15 August

Carlo Cipolla - economic historian

Professor famous for treatise on ‘stupidity’

Carlo Maria Cipolla, an economic historian who for many years was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, was born on this day in 1922 in Pavia.  One of the leading economic historians of the 20th century, he wrote more than 20 academic books.  Yet it was for his bestselling humorous treatise, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, that he became famous. In the book, Cipolla divided the human species into four types, each sharing one characteristic of another type.  They were either (a) bandits, whose actions bring benefits for themselves but losses for others; (b) intelligent people, whose actions bring benefits for themselves and for others; (c) naive or helpless people, whose actions bring benefits for others but who tend to be exploited and therefore incur losses for themselves; or (d) stupid people, whose actions result not only in losses for themselves but for others too.  Read more…

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Francesco Zuccarelli - landscape painter

Tuscan-born artist appealed to English tastes

Francesco Zuccarelli, who was considered to be the most important landscape painter to emerge from Venice in the 18th century, was born on this day in 1702.  Zuccarelli’s picturesque Arcadian landscapes were especially appealing to English buyers, and he was more famous in England even than his contemporary, Canaletto.  His fame in England prompted Zuccarelli to spend two periods of his life there. He settled in London for the first time at the end of 1752 and remained for 10 years, enjoying great success.  After returning to Italy after being elected to the Venetian Academy, he went back to England from 1765 to 1771, during which time he was a founding member of the Royal Academy and became one of George III’s favourite painters.  Born in Pitigliano in southern Tuscany, Zuccarelli received his early training in Florence. Read more…

Gianfranco Ferré - fashion designer

Sought to create clothes for real women 

Gianfranco Ferré, who became one of the biggest names in Italian fashion during the 1980s and 1990s, was born on this day in 1944 in Legnano, a town in Lombardy north-west of Milan, between the city and Lake Maggiore, where in adult life he made his home.  Ferré was regarded as groundbreaking in fashion design in the same way as Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent in that his clothes were created with real people rather than catwalk models in mind, yet without compromise in terms of aesthetic appeal.  At the peak of his popularity, his clients included Sharon Stone, Elizabeth Taylor, the Queen of Jordan, Paloma Picasso, Sophia Loren and the late Diana, Princess of Wales.  Ferré first trained to be an architect, placing emphasis on the structure of his garments in which strong seams were often a prominent feature.  Read more…

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Ferragosto

A chance to enjoy quieter cities while Italians take a holiday

Italy, San Marino and the Italian speaking region of Switzerland all celebrate Ferragosto on this day every year with a public holiday.  This day of celebration originated during Roman times, when Feriae Augusti, the festival of the Roman Emperor Augustus, took place on 1 August. It was a day of rest for working people to signal the culmination of weeks of hard work by labourers on the land.  The month of August itself is named after Augustus. Its original name was sextilis, as it was the sixth month in the Roman calendar. Just as Julius Caesar had previously renamed quintilis - the fifth month - Iulius after himself, it was only natural for Augustus, as Julius Caesar’s chosen heir, to follow suit.  Over the centuries, it became traditional for workers to wish their employers ‘Buon Ferragosto, and to receive a bonus of extra money from their bosses in return.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, by Carlo M Cipolla

Since time immemorial, a powerful dark force has hindered the growth of human welfare and happiness. It is more powerful than the Mafia or the military. It has global catastrophic effects and can be found anywhere from the world's most powerful boardrooms to your local pub. This is the immensely powerful force of human stupidity.  Seeing the shambolic state of human affairs, and sensing the dark force at work behind it, Carlo Cipolla, the late, noted professor of economic history at the University of California, Berkeley, created a vitally important economic model that would allow us to detect, know and neutralise this threat: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity.  If you've ever found yourself despairing at the ubiquity of stupidity among even the most 'intellectual' of people, then this hilarious, timely and slightly alarming little book is for you. Arm yourself in the face of baffling political realities, unreasonable colleagues or the unbridled misery of dinner with the in-laws with the first and only economic model for stupidity.

