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The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini

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About this book

Benvenuto Cellini dictated his life story to a boy while he went on working, and the result reads less like a memoir than like a man talking loudly across a table. He was a goldsmith and sculptor of real genius, maker of the salt cellar for Francis I and the bronze Perseus that still stands in Florence, and by his own account he was also a brawler, a jailbreaker and the marksman who felled the Constable of Bourbon at the sack of Rome. Whether every boast is true matters less than the voice, since nobody else left so direct a record of what it felt like to be an artist among popes and kings. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.

Available edition: text of Project Gutenberg eBook #4028. The cover is an original BDeBooks design. The PDF has 464 pages; the EPUB is reflowable. Project Gutenberg credits and license are kept.

About the author

Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) was a Florentine goldsmith and sculptor who worked for popes, dukes and the king of France. Little of his goldwork survives beyond the salt cellar made for Francis I, but his bronze Perseus stands in Florence, and his autobiography turned him into a legend.

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