NAVIGATION

In his ‘autobiography’ Celini creates a wonderful picture of the enthusiasm which early Roman antique gems aroused in Renaissance collectors. The amazement they felt at the perfection of execution of these masterpieces was obviously a spur to the craftsmen of the day.
‘……. this was also the cause of my making acquaintance with certain hunters after curiosities …… while digging the ground they frequently turned up antique medals, agates, chrysophrases, cornelian’s and cameos; also sometimes jewels …… the peasants used to sell things of this sort to the traders for a mere triffle; and very often when I met them paid the latter several times as many golden crowns as they had given giulios for the same object. Independently of the profit I made by this traffic which was at least tenfold it brought me also into agreeable relations with nearly all the cardinals of Rome. I will only touch upon a few of the most notable and rarest of these curiosities …… I remember yet another precious stone different from these; it was a cameo, engraved with Hercules binding Cerebus of the triple throat; such was its beauty and the skill of its workmanship, that our great Michel Agnolo protested that he had never seen anything so wonderful’.