3 February

NEW - Renzo De Vecchi - footballer

Record-holder since 1910 as youngest to play for Italy

Renzo De Vecchi, a defender whose record as the youngest player to appear for the Italy national team has stood since 1910, was born on this day in 1894 in Milan.  De Vecchi was aged 16 years and 112 days when he was sent on to replace an injured player in a match against Hungary in Budapest on May 26, 1910. The newly-formed Italian team had played its first fixture only 16 days previously, beating France 6-2 in Milan. This time the result was a resounding 6-1 defeat.  Forward Rodolfo Gavinelli might have been credited with the record a year later. It was claimed he was only 16 years and 97 days when he appeared against France in Paris 1911 but it could not be recognised officially because of uncertainty over his date of birth.  Since then, the only player to appear for the azzurri before the age of 17 is the Udinese attacker Simone Pafundi.  Read more…

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Giulio Gatti-Casazza - impresario

Manager who transformed the New York Met

Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the impresario who as general manager transformed the Metropolitan Opera in New York into one of the world’s great houses, was born on this day in 1869 in Udine in northeast Italy.  The former general manager at La Scala in Milan, Gatti-Casazza was in charge of the Met for 27 years, from 1908 to 1935. In that time, having brought with him from Milan the brilliant conductor and musical director Arturo Toscanini, he not only attracted almost all of the great opera singers of his era but set the highest standards for the company, which have been maintained to the present day.  Gatti-Casazza also pulled off the not inconsiderable feat of rescuing the Met from the brink of bankruptcy after the stock market crash of 1929. The young Gatti-Casazza had studied engineering after leaving school, graduating from the Genoa Naval School of Engineering. Read more…

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Wilma Montesi - murder victim

‘Body on the beach’ mystery that sparked a national scandal

Wilma Montesi, the woman whose unexplained death in 1953 precipitated a scandal that reached the highest levels of the Italian government, was born on this day in 1932 in Rome.  Raised in the Trieste-Salario neighbourhood, little more than a couple of kilometres from central Rome, she was a 21-year-old woman who dreamed of becoming an actress but whose ambitions were known to no one outside her own family and friends until she disappeared from her home in Via Tagliamento on the afternoon of April 9, 1953.  Two days afterwards, her semi-naked body was found on the beach at Torvaianica, some 40km (25 miles) south of the capital. The mystery surrounding her death sparked four years of police investigations and conspiracy theories and the resignation of a senior member of prime minister Mario Scelba’s government. Read more…

Giuseppe Forlenza – eye surgeon

Napoleon recognised brilliance of ocular specialist

Giuseppe Forlenza, an important 18th century ophthalmologist and surgeon, was born on this day in 1757 in Picerno in the province of Potenza. He became famous for performing successful cataract surgery and for his treatment of eye diseases. Forlenza was born in the region of Basilicata, which at that time was part of the Kingdom of Naples. His father and two uncles were all surgeons.  He went to Naples and then on to France to study surgery. He spent two years gaining experience at St George’s Hospital in London and then returned to France where he concentrated on treating eye diseases.  Forlenza carried out eye surgery at a retirement home in Paris and performed many remarkable operations on soldiers returning from fighting in Egypt who were suffering from eye problems.  Read more…

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Giovanni Battista Vaccarini - architect

Sicilian Baroque designs shaped the look of Catania

Giovanni Battista Vaccarini, the architect who designed many of the important buildings in Sicily’s second city of Catania, was born on this day in 1702 in Palermo. He was responsible for several palaces, including the Palazzo del Municipio, the Palazzo San Giuliano and the Palazzo dell’Università.  He completed the rebuilding of a number of churches, including the Chiesa della Badia di Sant’Agata, and designed the Baroque façade of the city’s Duomo – the Cattedrale di Sant’Agata – which had been a ruin.  Perhaps his most famous work, though, is the Fontana dell’Elefante, which he placed at the centre of the reconstructed Piazza Duomo, consisting of a marble pedestal and fountains, supporting an ancient Roman statue of an elephant made from lava stone, which in turn has an obelisk mounted on its back.  Read more…

