DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32873#0295
CH. x] LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI 201
their swords drawn in their hands, to such purpose that
I was forced to draw my own sword to defend myself
from them. Leaving my dagger I departed from thence,
and for fear lest I should be recognized I went to the
house of Duke Lessandro, which stood between the
Piazza Navona and the Ritondad When I arrived there,
I caused someone to speak to the Duke, who let me
know that if I were alone, I must only keep quiet and fear
nothing, and that I should go on working upon the Pope's
commission, which he desired so much, but that for eight
days I must do my work at home: especially since those
soldiers who had interfered with me had come up, with
that dagger in their possession, and they were relating
how the matter had come about, and the great trouble
that they had had to withdraw that dagger from the
neck-bone and head of the man, who was a person whom
they did not know. At this moment Giovan Bandini/
having come up, said to them, " This dagger is mine, and
I had lent it to Benvenuto, who wished to revenge his
brother." These soldiers talked a great deal upon the sub-
* The palace, now the Palace of the Senate, between the Piazza
Navona and the Pantheon, was formerly the residence of the Medici.
^ Giovanni Bandini was a well-known historical personage, men-
tioned in all the chronicles of the period. He is specially remem-
bered in connection with the famous duel in the camp of the Prince
of Orange, before the walls of Florence, during the siege of 1530
(r/i Chap. VIII, p. i6oy7z^7*<3). He was at one time a devoted servant
of Duke Alessandro de' Medici, but in an embassy to the Emperor
Charles V in 1543 he betrayed the interests of Duke Cosimo. BusiNl
(ZHHn? HA, p. 85) speaks of him as " like Filippo Strozzi's lance, and
was considered neither brave nor prudent." As a partizan of the
Strozzi he suffered imprisonment for fifteen years, d/i VARCHi
and SEGNi and also MoNTAZio, dAzVA ifz
cap. VII.
their swords drawn in their hands, to such purpose that
I was forced to draw my own sword to defend myself
from them. Leaving my dagger I departed from thence,
and for fear lest I should be recognized I went to the
house of Duke Lessandro, which stood between the
Piazza Navona and the Ritondad When I arrived there,
I caused someone to speak to the Duke, who let me
know that if I were alone, I must only keep quiet and fear
nothing, and that I should go on working upon the Pope's
commission, which he desired so much, but that for eight
days I must do my work at home: especially since those
soldiers who had interfered with me had come up, with
that dagger in their possession, and they were relating
how the matter had come about, and the great trouble
that they had had to withdraw that dagger from the
neck-bone and head of the man, who was a person whom
they did not know. At this moment Giovan Bandini/
having come up, said to them, " This dagger is mine, and
I had lent it to Benvenuto, who wished to revenge his
brother." These soldiers talked a great deal upon the sub-
* The palace, now the Palace of the Senate, between the Piazza
Navona and the Pantheon, was formerly the residence of the Medici.
^ Giovanni Bandini was a well-known historical personage, men-
tioned in all the chronicles of the period. He is specially remem-
bered in connection with the famous duel in the camp of the Prince
of Orange, before the walls of Florence, during the siege of 1530
(r/i Chap. VIII, p. i6oy7z^7*<3). He was at one time a devoted servant
of Duke Alessandro de' Medici, but in an embassy to the Emperor
Charles V in 1543 he betrayed the interests of Duke Cosimo. BusiNl
(ZHHn? HA, p. 85) speaks of him as " like Filippo Strozzi's lance, and
was considered neither brave nor prudent." As a partizan of the
Strozzi he suffered imprisonment for fifteen years, d/i VARCHi
and SEGNi and also MoNTAZio, dAzVA ifz
cap. VII.