DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32873#0065
cn. i] LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI
7
my house, under the known conditions of our life to-day
and by means of my profession, which is not a matter of
great consequence, I will speak of it in its own place/
glorying much more in that having been born in humble
circumstances I have added some honourable founda-
tion to my family, than if I had been sprung from
high lineage and by base qualities had stained or ex-
tinguished it. I will therefore commence with how it
pleased God that I should be born.
My ancestors lived in the Val d'Ambra/ and there
they had great possessions; and like little lords they
lived there in retirement, on account of the party strife
of the period. They were all men addicted to the pur-
suit of arms and very brave. At that time one of their
sons, the younger one, whom they called Christofano/
quarrelled violently with certain of their neighbours and
friends; and because the heads of the houses on both
^ This is a most difficult passage to translate. BtANCHi suggests
that the meaning is probably as follows: " I will relate in its own
place such honour as I have been able to bring my family under
the conditions of the times in which we live, and by means of my
art alone, which is a matter of small importance."
^ This Val d'Ambra takes its name from the river Ambra, which
waters the western portion of the province of Arezzo.
3 This Cristofano commonly called 7b/bz3z2 is (30th July, 1427)
entered in the registers of the district of the Badia of Fiesole.
A7vA. <AA?. W7V2A A GY<7Z/<37?7?2, Azb. A' Azh^oA, 165 c. 2$9- CUASTI
quotes an Income Tax Return for 1435 (Qzzzzr/zh^ zfz Aazzzb Afzzz'zb
AbzzoYz, Wbzbzv A' Ax?? Azbz/zzzzzzz, Vz Azzz AAzzVzTzz? 2: Afczz-
Aq^z) in which he is stated to be forty-dye years of age, and his
wife Mona Lisa thirty-five. He records three sons, Andrea, aged
eight, Simone, three, and Bartolomeo, one year. This return, how-
ever, PROFESSOR BACCI laments his inability to trace, but tells us
that Cristofano in a similar Return for 1431 is entered as residing
in the district of Montughi. A Afzzz*zb Abw/Az A?/ Ab 5 <2/ Ab 11.
7
my house, under the known conditions of our life to-day
and by means of my profession, which is not a matter of
great consequence, I will speak of it in its own place/
glorying much more in that having been born in humble
circumstances I have added some honourable founda-
tion to my family, than if I had been sprung from
high lineage and by base qualities had stained or ex-
tinguished it. I will therefore commence with how it
pleased God that I should be born.
My ancestors lived in the Val d'Ambra/ and there
they had great possessions; and like little lords they
lived there in retirement, on account of the party strife
of the period. They were all men addicted to the pur-
suit of arms and very brave. At that time one of their
sons, the younger one, whom they called Christofano/
quarrelled violently with certain of their neighbours and
friends; and because the heads of the houses on both
^ This is a most difficult passage to translate. BtANCHi suggests
that the meaning is probably as follows: " I will relate in its own
place such honour as I have been able to bring my family under
the conditions of the times in which we live, and by means of my
art alone, which is a matter of small importance."
^ This Val d'Ambra takes its name from the river Ambra, which
waters the western portion of the province of Arezzo.
3 This Cristofano commonly called 7b/bz3z2 is (30th July, 1427)
entered in the registers of the district of the Badia of Fiesole.
A7vA. <AA?. W7V2A A GY<7Z/<37?7?2, Azb. A' Azh^oA, 165 c. 2$9- CUASTI
quotes an Income Tax Return for 1435 (Qzzzzr/zh^ zfz Aazzzb Afzzz'zb
AbzzoYz, Wbzbzv A' Ax?? Azbz/zzzzzzz, Vz Azzz AAzzVzTzz? 2: Afczz-
Aq^z) in which he is stated to be forty-dye years of age, and his
wife Mona Lisa thirty-five. He records three sons, Andrea, aged
eight, Simone, three, and Bartolomeo, one year. This return, how-
ever, PROFESSOR BACCI laments his inability to trace, but tells us
that Cristofano in a similar Return for 1431 is entered as residing
in the district of Montughi. A Afzzz*zb Abw/Az A?/ Ab 5 <2/ Ab 11.