16 January

Count Vittorio Alfieri – playwright and poet

Romantic nobleman inspired the oppressed with his writing

Dramatist and poet Count Vittorio Alfieri was born on this day in 1749 in Asti in Piedmont.  He earned himself the title of ‘the precursor of the Risorgimento’ because the predominant theme of his poetry was the overthrow of tyranny and with his dramas he tried to encourage a national spirit in Italy. He has also been called ‘the founder of Italian tragedy.’  Alfieri was educated at the Military Academy of Turin but disliked military life and obtained leave to travel throughout Europe.  In France he was profoundly influenced by studying the writing of Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu and in England he embarked on a doomed affair with an unsuitable woman.  When he returned to Italy in 1772 he settled in Turin and resigned his military commission.  Soon afterwards, he wrote a tragedy, Cleopatra, which was performed to great acclaim in 1775.  Read more…

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Erasmo da Narni - condottiero

Soldier from poor origins became general commander of Venetian armies

One of the most famous condottieri of the Renaissance, Erasmo da Narni, who had a distinguished career as a military leader, died on this day in 1443 in Padua.  Known as Gattamelata, the honey-eyed cat, Erasmo has been immortalised by Donatello’s bronze equestrian statue of him in Piazza del Santo, one of Padua’s main squares.  Born in Narni in Umbria, Erasmo went from a humble household into a military life, serving in turn the rulers of the Papal States, Rome, Florence, and Venice. Condottieri were professional soldiers who were hired by city states to lead mercenary armies on the battlefield.  With his friend, Brandolino Brandolini, he worked for the Assisi lord, Cecchino Broglia, and later, serving under another condottiero, Braccio da Montone, lord of Perugia, he played his part in the conquests of Todi, Terni, Narni, Rieti, and Spoleto and helped win the Battle of Viterbo against Muzio Attendolo Sforza in 1419.  Read more…

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Renzo Mongiardino - interior and set designer

Favourite of wealthy clients known as the ‘architect of illusion’

Lorenzo ‘Renzo’ Mongiardino, who became Italy’s leading classic interior designer and a creator of magnificent theatre and film sets, died in Milan on this day in 1998.  He was 81 years old and had never fully recovered from an operation the previous November to install a pacemaker.  Mongiardino, who was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Art Direction during his career, worked on interior design for an international clientele that included the industrialist and art collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, the business tycoons Aristotle Onassis and Gianni Agnelli, the former Russian prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł and his socialite wife Lee Radziwill, the fashion designer Gianni Versace, the Lebanese banker Edmond Safra, the Rothschild family and the Hearst family.  Read more…

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Arturo Toscanini - conductor

Talented musician had unexpected career change

World famous orchestra conductor Arturo Toscanini died on this day in 1957.  He served as musical director of La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.  Toscanini was a well-known musician in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, respected for his amazing musical ear and his photographic memory.  Towards the end of his career he became a household name as director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra because of the radio and television broadcasts and recordings he made.  Toscanini was born in Parma in 1867 and won a scholarship to his local music conservatory where he studied the cello.  He joined the orchestra of an opera company and while they were presenting Aida on tour in Rio de Janeiro the singers went on strike.  They were protesting against their conductor and demanded a substitute. Read more…

Niccolò Piccinni – opera composer

Writer drawn into 18th century Paris rivalry

The composer Niccolò Piccinni, one of the most popular writers of opera in 18th century Europe, was born on this day in 1728 in Bari.  Piccinni, who lived mainly in Naples while he was in Italy, had the misfortune to be placed under house arrest for four years in his 60s, when he was accused of being a republican revolutionary.  He is primarily remembered, though, for having been invited to Paris at the height of his popularity to be drawn unwittingly into a battle between supporters of traditional opera, with its emphasis on catchy melodies and show-stopping arias, and those of the German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, who favoured solemnly serious storytelling more akin to Greek tragedy.  Piccinni’s father was a musician but tried to discourage his son from following the same career. However, the Bishop of Bari, recognising Niccolò’s talent, arranged for him to attend the Conservatorio di Sant’Onofrio in Capuana in Naples.  Read more…

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Mario Tobino – poet, novelist and psychiatrist