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Giuseppe Moretti - sculptor

Sienese artist who became famous in the United States

The sculptor Giuseppe Moretti, who became well known in the United States as a prolific creator of public monuments, was born on this day in 1857 in Siena.  Moretti's favourite medium was marble and he considered his Head of Christ, which he carved from a block of Alabama marble in 1903, to be his greatest work.  The creation which earned him most fame, however, was the 56-foot (17.07m) statue of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking, which he made for the 1904 World's Fair in St Louis, Missouri on behalf of the city of Birmingham, Alabama as a symbol of its heritage in the iron and steel industry.  Moretti made the statue in clay in New Jersey before overseeing its casting in iron in Birmingham.  Vulcan, the largest cast iron statue in the world, was relocated to Alabama State Fairgrounds after the St Louis Exposition before being moved again. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Calcio: A History of Italian Football, by John Foot

The first history of Italian football to be written in English, Calcio: A History of Italian Football is a mix of serious analysis and comic storytelling, with vivid descriptions of games, goals, dives, missed penalties, riots and scandals in the sometimes richest and toughest league in the world.  Calcio tells the story of Italian football from its origins in the 1890’s to the present day. It takes us through a history of great players and teams, of style, passion and success, but also of violence, cynicism, catenaccio tactics and corruption.  We meet the personalities that have shaped this history – from the Italian heroes to the foreigners that failed, the model professionals to the mavericks. Calcio evokes the triumphs (the 1982 World Cup victory) and the tragedies (Meroni, the 'Italian George Best', killed by his number one fan), set against a backdrop of paranoia and intrigue, in a country where the referee is seen as corrupt until proven otherwise.

John Foot, whose father, Paul, was a noted investigative journalist, is an English academic and historian specialising in Italy. His other books include Blood and Power: The Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism, The Archipelago: Italy Since 1945, and Pedalare! Pedalare!: A History of Italian Cycling.

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Renzo De Vecchi - footballer

Record-holder since 1910 as youngest to play for Italy

Renzo De Vecchi in the red
and black of AC Milan

Renzo De Vecchi, a defender whose record as the youngest player to appear for the Italy national team has stood since 1910, was born on this day in 1894 in Milan.

De Vecchi was aged 16 years and 112 days when he was sent on to replace an injured player in a match against Hungary in Budapest on May 26, 1910. The newly-formed Italian team had played its first fixture only 16 days previously, beating France 6-2 in Milan. This time the result was a resounding 6-1 defeat.

Forward Rodolfo Gavinelli might have been credited with the record a year later. It was claimed he was only 16 years and 97 days when he appeared against France in Paris 1911 but it could not be recognised officially  because of uncertainty over his date of birth.

Since then, the only player to appear for the azzurri before the age of 17 is the Udinese attacker Simone Pafundi - currently on loan with Sampdoria - who was 16 years 247 days when he came off the substitutes’ bench against Albania in Tirana in November 2022.

De Vecchi, who made a total of 43 appearances for Italy, many as captain, in a career interrupted by the First World War, also held the record for 28 years as the youngest to play in Serie A, which was known as the Italian Football Championship during his career.

He was 15 years 284 days on his debut in November 1909, which was bettered in 1937 by Amedeo Amedei of Roma at 15 years 280 days.  The current record-holder is another AC Milan player, forward Francesco Camarda, who was aged 15 years 260 days when he tasted his first Serie A action in November 2023.

De Vecchi had another claim to football fame off the field. After hanging up his boots as a player in 1930, he became a regular contributor to many sport newspapers and in 1939 helped journalist Leone Boccali compile the first edition of Enciclopedia lllustrata del Calcio Italiano, considered the bible of Italian football.

The publication became so popular and well regarded that it is still published. Now called Almanacco lllustrato del Calcio, the 2026 edition is the 75th.  

