Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini | Page 7

amount of friendly difference; for Andrea
said to Stefano: “My son Giovanni is the stoutest youth of Florence,
and of all Italy to boot, and if I had wanted earlier to have him married,
I could have procured one of the largest dowries which folk of our rank
get in Florence:” whereupon Stefano answered: “You have a thousand
reasons on your side; but here am I with five daughters and as many
sons, and when my reckoning is made, this is as much as I can possibly
afford.” Giovanni, who had been listening awhile unseen by them,
suddenly broke in and said: “O my father, I have sought and loved that
girl and not their money. Ill luck to those who seek to fill their pockets
by the dowry of their wife! As you have boasted that I am a fellow of

such parts, do you not think that I shall be able to provide for my wife
and satisfy her needs, even if I receive something short of the portion
you would like to get? Now I must make you understand that the
woman is mine, and you may take the dowry for yourself.” At this
Andrea Cellini, who was a man of rather awkward temper, grew a trifle
angry; but after a few days Giovanni took his wife, and never asked for
other portion with her.
They enjoyed their youth and wedded love through eighteen years,
always greatly desiring to be blessed with children. At the end of this
time Giovanni’s wife miscarried of two boys through the unskilfulness
of the doctors. Later on she was again with child, and gave birth to a
girl, whom they called Cosa, after the mother of my father. [1] At the
end of two years she was once more with child; and inasmuch as those
longings to which pregnant women are subject, and to which they pay
much attention, were now exactly the same as those of her former
pregnancy, they made their minds up that she would give birth to a
female as before, and agreed to call the child Reparata, after the mother
of my mother. It happened that she was delivered on a night of All
Saints, following the feast-day, at half-past four precisely, in the year
1500. [2] The midwife, who knew that they were expecting a girl, after
she had washed the baby and wrapped it in the fairest white linen, came
softly to my father Giovanni and said: “I am bringing you a fine present,
such as you did not anticipate.” My father, who was a true philosopher,
was walking up and down, and answered: “What God gives me is
always dear to me;” and when he opened the swaddling clothes, he saw
with his own eyes the unexpected male child. Joining together the
palms of his old hands, he raised them with his eyes to God, and said
“Lord, I thank Thee with my whole heart; this gift is very dear to me;
let him be Welcome.” All the persons who were there asked him
joyfully what name the child should bear. Giovanni would make no
other answer than “Let him be Welcome-Benvenuto;” [3] and so they
resolved, and this name was given me at Holy Baptism, and by it I still
am living with the grace of God.
Note 1. Cosa is Florentine for Niccolòsa.

Note 2. The hour is reckoned, according to the old Italian fashion, from
sunset of one day to sunset of the next-twenty-four hours.
Note 3. Benvenuto means Welcome.
IV
ANDREA CELLINI was yet alive when I was about three years old,
and he had passed his hundredth. One day they had been altering a
certain conduit pertaining to a cistern, and there issued from it a great
scorpion unperceived by them, which crept down from the cistern to
the ground, and slank away beneath a bench. I saw it, and ran up to it,
and laid my hands upon it. It was so big that when I had it in my little
hands, it put out its tail on one side, and on the other thrust forth both
its mouths. [1] They relate that I ran in high joy to my grandfather,
crying out: “Look, grandpapa, at my pretty little crab.” When he
recognised that the creature was a scorpion, he was on the point of
falling dead for the great fear he had and anxiety about me. He coaxed
and entreated me to give it him; but the more he begged, the tighter I
clasped it, crying and saying I would not give it to any one. My father,
who was also in the house, ran up when he heard my screams, and in
his stupefaction could not think how to prevent the venomous animal
from killing me. Just