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Book FirstPart XL
Part XL
I had always taken pleasure in seeing the world; and having never been in
Mantua, I went there very willingly. Of the money I had brought to Florence, I
left the greater part with my good father, promising to help him wherever I
might be, and confiding him to the care of my elder sister. Her name was Cosa;
and since she never cared to marry, she was admitted as a nun in Santa Orsola;
but she put off taking the veil, in order to keep house for our old father,
and to look after my younger sister, who was married to one Bartolommeo, a
surgeon. So then, leaving home with my father`s blessing, I mounted my good
horse, and rode off on it to Mantua.
It would take too long to describe that little journey in detail. The
whole world being darkened over with plague and war, I had the greatest
difficulty in reaching Mantua. However, in the end, I got there, and looked
about for work to do, which I obtained from a Maestro Niccolo of Milan,
goldsmith to the Duke of Mantua. Having thus settled down to work, I went
after two days to visit Messer Giulio Romano, that most excellent painter, of
whom I have already spoken, and my very good friend. He received me with the
tenderest caresses, and took it very ill that I had not dismounted at his
house. He was living like a lord, and executing a great work for the Duke
outside the city gates, in a place called Del Te. It was a vast and prodigious
undertaking, as may still, I suppose, be seen by those who go there. ^1
[Footnote 1: This is the famous Palazzo del Te, outside the walls of Mantua.
It still remains the chief monument of Giulio Romano`s versatile genius.]
Messer Giulio lost no time in speaking of me to the Duke in terms of the
warmest praise. ^2 That Prince commissioned me to make a model for a
reliquary, to hold the blood of Christ, which they have there, and say was
brought them by Longinus. Then he turned to Giulio, bidding him supply me with
a design for it. To this Giulio replied: "My lord, Benvenuto is a man who does
not need other people`s sketches, as your Excellency will be very well able to
judge when you shall see his model." I set hand to the work, and made a
drawing for the reliquary, well adapted to contain the sacred phial. Then I
made a little waxen model of the cover. This was a seated Christ, supporting
his great cross aloft with the left hand, while he seemed to lean against it,
and with the fingers of his right hand he appeared to be opening the wound in
his side. When it was finished, it pleased the Duke so much that he heaped
favours on me, and gave me to understand that he would keep me in his service
with such appointments as should enable me to live in affluence.
[Footnote 2: Federigo Gonzago was at this time Marquis of Mantua. Charles V
erected his fief into a duchy in 1530.]
Meanwhile, I had paid my duty to the Cardinal his brother, who begged the
Duke to allow me to make the pontifical seal of his most reverend lordship. ^3
This I began; but while I was working at it I caught a quartan fever. During
each access of this fever I was thrown into delirium, when I cursed Mantua and
its master and whoever stayed there at his own liking. These words were
reported to the Duke by the Milanese goldsmith, who had not omitted to notice
that the Duke wanted to employ me. When the Prince heard the ravings of my
sickness, he flew into a passion against me; and I being out of temper with
Mantua, our bad feeling was reciprocal. The seal was finished after four
months, together with several other little pieces I made for the uke under the
name of the Cardinal. His Reverence paid me well, and bade me return to Rome,
to that marvellous city where we had made acquaintance.
[Footnote 3: Ercole Gonzaga, created Cardinal in 1527. After the death of his
brother, Duke Federigo, he governed Mantua for sixteen years as regent for his
nephews, and became famous as a patron of arts and letters. He died at Trento
in 1563 while presiding over the Council there, in the pontificate of Pius
IV.]
I quitted Mantua with a good sum of crowns, and reached Governo, where
the most valiant general Giovanni had been killed. ^4 Here I had a slight
relapse of fever, which did not interrupt my journey, and coming now to an
end, it never returned on me again. When I arrived at Florence, I hoped to
find my dear father, and knocking at the door, a hump-backed woman in a fury
showed her face at the window; she drove me off with a torrent of abuse,
screaming that the sight of me was a consumption to her. To this misshapen hag
I shouted: "Ho! tell me, cross-grained hunchback, is there no other face to
see here but your ugly visage?" "No, and bad luck to you." Whereto I answered
in a loud voice: "In less than two hours may it ^5 never vex us more!"
Attracted by this dispute, a neighbour put her head out, from whom I learned
that my father and all the people in the house had died of the plague. As I
had partly guessed it might be so, my grief was not so great as it would
otherwise have been. The woman afterwards told me that only my sister Liperata
had escaped, and that she had taken refuge with a pious lady named Mona Andrea
de` Bellacci. ^6
[Footnote 4: Giovanni de` Medici, surnamed Delle Bande Nere.]
[Footnote 5: i.e., your ugly visage.]
[Footnote 6: Carpani states that between May and November 1527 about 40,000
persons died of plague in Florence.]
I took my way from thence to the inn, and met by accident a very dear
friend of mine, Giovanni Rigogli. Dismounting at his house, we proceeded to
the piazza, where I received intelligence that my brother was alive, and went
to find him at the house of a friend of his called Bertino Aldobrandini. On
meeting, we made demonstrations of the most passionate affection; for he had
heard that I was dead, and I had heard that he was dead; and so our joy at
embracing one another was extravagant. Then he broke out into a loud fit of
laughter, and said: "Come, brother, I will take you where I`m sure you`d never
guess! You must know that I have given our sister Liperata away again in
marriage, and she holds it for absolutely certain that you are dead." On our
way we told each other all the wonderful adventures we had met with; and when
we reached the house where our sister dwelt, the surprise of seeing me alive
threw her into a fainting fit, and she fell senseless in my arms. Had not my
brother been present, her speechlessness and sudden seizure must have made her
husband imagine I was some one different from a brother - as indeed at first
it did. Cecchino, however, explained matters, and busied himself in helping
the swooning woman, who soon come to. Then, after shedding some tears for
father, sister, husband, and a little son whom she had lost, she began to get
the supper ready; and during our merry meeting all that evening we talked no
more about dead folk, but rather discoursed gaily about weddings. Thus, then,
with gladness and great enjoyment we brought our supper-party to an end.
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