"The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini", translated by John Addington Symonds, decorated and illustrated with color plates and line drawings by Salvador Dali specially created for this edition, published by Doubleday, New York in 1948. First trade edition after the limited and numbered edition of 1946 which was signed by Salvador Dali.

"Another early hero of Surrealism, Salvador Dali, had been excommunicated for a rankling crime: success. Dali's slick-as-grease craftsmanship and even slicker pressagenting had won him a reputation as a sort of a screwball Benvenuto Cellini in modern dress. Last week a new edition of the real Cellini's famed Autobiography appeared (Doubleday Limited Editions) and it was illustrated by Dali. Dali had drawn 40 illustrations, and they were enough to make Cellini do a double roll in his grave. For example, Dali had decided to picture an incident when Cellini was five, and saw a lizard among the hot..." [Time Magazine - Aug. 26, 1946]

Cellini the masterful, manipulative egotistical, accomplished versatile artist of the Italian High Renaissance. Life of the gifted sculptor and goldsmith whose work is displayed in many world-famous museums around the world, including the Louvre and Museum at Venice. Artist also created various pieces for some of the Popes during the 1500s. He was a goldsmith, a sculptor, and a writer. He was also an architect. At the age of 16, continual duelling and brawling caused him to be exiled to Sienna. In 1523, he was prosecuted yet again for fighting.

The justice ruled that he be given the death penalty. Luckily for Cellini, he managed to flee to Rome. There, he became a pupil working under Michelangelo. In 1527, he shot a constable of Bourbon and the Prince of Orange. In addition to his criminal list, Cellini was accused of killing a rival goldsmith. Ten years after the murder of the constable and the prince, he was accused of embezzlement. After being thrown in jail, he escaped with much skill to be foolishly caught and imprisoned again...

"... now that I have completed my fifty-eight year, and am settled in Florence, where, considering the numerous ills that constantly attend human life, I perceive that I have never before been so free from vexations, and calamities, or possessed of so great a share of content and health, as at this period. Looking back on some delightful and happy events of my life, and on many misfortunes so truly overwhelming, that the appalling retrospect makes me wonder how I have reached this age, in vigor and prosperity, through God's goodness, I have resolved to publish an account of my life...."

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali i Domenech, 1st Marques de Dali de Pubol (1904-1989), known as Salvador Dali, Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, in the Catalonia region of Spain.

Dali was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, "The Persistence of Memory", was completed in August 1931. Dali's expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. Dali attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes" to an "Arab lineage", claiming that his ancestors were descended from the Moors."

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