We’re celebrating Halloween at Eternally Cool by featuring a series of stories on spooky places and events in Rome. Yesterday we interviewed Dr. Debbie Felton about ancient Roman ghosts and ghost stories. Today we travel forward in time to the Renaissance, where we encounter demons in the Colosseum alongside Benvenuto Cellini, a sixteenth-century goldsmith, painter, sculptor, soldier and musician, who also wrote a famous autobiography.
Benvenuto Cellini (who is the subject of an opera by Berloiz) was born on 3 November 1500 in Florence. His father was a musical instrument maker and musician. At the age of 16, Benvenuto was exiled from Florence following a brawl. He then wandered between Bologna, Pisa, and Rome and studied in goldsmiths’ workshops.
Over the course of his long career (he lived to be 71 years old), Cellini would work for royalty as well as for high-ranking church magistrates and political leaders, with his work taking him to Rome, Florence, Pisa, Mantua, Ferrara, and Paris.
His personal life was at least as exciting as his professional undertakings. In 1527, when Rome was brutally sacked by the troops of Charles V, Benvenuto fought valiantly to defend the city from the ramparts of Castel Sant’Angelo. He was arrested once for assault and once for embezzling gems from the Pope’s tiara. In the case of the Papal jewels, he was imprisoned in Castel Sant’Angelo, then escaped but was recaptured and treated with great severity. As well, he was charged with sodomy four times.
Cellini’s autobiographical memoirs, which he begun writing in Florence in 1558, provides a detailed account of his singular career, as well as his loves, hatreds, passions, and delights. The memoir is written in an energetic, direct, and racy style. And certainly parts of his tale are fanciful, such as his scary story of conjuring up a legion of devils in the Colosseum in 1534. We give you that passage today:
By unusual circumstances, I came to know a Siclian priest – a man of genius who was well-versed in the Greek and Latin languages. Chatting with him one day, our conversation turned to necromancy, and I told him that I had a lifelong interest in this art. The priest replied that a man who studies necromancy must have a strong and steady temper, and I confirmed my fortitude and my desire to be initiated into the art. Thus, the priest said, “If you think you have the heart for it, I will satisfy your desire.”
We agreed to meet one evening and the priest told me to bring a companion or two. I invited my very good friend, Vincenzio Romoli, and he brought with him a friend from Pistoia who was himself a practitioner of necromancy. We went to the Colosseum; and the priest, following custom, began to draw circles on the ground amidst all kinds of impressive ceremonies. He had brought with him precious perfumes and fire, including some compounds that diffused horrible orders. As soon as he was ready to undertake the ritual, he created an opening in the circle he had drawn on the ground, and took us by the hand, ordering us to throw perfumes into the fire at the proper time, and then beginning his incantations.
The ceremony lasted more than 1 1/2 hours, and in the midst of it several legions of devils appeared in the amphitheater. I was busy with the perfumes when the priest turned to me and said, “Benvenuto, ask them something.” I answered, “Let them bring me into company with my Sicilian mistress, Angelica.” The devils did not fulfill my request that evening, but my curiosity about necromancy was greatly indulged.
The necromancer told me that we must go a second time, and he assured me that my requests to the devils would be fulfilled if I brought along a virginal boy. Thus, my 12-year old apprentice went with me, as did Vincenzio Romoli (who had been my companion the first time), and Agnolino Gaddi, a close friend whom I asked to assist at the ceremony. When we came to the appointed place, the priest, having made the same preparations as the last time, placed us within his carefully drawn circle (it was more elaborate than the last time) and began his ritual. This time the care of the perfumes and the fire was given over to my friend Vincenzio, who was assited by Gaddi, and the priest handed me a pinatcolo, or magical chart, and told me to turn it as he directed me, while holding my apprentice under the pintacolo. Then, the necromancer began to call a multitude of demons by their name. Each was the leader of a legion, and he questioned them in the Hebrew language, and also in Latin and Greece. Soon the amphitheater was filled a hundred times more demons than on our first visit. Once again I was asked to make a request, and once again I said that I desired to be in the company of my Angelica. The necromancer turned to me and said, “The demons have declared that in the space of a month you shall be in her company.”
The necromancer then asked me to stand by him resolutely, because there were now a thousand more demons than he had summoned and most were dangerous. As they had already answered my question, he intended to be civil to them and to dismiss them quietly. At the same time, my apprentice, under the pintacolo, was terribly frightened, and was crying that there were a million fierce men around who threatened to destroy us, and that there were also four enormous armed giants who were trying to break into our circle. Though I was very much afraid of the demons, I did my best to conceal it; so that I greatly contributed to inspire the rest with resolution; but the truth is, I gave myself over for a dead man when I saw how frightened the necromancer was.
My apprentice placed his head between his knees and said, “I will die in this position; surely we are all going to die.” I told him that the demons were under us, and that what he saw was only smoke and shadow and that he should hold his head up and be brave. No sooner did he look up then he screamed out, “The whole amphitheater is burning, and the fires is falling on us!” Covering his eyes again, he cried that destruction was inevitable and that he could not stand to see any more.
The necromancer implored me to have a good heart, and to burn the proper perfumes, so I turned to Vincenzio, and asked him burn the most precious perfumes that he had. At the same time I looked at Gaddi, who was terrified to such a degree that he could scarcely distinguish objects, and who seemed to be half dead. Seeing him in this condition, I said to him, ‘Gaddi, upon these occasions a man should not yield to fear, but stir about to give some assistance; so come directly, and put on more of these perfumes.’
My apprentice then ventured to raise his head once more, and, seeing me laugh, began to take courage, and said, ‘The devils are flying away with a vengeance.’ We remained this way until the bell rang for morning prayers. The apprentice again told us, that there remained but few devils, and those were at a great distance. When the magician had performed the rest of his ceremonies, he stripped off his gown, and took up a bag full of books, which he had brought with him. We all went out of the circle together, keeping as close to each other as we possibly could, especially the boy, who placed himself in the middle, holding the necromancer by the coat, and me by the cloak.
As we returned to our houses in the quarter of Banchi, the boy told us that he could see two of the demons from the amphitheater leaping and skipping and running upon the roofs of the houses and on the ground. And though he had entered magic circles often, the priest declared that nothing so extraordinary had ever happened to him.
The Salt Cellar of Benvenuto Cellini, 1539-1543, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
