Of all the great personalities of the Renaissance, none more completely embodies that bold and sumptuous period than Benvenuto Cellini. His autobiography, like his work in rare jewels and marble, is a record of grandeur and beauty. It remains today, as it has for four centuries, unparalleled in literature as a chronicle of a life consecrated to pleasure, to vast and delicate creative enterprises and to dangerous escapades. Its vivacity and its untamable defiance give it an unchallenged place among all the great autobiographies of the world.