DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32874#0473
CH. xiv] LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI 393
that they would be a place for dogs to make water
upon (2222 r%722) and would be continually
covered with all sorts of filth, and that for the said reasons
by no means whatsoever did I want to execute them. It
was only in order not to cast away the remainder of my
best years without obliging His Most Illustrious Excel-
lency, whom I desired so much to please and serve.
Therefore if His Excellency wanted to make use of my
labours he would allow me to make the central door of
Sta Maria del Fiore, which would be a work that would
be conspicuous, and would be much more to the glory of
His Most Illustrious Excellency. And I would bind
myself by a contract that if I did not make it better
than that which is the most beautiful of the doors of
S° Giovanni, I wanted nothing for my labour; but if I
carried them out according to my promise, I would con-
tent myself that they should make a valuation, and
afterwards give me one thousand less than the
price at which it was valued by the men of the profession.
These Directors were much pleased by the thing
which I had proposed to them, and they went to speak
of it to the Duke. There was one amongst the rest, Piero
Salviati/ who thought that he was saying something that
would be most agreeable to the Duke, and it was quite
the opposite; for (the Duke) said that I was always want-
ing to do the exact opposite to that which it pleased him
that I should do: and without any other decision the said
^ Piero d'Alamanno d'Averardo Salviati, born in 1504, was in
1528 at the head of the Florentine youth who were opposed to
Medicean rule. Becoming subsequently friendly with Duke Cosimo,
he was in 1553 appointed by him amongst the number of the Forty-
Eight. He died in 1564. ty MANNI, p. 90.
that they would be a place for dogs to make water
upon (2222 r%722) and would be continually
covered with all sorts of filth, and that for the said reasons
by no means whatsoever did I want to execute them. It
was only in order not to cast away the remainder of my
best years without obliging His Most Illustrious Excel-
lency, whom I desired so much to please and serve.
Therefore if His Excellency wanted to make use of my
labours he would allow me to make the central door of
Sta Maria del Fiore, which would be a work that would
be conspicuous, and would be much more to the glory of
His Most Illustrious Excellency. And I would bind
myself by a contract that if I did not make it better
than that which is the most beautiful of the doors of
S° Giovanni, I wanted nothing for my labour; but if I
carried them out according to my promise, I would con-
tent myself that they should make a valuation, and
afterwards give me one thousand less than the
price at which it was valued by the men of the profession.
These Directors were much pleased by the thing
which I had proposed to them, and they went to speak
of it to the Duke. There was one amongst the rest, Piero
Salviati/ who thought that he was saying something that
would be most agreeable to the Duke, and it was quite
the opposite; for (the Duke) said that I was always want-
ing to do the exact opposite to that which it pleased him
that I should do: and without any other decision the said
^ Piero d'Alamanno d'Averardo Salviati, born in 1504, was in
1528 at the head of the Florentine youth who were opposed to
Medicean rule. Becoming subsequently friendly with Duke Cosimo,
he was in 1553 appointed by him amongst the number of the Forty-
Eight. He died in 1564. ty MANNI, p. 90.