"The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini," published by Doubleday & Co., 1948. First translated by John Addington Symonds in 1887. Illustrated by Salvador Dali. Signed. 

Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897. By 1947, it was the largest book publisher in the United States. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed them through its own stores. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Size: 6 x 8 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. 

#2330 

Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the Cellini Salt Cellar, the sculpture of Perseus with the Head of Medusa, and his autobiography, which has been described as “one of the most important documents of the 16th century.” He was born in Florence, the son of a musician and builder of musical instruments. Cellini was pushed towards music, but when he was 15 his father reluctantly allowed him to apprentice with the goldsmith Antonio di Sandro. He was banished for six months after being involved in a fight with several local boys at the age of 16, and went to live and work in Siena, studying under the goldsmith Fracastoro. He moved to Rome at the age of 19, where his work for the bishop of Salamanca won him the approval of Pope Clement VII. His bravery during battle against the imperial forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (during which he allegedly killed the Prince of Orange and Charles III, Duke of Bourbon) led to immense public admiration, and he returned to Florence to set up his own shop. Unfortunately, he was involved in duels, murders, and various acts of blood revenge throughout the rest of his life that leached away his favor with every papal pardon. He spent much of his later life in France, gaining notoriety for his affairs as much as for his sculptures, and is theorized to be the reason that sodomy was referred to for a time as “being used in the Italian fashion.” His final years in Florence were marked with further difficulties, and he died in 1571, a divisive figure in the history of Italy. “The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini” was started in the year 1558 and ended abruptly just before his last trip to Pisa around the year 1563, giving an extremely detailed account of his career, loves, hatreds, passions, and delights, written in an energetic, direct, and racy style. It was clearly full of exaggerations that are difficult to separate from fact, even writing in a calculated way how he contemplated his murders before carrying them out. The autobiography was translated into a definitive English edition by John Addington Symonds in 1887, with colorful illustrations by Salvador Dalí added to a Doubleday edition first published in 1948. Despite (or conversely because of) its controversial content it has been continually in print as a classic, and is commonly regarded as one of the most colorful autobiographies ever written, particularly of the Renaissance period.

Commensurate with age.