among scholars. Of some misrepresentations, some suppressions of
damaging facts, there seems to be evidence only too good-a man with
Cellini's passion for proving himself in the right could hardly have
avoided being guilty of such-; but of the general trustworthiness of his
record, of the kind of man he was and the kind of life he led, there is
no reasonable doubt.

The period covered by the autobiography is from Cellini's birth in 1500
to 1562; the scene is mainly in Italy and France. Of the great events of
the time, the time of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, of
the strife of Pope and Emperor and King, we get only glimpses. The
leaders in these events appear in the foreground of the picture only
when they come into personal relations with the hero; and then not
mainly as statesmen or warriors, but as connoisseurs and patrons of art.
Such an event as the Sack of Rome is described because Benvenuto himself
fought in it.

Much more complete is the view he gives of the artistic life of the
time. It was the age of Michelangelo, and in the throng of great artists
which then filled the Italian cities, Cellini was no inconsiderable
figure. Michelangelo himself he knew and adored. Nowhere can we gain a
better idea than in this book of the passionate enthusiasm for the
creation of beauty which has bestowed upon the Italy of the Renaissance
its greatest glory.

Very vivid, too, is the impression we receive of the social life of the
sixteenth century; of its violence and licentiousness, of its zeal for
fine craftsmanship, of its abounding vitality, its versatility and its
idealism. For Cellini himself is an epitome of that century. This man
who tells here the story of his life was a murderer and a braggart,