the door of the Rotonda. Beside what I copied, I enriched it with so
many elegant masks of my invention, that my master went about showing it
through the art, and boasting that so good a piece of work had been
turned out from his shop. [1] It was about half a cubit in size, and was
so constructed as to serve for a salt-cellar at table. This was the
first earning that I touched at Rome, and part of it I sent to assist my
good father; the rest I kept for my own use, living upon it while I went
about studying the antiquities of Rome, until my money failed, and I had
to return to the shop for work. Battista del Tasso, my comrade, did not
stay long in Rome, but went back to Florence.

After undertaking some new commissions, I took it into my head, as soon
as I had finished them, to change my master; I had indeed been worried
into doing so by a certain Milanese, called Pagolo Arsago. [2] My first
master, Firenzuola, had a great quarrel about this with Arsago, and
abused him in my presence; whereupon I took up speech in defence of my
new master. I said that I was born free, and free I meant to live, and
that there was no reason to complain of him, far less of me, since some
few crowns of wages were still due to me; also that I chose to go, like
a free journeyman, where it pleased me, knowing I did wrong to no man.
My new master then put in with his excuses, saying that he had not asked
me to come, and that I should gratify him by returning with Firenzuola.
To this I replied that I was not aware of wronging the latter in any
way, and as I had completed his commissions, I chose to be my own master
and not the man of others, and that he who wanted me must beg me of
myself. Firenzuola cried: "I don't intend to beg you of yourself; I have
done with you; don't show yourself again upon my premises." I reminded
him of the money he owed me. He laughed me in the face; on which I said
that if I knew how to use my tools in handicraft as well as he had seen,
I could be quite as clever with my sword in claiming the just payment of