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Book FirstPart IX
Part IX
The Cardinal de` Medici, who afterwards became Pope Clement VII., had us
recalled to Florence at the entreaty of my father. ^1 A certain pupil of my
father`s, moved by his own bad nature, suggested to the Cardinal that he ought
to send me to Bologna, in order to learn to play well from a great master
there. The name of this master was Antonio, and he was in truth a worthy man
in the musician`s art. The Cardinal said to my father that, if he sent me
there he would give me letters of recommendation and support. My father, dying
with joy at such an opportunity, sent me off; and I being eager to see the
world, went with good grace.
[Footnote 1: This Cardinal and Pope was Giulio, a natural son of Giuliano,
Lorenzo de` Medici`s brother, who had been killed in the Pazzi conspiracy,
year 1478. Giulio lived to become Pope Clement VII., to suffer the sack of
Rome in 1527, and to make the concordat with Charles V at Bologna in 1529-30,
which settled for three centuries the destiny of Italy. We shall hear much
more of him from Cellini in the course of this narrative.]
[See X, Medici, Rossi: Leo X, Giulio De Medici, and L. De Rossi, Raphael.]
When I reached Bologna, I put myself under a certain Maestro Ercole del
Piffero, and began to earn something by my trade. In the meantime I used to go
every day to take my music lesson, and in a few weeks made considerable
progress in that accursed art. However I made still greater in my trade of
goldsmith; for the Cardinal having given me no assistance, I went to live with
a Bolognese illuminator who was called Scipione Cavalletti (his house was in
the street of our Lady del Baraccan); and while there I devoted myself to
drawing and working for one Graziadio, a Jew, with whom I earned considerably.
At the end of six months I returned to Florence, where that fellow
Pierino, who had been my father`s pupil, was greatly mortified by my return.
To please my father, I went to his house and played the cornet and the flute
with one of his brothers, who was named Girolamo, several years younger than
the said Piero, a very worthy young man, and quite the contrary of his
brother. On one of those days my father came to Piero`s house to hear us play,
and in ecstasy at my performance exclaimed: "I shall yet make you a marvellous
musician against the will of all or any one who may desire to prevent me." To
this Piero answered, and spoke the truth: "Your Benvenuto will get much more
honour and profit if he devotes himself to the goldsmiths trade than to this
piping." These words made my father angry, seeing that I too had the same
opinion as Piero, that he flew into a rage and cried out at him: "Well did I
know that it was you, you who put obstacles in the way of my cherished wish;
you are the man who had me ousted from my place at the palace, paying me back
with that black ingratitude which is the usual recompense of great benefits. I
got you promoted, and you have got me cashiered; I taught you to play with all
the little art you have, and you are preventing my son from obeying me; but
bear in mind these words of prophecy: not years or months, I say, but only a
few weeks will pass before this dirty ingratitude of yours shall plunge you
into ruin." To these words answered Pierino and said: "Maestro Giovanni, the
majority of men, when they grow old, go mad at the same time; and this has
happened to you. I am not astonished at it, because most liberally have you
squandered all your property, without reflecting that your children had need
of it. I mind to do just the opposite, and to leave my children so much that
they shall be able to succour yours." To this my father answered: "No bad tree
ever bore good fruit; quite the contrary; and I tell you further that you are
bad, and that your children will be mad and paupers, and will cringe for alms
to my virtuous and wealthy sons." Thereupon we left the house, muttering words
of anger on both sides. I had taken my father`s part; and when we stepped into
the street together, I told him I was quite ready to take vengeance for the
insults heaped on him by that scoundrel, provided he permit me to give myself
up to the art of design. He answered: "My dear son, I too in my time was a
good draughtsman; but for recreation, after such stupendous labours, and for
the love of me who am your father, who begat you and brought you up and
implanted so many honourable talents in you, for the sake of recreation, I
say, will not you promise sometimes to take in hand your flute and that
seductive cornet, and to play upon them to your heart`s content, inviting the
delight of music?" I promised I would do so, and very willingly for his love`s
sake. Then my good father said that such excellent parts as I possessed would
be the greatest vengeance I could take for the insults of his enemies.
Not a whole month had been completed after this scene before the man
Pierino happened to be building a vault in a house of his, which he had in the
Via dello Studio; and being one day in a ground-floor room above the vault
which he was making, together with much company around him, he fell to talking
about his old master, my father. While repeating the words which he had said
to him concerning his ruin, no sooner had they escaped his lips than the floor
where he was standing (either because the vault had been badly built, or
rather through the sheer mightiness of God, who does not always pay on
Saturday) suddenly gave way. Some of the stones and bricks of the vault, which
fell with him, broke both his legs. The friends who were with him, remaining
on the border of the broken vault took no harm, but were astounded and full of
wonder, especially because of the prophecy which he had just contemptuously
repeated to them. When my father heard of this, he took his sword, and went to
see the man. There, in the presence of his father, who was called Niccolaio da
Volterra, a trumpeter of the Signory, he said, "O Piero, my dear pupil, I am
sorely grieved at your mischance; but if you remember it was only a short time
ago that I warned you of it; and as much as I then said will come to happen
between your children and mine." Shortly afterwards, the ungrateful Piero died
of that illness. He left a wife of bad character and one son, who after the
lapse of some years came to me to beg for alms in Rome. I gave him something,
as well because it is my nature to be charitable, as also because I recalled
with tears the happy state which Pierino held when my father spake those words
of prophecy, namely, that Pierino`s children should live to crave succour from
his own virtuous sons. Of this perhaps enough is now said; but let none ever
laugh at the prognostications of any worthy man whom he has wrongfully
insulted; because it is not he who speaks, nay, but the very voice of God
through him.
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