Doctor was torn between literature and his patients

The author and poet who was also a practising psychiatrist, Mario Tobino, was born on this day in 1910 in Viareggio in Tuscany.  Tobino was a prolific writer whose works dealt with social and psychological themes. His novel, Il clandestino, inspired by his experiences fighting as a partisan to liberate Italy in 1944, won him the Premio Strega, the most prestigious Italian literary award.  After completing his degree in medicine in 1936, Tobino embarked on a career working in a mental hospital, treating people with mental disabilities.  He went to work as a doctor in Libya in 1940 but had to flee when war broke out in the country. His experiences were recorded in his book, Il deserto della Libia, which was published in 1952.  In 1953, his novel, Libere donne di Magliano, established him as an important Italian writer. Read more…

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Carlo Maria Viganò - controversial archbishop

Former papal ambassador who shocked Catholic Church

Carlo Maria Viganò, the controversial former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States who was twice at the centre of serious corruption allegations against the Vatican, was born on this day in 1941 in Varese, northern Italy.  Viganò, who had occupied one of the most powerful positions in the Vatican before Pope Benedict XVI set him to be his ambassador in Washington in 2011, was a key figure in the so-called Vatileaks scandal in 2012 when the Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi published leaked documents that included letters from Viganò to Pope Benedict and to the Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone complaining of corruption in the awarding of contracts.  The subsequent scandal resulted in the conviction of Benedict’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, who was found guilty of theft by a Vatican court and handed an 18-month prison sentence.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Risorgimento: Italy’s Path to Modernity, 1770 - 1870, by Gabriele B Clemens

The Risorgimento, the period of nation-state formation, has always had particular significance not only in the historiography of Italy but also for the transnational and comparative history of the founding of nation-states. Gabriele Clemens presents a new, up-to-date and well-founded overview of the history of the Risorgimento. Her account covers an entire century of Italian history, beginning around 1770, before the French Revolution, and ending in 1870 with the conquest of Rome by the troops of the burgeoning nation state. Risorgimento: Italy’s Path to Modernity is a balanced and highly readable account that combines the perspective of political cultural history with an economic and social historical approach. At the same time, it offers new interpretations, for example on the roles played by the nobility and the bourgeoisie. It questions the established claim that the masses were mobilized by means of art, music and literature and critically analyses the significance of Garibaldi, the man and the myth. The path to the nation state is described as the work of a state-supporting elite that acts consistently in transnational networks.

Gabriele B Clemems is Professor of Modern History and Regional History at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany

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15 January

NEW - Delia Scala - ballerina, actress and TV presenter

Much-loved star was pioneer of Italy’s musical comedy genre 

Delia Scala, a ballerina who became a stage and screen actress, helped popularise musical comedy in Italy in the 1950s and ‘60s and presented light entertainment shows on television, died on this day in 2004 in Livorno, in Tuscany.  Born Odette Bedogni in Bracciano, Lazio in 1929, she had suffered a recurrence of the breast cancer for which she had been successfully treated in the 1970s, passing away at the age of 74. Her personal life was marred by tragedy. Her father and one of her three husbands died in road accidents, while the racing driver to whom she was engaged after her first marriage was annulled was killed on the track. Her  third husband died from cancer.  Yet in her career she enjoyed considerable success. After her death, the President of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, said he rated her among "the most beloved and popular artists in the history of Italian entertainment".  Read more…

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Gigi Radice - football coach

Former Milan player steered Torino to only title in 76 years

Luigi 'Gigi' Radice, the only coach to have won the Italian football championship with Torino in the 76 years that have elapsed since the Superga plane crash wiped out the greatest of all Torino teams, was born on this day in 1935 in Cesano Maderno, near Monza, some 24km (15 miles) north of Milan.  An attacking full-back with AC Milan, where he won the Scudetto three times as well as the 1962-63 European Cup, Radice made five appearances for Italy, including two at the 1962 World Cup finals in Chile.  He switched to coaching in 1965 after a serious knee injury ended his playing career and achieved immediate success with his local club, Monza, whom he guided to promotion as champions in Serie C.  After leading Cesena to an historic first promotion to Serie A in 1972-73, Radice had spells with Fiorentina and Cagliari before Torino owner Orfeo Pianelli hired him in 1975. Read more…