Carlo Cipolla was an Italian economic historian. He was a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. As well as books on economic and social history, he wrote about such diverse subjects as clocks, guns and faith.

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14 August

The Martyrs of Otranto

Victims of massacre made saints

More than 800 male inhabitants of the southern Italian city of Otranto were beheaded on this day in 1480 by soldiers of the Ottoman Empire.  Legend has it that these men - 813 in total from the age of 15 upwards - were the only male survivors after Otranto, a port city some 35km (22 miles) southeast of Lecce, was captured by the Ottomans at the end of a 15-day siege.  According to some accounts, a total of 12,000 people were killed and 5,000 mainly women and children were enslaved, including victims from the territories of the Salentine peninsula. The 813 were supposedly offered clemency in return for their conversion to Islam but all refused, taking their lead from a tailor called Antonio Primaldi, who is said to have proclaimed: "Now it is time for us to fight to save our souls for the Lord. And since he died on the cross for us, it is fitting that we should die for him."  Read more…

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Benito Carbone - footballer and coach

Gifted forward sparkled in English Premier League

The footballer and coach Benito Carbone, whose partnership with fellow Italian Paolo di Canio in the colours of Sheffield Wednesday was the highlight of a six-year stay in England’s Premier League, was born on this day in 1971 in Bagnara Calabra, a seaside village in Calabria.  Carbone signed for Sheffield Wednesday from Inter-Milan in 1996 as Italian players arrived in England in large numbers for the first time. The influx included other star names, such as Gianluca Vialli, Gianfranco Zola, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Roberto Di Matteo and Stefano Eranio.  Wednesday paid £3 million for Carbone, spending a further £4.2 million on Di Canio the following year. Between them, they scored 43 goals for the Yorkshire club, Carbone netting 26.   They both enjoyed enormous popularity with supporters.  Read more…

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Pope Pius VII

Compromise candidate elected by conclave-in-exile in Venice

Pope Pius VII was born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti on this day in 1742 in Cesena in Emilia-Romagna.  He was elected Pope in a conclave that met on the island of San Giorgio in Venice in 1799 because Rome was occupied by the French.  He was crowned with a papier mâché version of the Papal tiara in 1800 because the French had seized the original. Chiaramonti was a monk of the order of Saint Benedict as well as being a distinguished theologian. He was granted the title, Servant of God, by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007.  Chiaramonti had joined the order of Saint Benedict at the age of 14. He was later ordained as a priest and went on to teach at Benedictine colleges in Parma and Rome.  After one of his relatives was elected Pope Pius VI, Chiaramonti had a series of promotions that resulted in him becoming a Cardinal.  Read more…

Enzo Ferrari – car maker

Entrepreneur turned Ferrari into world’s most famous marque

Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari motor racing team and later the Ferrari sports car factory, died on this day in 1988 at the age of 90.  Known widely as Il commendatore, he passed away in Maranello, a town in Emilia-Romagna a few kilometres from Modena, where he had a house, the Villa Rosa, literally opposite Ferrari’s headquarters, where he continued to supervise operations almost to his death. He had reportedly been suffering from kidney disease.  Since the first Ferrari racing car was built in 1947, the Scuderia Ferrari team’s famous prancing stallion symbol has been carried to victory in 244 Formula One Grand Prix races and brought home 15 drivers’ championships and 16 manufacturers’ championships. The number of Ferraris produced for road use since the company began to build cars for sale rather than simply to race is in excess of 150,000.  Read more…

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Giorgio Chiellini - footballer

