber in the keep. This was the first 
time that I ever smelt a prison up to the age I then had of thirty- 
seven years. 

en 

Signor Pier Luigi, the Pope's son, had well considered the large 
sum for which I stood accused; so he begged the reversion of it 
from his most holy father, and asked that he might have the money 
made out to himself. The Pope granted this willingly, adding that 
he would assist in its recovery. Consequently, after having kept 
me eight whole days in prison, they sent me up for examination, 
in order to put an end if possible to the affair. I was summoned into 
one of the great halls of the papal castle, a place of much dignity. 
My examiners were, first, the Governor of Rome, called Messer 
Benedetto Conversini of Pistoja, 1 who afterwards became Bishop 
of Jesi; secondly, the Procurator-Fiscal, whose name I have for- 

1 Bishop of Forlimpopoli in 1537, and of Jesi in 1540. 



2O4 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

gotten; 2 and, thirdly, the judge in criminal cases, Messer Benedetto 
da Cagli. These three men began at first to question me in gentle 
terms, which afterwards they changed to words of considerable harsh- 
ness and menace, apparently because I said to them: "My lords, it is 
more than half-an-hour now since you have been pestering me with 
questions about fables and such things, so that one may truly say you 
are chattering or prattling; by chattering I mean talking without 
reason, by prattling I mean talking nonsense: therefore I beg you 
to tell me what it really is you want of me, and to let me hear from 
your lips reasonable speech, and not jabberings or nonsense." In 
reply to these words of mine, the Governor, who was a Pistojan, 
could no longer disguise his furious temper, and began: "You talk 
very confidently, or rather far too arrogantly; but let me tell you 
that I will bring your pride down lower than a spaniel by the words 
of reason you shall hear from me; these will be neither jabberings 
nor nonsense, as you have it, but shall form a chain of arguments 
to answer which you will be forced to tax the utmost of your wits." 
Then he began to speak as follows: "We know for certain that you 
were in Rome at the time when this unhappy city was subject to 
the calamity of the sack; at that time you were in this Castle of 
Sant' Angelo, and were employed as bombardier. Now since you 
are a jeweller and goldsmith by trade, Pope Clement, being pre- 
viously acquainted with you, and having by him no one else of 
your profession, called you into his secret counsels, and made you 
unset all the jewels of his tiaras, mitres, and rings; afterwards, hav- 
ing confidence in you, he ordered you to sew them into his clothes. 
While thus engaged, you sequestered, unknown to his Holiness, a 
portion of them, to the value of eighty thousand crowns. This has 
been told us by one of your workmen, to whom you disclosed the 
matter in your braggadocio way. Now, we tell you frankly that you 
must find the jewels, or their value in money; after that we will 
release you." 

cm 

When I heard these words, I could not hold from bursting into a 
great roar of laughter; then, having laughed a while, I said: "Thanks 

2 Benedetto Valcnti. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2O5 

be to God that on this first occasion, when it has pleased His Divine 
Majesty to imprison me, I should not be imprisoned for some folly, 
as the wont is usually with young men. If what you say were the 
truth, I run no risk of having to submit to corporal punishment, 
since the authority of the law was suspended during that season. 
Indeed, I could excuse myself by saying that, like a faithful servant, 
I had kept back treasure to that amount for the sacred and Holy 
Apostolic Church, waiting till I could restore it to a good Pope, or 
else to those who might require it of me; as, for instance, you might, 
if this were verily the case." When I had spoken so far, the furious 
Governor would not let me conclude my argument, but exclaimed 
in a burst of rage: "Interpret the affair as you like best, Benvenuto; 
it is enough for us to have found the property which we had lost; 
be quick about it, if you do not want us to use other measures than 
words." Then they began to rise and leave the chamber; but I 
stopped them, crying out: "My lords, my examination is not over; 
bring that to an end, and go then where you choose." They resumed 
their seats in a very angry temper, making as though they did not 
mean to listen to a word I said, and at the same time half relieved, 1 
as though they had discovered all they wanted to know. I then 
began my speech, to this effect: "You are to know, my lords, that 
it is now some twenty years since I first came to Rome, and I have 
never been sent to prison here or elsewhere." On this that catchpole 
of a Governor called out: "And yet you have killed men enough 
here!" I replied: "It is you that say it, and not I; but if some one 
came to kill you, priest as you are, you would defend yourself, and 
if you killed him, the sanctity of law would hold you justified. 
Therefore let me continue my defence, if you wish to report the case 
to the Pope, and to judge me fairly. Once more I tell you that I 
have been a sojourner in this marvellous city Rome for nigh on 
twenty years, and here I have exercised my art in matters of vast 
importance. Knowing that this is the seat of Christ, I entertained 
the reasonable belief that when some temporal prince sought to 
inflict on me a mortal injury, I might have recourse to this holy 
chair and to this Vicar of Christ, in confidence that he would surely 
uphold my cause. Ah me! whither am I now to go? What prince 

