The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini

by Benvenuto Cellini

  The goldsmith whom I mentioned above, called Tobbia, was present when I said this. In fact he was rash enough to ask me for the models of the chalice as well. There is no call for me to repeat here what answer I gave him; at any rate it was the sort of answer such a wretch deserved.

  As the two chamberlains were pressing me to make my mind up quickly about what I meant to do, I told them I was ready and got my cloak. Then, before leaving my shop, I turned very reverently towards an image of Christ, and holding my hat in my hand I said:

  ‘O merciful and everlasting, just and Holy Lord – all the things You do spring from Your justice, which is without equal. You know that I have just reached the thirtieth year of my life, and that never before have I been threatened with imprisonment for anything I have done. Since it is now Your will that I should go to prison, I thank You with all my heart.’

  Then I turned to the two chamberlains, and with one of my rather stern expressions on my face I said:

  ‘A man of my sort deserves guards no less exalted than your lordships. So put me between you and take me as your prisoner, wherever you like.’

  Those two fine gentlemen burst out laughing, placed me in the middle, and chatting pleasantly all the way led me to the Governor of Rome, who was called Magalotto. He had been expecting me, and he was with the Procurator Fiscal.107 On our arrival, the chamberlains, who were still laughing, said to the Governor:

  ‘We’re handing this prisoner over to you – take good care of him. It’s been a great pleasure to carry out your officers’ duties, because Benvenuto tell us that as this is the first time he has been arrested he deserved guards of no less rank than us.’

  As soon as they had left us they went to the Pope and told him exactly what had happened. At first he looked as if he was going to lose his temper, but then he forced himself to laugh, because there were some noblemen and cardinals present who looked on me very favourably.

  Meanwhile, the Governor and the prosecutor were treating me to a mixture of abuse, exhortation, and advice. They said that it was only reasonable that a man who got another to execute a piece of work for him should be able to recover it when he liked and however he liked. My reply to this was that such behaviour was quite unjust, and certainly a pope could not act in that way, because a pope was not one of those tyrannical little lords who exploited their subjects as harshly as they could, paying regard neither to law nor justice. The Vicar of Christ, I said, could do nothing like that.

  Then the Governor, talking and acting like the police official he was, began saying:

  ‘Benvenuto! Benvenuto! you are trying to make me treat you as you deserve.’

  ‘If you treat me as I deserve,’ I retorted, ‘it will be with honour and courtesy.’

  Then he began over again: ‘Send for the work at once, and don’t wait for me to tell you again.’

  ‘My lords,’ I replied, ‘be good enough to let me add a few more words in my own defence.’

  The prosecutor, who was a much more even-tempered official than the Governor, turned to him and said:

  ‘Monsignor, let’s have a hundred words – if he hands over the chalice, that’s good enough for us.’

  Then I began: ‘If some man or other were having a palace or a house built, then he’d be entitled to say to the builder, “I don’t want you to work any longer on my house, or my palace,”and then, when he had paid him for his work, he’d be perfectly entitled to send him away. Or in the case of a nobleman who was having a jewel worth a thousand crowns set for himself, if he saw that the jeweller wasn’t doing it the way he wanted he could say, “I don’t want your work, so give me back my jewel.” But none of this applies in my case, since it’s not a question of a house or a jewel. All I can be ordered to do is return the five hundred crowns I’ve had. So, my lords, do all in your power, but all you’ll get from me are those five hundred crowns. Tell the Pope that. Your threats don’t frighten me in the slightest; I’m an honest man, and I’ve no crimes to be frightened about.’

  Then the two of them rose to their feet and told me that they were going to the Pope and would return with instructions that I would find very unpleasant. So there I remained under arrest. I began to pace up and down the hall. It was about three hours before they came back from the pope, and in the meantime all our top-ranking Florentine merchants visited me to beg earnestly that I should not continue this quarrel of mine with a Pope of Rome because it could spell my ruin. My reply was that I had perfectly made up my mind as to what I meant to do.