De Vecchi was part of a Milan side that twice finished second in the Italian Football Championship, his qualities as a player making him such a revered member of the team that he was given the nickname "Il Figlio di Dio" - The Son of God - by the Milan fans.

De Vecchi (second right, back row) pictured with
the title-winning Genoa CFC team of 1924

As a player of brains rather than brawn, De Vecchi is said to have transformed the role of full back, who was traditionally asked to perform only basic tasks, mostly as uncomplicated as kicking the ball away from danger or hurling it as far up the field as possible from throw-ins.

Thanks to De Vecchi’s example, the full back became a contributor to the game as well as simply a defender, looking to pass the ball to a midfield teammate to set attacks in motion and taking throw-ins that had direction and purpose. 

De Vecchi even scored goals, which was unheard of from a traditional full back. He hit seven in his 64 appearances for AC Milan, who often asked him to take penalties.  As a defender, he was known for his strength, tackling ability, anticipation and organisational skills, yet had excellent ball skills and could dribble as effectively as a winger.

Despite becoming an idol among Milan fans, it was after he moved to Genoa in 1913 that he enjoyed his biggest success, winning the title in 1914-15 season and again in 1922-23 and 1923-24. Ultimately, he spent 16 years with the Liguria club before retiring as a player in 1929, having spent the last two seasons there in the role of player-coach.

De Vecchi, captain of the Italy team, with
his Netherlands counterpart, in 1920

Brought up in the Porta Ticinese area of Milan, De Vecchi first displayed his exceptional ability playing for a small Milanese team, Pro Monforte. 

Convinced his son could have a bright future in the game, De Vecchi’s father, Enrico, a die-hard AC Milan supporter, became a partner in the club. He had to pay handsomely for the privilege, but it opened doors for his son to sign with the rossoneri. 

Yet the Milan of De Vecchi’s time could not reproduce the success the club enjoyed under the club’s English-born player-manager and co-founder, Herbert Kilpin, who led them to three titles in their first eight years as a club.

When rumours began to circulate that De Vecchi, fast establishing a reputation as the best defender in the Italian game, was unsettled, another of the Italian game’s early giants, Genoa Cricket and Football Club, set out to sign him.

Genoa’s Scottish-born president, Geo Davidson, came up with a record transfer fee of 24,000 lire to persuade Milan to sell. He also fixed up De Vecchi with a well-paid job at the port city’s Banca Commerciale, which enabled him to circumnavigate the Italian Football Federation’s rule that players, who were still officially amateurs, could be transferred from one club to another only if they had moved for work reasons.

De Vecchi’s amateur status also permitted him to play for Italy at the Olympic football tournaments of 1920 and 1924, in Antwerp and Paris, although the azzurri were successful in neither.

During World War One, when Genoa were declared champions after the 1914-15 championship ended early, many footballers lost their lives in action. De Vecchi managed to avoid being sent to the front. He enlisted in the infantry, stationed in Brescia, but was employed on liaison services, traveling in a motorcycle sidecar. 

After ending his career as a player, De Vecchi became a coach, first with Genoa and then Rapallo, a resort town near Genova. He reinforced his reputation as a hero in his adopted city by winning the 1934-35 Serie B (Girone A) title as coach, ensuring their absence from Serie A was limited to just one season after relegation the year before.

Having originally pursued his journalist interests simultaneously with being a player and then coach, he became a journalist full time. Having returned to Milan, he died in 1967 at the age of 73.

