DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32874#0380
3i6 LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI [BK. 11
many vents that I had made: for the more one makes
so much the better do the moulds fill. And when I had
finished removing the wax I made a funnel** around my
that is to say, around the said mould, of bricks
interlacing one above the other, and I left many spaces,
through which the fire could the better emerge. Then I
began to arrange the wood cautiously, and I kept up the
fire two days and two nights continuously; to such pur-
pose that when all the wax had been extracted, and the
said mould was afterwards well baked, I immediately
began to dig the ditch wherein to bury my mould, with all
those skilful methods that this fine art directs us. When
I had finished digging the said ditch, I then took my
mould and with the assistance of windlasses and strong
ropes I set it carefully upright: and having suspended
it a above the level of my furnace, holding it
very carefully upright, in such a fashion that it hung
exactly in the middle of the ditch, I caused it to descend
very gently as far as the bottom of the furnace; and I
set it down with all the care that it is possible to imagine
in the world. And when I had completed this excellent
job I began to prop it up with the selfsame clay that I
had dug out of it; and hand over hand as I piled up the
earth, I put into it air-holes^ which were tubes of baked
^ ^%372z'r<3.' z'.^. a species of funnel-shaped furnace like a mill-
hopper, narrow at the base and opening out at the top: somewhat
resembling in fact the sleeve of a garment.
^ These vents for the admission of air were introduced by Cellini
into the /<?zzzzrz; (lit. "tunic"), or outer surface of clay, which covered
the original model of wax and clay. They served the double pur-
pose of ventilating shafts to the interior of the mould and of pas-
sages through which to withdraw the melted wax, and to admit the
molten metal.
many vents that I had made: for the more one makes
so much the better do the moulds fill. And when I had
finished removing the wax I made a funnel** around my
that is to say, around the said mould, of bricks
interlacing one above the other, and I left many spaces,
through which the fire could the better emerge. Then I
began to arrange the wood cautiously, and I kept up the
fire two days and two nights continuously; to such pur-
pose that when all the wax had been extracted, and the
said mould was afterwards well baked, I immediately
began to dig the ditch wherein to bury my mould, with all
those skilful methods that this fine art directs us. When
I had finished digging the said ditch, I then took my
mould and with the assistance of windlasses and strong
ropes I set it carefully upright: and having suspended
it a above the level of my furnace, holding it
very carefully upright, in such a fashion that it hung
exactly in the middle of the ditch, I caused it to descend
very gently as far as the bottom of the furnace; and I
set it down with all the care that it is possible to imagine
in the world. And when I had completed this excellent
job I began to prop it up with the selfsame clay that I
had dug out of it; and hand over hand as I piled up the
earth, I put into it air-holes^ which were tubes of baked
^ ^%372z'r<3.' z'.^. a species of funnel-shaped furnace like a mill-
hopper, narrow at the base and opening out at the top: somewhat
resembling in fact the sleeve of a garment.
^ These vents for the admission of air were introduced by Cellini
into the /<?zzzzrz; (lit. "tunic"), or outer surface of clay, which covered
the original model of wax and clay. They served the double pur-
pose of ventilating shafts to the interior of the mould and of pas-
sages through which to withdraw the melted wax, and to admit the
molten metal.