AT that time, while I was still a young man of about twenty-three, there
raged a plague of such extraordinary violence that many thousands died
of it every day in Rome. Somewhat terrified at this calamity, I began to
take certain amusements, as my mind suggested, and for a reason which I
will presently relate. I had formed a habit of going on feast-days to
the ancient buildings, and copying parts of them in wax or with the
pencil; and since these buildings are all ruins, and the ruins house
innumerable pigeons, it came into my head to use my gun against these
birds. So then, avoiding all commerce with people, in my terror of the
plague, I used to put a fowling-piece on my boy Pagolino’s shoulder, and
he and I went out alone into the ruins; and oftentimes we came home
laden with a cargo of the fattest pigeons. I did not care to charge my
gun with more than a single ball; and thus it was by pure skill in the
art that I filled such heavy bags. I had a fowling-piece which I had
made myself; inside and out it was as bright as any mirror. I also used
to make a very fine sort of powder, in doing which I discovered secret
processes, beyond any which have yet been found; and on this point, in
order to be brief, I will give but one particular, which will astonish
good shots of every degree. This is, that when I charged my gun with
powder weighing one-fifth of the ball, it carried two hundred paces
point-blank. It is true that the great delight I took in this exercise
bid fair to withdraw me from my art and studies; yet in another way it
gave me more than it deprived me of, seeing that each time I went out
shooting I returned with greatly better health, because the open air was
a benefit to my constitution. My natural temperament was melancholy, and
while I was taking these amusements, my heart leapt up with joy, and I
found that I could work better and with far greater mastery than when I
spent my whole time in study and manual labour. In this way my gun, at
the end of the game, stood me more in profit than in loss.
It was also the cause of my making acquaintance with certain hunters
after curiosities, who followed in the track [1] of those Lombard
peasants who used to come to Rome to till the vineyards at the proper
season. While digging the ground, they frequently turned up antique
medals, agates, chrysoprases, cornelians, and cameos; also sometimes
jewels, as, for instance, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, and rubies. The
peasants used to sell things of this sort to the traders for a mere
trifle; and I very often, when I met them, paid the latter several times
as many golden crowns as they had given giulios for some 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
the rarest of these curiosities. There came into my hands, among many
other fragments, the head of a dolphin about as big as a good-sized
ballot-bean. Not only was the style of this head extremely beautiful,
but nature had here far surpassed art; for the stone was an emerald of
such good colour, that the man who bought it from me for tens of crowns
sold it again for hundreds after setting it as a finger-ring. I will
mention another kind of gem; this was a magnificent topaz; and here art
equalled nature; it was as large as a big hazel-nut, with the head of
Minerva in a style of inconceivable beauty. I remember yet another
precious stone, different from these; it was a cameo, engraved with
Hercules binding Cerberus of the triple throat; such was its beauty and
the skill of its workmanship, that our great Michel Agnolo protested he
had never seen anything so wonderful. Among many bronze medals, I
obtained one upon which was a head of Jupiter. It was the largest that
had ever been seen; the head of the most perfect execution; and it had
on the reverse side a very fine design of some little figures in the
same style. I might enlarge at great length on this curiosity; but I
will refrain for fear of being prolix.