Porta Ticinese, of one Milan's historic gates, gives
its name to the district in which De Vecchi was born

Travel tip:

Porta Ticinese, the rione - district - of Milan in which De Vecchi was born, is today one of Milan’s most atmospheric and historic quarters. It takes its name from the Porta Ticinese gate. Formerly known as Porta Cicca, and during Napoleonic rule as Porta Marengo, the south-west facing former entrance to the city was first created with the Spanish walls of the city, in the 16th century, but later demolished and rebuilt in the early 19th century. The current arch was built between 1801 and 1813 by architect Luigi Cagnola. The district is part of the Navigli area of Milan, which boasts monuments, significant churches and night life, particularly around its canals, and has become one of the most important areas of Milan outside the historic centre. It is home to the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio, first established in the Middle Ages and restored several times. Sant'Eustorgio is located inside the Parco delle Basiliche - officially known as the Parco Papa Giovanni Paolo II - a 40,700 square metre urban park that also includes the Basilica of San Lorenzo, one of the oldest churches in the city, originally built in Roman times. The nearby Colonne di San Lorenzo are among the best preserved Roman ruins in Milan.

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A sheltered gulf and mild climate have made
Rapallo an attractive tourist destination

Travel tip: 

Rapallo, the coastal town on the Gulf of Tigullio in eastern Liguria, where De Vecchi coached for a time, is known for its sheltered gulf, mild climate and elegant seafront, which made it one of the earliest winter resorts in Italy. With its palm-lined promenade, Rapallo became famous across Europe in the late 19th century as a winter retreat for visitors from northern countries. A settlement since pre‑Roman times, the town grew significantly in the Middle Ages under the Republic of Genoa, benefiting from its strategic coastal position, and flourished after the arrival of the railway in the late 1800s opened it to tourism. Rapallo has an unusually rich literary heritage for a small Ligurian town, having attracted British, Irish, and American writers during the interwar years. Max Beerbohm, Ezra Pound and Friedrich Nietzsche all chose to stay in Rapallo for part of their lives, as did the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.  Architectural highlights include the Castello sul Mare, a 16th‑century coastal fort that sits right at the water’s edge, plus the churches of San Gervasio e Protasio and San Stefano. The Santuario di Montallegro, a major pilgrimage destination reached by cable car, offers sweeping views of the gulf.  Portofino, Santa Margherita Ligure  and the Cinque Terre are among its neighbours on the Ligurian Riviera.

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More reading:

Genoa CFC  - Italy’s oldest football club

The first Italian football championship

Herbert Kilpin and the founding of AC Milan

Also on this day:

1702: The birth of architect Giovanni Battista Vaccarini

1757: The birth of eye surgeon Giuseppe Forlenza

1857: The birth of sculptor Giuseppe Moretti

1862: The birth of opera impresario Giulio Gatti-Casazza

1932: The birth of Wilma Montesi, murder victim in 1953 scandal

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2 February

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - composer

Prolific writer had huge influence on the development of religious music

The composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who was the most famous representative of the 16th century Roman school of musical composition and whose work is often described as the culmination of Renaissance polyphony, died on this day in 1594 in Rome.  Probably in his 70th year when he died, he had composed hundreds of pieces, including 104 masses, more than 300 motets, at least 72 hymns and some 140 or more madrigals.  He served twice as maestro di cappella - musical director - of the Cappella Giulia (Julian Chapel), the choir at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, a highly prestigious if not well paid position.  Appointed for the first time in 1551, he might have stayed there for the rest of his working life had a new pope, Paul IV, not introduced much stricter discipline compared with his predecessor, Julius III.  Read more…

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Raimondo D’Inzeo – Olympic showjumper

First athlete to compete in eight consecutive Games

Raimondo D'Inzeo, who with his older brother Piero became the first athlete to compete in eight consecutive Olympic Games, was born on this day in 1925 in Poggio Mirteto, a small town in Lazio about 45km (28 miles) northeast of Rome.  They achieved the record when they saddled up for the show jumping events in Montreal in 1976, surpassing the previous record of seven consecutive summer Games held by the Danish fencer Ivan Osiier, whose run, which began in 1908 and was interrupted twice by World Wars, had stood since 1948.  The D’Inzeo brothers, whose Olympic journey began in London in 1948 just as Osiier’s was ending, had chalked off seven Olympics in a row at Munich in 1972, when each won the last of their six medals in the team event. Raimondo had carried the Italian flag at the opening ceremony.  Read more…

