Bellings, John Arundell
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- Bellings, John Arundell
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(c.1690 - c.1729), 2nd surv. s. of Sir Richard Bellings, Kt., by Frances, dau. and coh. of Sir John Arundell, Kt. of Laherne, Corn.
1710 - 11 [Marseilles] Genoa (20 - 23 Nov. 1710), Leghorn (25 Nov. - 3 Dec.), Pisa (4 Dec.), Lucca (5 - 10 Dec.), Pistoia (10 - 12 Dec.), Florence (12 Dec. 1710 - 21 Mar. 1711), Siena (22 - 23 Mar.), Bolsena (25 Mar.), Rome (27 Mar. - 14 Apr.), Naples (18 Apr. - 4 May), Rome (8 May - 1 Sep.), Spoleto (2 Sep.), Loreto (5 Sep.), Ancona (6 Sep.), Bologna (10 - 15 Sep.), Venice (16 - 19 Sep.), Padua (21 - 23 Sep.), Vicenza (23 - 24 Sep.), Verona (24 Sep.) [Brenner Pass 25 Sep.]
John Arundell Bellings was well received in Italy, being an English Catholic of distinguished family whose father had been secretary to Catherine of Braganza. He travelled with a Catholic governor, George Waters, whose journal (Waters jnl. MSS) provides their detailed itinerary and records their frequent encounters with Catholic clergy. There are few references to works of art, though at Lucca they made a brief tour 'to look at villas' with Lord Kinnaird (9 Dec.). On 13 December Bellings had an audience in Florence with the Grand Duke who, the next day, sent him 'a present consisting of 16 whole Flasks of wine, 16 Pidgeons alive, 5 Partridges, 4 Mordadellos, and 12 Large tasses of Liquid Sweetmeates', followed a month later by 'a present of a whole wild boar'. Bellings began his study of Italian with a language master on 14 December. On Christmas Day they attended Mass in the Medici Chapel. Two days later they visited Antonio Magliabechi, the Grand Duke's remarkable librarian, originally trained as a silversmith: 'We found him at his house in the midst of his Bokes very slovenly drest after his ordinary manner,' Waters wrote; 'no man has a better memory than he, nor can give a better account of Bookes in general'; he talked well and was 'very satirical', but he was also 'very greedy of prays & is never so well pleased as when he is commended or flattered'. On 19 January Henry Newton, the British envoy, introduced him to the antiquarian John Talman and took them to see Massimiliano Soldani working on the four bronze copies of statues in the Tribuna commissioned by Queen Anne for Blenheim. In March Bellings and Waters visited the Grand Duke's laboratory, where 'they make all those little remedies that are given sometimes for Presents at Florence by the Great Duke and are sent from thence in Little boxes to all parts of Europe'.
They reached Rome via Siena on 27 March 1711 and took lodgings at the Monte d'Oro, by the Piazza di Spagna. On 29 March, having attended 'Pontifical High Mass in the Chapel of Sixtus' they called upon the Catholic Colleges in the city. Travelling gentlemen and Catholic clergy called on them in their lodgings (some thirty British names are cited), and Cardinal Imperiali sent them 'a Dish of the finest Troutes we ever saw'. On 14 April they set out for Naples, where they remained until 4 May, seeing the sights and attending the liquefaction of the blood of S.Januarius. They had an audience with the Viceroy, who received them rather coldly (having just heard the news of the death of the Emperor Joseph I, as they afterwards discovered). They returned to their lodgings at the Monte d'Oro in Rome, until they had found new apartments at Pietro Lamotte's locanda in the Strada della Croce. During the following months, Bellings was taken on a course of antiquities by the Abbate Vacodio and he began lessons in architecture. Bellings and Waters left Rome on 1 September 1711, and travelled via Spoleto, Loreto, Ancona and Bologna to Venice, where they stayed five days.1 They were in Padua on 22 September2 and passed through Vicenza and Verona as they left Italy for Germany. Waters's journal ends at Ghent on 2 May 1712.
1. SP 99/59, f.230 (Cole, 18 Sep. 1711). 2. Brown 1391.