1 SoUevati. It may mean half-risen jrom their seats. 



206 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

is there who will protect me from this infamous assassination ? Was 
it not your business, before you took me up, to find out what I had 
done with those eighty thousand ducats? Was it not your duty to 
inspect the record of the jewels, which have been carefully inscribed 
by this Apostolic Camera through the last five hundred years? If 
you had discovered anything missing on that record, then you ought 
to have seized all my books together with myself. I tell you for a 
certainty that the registers, on which are written all the jewels of 
the Pope and the regalia, must be perfectly in order; you will not 
find there missing a single article of value which belonged to Pope 
Clement that has not been minutely noted. The one thing of the 
kind which occurs to me is this : When that poor man Pope Clement 
wanted to make terms with those thieves of the Imperial army, who 
had robbed Rome and insulted the Church, a certain Cesare Iscati- 
naro, if I rightly remember his name, came to negotiate with him; 2 
and having nearly concluded the agreement, the Pope in his ex- 
tremity, to show the man some mark of favour, let fall a diamond 
from his finger, which was worth about four thousand crowns, and 
when Iscatinaro stooped to pick it up, the Pope told him to keep it 
for his sake. I was present at these transactions : and if the diamond 
of which I speak be missing, I have told you where it went; but I 
have the firmest conviction that you will find even this noted upon 
the register. After this you may blush at your leisure for having 
done such cruel injustice to a man like me, who has performed so 
many honourable services for the apostolic chair. I would have you 
know that, but for me, the morning when the Imperial troops en- 
tered the Borgo, they woulcl without let or hindrance have forced 
their way into the castle. It was I who, unrewarded for this act, 
betook myself with vigour to the guns which had been abandoned 
by the cannoneers and soldiers of the ordnance. I put spirit into my 
comrade Raffaello da Montelupo, the sculptor, who had also left his 
post and hid himself all frightened in a corner, without stirring foot 
or finger; I woke his courage up, and he and I alone together slew 
so many of the enemies that the soldiers took another road. I it was 

2 Gio. Bartolommeo di Gattinara. Raffaello da Montelupo, in his Autobiography, 
calls him Cattinaro, and relates how "when he came one day into the castle to 
negotiate a treaty, he was wounded in the arm by one of our arquebusiers." This 
confirms what follows above. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 207 

who shot at Iscatinaro when I saw him talking to Pope Clement 
without the slightest mark of reverence, nay, with the most revolt- 
ing insolence, like the Lutheran and infidel he was, Pope Clement 
upon this had the castle searched to find and hang the man who 
did it. I it was who wounded the Prince of Orange in the head 
down there below the trenches of the castle. Then, too, how many 
ornaments of silver, gold, and jewels, how many models and coins, 
so beautiful and so esteemed, have I not made for Holy Church! 
Is this then the presumptuous priestly recompense you give a man 
who has served and loved you with such loyalty, with such mastery 
of art? Oh, go and report the whole that I have spoken to the Pope; 
go and tell him that his jewels are all in his possession; that I never 
received from the Church anything but wounds and stonings at that 
epoch of the sack ; that I never reckoned upon any gain beyond some 
small remuneration from Pope Paolo, which he had promised me. 
Now at last I know what to think of his Holiness and you his Min- 
isters." 

