Mario Giacoma Bellini, a wealthy upper class merchant, died at the age of 72 on December 12th 1552 in Florence, Italy after a short battle with the measles. He fought this illness for about only 5 months and died while sleeping in his bed with his wife beside him.

                Bellini was born on October 27, 1480 in Florence Italy. His father, Antonio Bellini, came from a long line of merchants who worked in Florence. Antonio married Mona Gitpastio on June 15th 1475 and in 1476 had their first son Donato. From then on, they had 2 more boys: Nicolo and Peppino,then Mario, and finally Georgio and Maria. Mario received no formal education, but merely worked along side his father learning everything there was to know about the merchant business and trading.

In 1517, he married Maria Genollia; the daughter of one of his fathers fellow merchants. In 1518, they had their first son Geno. One year and six months later, they had their daughter Isabella. Due to Maria and Mario’s knowledge of trading, they consequentially were very successful in the merchant business. Especially due to the fact that Northern Europeans began taking quite an interest in the wool linens they were trading, their wealth began to explode. This surplus allowed them to rise socially and even lend out surpluses to people who needed them, making them almost like bankers. This wealth allowed Mario to become a great patron of the arts as well. He ordered his ceilings to be paint like the ceilings of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, and as a result, became viewed as a person who was close to the church and made him more powerful. Another artist he hired was his cousin, Giovanni Bellini to paint a portrait of his wife and daughter. This patronage gave his family respect because of Giovanni’s fame. And lastly, he hired Galileo to tutor Geno. This too gained respect and fame for his family, because Galileo was known in Florence for tutored the Medici boys. Mario was unsuccessful in achieving a boat trade with Giacomo Niccolo Mocenigo, but he was successful in obtaining the wealthy banker’s daughter’s hand in marriage for his son Geno. This marriage allowed the Bellini family to maintain their social standings for a long time.

       Mario never stopped working until his family was one of the most respected and well known families in Florence. His perseverance allows his daughter and son to live without having to work up their social class. They however cannot forget his drive and determination, and must be reminded of his core values everyday.

“Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.” Mario Giacoma Bellini never gave up and fought for his family’s prestige and fame. This determination will live on in our hearts and minds as we live our lives and hope to equal Mario’s greatness.

Ciao my devoted readers!! 
     I am so excited to tell you about a piece of work I just read by Florence's own Niccolo Machiavelli( pictured to the left)! First off, I would just like to say that I absolutely loved the piece! It was a bit controversial, but I think that that is just because no one has ever written anything like it. Niccolo is a good family friend, so some believe that I am partial to liking his work, but I was truly inspired by his thoughts. I also trust his opinion because of the fact that he is the son of a lawyer and has held a bureaucratic post for 14 years before retiring and therefore witnessed political progress. In his latest work, "The Prince", he writes about the fundamental truths of modern poilitics. It completely informs the reader on the do's and dont's of being a influential and respected ruler. These ideas are exactly what my business plan was shaped around, so this piece of writing was very helpful to me in that it further helped me develop an understanding of what people like in a ruler.
     The part of his writing that I found that most interesting was the part about reasons why prince's are praised or blamed. I needed this information long ago and am glad that someone has finally basically put forth a set of guidelines for me to follow. In this section, he states that one must balance being generous versus being stingy. I interpreted this as meaning that a ruler must not constantly be giving to their people, but when they do, they must make a show of it. It is a brilliant concept in my opinion, if you give rarely, but when you do make it very extravagant and known to all, then that is what the people will remember. They will be more likely to remember the positive than the negative aspects of a ruler, so I really did find that section both informative and ever so keenly devised.
      Lastly, I found the part in which he says that "a prince must learn to accomplish his ruin, not his salvation" to be quite rich in meaning as well. I took this as meaning that one must always plan for the worst. If you expect and strategize for your downfall then you will be more prepared than those who do not. 
            Always be prepared for the worst and make show of when you are generous are the two key points I took from the reading, and I hope to carry those out as I increase my power!! I also highly suggest reading it, if you want to learn tons about being a s ruler!

