Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini Vol 1 — Chapters 122-126

CXXII

I HAD barely uttered these words, when that invisible being, like a whirlwind, caught me up and bore me away into a large room, where he made himself visible to my eyes in human form, appearing like a young man whose beard is just growing, with a face of indescribable beauty, but austere, not wanton.

He bade me look around the room, and said: “The crowd of men thou seest in this place are all those who up to this day have been born and afterwards have died upon the earth.

” Thereupon I asked him why he brought me hither, and he answered: “Come with me and thou shalt soon behold.

” In my hand I had a poniard, and upon my back a coat of mail; and so he led me through that vast hall, pointing out the people who were walking by innumerable thousands up and down, this way and that.

He led me onward, and went forth in front of me through a little low door into a place which looked like a narrow street; and when he drew me after him into the street, at the moment of leaving the hall, behold I was disarmed and clothed in a white shirt, with nothing on my head, and I was walking on the right hand of my companion.

Finding myself in this condition, I was seized with wonder, because I did not recognise the street; and when I lifted my eyes, I discerned that the splendour of the sun was striking on a wall, as it were a house-front, just above my head.

Then I said: “Oh, my friend!

what must I do in order to be able to ascend so high that I may gaze upon the sphere of the sun himself?

” He pointed out some huge stairs which were on my right hand, and said to me: “Go up thither by thyself.

” Quitting his side, I ascended the stairs backwards, and gradually began to come within the region of the sunlight.

Then I hastened my steps, and went on, always walking backwards as I have described, until I discovered the whole sphere of the sun.

The strength of his rays, as is their wont, first made me close my eyes; but becoming aware of my misdoing, I opened them wide, and gazing steadfastly at the sun, exclaimed: “Oh, my sun, for whom I have passionately yearned!

Albeit your rays may blind me, I do not wish to look on anything again but this!

” So I stayed awhile with my eyes fixed steadily on him; and after a brief space I beheld in one moment the whole might of those great burning rays fling themselves upon the left side of the sun; so that the orb remained quite clear without its rays, and I was able to contemplate it with vast delight.

It seemed to me something marvellous that the rays should be removed in that manner.

Then I reflected what divine grace it was which God had granted me that morning, and cried aloud: “Oh, wonderful Thy power!

oh, glorious Thy virtue!

How far greater is the grace which Thou art granting me than that which I expected!

” The sun without his rays appeared to me to be a bath of the purest molten gold, neither more nor less.

While I stood contemplating this wondrous thing, I noticed that the middle of the sphere began to swell, and the swollen surface grew, and suddenly a Christ upon the cross formed itself out of the same substance as the sun.

He bore the aspect of divine benignity, with such fair grace that the mind of man could not conceive the thousandth part of it; and while I gazed in ecstasy, I shouted: “A miracle!

a miracle!

O God!

O clemency Divine!

O immeasurable Goodness!

what is it Thou hast deigned this day to show me!

” While I was gazing and exclaiming thus, the Christ moved toward that part where his rays were settled, and the middle of the sun once more bulged out as it had done before; the boss expanded, and suddenly transformed itself into the shape of a most beautiful Madonna, who appeared to be sitting enthroned on high, holding her child in her arms with an attitude of the greatest charm and a smile upon her face.

On each side of her was an angel, whose beauty far surpasses man’s imagination.

I also saw within the rondure of the sun, upon the right hand, a figure robed like a priest; this turned its back to me, and kept its face directed to the Madonna and the Christ.

All these things I beheld, actual, clear, and vivid, and kept returning thanks to the glory of God as loud as I was able.

The marvellous apparition remained before me little more than half a quarter of an hour: then it dissolved, and I was carried back to my dark lair.

I began at once to shout aloud: “The virtue of God hath deigned to show me all His glory, the which perchance no mortal eye hath ever seen before.

Therefore I know surely that I am free and fortunate and in the grace of God; but you miscreants shall be miscreants still, accursed, and in the wrath of God.

Mark this, for I am certain of it, that on the day of All Saints, the day upon which I was born in 1500, on the first of November, at four hours after nightfall, on that day which is coming you will be forced to lead me from this gloomy dungeon; less than this you will not be able to do, because I have seen it with these eyes of mine and in that throne of God.

The priest who kept his face turned to God and his back to me, that priest was S. Peter, pleading my cause, for the shame he felt that such foul wrongs should be done to Christians in his own house.

You may go and tell it to whom you like; for none on earth has the power to do me harm henceforward; and tell that lord who keeps me here, that if he will give me wax or paper and the means of portraying this glory of God which was revealed to me, most assuredly shall I convince him of that which now perhaps he holds in doubt.

” CXXIII

THE PHYSICIANS gave the castellan no hope of his recovery, yet he remained with a clear intellect, and the humours which used to afflict him every year had passed away.

He devoted himself entirely to the care of his soul, and his conscience seemed to smite him, because he felt that I had suffered and was suffering a grievous wrong.

The Pope received information from him of the extraordinary things which I related; in answer to which his Holiness sent word-as one who had no faith either in God or aught beside-that I was mad, and that he must do his best to mend his health.