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Giorgia Meloni - politician

Italy’s first female prime minister 

Politician Giorgia Meloni, who was elected as Italy’s first female prime minister in October 2022, was born on this day in 1977 in Rome.  Meloni, head of the Fratelli d’Italia party of which she is a co-founder, is a controversial figure in that her political roots are in the Italian Social Movement (MSI), the party formed by supporters of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini after World War Two. In the past, she has described Mussolini as a “good politician” but one who “made mistakes”.  Yet she rejects accusations that Fratelli d’Italia - Brothers of Italy - is a far-right party, despite adopting the fascist slogan ‘God, family, fatherland’ and incorporating the tricolore flame from the MSI logo within FdI’s own branding.  Meloni came from a fractured family background. Her Sardinian father, Francesco, left her Sicilian mother, Anna, when she was a year old. Read more…

Paolo Sarpi – writer and statesman

Patriotic Venetian who the Pope wanted dead

Historian, scientist, writer and statesman Paolo Sarpi died on this day in 1623 in Venice.  He had survived an assassination attack 16 years before and was living in seclusion, still preparing state papers on behalf of Venice, writing, and carrying out scientific studies.  The day before his death he had dictated three replies to questions about state affairs of the Venetian Republic.  He had been born Pietro Sarpi in 1552 in Venice. His father died while he was still a child and he was educated by his uncle, who was a school teacher, and then by a monk in the Augustinian Servite order.  He entered the Servite order himself at the age of 13, assuming the name of Fra Paolo. After going into a monastery in Mantua, he was invited to be court theologian to Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga.  He then went to Milan, where he was an adviser to Charles Borromeo, the archbishop of Milan. Read more…

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Giambattista De Curtis – songwriter and artist

Talented Neapolitan became captivated with the beauty of Sorrento

Writer, painter and sculptor Giambattista De Curtis died on this day in 1926 in Naples.  A talented poet and playwright, he also wrote the lyrics for many popular songs.  He is perhaps best known for the song Torna a Surriento, although the English words that have now become famous differ from the original verses for the song that he wrote in Neapolitan dialect.  De Curtis is believed to have written the words for Torna a Surriento while on the terrace of the Imperial Hotel Tramontano in 1902, gazing out at the sea whose beauty he was praising.  De Curtis lived for weeks at a time in the hotel and painted frescoes and canvases to decorate the walls for the owner, Guglielmo Tramontano, who was also Mayor of Sorrento at the time.  One theory is that De Curtis was asked to write the song to mark the stay at the hotel of Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Zanardelli.  Read more…

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Paolo Vaccari - rugby player

Italy’s second all-time highest try scorer

The rugby player Paolo Vaccari, who scored 22 tries for the Italian national team in a 64-cap career, was born on this day in 1971 in Calvisano, a town in Lombardy about 30km (19 miles) southeast of Brescia.  A versatile back equally adept at wing, centre or full-back, Vaccari was regarded as a strong defender and an intelligent and technically-sound back who frequently created scoring opportunities for players around him.  Although he was good enough to be selected for the renowned Barbarians invitational XV against Leicester Tigers in 1998, he played all his domestic rugby in Italy, enjoying great success.  He won the double of Italian Championship and Cup with Milan Rugby in 1994-95 and was a title-winner for the second time with his home club Calvisano 10 years later, during a run in which Calvisano reached the Championship final six years in a row. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Italian Cinema from the Silent Screen to the Digital Image, by Joseph Luzzi

In this comprehensive guide, some of the world's leading scholars consider the issues, films, and filmmakers that have given Italian cinema its enduring appeal. Readers will explore the work of such directors as Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Roberto Rossellini as well as a host of subjects including the Italian silent screen, the political influence of Fascism on the movies, lesser known genres such as the giallo (horror film) and Spaghetti Western, and the role of women in the Italian film industry. Italian Cinema from the Silent Screen to the Digital Image explores recent developments in cinema studies such as digital performance, the role of media and the Internet, neuroscience in film criticism, and the increased role that immigrants are playing in the nation's cinema.

