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Book FirstPart V
Part V
My father began teaching me to play upon the flute and sing by note; by
notwithstanding I was of that tender age when little children are wont to take
pastime in whistles and such toys, I had an inexpressible dislike for it, and
played and sang only to obey him. My father in those times fashioned wonderful
organs with pipes of wood, spinets the fairest and most excellent which then
could be seen, viols and lutes and harps of the most beautiful and perfect
construction. He was an engineer, and had marvellous skill in making
instruments for lowering bridges and for working mills, and other machines of
that sort. In ivory he was the first who wrought really well. But after he had
fallen in love with the woman who was destined to become my mother - perhaps
what brought them together was that little flute, to which indeed he paid more
attention than was proper - he was entreated by the fifers of the Signory to
play in their company. Accordingly he did so for some time to amuse himself,
until by constant importunity they induced him to become a member of their
band. Lorenzo de` Medici and Pietro his son, who had a great liking for him,
perceived later on that he was devoting himself wholly to the fife, and was
neglecting his fine engineering talent and his beautiful art. ^1 So they had
him removed from that post. My father took this very ill, and it seemed to him
that they had done him a great despite. Yet he immediately resumed his art,
and fashioned a mirror, about a cubit in diameter, out of bone and ivory, with
figures and foliage of great finish and grand design. The mirror was in the
form of a wheel. In the middle was the looking-glass; around it were seven
circular pieces, on which were the Seven Virtues, carved and joined of ivory
and black bone. The whole mirror, together with the Virtues, was placed in
equilibrium, so that when the wheel turned, all the Virtues moved, and they
had weights at their feet which kept them upright. Possessing some
acquaintance with the Latin tongue, he put a legend in Latin round his
looking-glass, to this effect - "Whithersoever the wheel of Fortune turns,
Virtue stands firm upon her feet:"
[See Lorenzo De Medici: Lorenzo De Medici, called the magnificent.]
[Footnote 1: The Medici here mentioned were Lorenzo the Magnificent, and his
son Pietro, who was expelled from Florence in the year 1494. He never
returned, but died in the river Garigliano in 1504.]
Rota sum: semper, quoquo me verto, stat Virtus.
A little while after this he obtained his place again among the fifers.
Although some of these things happened before I was born, my familiarity with
them has moved me to set them down here. In those days the musicians of the
Signory were all of them members of the most honourable trades, and some of
them belonged to the greater guilds of silk and wool; ^2 and that was the
reason why my father did not disdain to follow this profession, and his chief
desire with regard to me was always that I should become a great performer on
the flute. I for my part felt never more discontented than when he chose to
talk to me about this scheme, and to tell me that, if I liked, he discerned in
me such aptitudes that I might become the best man in the world.
[Footnote 2: In the Middle Ages the burghers of Florence were divided into
industrial guilds called the Greater and the Lesser Arts. The former took
precedence of the latter, both in political importance and in social esteem.]
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