The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
Translated by John Addington Symonds
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The opening
I
ALL men of whatsoever quality they be, who have done anything of excellence, or which may properly resemble excellence, ought, if they are persons of truth and honesty, to describe their life with their own hand; but they ought not to attempt so fine an enterprise till they have passed the age of forty. This duty occurs to my own mind now that I am travelling beyond the term of fifty-eight years, and am in Florence, the city of my birth. Many untoward things can I remember, such as happen to all who live upon our earth; and from those adversities I am now more free than at any previous period of my career-nay, it seems to me that I enjoy greater content of soul and health of body than ever I did in bygone years. I can also bring to mind some pleasant goods and some inestimable evils, which, when I turn my thoughts backward, strike terror in me, and astonishment that I should have reached this age of fifty-eight, wherein, thanks be to God, I am still travelling prosperously forward.
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About this edition
- The words
- John Addington Symonds's English translation, copied word for word.
- Copied from
- Left out
- The source library's header, footer and license
- The title page and opening pages before chapter 1, in 2 places
- A printed rule and the book's title line, repeated (the app makes its own title) (2 blocks)
- Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 2 places
- The closing line of Part One ('End of Part One')
- A repeated title line ('Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini Part II'); its 'Part II' is the part field
- The closing lines of the book ('End of Part Two', 'End of Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini') (2 blocks)