Editing Benvenuto Cellini (section)

===Autobiography===
''The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini''<!--book title--> was started in the year 1558 at the age of 58 and ended abruptly just before his last trip to [[Pisa]] around the year 1563 when Cellini was approximately 63 years old. The memoirs give a detailed account of his singular career, as well as his loves, hatreds, passions,<ref name="srf.ch"/> and delights, written in an energetic, direct, and racy style; as [[Herbert Maryon|one critic]] wrote, "Other goldsmiths have done finer work, but Benvenuto Cellini is the author of the most delightful autobiography ever written."{{sfn|Maryon|1971|p=286}} Cellini's writing shows a great self-regard and self-assertion, sometimes running into extravagances which are impossible to believe. He even writes in a complacent way of how he contemplated his murders before carrying them out. He writes of his time in Paris:

{{blockquote|When certain decisions of the court were sent me by those lawyers, and I perceived that my cause had been unjustly lost, I had recourse for my defence to a great dagger I carried; for I have always taken pleasure in keeping fine weapons. The first man I attacked was a plaintiff who had sued me; and one evening I wounded him in the legs and arms so severely, taking care, however, not to kill him, that I deprived him of the use of both his legs. Then I sought out the other fellow who had brought the suit, and used him also such wise that he dropped it.|''The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini'', Ch. XXVIII, translated by John Addington Symonds, Dolphin Books, 1961}}

Parts of his tale recount some extraordinary events and phenomena; such as his stories of conjuring up a legion of devils in the [[Colosseum]], after one of his mistresses had been spirited away from him by her mother; of the marvellous [[halo (optical phenomenon)|halo]] of light which he found surrounding his head<ref>[http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/06/1157071/-Optical-effects-Heiligenschein-Holy-Light-and-a-metaphor-with-the-hubris-of-the-mighty# This is a known optical physical effect, called ''heiligenschein''.]</ref> at dawn and twilight after his Roman imprisonment, and his supernatural visions and angelic protection during that adversity; and of his being poisoned on two separate occasions.{{sfn|Rossetti|Jones|1911|p=605}}

The autobiography was translated into English by [[Thomas Roscoe]], by [[John Addington Symonds]], by Robert H.H. Cust and [[Sidney J.A. Churchill]] (1910), by [[Anne Macdonell]], and by George Bull. It has been considered and published as a classic, and commonly regarded as one of the more colorful autobiographies (certainly the most important autobiography from the [[Renaissance]]).{{citation needed|date=May 2013}}{{sfn|Maryon|1971|p=286}}