The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini

Written in the 1550s and 1560s and first printed in the eighteenth century, this autobiography follows the Florentine goldsmith and sculptor from his workshop years through papal Rome, the sack of 1527, imprisonment in Castel Sant'Angelo, and service at the French court of Francis I, then back to Cosimo de' Medici's Florence. Cellini records commissions, street fights, a homicide, plague, and the casting of his Perseus. Popes, kings, and rival craftsmen appear as patrons or enemies. The voice is first-person and self-justifying. The book is an artisan's memoir of work and violence, not a systematic history of High Renaissance art.

Bound in dark red buckram blocked with a gilt design. Grey slipcase.