Hello friends,
        I am back again to tell you about my business plan to rise to power. As I told you in my last post, I am a merchant and want to keep my high social standings. So to accomplish that goal, I have devised a plan to secure my power and perhaps even increase it. I hope you enjoy by plan and please comment if you don't! I want this to be fool proof and actually work!!
       Currently in Florence I am extremely lucky to be in a merchant. Wool cloth trade has reached its peak and I find that it is very appealing to many Northern Europeans. Florence it located in the crossroads of many wool traders and is the center of the wool trade in Europe and because of that, I am ever grateful. Not only is wool trade big nowadays, but banking is also very big. Like I told you before, I myself have become a banker of sorts; in that I loan people my surpluses of money. But recently an important banker named Giacomo Mocenigo(I'm sure you've heard of him if you live anywhere never or in Florence..) has offered to fund 5% of the international trading costs, so long as I keep the majority  of my money in his bank. I am on the verge of agreeing to his plan. I am only doubting this offer because I don't know if I feel comfortable with someone else holding onto my money, but a positive aspect of it would be that it would better my relations with his class and therefore stabilize my position in a place of power. Comment what you think I should do please, I am a bit frazzled as of now.
        On a side note, Florence is looking more and more beautiful or "bella", as we Italians say, everyday. I believe that this is due to the constant flow of money coming into our due to our most important industries: wool trade and banking. The people of Florence seem to really respect and appreciate these art forms. Also, because Florence is the a huge center of trade, it is also a huge center of learning. many ideals and philosophies have been flowing into the city from distant lands which I have found most interesting indeed. The appeal to the public is huge, which brings me to my next phase in gaining power; patronizing artists.
       Art has become so big in Florence, that I  intend to hire the most talented artists and pay them to create great architectural works. This patronism will help myself and my family gain public favor and recognition. I believe that this will also gain respect for my family. I've yet to pick who to hire, but I will be sure to tell you in my next post.
      Sea trade is not a primary source of income, so I doubt that I will ever have to use a boat in my endeavors, but if I did need one, I have connections with my sister's fiancee and I hope that I can perhaps use them to my advantage. I've heard Giacomo speak of beginning a constant trade with merchants in Pisa. He can only get there by boat on the Amo River, so I am planning on asking Maria's husband to devise a plan with me in which we each receive 50% of the profits from selling these boat to Giacomo. I am hoping that these several business connections with Giacomo will make our bond stronger and he will eel closer to me and as if he can trust me. This trust, I hope, will lead him to accept my yet to be proposed idea of arranging my daughter Isabella with one of his sons in marriage.
     So in conclusion, I hope to accept Giamoco's proposal of storing my money in his bank(comment if you think otherwise!!), patronize many artist to gain public favor and respect, and therefore maintain my family's social standing s and perhaps increase them, work up a deal with Maria's fiancee in which I pay for the shipping of his boat building supplies form Genoa to Florence and then we split the total earnings from Giamoco, and finally and most importantly perhaps, I hope to strengthen my bonds with Giamoco so that Isabella can marry one of his sons. 
      If I succeed in doing all these things, I believe that I will truly not only MAINTAIN my power, but actually increase it expontentially.
                                                                                                  Thanks for reading!!  Fino alla prossima volta!

Hello, my name is Mario Bellini and I am thirty years old. I am a merchant in Florence Italy and have recently been blessed by the increase in trade.  My currents suppliers are artisans who come from a long line of linen weavers. Recently the Northern Europeans have become specifically interested in these and we are drowning in the wealth they are providing for us. This leads our trade to have huge surpluses of money. We have lately been lending these to people who need it, specifically in the lower classes. This lending has made us almost like bankers. Banks also have become exceedingly popular recently. Even coins have been made that seem much more stable than the ones we have used in the past. 

Currently, Florence’s social system looks like this: The nobles are the highest, then the merchant class(me), then below us are the professionals and shopkeepers. And then finally the lowest of the low are the workers, they do not have job protection and are very dependent on their employers.We Florentines are very proud of our government. It is a republic and respects the opinions of individuals and individualism is something that we value strongly.

I live with my wife Mariana(pictured to the right) in a two story stucco house with a slate roof. My sister Maria and brother Georgio are still single, but Maria is planning to marry a man from Genoa.  We have a son named Geno, and a daughter named Isabella. I married Mariana three years ago and she is ten years younger than me. We just celebrated Geno’s 2nd birthday and Isabella is in her fourth month of living. She is still with a wet nurse and we plan to wean her much earlier than we did Geno. We plan for her to marry into a noble family in order to protect our new wealth and status. The only class higher than my new merchant class is the noble class. Many of my fellow merchants and I have become fed up with the noble class. They have all of the political power and we want some for ourselves. We have become resentful of their power, and they have become resentful of our wealth. I find that we are in constant turmoil.

Whereas I had no formal education as a child, I plan to send Geno to a humanist secondary school. For Isabella, I plan to get private education in our home. Now that we have obtained this wealth, I would like to educate my children like the upper class do. Isabella will learn dance, needlework, art, and music. I plan to continue selling my artisans’ cloths and earn these surpluses of money because I am quite satisfied with our life currently and our rising wealth and hopefully power.