DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32873#0338
238 LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI [BK. i
said to me: " Popes have authority to loose and to bind
the whole world, and such acts are immediately rati-
fied in Heaven as well done; behold therefore your work
unloosed and inspected by His Holiness." Whereupon
I immediately raised my voice and said: " I thank God
that I now know how to reckon the value of the oath
of Popes." At that the Governor spoke to me and
used many immoderate blusterings, and then perceiving
that they profited him naught, in despair altogether at
the business, he recovered a somewhat suaver manner
and said to me: " Benvenuto, it distresses me very much
that you will not understand your own advantage; go
then and take your five hundred -SYwzfz* when you like to
the above-mentioned Pompeo." Taking up my work* I
i Of this unfinished Chalice (so greatly praised by VASARI)
CELLINI speaks on a variety of occasions in his XzzAVqyrzzyAy,
and in TArvTvA and V^/zYzhzzj. He relates how on February i$th
1552 he pledged it to Bindo d'Antonio Altoviti for two hundred
-svz/zfz in gold, and that Duke Cosimo caused it to be redeemed
by his chamberlain, Sforza Almeni. We learn further that it was
subsequently completed by Niccolo di Francesco Santini. We read
also in the TVarzh TcATVTZ/Azz? of AGOSTINO LAPINI (c/i <?<7. published
by G. O. CORAZZINI, Firenze, pp. 167-8) that this same craftsman
valued it on behalf of the said Duke, who presented it to Pius V
on March 4th 1569, on the occasion of his Coronation as Grand
Duke of Tuscany. There is no foundation therefore for the asser-
tion of ClCOGNARA (AArz'zz zA7A? XrzzAzzz-zz, Vol. II, Venezia, 1S16)
that "7^<?yzg*zz7v.r (chalice) AWu? ^zzz<?wzf yhzwz z7, Av<2zz.sv z7
w<g.y ?z<VyA3zT%?<7, yfz*z*<?zf A? % rrcAfyhr TMzz/ 77/." This mistake
probably arose from the fact that CELLINI himself, both in his
Hzzz*<?^zh^*z^LM (Chapter XVIII) and in his ZAzzAA? zvz Ah? <?/*
A%z? C<V<7r77zzA% (Chapter VIII), relates that he suggested to that
Pope that he should present to the Emperor Charles V " <zyfzz?
CTTZCz/far zzATr/V<7 A? <2 zrrcyj," at the foot of which were
to be fitted three golden figures of 7Azz'A%, and (AzazAy that he
had in his possession, and which were those for the Chalice. This
said to me: " Popes have authority to loose and to bind
the whole world, and such acts are immediately rati-
fied in Heaven as well done; behold therefore your work
unloosed and inspected by His Holiness." Whereupon
I immediately raised my voice and said: " I thank God
that I now know how to reckon the value of the oath
of Popes." At that the Governor spoke to me and
used many immoderate blusterings, and then perceiving
that they profited him naught, in despair altogether at
the business, he recovered a somewhat suaver manner
and said to me: " Benvenuto, it distresses me very much
that you will not understand your own advantage; go
then and take your five hundred -SYwzfz* when you like to
the above-mentioned Pompeo." Taking up my work* I
i Of this unfinished Chalice (so greatly praised by VASARI)
CELLINI speaks on a variety of occasions in his XzzAVqyrzzyAy,
and in TArvTvA and V^/zYzhzzj. He relates how on February i$th
1552 he pledged it to Bindo d'Antonio Altoviti for two hundred
-svz/zfz in gold, and that Duke Cosimo caused it to be redeemed
by his chamberlain, Sforza Almeni. We learn further that it was
subsequently completed by Niccolo di Francesco Santini. We read
also in the TVarzh TcATVTZ/Azz? of AGOSTINO LAPINI (c/i <?<7. published
by G. O. CORAZZINI, Firenze, pp. 167-8) that this same craftsman
valued it on behalf of the said Duke, who presented it to Pius V
on March 4th 1569, on the occasion of his Coronation as Grand
Duke of Tuscany. There is no foundation therefore for the asser-
tion of ClCOGNARA (AArz'zz zA7A? XrzzAzzz-zz, Vol. II, Venezia, 1S16)
that "7^<?yzg*zz7v.r (chalice) AWu? ^zzz<?wzf yhzwz z7, Av<2zz.sv z7
w<g.y ?z<VyA3zT%?<7, yfz*z*<?zf A? % rrcAfyhr TMzz/ 77/." This mistake
probably arose from the fact that CELLINI himself, both in his
Hzzz*<?^zh^*z^LM (Chapter XVIII) and in his ZAzzAA? zvz Ah? <?/*
A%z? C<V<7r77zzA% (Chapter VIII), relates that he suggested to that
Pope that he should present to the Emperor Charles V " <zyfzz?
CTTZCz/far zzATr/V<7 A? <2 zrrcyj," at the foot of which were
to be fitted three golden figures of 7Azz'A%, and (AzazAy that he
had in his possession, and which were those for the Chalice. This