Juventus star renowned for defensive excellence

The footballer Giorgio Chiellini - captain of the Italy team that won the delayed Euro 2020 tournament and renowned as one of the world’s best defenders - was born on this day in 1984 in Pisa.  Chiellini has played for much of his career at Juventus, winning an incredible seven consecutive Serie A titles from 2012 to 2018, as well as numerous other trophies.  He was Serie A Defender of the Year in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and in 2017 was named in Juventus’s Greatest XI of All Time.  He also earned 97 caps for the Italy national team before announcing his retirement from international football in 2017, although he was persuaded to change his mind by new coach Roberto Mancini, the sixth coach he had worked for in the national team. Until the victory over England at Wembley made Italy European champions, all of Chiellini’s successes were in domestic football.  Read more… Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe, by Gábor Ágoston

The Ottomans have long been viewed as despots who conquered through sheer military might, and whose dynasty was peripheral to those of Europe. The Last Muslim Conquest transforms our understanding of the Ottoman Empire, showing how Ottoman statecraft was far more pragmatic and sophisticated than previously acknowledged, and how the Ottoman dynasty was a crucial player in the power struggles of early modern Europe.  Gábor Ágoston captures the grand sweep of Ottoman history, from the dynasty's stunning rise to power at the turn of the 14th century to the Siege of Vienna in 1683, which ended Ottoman incursions into central Europe. He discusses how the Ottoman wars of conquest gave rise to the imperial rivalry with the Habsburgs, and brings vividly to life the intrigues of sultans, kings, popes, and spies. Ágoston examines the subtler methods of Ottoman conquest, such as dynastic marriages and the incorporation of conquered peoples into the Ottoman administration, and argues that while the Ottoman Empire was shaped by Turkish, Iranian, and Islamic influences, it was also an integral part of Europe and was, in many ways, a European empire.

Gábor Ágoston is professor of history at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. His many books include Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire and Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire.

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13 August

NEW - Giambologna – sculptor

Artist worked for three successive Medici Grand Dukes in Florence

Giambologna, the last in the line of significant Renaissance sculptors, died on this day in 1608 in Florence.  He was considered so important by the Medici family that once he had started working for them, they would never allow him to leave their city. They feared he would be enticed away by either the Austrian or Spanish branches of the Habsburgs to work for them.  His best known works include Abduction of a Sabine Woman - often known as Rape of the Sabine Women - in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria, and his Neptune, atop the Fountain of Neptune, in Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore.  Although influenced by Michelangelo, Giambologna produced many beautiful works in marble and bronze in his own late-Mannerist style, with perhaps less emphasis on emotion, and more on the elegance of the figures.  Read more…

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Domenico Dolce - fashion designer

One half of hugely successful Dolce & Gabbana company

The designer Domenico Dolce, whose partnership with Stefano Gabbana gave rise to one of the world’s most famous fashion houses, was born on this day in 1958 in Polizzi Generosa, a beautiful town set in the hills of northern Sicily, about 90km (56 miles) southeast of Palermo.  He and Gabbana, who he met in Milan, founded Dolce & Gabbana in 1985. The company took off in 1993 after the pop star Madonna chose them to design the costumes for a concert tour.  The company today generates about €1.3 billion in revenues and employs 5,500 people worldwide.  Dolce was born into the world of clothes. His father was a tailor and his mother worked in retail, at different times selling fabrics and lingerie.  He is said to have learned to sew at the age of six and made costumes for dolls.  After studying at art college in Palermo, Dolce moved to Milan. Read more…

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Aurelio Saffi – republican activist

Politician prominent in Risorgimento movement

The politician Aurelio Saffi, who was a close ally of the republican revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini during Italy’s move towards unification in the 19th century, was born on this day in 1819 in Forlì.  He was a member of the short-lived Roman Republic of 1849, which was crushed by French troops supporting the temporarily deposed Pope Pius IX, and was involved in the planning of an uprising in Milan in 1853.  Saffi was sentenced to 20 years in jail for his part in the Milan plot but by then had fled to England.  He returned to Italy in 1860 and when the Risorgimento realised its aim with unification Saffi was appointed a deputy in the first parliament of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.  At the time of Saffi’s birth, Forlì, now part of Emilia-Romagna, was part of the Papal States. He was educated in law in Ferrara, but became politically active in his native city. Read more…

