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Book FirstPart L
Part L
Returning to the monument, I should relate that certain famous men of
letters, who knew my brother, composed for me an epitaph, telling me that the
noble young man deserved it. The inscription ran thus: -
"Francisco Cellino Florentino, qui quod in teneris annis ad Ioannem
Medicem ducem plures victorias retulit et signifer fuit, facile documentum
dedit quantae fortitudinis et consilii vir futurus erat, ni crudelis fati
archibuso transfossus, quinto aetatis lustro jaceret, Benvenutus frater
posuit. Obiit die xxvii Maii MD.XXIX."
He was twenty-five years of age; and since the soldiers called him
Cecchino del Piffero, ^1 his real name being Giovanfrancesco Cellini, I wanted
to engrave the former, by which he was commonly known, under the armorial
bearings of our family. This name then I had cut in fine antique characters,
all of which were broken save the first and last. I was asked by the learned
men who had composed that beautiful epitaph, wherefore I used these broken
letters; and my answer was, because the marvellous framework of his body was
spoiled and dead; and the reason why the first and last remained entire was,
that the first should symbolise the great gift God had given him, namely, of a
human soul, inflamed with his divinity, the which hath never broken, while the
second represented the glorious renown of his brave actions. The thought gave
satisfaction, and several persons have since availed themselves of my device.
Close to the name I had the coat of us Cellini carved upon the stone, altering
it in some particulars. In Ravenna, which is a most ancient city, there exist
Cellini of our name in the quality of very honourable gentry, who bear a lion
rampant or upon a field of azure, holding a lily gules in his dexter paw, with
a label in chief and three little lilies or. ^2 These are the true arms of the
Cellini. My father showed me a shield as ours which had the paw only, together
with the other bearings; but I should prefer to follow those of the Cellini of
Ravenna, which I have described above. Now to return to what I caused to be
engraved upon my brother`s tomb: it was the lion`s paw, but instead of a lily,
I made the lion hold an axe, with the field of the scutcheon quartered; and I
put the axe in solely that I might not be unmindful to revenge him.
[Footnote 1: That is, Frank, the Fifer`s son.]
[Footnote 2: I believe Cellini meant here to write "on a chief argent a label
of four points, and three lilies gules." He has tricked the arms thus in a MS.
of the Palatine Library. See Leclanche, p. 103; see also Piatti, vol. i. p.
233, and Plon, p. 2.]
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