DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32873#0079
i9
CH. 1] LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI
nier, who was the said Soderini, took great pleasure in
making me prattle, and gave me sweet-meats, and said
to my father: "M° Giovanni! Teach him along with music
those two other most beautiful arts of yours." To which
my father answered: " I do not want him to exercise
any other art but that of music and composition;
because in this profession I hope to make him the
greatest man in the world, if God shall spare his life."
At these words one of those old councillors ^ answered,
saying to M° Giovanni: "Do what the Gonfalonier tells
you. Can he ever be other than a fine musician?"
Thus passed a certain period until the Medici re-
turned." Directly the Medici were restored, the car-
dinal, who was subsequently POPE Leone, showed many
favours to my father. From the escutcheon that was
on the palace of the Medici/ whilst they were in exile,
the balls had been removed, and there had been painted
thereon a great red cross, which was the arms and
^ The nine Priors of the Guilds, who at that time formed the
Council of the Gonfalonier, a form of government instituted in
1282 instead of that of the
^ Cardinal Giovanni and Giulio, Due de Nemours returned
with the assistance of the Spaniards, after the Sack of Prato and
the Deposition of Soderini, on September 4th 1512.
^ This palace is at the corner of the present Via Cavour.
It was built by Michelozzo Michelozzi for Cosimo de' Medici the
Elder, and beneath its roof Kings, Emperors, and Popes have
lodged; amongst others Charles VII, who in one of the halls
received Pier Capponi's celebrated retort and saw his " Terms " torn
up before his face. It subsequently came into the possession of,
and was greatly enlarged by, the Riccardi family, from whom it
acquired the name it bears to-day, although in 1814 it passed into
the hands of the Government, and is now the property of the
Province.
CH. 1] LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI
nier, who was the said Soderini, took great pleasure in
making me prattle, and gave me sweet-meats, and said
to my father: "M° Giovanni! Teach him along with music
those two other most beautiful arts of yours." To which
my father answered: " I do not want him to exercise
any other art but that of music and composition;
because in this profession I hope to make him the
greatest man in the world, if God shall spare his life."
At these words one of those old councillors ^ answered,
saying to M° Giovanni: "Do what the Gonfalonier tells
you. Can he ever be other than a fine musician?"
Thus passed a certain period until the Medici re-
turned." Directly the Medici were restored, the car-
dinal, who was subsequently POPE Leone, showed many
favours to my father. From the escutcheon that was
on the palace of the Medici/ whilst they were in exile,
the balls had been removed, and there had been painted
thereon a great red cross, which was the arms and
^ The nine Priors of the Guilds, who at that time formed the
Council of the Gonfalonier, a form of government instituted in
1282 instead of that of the
^ Cardinal Giovanni and Giulio, Due de Nemours returned
with the assistance of the Spaniards, after the Sack of Prato and
the Deposition of Soderini, on September 4th 1512.
^ This palace is at the corner of the present Via Cavour.
It was built by Michelozzo Michelozzi for Cosimo de' Medici the
Elder, and beneath its roof Kings, Emperors, and Popes have
lodged; amongst others Charles VII, who in one of the halls
received Pier Capponi's celebrated retort and saw his " Terms " torn
up before his face. It subsequently came into the possession of,
and was greatly enlarged by, the Riccardi family, from whom it
acquired the name it bears to-day, although in 1814 it passed into
the hands of the Government, and is now the property of the
Province.