When the castellan received this message, he sent to cheer me up, and furnished me with writing materials and wax, and certain little wooden instruments employed in working wax, adding many words of courtesy, which were reported by one of his servants who bore me good-will.

This man was totally the opposite of that rascally gang who had wished to see me hanged.

I took the paper and the wax, and began to work; and while I was working I wrote the following sonnet addressed to the castellan:- “If I, my lord, could show to you the truth, Of that Eternal Light to me by Heaven In this low life revealed, you sure had given More heed to mine than to a monarch’s sooth.

Ah!

could the Pastor of Christ’s flock in ruth Believe how God this soul with sight hath shriven Of glory unto which no wight hath striven Ere he escaped earth’s cave of care uncouth;

The gates of Justice, holy and austere, Would roll asunder, and rude impious Rage Fall chained with shrieks that should assail the skies.

Had I but light, ah me!

my art should rear A monument of Heaven’s high equipage!

Nor should my misery bear so grim a guise.

” CXXIV

ON the following day, when the servant of the castellan who was my friend brought me my food, I gave him this sonnet copied out in writing.

Without informing the other ill-disposed servants who were my enemies, he handed it to the castellan.

At that time this worthy man would gladly have granted me my liberty, because he fancied that the great wrong done to me was a main cause of his death.

He took the sonnet, and having read it more than once, exclaimed: “These are neither the words nor the thoughts of a madman, but rather of a sound and worthy fellow.

” Without delay he ordered his secretary to take it to the Pope, and place it in his own hands, adding a request for my deliverance.

While the secretary was on his way with my sonnet to the Pope, the castellan sent me lights for day and night, together with all the conveniences one could wish for in that place.

The result of this was that I began to recover from my physical depression, which had reached a very serious degree.

The Pope read the sonnet several times.

Then he sent word to the castellan that he meant presently to do what would be pleasing to him.

Certainly the Pope had no unwillingness to release me then; but Signor Pier Luigi, his son, as it were in the Pope’s despite, kept me there by force.

The death of the castellan was drawing near; and while I was engaged in drawing and modelling that miracle which I had seen, upon the morning of All Saint’s day he sent his nephew, Piero Ugolini, to show me certain jewels.

No sooner had I set eyes on them than I exclaimed: “This is the countersign of my deliverance!

” Then the young man, who was not a person of much intelligence, began to say: “Never think of that, Benvenuto!

” I replied: “Take your gems away, for I am so treated here that I have no light to see by except what this murky cavern gives, and that is not enough to test the quality of precious stones.

But, as regards my deliverance from this dungeon, the day will not end before you come to fetch me out.

It shall and must be so, and you will not be able to prevent it.

” The man departed, and had me locked in; but after he had remained away two hours by the clock, he returned without armed men, bringing only a couple of lads to assist my movements; so after this fashion he conducted me to the spacious rooms which I had previously occupied (that is to say, in 1538), where I obtained all the conveniences I asked for.

CXXV

AFTER the lapse of a few days, the castellan, who now believed that I was at large and free, succumbed to his disease and departed this life.

In his room remained his brother, Messer Antonio Ugolini, who had informed the deceased governor that I was duly released.

From what I learned, this Messer Antonio received commission from the Pope to let me occupy that commodious prison until he had decided what to do with me.

Messer Durante of Brescia, whom I have previously mentioned, engaged the soldier (formerly druggist of Prato) to administer some deadly liquor in my food; [1] the poison was to work slowly, producing its effect at the end of four or five months.

They resolved on mixing pounded diamond with my victuals.

Now the diamond is not a poison in any true sense of the word, but its incomparable hardness enables it, unlike ordinary stones, to retain very acute angles.

When every other stone is pounded, that extreme sharpness of edge is lost; their fragments becoming blunt and rounded.

The diamond alone preserves its trenchant qualities; wherefore, if it chances to enter the stomach together with food, the peristaltic motion [2] needful to digestion brings it into contact with the coats of the stomach and the bowels, where it sticks, and by the action of fresh food forcing it farther inwards, after some time perforates the organs.

This eventually causes death.

Any other sort of stone or glass mingled with the food has not the power to attach itself, but passes onward with the victuals.

Now Messer Durante entrusted a diamond of trifling value to one of the guards; and it is said that a certain Lione, a goldsmith of Arezzo, my great enemy, was commissioned to pound it.

[3] The man happened to be very poor, and the diamond was worth perhaps some scores of crowns.

He told the guard that the dust he gave him back was the diamond in question properly ground down.

The morning when I took it, they mixed it with all I had to eat; it was a Friday, and I had it in salad, sauce, and pottage.

That morning I ate heartily, for I had fasted on the previous evening; and this day was a festival.

It is true that I felt the victuals scrunch beneath my teeth; but I was not thinking about knaveries of this sort.

When I had finished, some scraps of salad remained upon my plate, and certain very fine and glittering splinters caught my eye among these remnants.

I collected them, and took them to the window, which let a flood of light into the room; and while I was examining them, I remembered that the food I ate that morning had scrunched more than usual.

On applying my senses strictly to the matter, the verdict of my eyesight was that they were certainly fragments of pounded diamond.