  As soon as the Governor and the prosecutor returned from the palace they called me before them, and the Governor spoke to this effect:

  ‘Benvenuto, it certainly grieves me to have come back from the Pope with these instructions – either you get the chalice at once, or you had better look out for yourself.’

  I answered that since up to then I had never believed that a holy Vicar of Christ could perpetrate an injustice, I intended to see it done before I believed it; ‘so’, I added, ‘do what you can to me’.

  The Governor said: ‘There’s just a little more I have to tell you from the Pope, and then I shall carry out my orders. He says that you must bring the chalice here, and I am to have it put inside a box and sealed, and then take it to him. He promises on his honour not to break the seal and to return it to you without delay. But in all this he wants his honour, as well, to be satisfied.’

  I replied with a laugh that I would be only too glad to let him have the work in the way he said, since I wanted to find out for certain what the word of a pope was worth.

  And so I sent for my chalice, it was sealed up in the way that had been agreed, and I gave it to the Governor. He then went back to the Pope, with the chalice in that condition. Now, according to that I was told by the Governor, the Pope took the box, turned it over a few times, and then asked him if he had seen what was in it. The Governor said that he had, and that it had been sealed up like that in his presence. He went on to say that it had seemed to him a splendid piece of work. At this, the Pope said:

  ‘Tell Benvenuto that the popes have power to bind and loose much greater things than this.’

  And as he said these words, with a slight gesture of anger he opened the box, removing the cord and seal with which it was bound. Then he stared at it for some time and, as I was given to understand later, showed it to the goldsmith, Tobbia, who praised it very highly. The Pope asked him if he was up to a work of that kind, and when he replied, yes, he told him to follow my design exactly. Then he turned to the Governor and said:

  ‘See if Benvenuto will give it up to us, for if he does he’ll be paid what it’s valued at by the experts. Or if, in fact, he wants to finish it for us himself, let him fix a date; and if you see that he’s ready to do so give him whatever he reasonably needs for the work.’

  The Governor replied: ‘Holy Father, I know the terrible stuff that young man is made of. Let me have authority to give him a sharp dressing-down in my own way.’

  The Pope’s comment on this was that he might do as he liked as far as words were concerned, although he felt sure he would only make matters worse. And anyhow, if he saw there was nothing else to be done he was to tell me to take his five hundred crowns to that jeweller of his, Pompeo.

  When the Governor returned he had me called into his office and, frowning at me as if I were on trial, he said:

  ‘The popes have the power to bind and loose everything on earth, and whatever they do is accepted in heaven. Well, there is your work – opened and seen by his Holiness.’

  Immediately, I said in a loud voice:

  ‘I thank God that I now know what the word of a pope is worth!’

  Then the Governor began threatening me violently, till he saw that this was having no effect, abandoned the idea, and started talking a little more gently.

  ‘Benvenuto,’ he said, ‘I’m very sorry you don’t understand your own interests. Anyhow, go away now, and when you feel like it take the five hundred crowns to Pompeo.’<
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  I took my work,108 left him, and went straight away with the five hundred crowns to that Pompeo. As it happened the Pope, who was anxious to retie the thread of my servitude, thought that either because I had not enough money, or for some other reason, I would not pay up so soon. So when he saw Pompeo coming up to him with a grin on his face and the money in his hand, he began abusing him and complained bitterly at the business having ended in such a way.

  Then he said: ‘Go and find Benvenuto in his shop, and be as friendly as your beastly ignorance will let you, and tell him that if he likes to finish the work and make me a monstrance to carry the Host in when I walk with It in procession, I will give him whatever he needs to finish it – provided he works.’

  When Pompeo arrived he called me out of the shop, began fawning on me like the fool he was, and repeated all that the Pope had ordered him to. My immediate answer was that for me the greatest prize in the whole world was to have won back the favour of such a great pope, which I had lost not through my own fault, I said, but because of my terrible illness and the wickedness of those jealous men who enjoy doing evil.

