the proper name is therefore monsters, and not grotesques. Well, then, I
designed patterns of this kind, and filled them in with gold, as I have
mentioned; and they were far more pleasing to the eye than the Turkish.

It chanced at that time that I lighted upon some jars or little antique
urns filled with ashes, and among the ashes were some iron rings inlaid
with gold (for the ancients also used that art), and in each of the
rings was set a tiny cameo of shell. On applying to men of learning,
they told me that these rings were worn as amulets by folk desirous of
abiding with mind unshaken in any extraordinary circumstance, whether of
good or evil fortune. Hereupon, at the request of certain noblemen who
were my friends, I undertook to fabricate some trifling rings of this
kind; but I made them of refined steel; and after they had been well
engraved and inlaid with gold, they produced a very beautiful effect;
and sometimes a single ring brought me more than forty crowns, merely in
payment for my labour.

It was the custom at that epoch to wear little golden medals, upon which
every nobleman or man of quality had some device or fancy of his own
engraved; and these were worn in the cap. Of such pieces I made very
many, and found them extremely difficult to work. I have already
mentioned the admirable craftsman Caradosso, who used to make such
ornaments; and as there were more than one figure on each piece, he
asked at least a hundred gold crowns for his fee. This being so-not,
however, because his prices were so high, but because he worked so
slowly-I began to be employed by certain noblemen, for whom, among other
things, I made a medal in competition with that great artist, and it had
four figures, upon which I had expended an infinity of labour. These men
of quality, when they compared my piece with that of the famous
Caradosso, declared that mine was by far the better executed and more