Joseph Luzzi is Associate Professor of Italian and Director of Italian Studies at Bard College, USA, and the author of Romantic Europe and the Ghost of Italy (2008). 

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Delia Scala - ballerina, actress and TV presenter

Much-loved star was pioneer of Italy’s musical comedy genre 

Delia Scala's versatility as an entertainer
gained her big roles in musical comedy

Delia Scala, a ballerina who became a stage and screen actress, helped popularise musical comedy in Italy in the 1950s and ‘60s and presented light entertainment shows on television, died on this day in 2004 in Livorno, in Tuscany.

Born Odette Bedogni in Bracciano, Lazio in 1929, she had suffered a recurrence of the breast cancer for which she had been successfully treated in the 1970s, passing away at the age of 74.

Her personal life was marred by tragedy. Her father and one of her three husbands died in road accidents, while the racing driver to whom she was engaged after her first marriage was annulled was killed on the track. Her third husband died from cancer.

Yet in her career she enjoyed considerable success and became hugely popular with Italian audiences.  After her death, the President of Italy at the time, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, described her as a "model of enthusiasm and rigorous professionalism" and said he rated her among "the most beloved and popular artists in the history of Italian entertainment".

As a child, Scala inherited a love of music and dance from her mother, Iolanda, who chose Odette as her name after the title of one her favourite songs. When her father, Aldo, a test pilot with the Italian air force, was transferred from Bracciano to Malpensa, near Milan, the family settled in Gallarate, near Varese and Lake Maggiore. 

Already showing talent, the eight-year-old Odette was given a place at the Ballet School of Teatro alla Scala, Milan’s prestigious opera house, where she would remain for seven years.  Her family moved again, when her father left the air force, relocating to Campagnola Emilia, some 168km (100 miles) away from Milan, but Odette was able to continue her nascent dance career by staying in Milan, at first with an aunt and later in lodgings.

She performed on stage at La Scala many times, her ballet credits including Ottorino Respighi's La bottega fantastica and Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty. Another highlight was appearing as a dancer in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera Zazà, starring the celebrated tenor, Beniamino Gigli.  

Her move into films came after she was chosen to play a leading role in a documentary about La Scala’s ballet school. Other opportunities to appear on screen soon followed, in which she first performed under her own name before adopting Lia Della Scala as a professional name. The change to Delia Scala was at the suggestion of Italo Calvino - later to become famous as a novelist - who was at the time head of the press office at Lux Films.

Scala had embarked on a career as a ballet
dancer before the big screen beckoned

From the late 1940s, having been spotted initially by the director Luigi Zampa, who gave her a part in his 1948 film, Anni difficili (Difficult Years), Scala was seldom not working. 

Important roles followed in Eduardo De Filippo’s Napoli milionaria (1950); Roma ore 11 (1952), a neorealist film by Giuseppe De Santis; Jacques Becker’s Grisbì (1954); and Beauties on a bicycle (1951) by Carlo Campogalliani, where she appeared alongside Silvana Pampanini.

The breadth of her acting skills was shown off further in Gran Varietà (1953), alongside Vittorio de Sica and Lea Padovani, where she impressively danced a Charleston, and in Signori si nasce (1960) by Mario Mattoli, alongside the comedy great, Totò.

It was in part as a consequence of those performances that she was chosen to make her theatre debut with Giove in doppiopetto (Double-breasted Jupiter) at the Teatro Lirico in Milan in 1954. The production is considered to be the first example of commedia musicale, an italian musical genre created by playwrights Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini, with the collaboration of the musician and songwriter Gorni Kramer. 

As Scala’s stature in the genre grew, she found herself in demand and had roles alongside renowned performers such as Walter Chiari, Nino Manfredi, Paolo Panelli, Domenico Modugno, Gianrico Tedeschi, Mario Carotenuto and Renato Rascel.

Her popularity led also to Scala becoming one of the earliest of Italy’s television stars as the small screen began to play a part in the lives of Italians in the 1950s, co-hosting the TV show Lui e Lei with Nino Taranto, and Canzonissima with Manfredi and Paolo Panelli.

