Mariano Taccola
Mariano Taccola was born in Siena in 1381. His father was a wine merchant named Jacopo. His mother's name was Madonna Nofria (Bacci). The name he was given at his baptism was Mariano Daniello. He once interviewed the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi and recorded it in one of his folios. Brunelleschi advised Taccola not to explain his inventions to others who did not understand machines. He said: "Therefore the gifts given to us by God must not be relinquished to those who speak ill of them and who are moved by envy or ignorance.  To disclose too much of one's inventions and achievements is one and the same thing as to give up the fruit of one's ingenuity... the ignorant and inexperienced understand nothing, not even when things are explained to them; their ignorance moves them promptly to anger; they remain in their ignorance because they want to show themselves learned, which they are not"