While I was delivering this speech, they sat and listened in aston- 
ishment. Then exchanging glances one with the other, and making 
signs of much surprise, they left me. All three went together to 
report what I had spoken to the Pope. The Pope felt some shame, 
and gave orders that all the records of the jewels should be diligently 
searched. When they had ascertained that none were missing, they 
left me in the castle without saying a word mo r e about it. Signer 
Pier Luigi felt also that he had acted ill; and to end the affair, they 
set about to contrive my death. 

civ 

During the agitations of this time which I have just related, King 
Francis received news of how the Pope was keeping me in prison, 
and with what injustice. He had sent a certain gentleman of his, 
named Monsignor di Morluc, as his ambassador to Rome; 1 to him 
therefore he now wrote, claiming me from the Pope as the man 
of his Majesty. The Pope was a person of extraordinary sense and 
ability, but in this affair of mine he behaved weakly and unintelli- 

1 Jean de Montluc, brother of the celebrated Marshal, Bishop of Valence, a friend 
of Margaret of Navarre, and, like her, a protector of the Huguenots. He negotiated 
the election of the Duke of Anjou to the throne of Poland. 



2O8 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

gently; for he made answer to the King's envoy that his Majesty 
need pay me no attention, since I was a fellow who gave much 
trouble by fighting; therefore he advised his Majesty to leave me 
alone, adding that he kept me in prison for homicides and other 
deviltries which I had played. To this the King sent answer that 
justice in his realm was excellently maintained; for even as his 
Majesty was wont to shower rewards and favours upon men of parts 
and virtue, so did he ever chastise the troublesome. His Holiness 
had let me go, not caring for the service of the said Benvenuto, and 
the King, when he saw him in his realm, most willingly adopted 
him; therefore he now asked for him in the quality of his own man. 
Such a demand was certainly one of the most honourable marks of 
favour which a man of my sort could desire; yet it proved the source 
of infinite annoyance and hurt to me. The Pope was roused to such 
fury by the jealous fear he had lest I should go and tell the whole 
world how infamously I had been treated, that he kept revolving 
ways in which I might be put to death without injury to his own 
credit. 

The castellan of Sant' Angelo was one of our Florentines, called 
Messer Giorgio, a knight of the Ugolini family. 2 This worthy man 
showed me the greatest courtesy, and let me go free about the castle 
on parole. He was well aware how greatly I had been wronged; 
and when I wanted to give security for leave to walk about the castle, 
he replied that though he could not take that, seeing the Pope set 
too much importance upon my affair, yet he would frankly trust 
my word, because he was informed by every one what a worthy man 
I was. So I passed my parole, and he granted me conveniences for 
working at my trade. I then, reflecting that the Pope's anger against 
me must subside, as well because of my innocence as because of the 
favour shown me by the King, kept my shop in Rome open, while 
Ascanio, my prentice, came to the castle and brought me things to 
work at. I could not indeed do much, feeling myself imprisoned 
so unjustly; yet I made a virtue of necessity, and bore my adverse 
fortune with as light a heart as I was able. 

1 had secured the attachment of all the guards and many soldiers 

2 It is only known of this man that he was a Knight of Jerusalem, and had been 
Commendatore of Prato in 1511. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 209 

of the castle. Now the Pope used to come at times to sup there, and 
on those occasions no watch was kept, but the place stood open like 
an ordinary palace. Consequently, while the Pope was there, the 
prisoners used to be shut up with great precautions; none such, how- 
ever, were taken with me, who had the license to go where I liked, 
even at those times, about its precincts. Often then those soldiers 
told me that I ought to escape, and that they would aid and abet 
me, knowing as they did how greatly I had been wronged. I an- 
swered that I had given my parole to the castellan, who was such 
a worthy man, and had done me such kind offices. One very brave 
and clever soldier used to say to me: "My Benvenuto, you must 
know that a prisoner is not obliged, and cannot be obliged, to keep 
faith, any more than aught else which befits a free man. Do what I 
tell you; escape from that rascal of a Pope and that bastard his son, 
for both are bent on having your life by villainy." I had, however, 
made my mind up rather to lose my life than to break the promise 
I had given that good man the castellan. So I bore the extreme dis- 
comforts of my situation, and had for companion of misery a friar 
of the Palavisina house, who was a very famous preacher. 3 

cv 

This man had been arrested as a Lutheran. He was an excellent 
companion; but, from the point of view of his religion, I found him 
the biggest scoundrel in the world, to whom all kinds of vices were 
acceptable. His fine intellectual qualities won my admiration; but 
I hated his dirty vices, and frankly taxed him with them. This friar 
kept perpetually reminding me that I was in no wise bound to ob- 
serve faith with the castellan, since I had become a prisoner. I 
replied to these arguments that he might be speaking the truth as 
a friar, but that as a man he spoke the contrary; for every one who 
called himself a man, and not a monk, was bound to keep his word 
under all circumstances in which he chanced to be. I therefore, 
being a man, and not a monk, was not going to break the simple 
and loyal word which I had given. Seeing then that he could not 
sap my honour by the subtle and ingenious sophistries he so elo- 

3 Cellini means Pallavicini. Nothing seems to be known about him, except that 
his imprisonment is mentioned in a letter of Caro's under date 1540. 