Camillo Olivetti - electrical engineer

Founder of Italy’s first typewriter factory Olivetti 

The electrical engineer Camillo Olivetti, who opened Italy’s first typewriter factory and founded a company that would become a major player in electronic business technology, was born on this day in 1868 in Ivrea in Piedmont.  The Olivetti company that later produced Italy’s first electronic computer was developed by Adriano Olivetti, the oldest of Camillo's five children, but it was his father’s vision and enterprise that laid the foundations for the brand’s success and established the Olivetti name.  Camillo came from a Jewish middle-class background. His father, Salvador Benedetto, was a successful merchant. His mother, Elvira, came from a banking family in Modena but her interests were more cultural. She was fluent in four languages.  Elvira had full care of Camillo after Salvador died when the boy was only one and sent him to boarding school in Milan. Read more… 

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Salvador Luria – microbiologist

Award winning scientist who advanced medical research

Nobel prize winner Salvador Luria was born on this day as Salvatore Edoardo Luria in 1912 in Turin.  The microbiologist became famous for showing that bacterial resistance to viruses is genetically inherited and he was awarded a Nobel prize in 1969.  He studied in the medical school of the University of Turin and from 1936 to 1937 Luria served in the Italian army as a medical officer. He took classes in radiology at the University of Rome and began to formulate methods of testing genetic theory.  When Mussolini’s regime banned Jews from academic research fellowships, Luria moved to Paris but was forced to move again when the Nazis invaded France in 1940. Fearing for his life, he fled the capital on a bicycle, eventually reaching Marseille, where he received an immigration visa to the United States.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: An Art Lover's Guide to Florence, by Judith Testa

No city but Florence contains such an intense concentration of art produced in such a short span of time. The sheer number and proximity of works of painting, sculpture, and architecture in Florence can be so overwhelming that Florentine hospitals treat hundreds of visitors each year for symptoms brought on by trying to see them all, an illness famously identified with the French author Stendhal.  While most guidebooks offer only brief descriptions of a large number of works, with little discussion of the historical background, Judith Testa gives a fresh perspective on the rich and brilliant art of the Florentine Renaissance in An Art Lover's Guide to Florence. Concentrating on a number of the greatest works, by such masters as Botticelli and Michelangelo, Testa explains each piece in terms of what it meant to the people who produced it and for whom they made it, deftly treating the complex interplay of politics, sex, and religion that were involved in the creation of those works. 

Born in New York, Judith Testa taught history of art at Northern Illinois University. As well as books about art in Rome and Florence, she is also the author of Sal Maglie: Baseball's Demon Barber, about a New York Giants pitcher of the 1950s.

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Giambologna – sculptor

Artist worked for three successive Medici Grand Dukes in Florence

Giambogna's Abduction of a Sabine
Woman in Piazza della Signoria

Giambologna, the last in the line of significant Renaissance sculptors, died on this day in 1608 in Florence.

He was considered so important by the Medici family that once he had started working for them, they would never allow him to leave their city. They feared he would be enticed away by either the Austrian or Spanish branches of the Habsburgs to work for them.

His best known works include Abduction of a Sabine Woman - often known as Rape of the Sabine Women - in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria, and his Neptune, atop the Fountain of Neptune, in Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore.

Although influenced by Michelangelo, Giambologna produced many beautiful works in marble and bronze in his own late-Mannerist style, with perhaps less emphasis on emotion, and more on the elegance of the figures.

The sculptor was also sometimes known as Giovanni da Bologna, or Jean de Boulogne in French, and Jehan Boulongne in Flemish.

Giambologna had been born in Douai in Flanders in 1529, which was then part of the Netherlands, but is now part of France. He studied in Antwerp with the architect and sculptor Jacques du Broeucq, before moving to live in Italy in 1550. 

