The Autobiography Of Benvenuto Cellini [ By: Benvenuto Cellini ]

by Benvenuto Cellini

Overview

This book content collection of 2 books

1. The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini

Product Details

BN ID:	2940012636829
Publisher:	Publish This, LLC
Publication date:	01/20/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	830 KB

About the Author

Italian goldsmith, sculptor, painter, soldier and musician.

Cellini's autobiographical memoirs, which he began writing in Florence in 1558, give a detailed account of his singular career, as well as his loves, hatreds, passions, and delights, written in an energetic, direct, and racy style. They show a great self-regard and self-assertion, sometimes running into extravagances which are impossible to credit. He even writes in a complacent way of how he contemplated his murders before carrying them out.

Parts of his tale recount some extraordinary events and phenomena; such as his stories of conjuring up a legion of devils in the Colosseum, after one of his not innumerous mistresses had been spirited away from him by her mother; of the marvelous halo of light which he found surrounding his head at dawn and twilight after his Roman imprisonment, and his supernatural visions and angelic protection during that adversity; and of his being poisoned on two separate occasions.

The autobiography has been translated into English by Thomas Roscoe, by John Addington Symonds, and by A. Macdonald. It has been considered and published as a classic, and commonly regarded as one of the most colourful autobiographies (certainly the most important autobiography from the Renaissance). Cellini also wrote treatises on the goldsmith's art, on sculpture, and on design.