Cellini was born in 1500, at the very beginning of the century called the Cinquecento. He was a brilliant jeweler, a talented sculptor, a good musician, and a brave warrior. And he also left behind a book—autobiographical notes—whose significance is still debated in world literature today. But our edition of Cellini’s life and work is not merely a brief retelling of his memoirs. A person is inseparable from the time in which they live. Therefore, on the pages of this book, the turbulent and fantastic events of the 16th century come to life—a century that was tragic, full of contradictions, and cruel. Internal and external wars, freethinking and the Inquisition, lofty ideals and deep moral decline. And over all this, the brilliant, marvelous works left to us as a legacy by painters, writers, philosophers, sculptors, and architects—Cellini’s contemporaries. He had friends, loved some people, and painfully hated others—just as contradictory as his century.