2IO BENVENUTO CELLINI 

quently developed, the friar hit upon another way of tempting me. 
He allowed some days to pass, during which he read me the sermons 
of Fra Jerolimo Savonarola; and these he expounded with such 
lucidity and learning that his comment was even finer than the text. 
I remained in ecstasies of admiration; and there was nothing in the 
world I would not have done for him, except, as I have said, to 
break my promised word. When he saw the effect his talents had 
produced upon my mind, he thought of yet another method. Cau- 
tiously he began to ask what means I should have taken, supposing 
my jailers had locked me up, in order to set the dungeon doors open 
and effect my flight. I then, who wanted to display the sharpness 
of my own wits to so ingenious a man, replied that I was quite sure 
of being able to open the most baffling locks and bars, far more 
those of our prison, to do which would be the same to me as eating 
a bit of new cheese. In order then to gain my secret, the friar now 
made light of these assertions, averring that persons who have gained 
some credit by their abilities, are wont to talk big of things which, 
if they had to put their boasts in action, would speedily discredit 
them, and much to their dishonour. Himself had heard me speak 
so far from the truth, that he was inclined to think I should, when 
pushed to proof, end in a dishonourable failure. Upon this, feeling 
myself stung to the quick by that devil of a friar, I responded that I 
always made a practice of promising in words less than I could 
perform in deeds; what I had said about the keys was the merest 
trifle; in a few words I could make him understand that the matter 
was as I had told it; then, all too heedlessly, I demonstrated the 
facility with which my assertions could be carried into act. He 
affected to pay little attention; but all the same he learned my lesson 
well by heart with keen intelligence. 

As I have said above, the worthy castellan let me roam at pleasure 
over the whole fortress. Not even at night did he lock me in, as was 
the custom with the other prisoners. Moreover, he allowed me to 
employ myself as I liked best, with gold or silver or with wax- 
according to my whim. So then I laboured several weeks at the 
bason ordered by Cardinal Ferrara, but the irksomeness of my im- 
prisonment bred in me a disgust for such employment, and I took 
to modelling in wax some little figures of my fancy, for mere recre- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 211 

ation. Of the wax which I used, the friar stole a piece; and with 
this he proceeded to get false keys made, upon the method I had 
heedlessly revealed to him. He had chosen for his accomplice a 
registrar named Luigi, a Paduan, who was in the castellan's service. 
When the keys were ordered, the locksmith revealed their plot; and 
the castellan who came at times to see me in my chamber, noticing 
the wax which I was using, recognised it at once and exclaimed : "It 
is true that this poor fellow Benvenuto has suffered a most grievous 
wrong; yet he ought not to have dealt thus with me, for I have ever 
strained my sense of right to show him kindness. Now I shall keep 
him straitly under lock and key, and shall take good care to do him 
no more service." Accordingly, he had me shut up with disagreeable 
circumstances, among the worst of which were the words flung at 
me by some of his devoted servants, who were indeed extremely 
fond of me, but now, on this occasion, cast in my teeth all the kind 
offices the castellan had done me; they came, in fact, to calling me 
ungrateful, light, and disloyal. One of them in particular used those 
injurious terms more insolently than was decent; whereupon I, being 
convinced of my innocence, retorted hotly that I had never broken 
faith, and would maintain these words at the peril of my life, and 
that if he or any of his fellows abused me so unjustly, I would fling 
the lie back in his throat. The man, intolerant of my rebuke, rushed 
to the castellan's room, and brought me the wax with the model 
of the keys. No sooner had I seen the wax than I told him that both 
he and I were in the right; but I begged him to procure for me an 
audience with the castellan, for I meant to explain frankly how 
the matter stood, which was of far more consequence than they 
imagined. The castellan sent for me at once, and I told him the 
whole course of events. This made him arrest the friar, who be- 
trayed the registrar, and the latter ran a risk of being hanged. How- 
ever, the castellan hushed the affair up, although it had reached 
the Pope's ears; he saved his registrar from the gallows, and gave me 
the same freedom as I had before. 

