DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32874#0504
422 LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI [BK. H
so great a piece of luck. So ill-content I remained in
bed, and I had to attend me that most excellent man
Master Francesco da Monte Varchi/ the physician, and
along with him there treated me in surgery Master
Raffaello de' Pilli; ^ for that sublimate had in a way burnt
the gut of my genital organs, so that I could in no way
retain my excrement. And when the said Master Fran-
cescho recognized that the poison having done all the
evil that it could, had not been sufficient to overcome the
strength of the sound constitution which he found in me,
he said to me one day: "Benvenuto! Thank God! For
you have gained the day; and do not doubt that I want
to cure you to spite the scoundrels who have wished to
do you harm." ^ Then master Raffaellino added: "This
will be one of the finest and most difficult cures that
has ever been heard of. Know, Benvenuto! that you have
swallowed a mouthful of sublimate." At these words
Master Francesco interrupted him and said: " Perhaps it
was some venomous caterpillar." I said that I knew for
very certain what the poison was, and who had admin-
istered it to me: and here every one of us kept silence.
They attended to my cure more than six whole months;
and more than a year passed before I could enjoy my
life.
^ (y Book I, Chap. XVIII, Vol. I, p. 331, n. 2.
^ iy Book II, Chap. X, p. 308.
3 CELLINI writes during the year 1366, regarding all the circum-
stances here related, in almost the same terms to Don Francesco
de' Medici, Regent of Tuscany at that date through the resignation
of his father, (y RUSCONI and VALERI, czY., p. 618-619.
so great a piece of luck. So ill-content I remained in
bed, and I had to attend me that most excellent man
Master Francesco da Monte Varchi/ the physician, and
along with him there treated me in surgery Master
Raffaello de' Pilli; ^ for that sublimate had in a way burnt
the gut of my genital organs, so that I could in no way
retain my excrement. And when the said Master Fran-
cescho recognized that the poison having done all the
evil that it could, had not been sufficient to overcome the
strength of the sound constitution which he found in me,
he said to me one day: "Benvenuto! Thank God! For
you have gained the day; and do not doubt that I want
to cure you to spite the scoundrels who have wished to
do you harm." ^ Then master Raffaellino added: "This
will be one of the finest and most difficult cures that
has ever been heard of. Know, Benvenuto! that you have
swallowed a mouthful of sublimate." At these words
Master Francesco interrupted him and said: " Perhaps it
was some venomous caterpillar." I said that I knew for
very certain what the poison was, and who had admin-
istered it to me: and here every one of us kept silence.
They attended to my cure more than six whole months;
and more than a year passed before I could enjoy my
life.
^ (y Book I, Chap. XVIII, Vol. I, p. 331, n. 2.
^ iy Book II, Chap. X, p. 308.
3 CELLINI writes during the year 1366, regarding all the circum-
stances here related, in almost the same terms to Don Francesco
de' Medici, Regent of Tuscany at that date through the resignation
of his father, (y RUSCONI and VALERI, czY., p. 618-619.