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Antonio Segni - prime minister and president

Sardinian politician famous for tactical cunning

Antonio Segni, the first Sardinian to become Italy's prime minister, was born on this day in 1891 in Sassari, the second largest city on the island.  Sassari was also the hometown of another Italian prime minister, Francesco Cossiga, and of the country's most successful Communist leader, Enrico Berlinguer.  Like Segni, Cossiga also served the country as president.  Born into a landowning family and a prominent member of the Christian Democratic party from the time of its formation towards the end of the Second World War, Segni was prime minister from 1955 to 1957 and from 1959 to 1960. He was president from 1962 until he was forced to retire due to ill health in 1964.  Frail in appearance for much of his life, Segni was a strong politician nonetheless, given the affectionate nickname Il malato di ferro - the invalid with the iron constitution - by his supporters. Read more…

Antonio Maria Valsalva – anatomist

Work by brilliant professor benefits astronauts today

Antonio Maria Valsalva, a much respected anatomist, died on this day in 1723 in Bologna.  Valsalva’s research focused on the anatomy of the ear and his discoveries were so important that a piece of equipment used by astronauts today is named after him.  The Valsalva device in spacesuits allows astronauts to equalise the pressure in their ears by performing the Valsalva manoeuvre inside the suit without using their hands to block their nose. It has also been used for other purposes, such as to remove moisture from the face.  Valsalva was born in Imola in 1666. He received an education in humanities, mathematics and natural sciences before studying medicine and philosophy at Bologna University. He later became Professor of Anatomy at Bologna University.  His main interest was the middle and inner ear. Read more…

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Vittorino da Feltre – humanist and educator

Teacher to the nobility provided free education for poor children

A scholar considered to have been the greatest humanist schoolmaster of the Renaissance, Vittorino da Feltre, died on this day in 1446 in Mantua in the Lombardy region.  Da Feltre, who was originally named Vittore dei Ramboldini when he was born in Feltre in the republic of Venice in 1378, is thought to have established the first boarding school in Europe, a place of learning where the pupils enjoyed their lessons so much that it became known as La Casa Gioiosa - The House of Joy.  After studying and then teaching at the University of Padua, Da Feltre chose to settle in Padua and became a successful teacher, welcoming pupils into his own home, varying his fee according to the financial situation of the pupil’s family. He himself had come from a noble family that had become impoverished and his own early education had been difficult. Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Cambridge History of Sixteenth-Century Music, by Iain Fenlon

Part of the seminal 12-volume Cambridge History of Music series, this volume departs from standard histories of early modern Western music in two important ways. First, it considers music as something primarily experienced by people in their daily lives, whether as musicians or listeners, and as something that happened in particular locations, and different intellectual and ideological contexts, rather than as a story of genres, individual counties, and composers and their works. Second, by constraining discussion within the limits of a 100-year timespan, the music culture of the 16th century is freed from its conventional (and tenuous) absorption within the abstraction of 'the Renaissance', and is understood in terms of recent developments in the broader narrative of this turbulent period of European history. The Cambridge History of Sixteenth-Century Music is both an original take on a well-known period in early music and a key work of reference for scholars. 

Iain Fenlon is a former Professor of Historical Musicology at the University of Cambridge. His principal area of research is music from 1450 to 1650, particularly in Italy.

