I went home and set myself to finishing the medal which I had begun, with the head of Pope Clement and a figure of Peace on the reverse. The figure was a slender woman, dressed in very thin drapery, gathered at the waist, with a little torch in her hand, which was burning a heap of arms bound together like a trophy. In the background I had shown part of a temple, where was Discord chained with a load of fetters. Round about it ran a legend in these words: 'Clauduntur belli portæ.' [5]

During the time that I was finishing this medal, the man whom I had wounded recovered, and the Pope kept incessantly asking for me. I, however, avoided visiting Cardinal de’ Medici; for whenever I showed my face before him, his lordship gave me some commission of importance, which hindered me from working at my medal to the end. Consequently Messer Pier Carnesecchi, who was a great favourite of the Pope’s, undertook to keep me in sight, and let me adroitly understand how much the Pope desired my services. [6] I told him that in a few days I would prove to his Holiness that his service had never been neglected by me.

Note 1. Ponte a Selice, between Capua and Aversa.

Note 2. Anagni, where Boniface VIII. was outraged to the death by the
French partisans of Philip le Bel.

Note 3. 'I. e.,' private and sentimental.

Note 4. This Pecci passed into the service of Caterina de’ Medici. In 1551 he schemed to withdraw Siena from the Spanish to the French cause, and was declared a rebel.

Note 5. The medal was struck to celebrate the peace in Christendom between 1530 and 1536.

Note 6. Pietro Carnesecchi was one of the martyrs of free-thought in
Italy. He adopted Protestant opinions, and was beheaded and burned in
Rome, August 1567.

LXXI

NOT many days had passed before, my medal being finished, I stamped it in gold, silver, and copper. After I had shown it to Messer Pietro, he immediately introduced me to the Pope. It was on a day in April after dinner, and the weather very fine; the Pope was in the Belvedere. After entering the presence, I put my medals together with the dies of steel into his hand. He took them, and recognising at once their mastery of art, looked Messer Pietro in the face and said: “The ancients never had such medals made for them as these.”