cvi 

When I saw how rigorously this affair was prosecuted, I began to 
think of my own concerns, and said: "Supposing another of these 



212 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

storms should rise, and the man should lose confidence in me, I 
should then be under no obligation to him, and might wish to use 
my wits a little, which would certainly work their end better than 
those of that rascally friar." So I began to have new sheets of a 
coarse fabric brought me, and did not send the dirty ones away. 
When my servants asked for them, I bade them hold their tongues, 
saying I had given the sheets to some of those poor soldiers; and if 
the matter came to knowledge, the wretched fellows ran risk of the 
galleys. This made my young men and attendants, especially Felice, 
keep the secret of the sheets in all loyalty. I meanwhile set myself 
to emptying a straw mattress, the stuffing of which I burned, having 
a chimney in my prison. Out of the sheets I cut strips, the third 
of a cubit in breadth; and when I had made enough in my opinion 
to clear the great height of the central keep of Sant' Angelo, I told 
my servants that I had given away what I wanted; they must now 
bring me others of a finer fabric, and I would always send back the 
dirty ones. This affair was presently forgotten. 

Now my workpeople and serving-men were obliged to close my 
shop at the order of the Cardinals Santi Quattro 1 and Cornaro, who 
told me openly that the Pope would not hear of setting me at large, 
and that the great favours shown me by King Francis had done far 
more harm than good. It seems that the last words spoken from the 
King by Monsignor di Morluc had been to this effect, namely, that 
the Pope ought to hand me over to the ordinary judges of the court; 
if I had done wrong, he could chastise me; but otherwise, it was 
but reason that he should set me at liberty. This message so irritated 
the Pope that he made his mind up to keep me a prisoner for life. 
At the same time, the castellan most certainly did his utmost to 
assist me. 

When my enemies perceived that my shop was closed, they lost no 
opportunity of taunting and reviling those servants and friends of 
mine who came to visit me in prison. It happened on one occasion 
that Ascanio, who came twice a day to visit me, asked to have a 
jacket cut out for him from a blue silk vest of mine I never used. 
I had only worn it once, on the occasion when I walked in procession. 
I replied that these were not the times nor was I in the place to wear 
1 Antonio Pucci, a Florentine, Cardinal de' Quattro Santi Coronati. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 213 

such clothes. The young man took my refusal of this miserable vest 
so ill that he told me he wanted to go home to Tagliacozzo. All 
in a rage, I answered that he could not please me better than by 
taking himself off; and he swore with passion that he would never 
show his face to me again. When these words passed between us, 
we were walking round the keep of the castle. It happened that the 
castellan was also taking the air there; so just when we met his lord- 
ship Ascanio said: "I am going away; farewell for ever!" I added: 
"For ever, is my wish too; and thus in sooth shall it be. I shall tell 
the sentinels not to let you pass again!" Then, turning to the castel- 
lan, I begged him with all my heart to order the guards to keep 
Ascanio out, adding: "This little peasant comes here to add to my 
great trouble; I entreat you, therefore, my lord, not to let him enter 
any more." The castellan was much grieved, because he knew him 
to be a lad of marvellous talents; he was, moreover, so fair a person 
that every one who once set eyes on him seemed bound to love him 
beyond measure. 

The boy went away weeping. That day he had with him a small 
scimitar, which it was at times his wont to carry hidden beneath his 
clothes. Leaving the castle then, and having his face wet with tears, 
he chanced to meet two of my chief enemies, Jeronimo the Perugian, 2 
and a certain Michele, goldsmiths both of them. Michele, being 
Jeronimo's friend and Ascanio's enemy, called out: "What is As- 
canio crying for? Perhaps his father is dead; I mean that father in 
the castle!" Ascanio answered on the instant: "He is alive, but you 
shall die this minute." Then, raising his hand, he struck two blows 
with the scimitar, both at the fellow's head; the first felled him to 
earth, the second lopped three fingers off his right hand, though it 
was aimed at his head. He lay there like a dead man. The matter 
was at once reported to the Pope, who cried in a great fury: "Since 
the King wants him to be tried, go and give him three days to 
prepare his defence!" So they came, and executed the commission 
which the Pope had given them. 