  Then I added: ‘As the Pope has plenty of servants, don’t let him send you round here again. If you want to stay alive you had better look out for yourself. As for me, I shan’t fail to think how to please the Pope and do all I can for him, day and night; but don’t you forget – after you’ve carried this message back to the Pope never meddle in my affairs, because if you do I’ll give you the punishment you deserve, and then you’ll realize the mistakes you’ve made.’

  This man carried everything I had said back to the Pope, and twisted my words to give a much more brutal impression. The matter rested at that for a time; and I occupied myself with my business in the shop.

  Meanwhile, that goldsmith Tobbia was finishing the adorning and ornamenting of the unicorn’s horn, and besides this had been ordered by the Pope to begin the chalice in the same style that he had seen in mine. But when Tobbia came to show the Pope what he had done he was very dissatisfied and began to regret bitterly that he had fallen out with me over it: he found fault with Tobbia’s other work, and with the people who had brought Tobbia to him. As a result Baccino della Croce kept coming along to urge me on behalf of the Pope to start work on the monstrance.

  I told him that I begged his Holiness to let me rest after the severe illness I had been through, from which I had still not completely recovered. But I added that I would show his Holiness that all the hours I was capable of working would be devoted to his service. In fact I had begun to make his portrait, and I had secretly designed a medal for him, constructing the steel dies to stamp it with in my own house. In the workshop I kept a partner, called Felice,109 who had been my apprentice.

  At that time, as young men do, I had fallen in love with a very beautiful young Sicilian girl; and she too showed that she felt very affectionately towards me. But her mother discovered this, and began to suspect what was going to happen. To tell the truth I had been planning to elope with the girl to Florence for a year, without telling her mother a word. Well, she discovered the plan and one night she left Rome secretly and went off in the direction of Naples. She gave it out that she was going by Civitavecchia, but she went by Ostia. I followed them to Civitavecchia and made an utter fool of myself trying to find her. It would take too long to tell the whole story in detail; all I need say is that I was on the verge of either going mad or dying. At the end of two months she wrote and told me that she was in Sicily, and that she was very unhappy. In the meantime I was indulging in every imaginable pleasure and had taken a new love, merely to drown the other.

  A number of strange circumstances led to my striking up a friendship with a Sicilian priest. He was extremely intelligent and had a very good knowledge of Latin and Greek. Once when we were talking together our conversation turned on to the art of necromancy, and I remarked:

  ‘All my life I’ve wanted to see or hear something of this business.’

  When he heard me say this, the priest replied:

  ‘The man who embarks on matters of that sort needs a brave soul and strong resolution.’

  I replied that if I were given the chance I would show that I had strength and resolution in plenty. And then he said:

  ‘If you’re well equipped with that, I’ll give you your bellyful of the rest.’

  So we agreed to venture on the thing together, and one evening the priest made his preparations and told me to find not more than two others. I called on my very dear friend, Vincenzio Romoli, and the priest brought along a man from Pistoia who also practised necromancy. We all went along to the Colosseum, and there the priest dressed himself up in the way that necromancers do, and then – with tremendously impressive ceremonies – began drawing circles on the ground. He had made us bring along precious perfumes and fire, and some evil-smelling stuff as well. When everything was ready he stepped inside the circle and, taking us by the hand, brought us in one by one with him. Then he assigned us our duties. He gave the pentacle to his necromancer friend to hold, and he put the rest of us in charge of the fire for the perfumes. And then he began his incantations. All this lasted for over an hour and a half. Several legions appeared, till the Colosseum was filled with them. I was busy with the precious perfumes, and when the priest saw so many devils he turned to me and said: ‘Benvenuto, ask them something.’

  So I asked them to bring me together with my Sicilian girl, Angelica. We were given no reply at all that night; but I was more than satisfied with what I had seen. The necromancer said that we would have to come back again and that I would be given complete satisfaction regarding everything I asked, but that he wanted me to bring a young boy with me, a virgin.

