assistance, I went to live with a Bolognese illuminator who was called
Scipione Cavalletti (his house was in the street of our Lady del
Baraccan); and while there I devoted myself to drawing and working for
one Graziadio, a Jew, with whom I earned considerably.

At the end of six months I returned to Florence, where that fellow
Pierino, who had been my father's pupil, was greatly mortified by my
return. To please my father, I went to his house and played the cornet
and the flute with one of his brothers, who was named Girolamo, several
years younger than the said Piero, a very worthy young man, and quite
the contrary of his brother. On one of those days my father came to
Piero's house to hear us play, and in ecstasy at my performance
exclaimed: "I shall yet make you a marvellous musician against the will
of all or any one who may desire to prevent me." To this Piero answered,
and spoke the truth: "Your Benvenuto will get much more honour and
profit if he devotes himself to the goldsmiths trade than to this
piping." These words made my father angry, seeing that I too had the
same opinion as Piero, that he flew into a rage and cried out at him:
"Well did I know that it was you, you who put obstacles in the way of my
cherished wish; you are the man who had me ousted from my place at the
palace, paying me back with that black ingratitude which is the usual
recompense of great benefits. I got you promoted, and you have got me
cashiered; I taught you to play with all the little art you have, and
you are preventing my son from obeying me; but bear in mind these words
of prophecy: not years or months, I say, but only a few weeks will pass
before this dirty ingratitude of yours shall plunge you into ruin." To
these words answered Pierino and said: "Maestro Giovanni, the majority
of men, when they grow old, go mad at the same time; and this has
happened to you. I am not astonished at it, because most liberally have
you squandered all your property, without reflecting that your children