Scala shone in the world of television,
becoming a popular presenter

Away from her successful career, Scala’s quest for contentment in her personal life was repeatedly upended by tragedy. Her father was killed in 1947 at the age of 41, struck by a car near their home. A year later her first marriage, with a Greek soldier attached to a local partisan unit who was given shelter by her family, ended with separation. She was only 19.

The marriage was annulled, after which she became engaged to racing driver, Eugenio Castellotti. He died in 1957, losing control of his Ferrari while attempting a speed record at the Modena race track.

In 1967 she married Piero Giannotti, who died in 1982 when hit by a car while riding his motor scooter. Her third husband, the industrialist Arturo Fremura, died in 2001, from liver cancer.

Scala’s own health problems began in 1974 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 44. Happily, under the care of the distinguished oncologist Pietro Bucalossi and his assistant Umberto Veronesi, she underwent experimental radio and chemotherapy and recovered to live another 30 years.

Societal attitudes to cancer were much different then compared with today. When news of the diagnosis was leaked to the media - she had tried to keep it private - she lost some advertising contracts on the basis that being affected by cancer was perceived as “bad for her image.” 

Once she had recovered enough, she joined the tennis player Lea Pericoli, who had suffered a similar experience after being diagnosed with cancer while still competing, in campaigning to change attitudes. 

Scala herself presented a series of annual live shows entitled A Rose for Life at Lido di Camaiore on the Tuscan coast north of Pisa, together with Raimondo Vianello and Sandra Mondaini, a showbiz couple who had also faced cancer, in order to raise funds for cancer research and prevention.

Such was her commitment that, in 1982, she insisted on presenting the show on its planned date even though she had lost Piero, her second husband, only a few days earlier. 

Scala effectively retired from acting in the 1980s, her only subsequent part in a sitcom aired between 1996 and 1998. After marrying Fremura - a widower with four children - she spent the last two decades of her life in Livorno.

The monumental Orsini-Odescalchi Castle seems
to loom around every corner in Bracciano

Travel tip:

The town of Bracciano is situated about 40km (24 miles) northwest of Rome, rising above Lake Bracciano, a nearly circular volcanic lake. Bracciano’s centre retains a medieval feel, with narrow lanes, stone houses, and a skyline dominated by the great Orsini–Odescalchi Castle. The surrounding area is protected as the Bracciano-Martignano Natural Park, which keeps the lake pristine by limiting motorised boats and preserving the quiet, rural atmosphere. The earliest known structure was a 10th‑century watchtower, built to defend against Saracen raids, which became the heart of a fortified settlement of which the powerful Orsini family took control in 1234. They transformed Bracciano into a strategic stronghold, culminating in the late 15th century with the construction of the huge fortress today known as the Castello Orsini-Odescalchi, one of the best-preserved Renaissance fortresses in Italy. The Odescalchi family, who bought the castle from the Orsinis in 1696, still own it. With its towers, courtyards, frescoed halls, armouries, and sweeping views over the lake, it is easily Bracciano’s star attraction and a popular location for films and television dramas, as well as the backdrop for several high-profile celebrity weddings, including that of the Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. The Vigna di Valle airbase, where Delia Scala’s father was based at the time of her birth, now houses one of Italy’s most important aviation museums, housed in historic seaplane hangars.

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The canals of Livorno's popular Venezia Nuova
district come alive after dark

Travel tip:

Livorno, where Delia Scala spent the later years of her life, is the second largest city in Tuscany after Florence, with a population of almost 160,000, and the region’s great sea port. Ferries, cargo ships, cruise liners, fishing boats, and naval vessels all move through the harbour. Yet just beyond the cranes and docks you find a city shaped by centuries of immigration, free‑trade policies, and Medici ambition. Livorno, which began as a small coastal settlement, was for centuries overshadowed by nearby Pisa, whose republic controlled the area throughout the Middle Ages.  As it grew, the port was sold to Milan in 1399 and to Genoa in 1407 before it was purchased by Florence in 1421, bringing it under Medici rule for the next three centuries.  The Medici recognised Livorno’s strategic potential and rebuilt the harbour, fortified the town, and declared it a free port, attracting merchants from across Europe and the Mediterranean. As well as becoming a major commercial hub it became one of Italy’s most cosmopolitan cities, with significant Jewish, Greek, Armenian and Dutch Protestant minorities. The Medici legacy is visible in the 16th century red brick Fortezza Vecchia, that stands guard over the harbour. Other attractions include the Fortezza Nuova, also built by the Medici, which anchors Livorno’s popular Venezia Nuova district, with its network of canals, and the elegant Terrazza Mascagni, the seafront promenade, paved in a sweeping black‑and‑white checkerboard pattern, which carries the name of one of Livorno’s most famous sons, the opera composer Pietro Mascagni.

