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Book FirstPart C
Part C
Leaving Ferrara in the morning, I went to Santa Maria at Loreto; and
thence, having performed my devotions, pursued the journey to Rome. There I
found my most faithful Felice, to whom I abandoned my old shop with all its
furniture and appurtenances, and opened another, much larger and roomier, next
to Sugherello, the perfumer. I thought for certain that the great King Francis
would not have remembered me. Therefore I accepted commissions from several
noblemen; and in the meanwhile began the bason and jug ordered by the Cardinal
Ferrara. I had a crowd of workmen, and many large affairs on hand in gold and
silver.
Now the arrangement I had made with that Perugian workman ^1 was that he
should write down all the monies which had been disbursed on his account,
chiefly for clothes and divers other sundries; and these, together with the
costs of travelling, amounted to about seventy crowns. We agreed that he
should discharge the debt by monthly payments of three crowns; and this he was
well able to do, since he gained more than eight through me. At the end of two
months the rascal decamped from my shop, leaving me in the lurch with a mass
of business on my hands, and saying that he did not mean to pay me a farthing
more. I was resolved to seek redress, but allowed myself to be persuaded to do
so by the way of justice. At first I thought of lopping off an arm of his; and
assuredly I should have done so, if my friends had not told me that it was a
mistake, seeing I should lose my money and perhaps Rome too a second time,
forasmuch as blows cannot be measured, and that with the agreement I held of
his I could at any moment have him taken up. I listened to their advice,
though I should have liked to conduct the affair more freely. As a matter of
fact, I sued him before the auditor of the Camera, and gained by suit; in
consequence of that decree, for which I waited several months, I had him
thrown into prison. At the same time I was overwhelmed with large commissions;
among others, I had to supply all the ornaments of gold and jewels for the
wife of Signor Gierolimo Orsino, father of Signor Paolo, who is now the
son-in-law of our Duke Cosimo. ^2 These things I had nearly finished; yet
others of the greatest consequence were always coming in. I employed eight
work-people, and worked day and night together with them, for the sake alike
of honour and of gain.
[Footnote 1: In his Ricordi Cellini calls the man Girolamo Pascucci.]
[Footnote 2: He was Duke of Bracciano, father of Duke Paolo, who married
Isabella de` Medici, and murdered her before his second marriage with Vittoria
Accoramboni. See my Renaissance in Italy, vol. vi.]
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