difficult; and, unrepelled by the trouble which it gave me, I went on
zealously upon the path of profit and improvement.

There was in Rome another most excellent craftsman of ability, who was a
Milanese named Messer Caradosso. [5] He dealt in nothing but little
chiselled medals, made of plates of metal, and such-like things. I have
seen of his some paxes in half relief, and some Christs a palm in length
wrought of the thinnest golden plates, so exquisitely done that I
esteemed him the greatest master in that kind I had ever seen, and
envied him more than all the rest together. There were also other
masters who worked at medals carved in steel, which may be called the
models and true guides for those who aim at striking coins in the most
perfect style. All these divers arts I set myself with unflagging
industry to learn.

I must not omit the exquisite art of enamelling, in which I have never
known any one excel save a Florentine, our countryman, called Amerigo.
[6] I did not know him, but was well acquainted with his incomparable
masterpieces. Nothing in any part of the world or by craftsman that I
have seen, approached the divine beauty of their workmanship. To this
branch too I devoted myself with all my strength, although it is
extremely difficult, chiefly because of the fire, which, after long time
and trouble spent in other processes, has to be applied at last, and not
unfrequently brings the whole to ruin. In spite of its great
difficulties, it gave me so much pleasure that I looked upon them as
recreation; and this came from the special gift which the God of nature
bestowed on me, that is to say, a temperament so happy and of such
excellent parts that I was freely able to accomplish whatever it pleased
me to take in hand. The various departments of art which I have
described are very different one from the other, so that a man who