esented the whole of the action of Bastia,
which was very beautiful; and then he executed the portrait of that
Duke in a steel die for the purpose of making medals, with the Taking of
Jesus Christ by the Multitude on the reverse. Afterwards, urged by
Giovio, he went to Rome, and obtained by favour of Cardinal Ippolito de'
Medici and Cardinal Giovanni Salviati the privilege of taking a portrait
of Clement VII, from which he made a die for medals, which was very
beautiful, with Joseph revealing himself to his brethren on the reverse;
and for this he was rewarded by His Holiness with the gift of a Mazza,
an office which he afterwards sold in the time of Paul III, receiving
two hundred crowns for it. For the same Clement he executed figures of
the four Evangelists on four round crystals, which were much extolled,
and gained for him the favour and friendship of many prelates, and in
particular the good-will of Salviati and of the above-mentioned Cardinal
Ippolito de' Medici, that sole refuge for men of talent, whose portrait
he made on steel medals, besides executing for him on crystal the
Presentation of the Daughter of Darius to Alexander the Great.

After this, when Charles V went to Bologna to be crowned, Giovanni made
a portrait of him in steel, from which he struck a medal of gold. This
he carried straightway to the Emperor, who gave him a hundred pistoles
of gold, and sent to inquire whether he would go with him to Spain; but
Giovanni refused, saying that he could not leave the service of Clement
and of Cardinal Ippolito, for whom he had begun some work that was still
unfinished.

Having returned to Rome, Giovanni executed for the same Cardinal de'
Medici a Rape of the Sabines, which was very beautiful. And the
Cardinal, knowing himself to be much indebted to him for all these
things, rewarded him with a vast number of gifts and courtesies; but the
greatest of all was this, that the Cardinal, when departing for France
in the midst of a company of many lords and gentlemen, turned to
Giovanni, who was there among the rest, and, taking from his own neck a
little chain to which was attached a cameo worth more than six hundred
crowns, he gave it to him, telling him that he should keep it until his
return, and intending to bestow upon him afterwards such a recompense as
he knew to be due to the talent of Giovanni.

On the death of the Cardinal, that cameo fell into the hands of Cardinal
Farnese, for whom Giovanni afterwar