twenty golden crowns which she had in her bag, and added: "Set me the
jewel after the fashion you have sketched, and keep for me the old gold
in which it is now set." On this the Roman lady observed: "If I were in
that young man's body, I should go off without asking leave." Madonna
Porzia replied that virtues rarely are at home with vices, and that if I
did such a thing, I should strongly belie my good looks of an honest
man. Then turning round, she took the Roman lady's hand, and with a
pleasant smile said: "Farewell, Benvenuto." I stayed on a short while at
the drawing I was making, which was a copy of a Jove by Raffaello. When
I had finished it and left the house, I set myself to making a little
model of wax, in order to show how the jewel would look when it was
completed. This I took to Madonna Porzia, whom I found with the same
Roman lady. Both of them were highly satisfied with my work, and treated
me so kindly that, being somewhat emboldened, I promised the jewel
should be twice as good as the model. Accordingly I set hand to it, and
in twelve days I finished it in the form of a fleur-de-lys, as I have
said above, ornamenting it with little masks, children, and animals,
exquisitely enamelled, whereby the diamonds which formed the lily were
more than doubled in effect.

Note 1. Cellini calls this 'grosseria.'

Note 2. Don Francesco de Bobadilla. He came to Rome in 1517, was shut up
with Clement in the castle of S. Angelo in 1527, and died in 1529, after
his return to Spain.

Note 3. This painter, Gio. Francesco Penni, surnamed Il Fattore, aided
Raphael in his Roman frescoes and was much beloved by him. Together with
Giulio Romano he completed the imperfect Stanze of the Vatican.