  I took one of my shopboys, who was about twelve years old, and I also asked Vincenzio Romoli to come along again. In addition we brought a certain Agnolo Gaddi into the business, as he was a close friend of ours. When we again reached the place that had been agreed on the necromancer made the same, and then even more, elaborate preparations, and led us into the circle, which he had marked out with even more splendid art and ceremony. He had my Vincenzio, and Agnolo Gaddi as well, looking after the perfumes and the fire; and then he handed me the pentacle, telling me to turn it in the directions he showed me. I held my little apprentice boy under the pentacle.

  The necromancer began to make his terrible incantations, calling up by name a whole host of major demons and commanding them by the virtue and power of the uncreated, living, and eternal God, in Hebrew, as well as in Latin and Greek. The result was that in a short space of time the Colosseum was filled with a hundred times more demons than there had been on the previous occasion. Vincenzio Romoli and Agnolo were busy with the fire and the great heap of precious perfumes; and then, when the necromancer prompted me, I again asked to be united with Angelica. He turned to me and said: ‘Did you hear them say that you will be where she is inside a month?’

  Then he added once again that he begged me to hold fast, because there were a thousand more legions than he had called up, and they were the most dangerous kind. Since they had agreed to what I asked, he said, we must treat them gently and dismiss them patiently. Meanwhile on the other side, the boy, who was under the pentacle, cried out in terror that there were a million tremendously fierce-looking men there, who were all threatening us; then he added that four enormous giants had appeared and that they were all armed and advancing as if to break in on us. All the time the necromancer was trembling with fear and was trying as best he could to persuade them to go away, pleading with them softly and gently. Vincenzio Romoli, who was shaking like a reed, was still busy with the perfumes. I was as frightened as the rest of them, but I tried to show it less and I bolstered up their courage magnificently, though I nearly dropped dead when I saw how frightened the necromancer was.

  The boy had stuck his head between his knees and was crying: ‘I will die like this – we’re all going to die!’

  At this, I said to him: ‘These creatures are
only our slaves; all you can see is only smoke and shadow. So come on, look up!’

  He lifted his head, and then he cried out again: ‘The whole Colosseum is on fire and the flames are rushing towards us.’

  Then he clapped his hands over his eyes, and started crying that he was dead and didn’t want to see any more. The necromancer implored my help, begging me to stand firm and telling me to have some asafoetida fumes made. So I turned to Vincenzio Romoli and told him to do this straight away. While I was saying this I stared at Agnolo Gaddi, whose eyes were popping out of his head, and who was half-dead with terror.

  ‘Agnolo,’ I cried, ‘there’s no room for fear in a situation like this – you must lend a hand. Throw some of the asafoetida on at once.’

  The instant he went to make a move, Agnolo blew off and shat himself so hard that it was more effective than the asafoetida. The tremendous stench and noise made the boy lift his head a little, and when he heard me laughing he plucked up courage and said that the demons were running away like mad. We stayed where we were till matins were rung. Then the boy spoke up again and said that there were only a few devils left, some distance away from us.

  After the necromancer had completed his ceremonies he took off his robes and gathered up a great pile of books that he had brought with him; then we all left the circle, pressing tightly together – especially the boy, who had got in the middle and was clutching the necromancer by his robe and me by my cloak. While we were walking towards our homes in the Banchi, he kept crying out that two of the demons he had seen in the Colosseum were leaping along in front of us, on the roof-tops and along the ground.

  The necromancer said that he had often entered magic circles but that he had never before witnessed anything on such a scale, and he tried to persuade me to join him in consecrating a book to the devil. He said it would make our fortunes, because we could ask the demons to show us the treasures of which the earth is full and so we would obtain great riches. He added that all that business about love was stupid and useless, and did not lead anywhere. I replied that I would be only too willing to do what he asked, if I knew any Latin.