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1 February

Corradino D'Ascanio - engineer

Aeronautical genius famed for helicopters and the Vespa scooter 

Corradino D'Ascanio, the aeronautical engineer whose design for a clean motorcycle turned into the iconic Vespa scooter and who also designed the first helicopter that could actually fly, was born on this day in 1891 in Popoli, a small town about 50km inland of Pescara.  The engineer, whose work on aircraft design during the Second World War saw him promoted to General in the Regia Aeronautica, was always passionate about flight and might never have become involved with road vehicles had he not been out of work in the post-War years.  His scooter would have been built by Lambretta had he not fallen out with the company founder, Ferdinando Innocenti, in a dispute over his design.  Instead, D'Ascanio took his plans to Enrico Piaggio, with whom he had worked previously in the aeronautical sector.  Piaggio saw in D'Ascanio's scooter an irresistible opportunity to revive his ailing company.  Read more…

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Teresa Mattei - partisan and politician

Former Communist who led Italian Women’s Union

The politician and former partisan Teresa Mattei, who was the youngest member of the Constituent Assembly that formed Italy’s post-War government and later became a director of the Unione Donne Italiane (Italian Women’s Union), was born on this day in 1921 in Genoa.  After being expelled from the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1957, Mattei became a leading advocate of the rights of children as well as women and later campaigned for the prosecution of war criminals.  As a prominent executive of the UDI she was influential in the adoption of mimosa as the symbol of International Women’s Day, which takes place on March 8 each year, arguing that because the flower proliferated in the countryside it represented a more accessible alternative to violets and orchids. Mattei’s father was prominent in the anti-Fascist Partito d’Azione (Action Party). Read more…

Renata Tebaldi – opera singer

Performer with a beautiful lirico soprano voice

Opera singer Renata Tebaldi was born on this day in 1922 in Pesaro.  Said by the conductor Arturo Toscanini to possess ‘the voice of an angel’, Tebaldi had a long stage career and made numerous recordings.  Her parents had separated before her birth and she grew up in the home of her maternal grandparents in Langhirano in the province of Parma in Emilia-Romagna.  Tebaldi was stricken with polio at the age of three but later became interested in music and sang in the church choir. She was sent to have piano lessons but the teacher decided she should study singing instead and arranged for her to attend the conservatory in Parma. She later transferred to Liceo Musicale Rossini in Pesaro. Tebaldi made her stage debut in 1944, while Italy was still at war, in Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele in Rovigo but her beautiful voice first began to attract attention in 1946 when she appeared as Desdemona in Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello in Trieste.  Read more…

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Francesco Maria Veracini – violinist

Virtuoso performer was prolific composer

One of the great violinists of the 18th century, Francesco Maria Veracini, was born on this day in 1690 in Florence.  He was to become famous throughout Europe for his performances and for a while he was Handel’s biggest rival as a composer.  Veracini was born into a musical family, although his father was a pharmacist and undertaker. His grandfather, Francesco, had been one of the first violinists in Florence and had a music school business, which he eventually passed on to his son, Antonio, who was the younger Francesco’s teacher. Veracini grew up in Florence but by 1711 he had established himself in Venice where he played in church orchestras.  In 1712 on February 1, his 22nd birthday, he performed a violin concerto of his own composition in the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in honour of the visit to Venice of the Austrian ambassador. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Vespa 75 Years: The Complete History (Updated edition), by Giorgio Sarti

April 1946: the first 15 examples of the Vespa leave the Piaggio factory. This was the beginning of a unique and unrepeatable story, that of a revolutionary two-wheeled vehicle that as well as leaving an indelible trace in the history of transportation, has become an authentic cult object for every generation that followed. Simple elegant forms, practicality and riding comfort were just a few of the qualities that brought the popular scooter success on a global level. 75 years on from the first Vespa, this book, an updated version of the successful Vespa: 70 Years, traces decade by decade the technical and stylistic evolution of this timeless icon. All this without losing sight of aspects associated with communications – ever a strong suit of the Pontedera group – and the ever-increasing interest of collectors. Vespa 75 Years: The Complete History is complemented by the book Vespa. All the Models, published in 2020, which offers in a single volume a systematic catalogue of every model and every version produced by Piaggio.

Giorgio Sarti was born and lives in Milan. He is a qualified engineer and since 1982 he has been contributing to motorcycling periodicals as a journalist. He is the author of many books on Vespa and of the first historical encyclopaedia of motorcycles.

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