DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32873#0459
CH. xix] LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI 349
somewhat thin, it was an undertaking too difficult to
execute without great consideration. I was very pleased
to see these four jewellers, amongst whom was a
Milanese, named Gaio. This man was the most pre-
sumptuous beast in the world, and the one who knew the
least; and it seemed to him that he knew the most:' the
others were most modest and most able men. This Gaio
in the presence of us all began to talk, and said: " You
spirited in this branch of the art, and therein works extremely well,
this question of colouring a stone is of so great an importance that
it is a bone too hard for his tender teeth." Further on in the same
7"r^Ak^(p. 61) BENVENUTO speaks of the same Miliano as "an
admirable man."
* The anger which CELLINI displays against this man for his
interference in his affairs, causing him to give vent to abusive
words, somewhat scandalizes BERTOLOTTI AwA rz'/., Vol. I,
pp. 258-9), who from the records finds him to have been a most ex-
cellent goldsmith. But it is not BENVENUTO'S custom to spare any-
one, be they Pope, Cardinal or humbler folk; and he frequently—
even after almost exaggerated praise—vilifies them, whensoever
wrongly or rightly they offend or cause him injury. And this is
certainly the case with regard to Giovanni Pietro Marliano of
Milan, surnamed G4z'<?. We find him recorded along with Paulo
d'Arsago and Gasparo Gallo 7M??2a7MW<7) among those
jewellers present at the Congress of the Guild of Goldsmiths, which
was held on June 25th 1516 (BERTOLOTTI, 114). In
1523, in company with Caradosso, he valued the jewels that the
Pope pledged with the Augsburg firm of Jacopo Fuccaro (^oze^?*)
and Nephews. He was private jeweller to His Holiness from
1528 to 1548; and he also held for a time the office of Solicitor of
Letters Apostolic. Among works of his of which record still exists,
we hear of a casket presented by the Pope to the Vice-reine of
Naples: and he provided the Papal Court with rings and with
rubies, sapphires and other precious stones; upon which account
and for his high deserts he enjoyed a pension of ten ducats per
month until the date of his death: an event which, judging from
the latest recorded payment, took place in 1548.
somewhat thin, it was an undertaking too difficult to
execute without great consideration. I was very pleased
to see these four jewellers, amongst whom was a
Milanese, named Gaio. This man was the most pre-
sumptuous beast in the world, and the one who knew the
least; and it seemed to him that he knew the most:' the
others were most modest and most able men. This Gaio
in the presence of us all began to talk, and said: " You
spirited in this branch of the art, and therein works extremely well,
this question of colouring a stone is of so great an importance that
it is a bone too hard for his tender teeth." Further on in the same
7"r^Ak^(p. 61) BENVENUTO speaks of the same Miliano as "an
admirable man."
* The anger which CELLINI displays against this man for his
interference in his affairs, causing him to give vent to abusive
words, somewhat scandalizes BERTOLOTTI AwA rz'/., Vol. I,
pp. 258-9), who from the records finds him to have been a most ex-
cellent goldsmith. But it is not BENVENUTO'S custom to spare any-
one, be they Pope, Cardinal or humbler folk; and he frequently—
even after almost exaggerated praise—vilifies them, whensoever
wrongly or rightly they offend or cause him injury. And this is
certainly the case with regard to Giovanni Pietro Marliano of
Milan, surnamed G4z'<?. We find him recorded along with Paulo
d'Arsago and Gasparo Gallo 7M??2a7MW<7) among those
jewellers present at the Congress of the Guild of Goldsmiths, which
was held on June 25th 1516 (BERTOLOTTI, 114). In
1523, in company with Caradosso, he valued the jewels that the
Pope pledged with the Augsburg firm of Jacopo Fuccaro (^oze^?*)
and Nephews. He was private jeweller to His Holiness from
1528 to 1548; and he also held for a time the office of Solicitor of
Letters Apostolic. Among works of his of which record still exists,
we hear of a casket presented by the Pope to the Vice-reine of
Naples: and he provided the Papal Court with rings and with
rubies, sapphires and other precious stones; upon which account
and for his high deserts he enjoyed a pension of ten ducats per
month until the date of his death: an event which, judging from
the latest recorded payment, took place in 1548.