RETURNING to the monument, I should relate that certain famous men of
letters, who knew my brother, composed for me an epitaph, telling me
that the noble young man deserved it. The inscription ran thus:-
'“Francisco Cellino Florentino, qui quod in teneris annis ad Ioannem
Medicem ducem plures victorias retulit et signifer fuit, facile
documentum dedit quantæ fortitudinis et consilii vir futurus erat, ni
crudelis fati archibuso transfossus, quinto ætatis lustro jaceret,
Benvenutus frater posuit. Obiit die' xxvii 'Maii' MD.XXIX.”
He was twenty-five years of age; and since the soldiers called him
Cecchino del Piffero, [1] his real name being Giovanfrancesco Cellini, I
wanted to engrave the former, by which he was commonly known, under the
armorial bearings of our family. This name then I had cut in fine
antique characters, all of which were broken save the first and last. I
was asked by the learned men who had composed that beautiful epitaph,
wherefore I used these broken letters; and my answer was, because the
marvellous framework of his body was spoiled and dead; and the reason
why the first and last remained entire was, that the first should
symbolise the great gift God had given him, namely, of a human soul,
inflamed with his divinity, the which hath never broken, while the
second represented the glorious renown of his brave actions. The thought
gave satisfaction, and several persons have since availed themselves of
my device. Close to the name I had the coat of us Cellini carved upon
the stone, altering it in some particulars. In Ravenna, which is a most
ancient city, there exist Cellini of our name in the quality of very
honourable gentry, who bear a lion rampant or upon a field of azure,
holding a lily gules in his dexter paw, with a label in chief and three
little lilies or. [2] These are the true arms of the Cellini. My father
showed me a shield as ours which had the paw only, together with the
other bearings; but I should prefer to follow those of the Cellini of
Ravenna, which I have described above. Now to return to what I caused to
be engraved upon my brother’s tomb: it was the lion’s paw, but instead
of a lily, I made the lion hold an axe, with the field of the scutcheon
quartered; and I put the axe in solely that I might not be unmindful to
revenge him.
Note 1. That is, Frank, the Fifer’s son.
Note 2. I believe Cellini meant here to write “on a chief argent a label
of four points, and three lilies gules.” He has tricked the arms thus in
a MS. of the Palatine Library. See Leclanchè, p. 103; see also Piatti,
vol. i. p. 233, and Plon, p. 2.
LI
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