III. BENVENUTO CELLINI
BY PROFESSOR CHANDLER RATHFON POST
THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE〖See Professor Potter’s lecture on the Renaissance in the course on History.〗 produced many works, such as the polemics of the humanists upon subjects that have long since lost their significance, which are interesting rather as illustrations of cultural conditions than for their intrinsic value. Compositions like the pastoral romance of Sannazzaro, or the dramas based upon Senecan or upon Plautine and Terentian models, acquire importance as revivals of ancient literary types and as the seeds from which later great masterpieces were to be evolved. Much smaller is the number of works in which, as in the sonnets of Michelangelo, the absolute value preponderates over the historical. Still fewer, such as the writings of Machiavelli,〖Harvard Classics, xxxvi, 7ff; and xxvii, 363 ff.〗 have the distinction of possessing an equal interest archæologically and in themselves, and to this class the “Autobiography” of Benvenuto Cellini〖H. C., xxxi. The dates of his life are 1500–1571; the “Autobiography” was first published in 1568.〗 belongs. No other production of the period embodies more vividly the tendencies of the Renaissance or enjoys a more universal and enduring appeal. We can best appreciate it by considering it under these two aspects.