Page:The Life of Benvenuto Cellini Vol 2.djvu/449

Rh and her daughter Margherita into his own house upon the 8th of July. There he supported them, at the same time paying for Sputasenni's board in prison, until the 25th of December, when the man was released. His kindness to the family did not stop here. Eleven months later, that is to say, in November 1560, he adopted the boy Antonio Sputasenni, giving him the name of Nutino (a diminutive of Benvenutino), and settling upon him the sum of one thousand crowns, which were to be paid when he reached the age of eighteen, provided he adopted the profession of a sculptor. This boy turned out stupid, ill-conditioned, and intractable. Cellini found that it was useless to educate him for any art or trade. Nothing remained but to make him a friar; this being the natural refuge for incorrigible idlers and incapable ne'er-do-weels. Accordingly he was established among the novices of fratini in the Franciscan convent of the Nunziata. There he received the name of Lattanzio; but it does not appear that he pledged himself to enter into religion. Cellini continued to exercise parental authority and supervision over the youth; and one of his chief anxieties was to keep him from the contaminating society of his father. This good-for-nothing fellow had been residing for some years in Pisa; but shortly before 1569 he returned with his wife to Florence, complained loudly that his son was being educated for a friar, and used all his influence to defeat the plans Cellini had formed for Lattanzio's future. Cellini forbade Lattanzio to visit his father. The novice disobeyed this order; and early in the spring of 1569 Cellini formally disinherited his adopted son, and washed his hands of the affair. He was not, however, easily quit of these troublesome protégés. In 1570 Domenico