There, he made a detailed study of the sculptures of classical antiquity in Rome. His first major commission was given to him by Pope Pius IV, who employed him to sculpt the colossal bronze Neptune and subsidiary figures, for the Fountain of Neptune in Bologna.

Giambologna moved to live and work in Florence in 1553. He had become established there within a few years and he was invited to become a member of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno after it was founded by the Medici Duke, Cosimo I, in 1563, who was influenced by the painter and architect Giorgio Vasari.

Giambologna was so prized by the
Medici he was forbidden to leave

Among Giambologna’s most celebrated works are the Mercury, of which he did four versions. In his depictions of Mercury, the figure is poised on one foot, supported by a zephyr.

His marble sculpture Abduction of a Sabine Woman still stands in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria. The work includes three full figures and yet it was carved from a single block of marble. It was produced for Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

The sculpture was inspired by a story from ancient Roman history of the mass abduction of women from other cities for the purposes of growing the population of Rome which, at the time of its foundation, had relatively few female inhabitants. The Latin word raptio, which occurs in accounts of the incident written by the Roman historian Livy, can be translated as ‘rape’ in certain circumstances, but in this context may more accurately be taken to mean ‘abduction’ or ‘kidnapping’.

Giambologna’s several depictions of Venus produced a canon of proportions for the female figure, and also set standards for artists making Venus their subject that were to influence many future sculptors in Italy and Europe.

He also produced sculptures and ornaments for the Boboli Gardens in Florence and the gardens of other Medici villas in Tuscany.

His pupils went on to influence other sculptors throughout Europe as well as in Italy. Giambologna’s style, which incorporated grace, strength, and movement in his figures, anticipated the Baroque sculptures that were later created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

After he died in Florence at the age of 79, Giambologna was interred in a chapel that he had designed for himself in the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata in the centre of the city.

He had been an Italian sculptor in all but birth, who had left his mark on Florence and helped to make it the refined, elegant city it is today.

The Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza delle Signori 
houses a number of important statues

Travel tip:

Giambologna’s most famous work, the marble sculpture Abduction of a Sabine Woman, stands in the Loggia dei Lanzi on the south corner of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, close to the Uffizi gallery. The 14th century Loggia is named after the Lancers, who were the bodyguards of Cosimo I de’ Medici and it now provides an open air sculpture gallery for visitors to Florence to enjoy. The back wall of the Loggia is lined with ancient Roman statues of priestesses. On the far left of the Loggia is the bronze statue of Perseus by Benvenuto Cellini. Giambologna’s Abduction of a Sabine Woman, stands on the far right. Including three separate figures, it is believed to have been worked from the largest block of marble ever to have been transported to Florence and it was designed so that it can be appreciated equally from all sides. It has stood in the Loggia since 1583. A plaster cast model of the sculpture can also be seen in the Accademia Gallery in Florence. 

The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata in
Florence, where Giambologna was buried

Travel tip: 

Giambologna was laid to rest in the Cappella della Madonna del Soccorso in the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata, the mother church of the Servite Order, in Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence. The sculptor designed the chapel between 1594 and 1598 for his own tomb and it is richly decorated with frescoes and statues. The most important work in the chapel is the large bronze Crucifix by Giambologna, showing the dead Christ with his head reclining and his eyes closed. It towers over everyone who enters the chapel and depicts the body of Christ as elegant and athletic, free from the marks of the Passion.  The church itself dates back to the laying of its foundation stone in 1250. Its richly decorated interior harks back more to Roman Baroque than to Tuscan religious tradition, being decorated with marble, stucco and gilding, with impressive ceiling frescoes by Volterrano.

Also on this day: 

1819: The birth of republican activist Aurelio Saffi

1868: The birth of electrical engineer Camillo Olivetti

1912: The birth of microbiologist Salvador Luria

1958: The birth of fashion designer Domenico Dolce

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