Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/423

Rh a manner of writing in which he was a much extolled composer. Bartolommeo died in 1558, having then attained his fortieth year.

Now as Giovan-Battista Bellucci of San Marino was the son-in-law of Girolamo Genga, I have judged that it would not be well to omit mentioning what I have to relate of him, after having disposed of the lives of Girolamo and Bartolommeo Genga; and the rather, as my doing so may serve to show that everything is possible to men of genius, when once they exert the force of their will, even though they set themselves late in life to honourable and difficult undertakings; nay, when zealous effort has been aided by good natural dispositions, how often have we not seen results produced that may well be considered most admirable.

Giovanni Battista, then, was born at San Marino, on the 27th day of September, in the year 1506, and was the son of Bartolommeo Bellucci, a person of very fair station in that place. Having received early instruction in letters, GiovanBattista was sent to Bologna by his father, the above-named Bartolommeo, there to give his attention to commerce, under the care of Bastiano di Ronco, a merchant of the guild of Woolstaplers. When the young man had been in Bologna about two years, he returned to San Marino, ill of a quartan fever, from which he did not become wholly free until after the lapse of two years more; but being at length entirely cured, he set up for himself in the calling of a wool merchant, in which he continued until the year 1535, when his father, perceiving him to have got tolerably forward in the world, gave him the daughter of Guido Peruzzi, of Cagli, to wife, that Guido being a man of good standing in his native place.

But the wife of Giovan-Battista died no long time after the marriage, and he then repaired to Rome, there to visit his brother-in-law Domenico Peruzzi, who was Master of the horse to the Signor Ascanio Colonna, with whom Giovanni abode in the manner of a nobleman for two years, after which he returned to his home.

It then chanced that he went frequently to Pesaro, when Girolamo Genga, perceiving him to be an upright and well-conducted young man, bestowed on him one of his daughters in marriage, and took him into his own house, where it soon