The excellent castellan went off upon the spot to his Holiness, and 
informed him that I was no accomplice in the matter, and that I had 
sent Ascanio about his business. So ably did he plead my cause that 
2 t. e., Girolamo PascuccL 



214 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

he saved my life from this impending tempest. Ascanio meanwhile 
escaped to Tagliacozzo, to his home there, whence he wrote begging 
a thousand times my pardon, and acknowledging his wrong in add- 
ing troubles to my grave disaster; but protesting that if through 
God's grace I came out from the prison, he meant never to abandon 
me. I let him understand that he must mind his art, and that if God 
set me at large again I would certainly recall him. 

cvn 

The castellan was subject to a certain sickness, which came upon 
him every year and deprived him of his wits. The sign of its 
approach was that he kept continually talking, or rather jabbering, 
to no purpose. These humours took a different shape each year; one 
time he thought he was an oiljar; another time he thought he was a 
frog, and hopped about as frogs do; another time he thought he was 
dead, and then they had to bury him; not a year passed but he got 
some such hypochondriac notions into his head. At this season he 
imagined that he was a bat, and when he went abroad to take the 
air, he used to scream like bats in a high thin tone; and then he 
would flap his hands and body as though he were about to fly. The 
doctors, when they saw the fit coming on him, and his old servants, 
gave him all the distractions they could think of; and since they 
had noticed that he derived much pleasure from my conversation, 
they were always fetching me to keep him company. At times the 
poor man detained me for four or five stricken hours without ever 
letting me cease talking. He used to keep me at his table, eating 
opposite to him, and never stopped chatting and making me chat; 
but during those discourses I contrived to make a good meal. He, 
poor man, could neither eat nor sleep; so that at last he wore me out. 
I was at the end of my strength; and sometimes when I looked at 
him, I noticed that his eyeballs were rolling in a frightful manner, 
one looking one way and the other in another. 

He took it into his head to ask me whether I had ever had a fancy 
to fly. I answered that it had always been my ambition to do those 
things which offer the greatest difficulties to men, and that I had 
done them; as to flying, the God of Nature had gifted me with a 
body well suited for running and leaping far beyond the common 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY 215 

average, and that with the talents I possessed for manual art I felt 
sure I had the courage to try flying. He then inquired what methods 
I should use; to which I answered that, taking into consideration all 
flying creatures, and wishing to imitate by art what they derived 
from nature, none was so apt a model as the bat. No sooner had 
the poor man heard the name bat, which recalled the humour he was 
suffering under, than he cried out at the top of his voice: "He says 
true he says true; the bat's the thing the bat's the thing!" Then 
he turned to me and said: "Benvenuto, if one gave you the oppor- 
tunity, should you have the heart to fly?" I said if he would set me 
at liberty, I felt quite up to flying down to Prati, after making myself 
a pair of wings out of waxed linen. Thereupon he replied: "I too 
should be prepared to take flight; but since the Pope has bidden 
me guard you as though you were his own eyes, and I know you a 
clever devil who would certainly escape, I shall now have you locked 
up with a hundred keys in order to prevent you slipping through 
my fingers." I then began to implore him, and remind him that 
I might have fled, but that on account of the word which I had 
given him I would never have betrayed his trust : therefore I begged 
him for the love of God, and by the kindness he had always shown 
me, not to add greater evils to the misery of my present situation. 
While I was pouring out these entreaties, he gave strict orders to 
have me bound and taken and locked up in prison. On seeing that 
it could not be helped, I told him before all his servants: "Lock me 
well up, and keep good watch on me; for I shall certainly contrive 
to escape." So they took and confined me with the utmost care. 

CVIII 

I then began to deliberate upon the best way of making my 
escape. No sooner had I been locked in, than I went about exploring 
my prison; and when I thought I had discovered how to get out of 
it, I pondered the means of descending from the lofty keep, for so 
the great round central tower is called. I took those new sheets of 
mine, which, as I have said already, I had cut in strips and sewn 
together; then I reckoned up the quantity which would be sufficient 
for my purpose. Having made this estimate and put all things in 
order, I looked out a pair of pincers which I had abstracted from a 



2l6 BENVENUTO CELLINI 

Savoyard belonging to the guard of the castle. This man superin- 
tended the casks and cisterns; he also amused himself with carpen- 
tering. Now he possessed severalpairs of pincers, among which was 
one both big and heavy.