Upon this I gave myself up without doubt as dead, and in my sorrow had recourse with pious heart to holy prayers.

I had resolved the question, and thought that I was doomed.

For the space of a whole hour I prayed fervently to God, returning thanks to Him for so merciful a death.

Since my stars had sentenced me to die, I thought it no bad bargain to escape from life so easily.

I was resigned, and blessed the world and all the years which I had passed in it.

Now I was returning to a better kingdom with the grace of God, the which I thought I had most certainly acquired.

While I stood revolving these thoughts in my mind, I held in my hand some flimsy particles of the reputed diamond, which of a truth I firmly believed to be such.

Now hope is immortal in the human breast; therefore I felt myself, as it were, lured onward by a gleam of idle expectation.

Accordingly, I took up a little knife and a few of those particles, and placed them on an iron bar of my prison.

Then I brought the knife’s point with a slow strong grinding pressure to bear upon the stone, and felt it crumble.

Examining the substance with my eyes, I saw that it was so.

In a moment new hope took possession of my soul, and I exclaimed: “Here I do not find my true foe, Messer Durante, but a piece of bad soft stone, which cannot do me any harm whatever!

” Previously I had been resolved to remain quiet and to die in peace; now I revolved other plans, but first I rendered thanks to God and blessed poverty; for though poverty is oftentimes the cause of bringing men to death, on this occasion it had been the very cause of my salvation.

I mean in this way: Messer Durante, my enemy, or whoever it was, gave a diamond to Lione to pound for me of the worth of more than a hundred crowns; poverty induced him to keep this for himself, and to pound for me a greenish beryl of the value of two carlins, thinking perhaps, because it also was a stone, that it would work the same effect as the diamond.

Note 1. For Messer Durante, see above, p. 180. For the druggist of Prato employed as a warder in S. Angelo, see above, p. 216. Note 2. 'In quel girare che e’ fanno e’ cibi.'

I have for the sake of clearness used the technical phrase above.

Note 3. The name of Leone Leoni is otherwise known as a goldsmith and bronze-caster.

He made the tomb for Giangiacomo de’ Medici, Il Medighino, in the Cathedral of Milan.

CXXVI

AT this time the Bishop of Pavia, brother of the Count of San Secondo, and commonly called Monsignor de’ Rossi of Parma, happened to be imprisoned in the castle for some troublesome affairs at Pavia.

[1] Knowing him to be my friend, I thrust my head out of the hole in my cell, and called him with a loud voice, crying that those thieves had given me a pounded diamond with the intention of killing me.

I also sent some of the splinters which I had preserved, by the hand of one of his servants, for him to see.

I did not disclose my discovery that the stone was not a diamond, but told him that they had most assuredly poisoned me, after the death of that most worthy man the castellan.

During the short space of time I had to live, I begged him to allow me one loaf a day from his own stores, seeing that I had resolved to eat nothing which came from them.

To this request he answered that he would supply me with victuals.

Messer Antonio, who was certainly not cognisant of the plot against my life, stirred up a great noise, and demanded to see the pounded stone, being also persuaded that it was a diamond; but on reflection that the Pope was probably at the bottom of the affair, he passed it over lightly after giving his attention to the incident.

Henceforth I ate the victuals sent me by the Bishop, and continued writing my Capitolo on the prison, into which I inserted daily all the new events which happened to me, point by point.

But Messer Antonio also sent me food; and he did this by the hand of that Giovanni of Prato, the druggist, then soldier in the castle, whom I have previously mentioned.

He was a deadly foe of mine, and was the man who had administered the powdered diamond.

So I told him that I would partake of nothing he brought me unless he tasted it before my eyes.

[2] The man replied that Popes have their meat tasted.

I answered: “Noblemen are bound to taste the meat for Popes; in like measure, you, soldier, druggist, peasant from Prato, are bound to taste the meat for a Florentine of my station.

” He retorted with coarse words, which I was not slow to pay back in kind.

Now Messer Antonio felt a certain shame for his behaviour; he had it also in his mind to make me pay the costs which the late castellan, poor man, remitted in my favour.

So he hunted out another of his servants, who was my friend, and sent me food by this man’s hands.

The meat was tasted for me now with good grace, and no need for altercation.

The servant in question told me that the Pope was being pestered every day by Monsignor di Morluc, who kept asking for my extradition on the part of the French King.

The Pope, however, showed little disposition to give me up; and Cardinal Farnese, formerly my friend and patron, had declared that I ought not to reckon on issuing from that prison for some length of time.

[3] I replied that I should get out in spite of them all.

The excellent young fellow besought me to keep quiet, and not to let such words of mine be heard, for they might do me some grave injury; having firm confidence in God, it was my duty to await.

His mercy, remaining in the meanwhile tranquil.

I answered that the power and goodness of God are not bound to stand in awe before the malign forces of iniquity.

Note 1. Gio.

Girolamo de’ Rossi, known in literature as a poet and historian of secondary importance.

Note 2. 'Me ne faceva la credenza.'

Note 3. This was the Cardinal Alessandro, son of Pier Luigi Farnese.