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More reading:

Raimondo Vianello, a big-screen star who conquered television

Why comic actor Totò is still seen as one of Italy’s funniest performers

How Umberto Veronesi pioneered new treatments for breast cancer

Also on this day:

1623: The death of Venetian writer and statesman Paolo Sarpi

1926: The death of songwriter Giambattista De Curtis

1935: The birth of football coach Gigi Radice

1971: The birth of rugby star Paolo Vaccari

1977: The birth of Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first female PM

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14 January

Leonardo Servadio - entrepreneur 

Tailor from Perugia whose Ellesse brand found global success

The tailor and businessman Leonardo Servadio, who founded the Italian sportswear company Ellesse, was born on this day in 1925 in Perugia.  Ellesse - the name is taken from Servadio’s initials as they are spelled in the Italian alphabet, elle and esse - was a groundbreaker in its field, the first manufacturer to display its brand name on the outside of a garment. Under Leonardo’s management, it grew to become one of the best known names in sportswear, particularly in the worlds of tennis and skiing, and acquired a glamorous image that enabled it to expand successfully into the  leisurewear market.  Now owned by the Pentland Group, a British company with a large portfolio of sportswear brands, at its peak Ellesse sponsored tennis stars such as Chris Evert and Boris Becker, the skier Alberto Tomba and the racing driver Alain Prost. Read more…

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Giulio Andreotti - political survivor

Christian Democrat spent 45 years in government

Giulio Andreotti, who was Italy's most powerful politician for a period lasting almost half a century,  was born on this day in 1919 in Rome.  He was a member of almost every Italian government from 1947 until 1992, leading seven of them.  He would have certainly gone on to be president were it not for the scandals in which he became embroiled in the 1990s, when his Christian Democrat party collapsed as a result of the mani pulite - clean hands - bribery investigations.  Andreotti himself was accused of an historic association with the Mafia and of commissioning the murder of a journalist, although he was acquitted of the latter charge on appeal.  The youngest of three children, Andreotti was brought up in difficult circumstances by his mother after his father, who had taught at a junior school in Segni, about 60km (37 miles) south-east of the capital in Lazio, had died when he was only two years old. Read more…

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Battle of Rivoli

Napoleon defeats the Austrians and boosts his reputation

Napoleon won an important victory on Italian soil on this day in 1797 when, despite his troops being outnumbered, they defeated an attacking Austrian army. He triumphed in the Battle of Rivoli near the village of Rivoli Veronese, in what was then part of the Republic of Venice.  Austrian soldiers were attempting to move south to relieve a garrison of their men who were under siege from the French in Mantua. But their defeat at the Battle of Rivoli led to them having to surrender Mantua to their enemy a few weeks later.  Napoleon’s victory in the Battle of Rivoli effectively consolidated the position of the French in northern Italy and enhanced his reputation as a capable military commander.  Under the command of General Jozsef Alvinczi, the Austrian troops had planned to overwhelm the French soldiers serving under General Barthelemy Joubert. Read more…

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Nina Ricci – designer

Creative flair of Italian-born founder of famous fashion house

The prestigious fashion designer Nina Ricci was born Maria Nielli in Turin on this day in 1883.  Her designs enabled her to build a reputation for graceful, feminine clothes. Ricci was a near-contemporary of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel but in many ways they were polar opposites in that Ricci was neither a public personality nor a headline‐making designer.  Maria moved with her family to live in Florence at the age of five and then went to live with them in France when she was 12.  Her interest in fashion had begun in childhood, when she would dress her dolls. At the age of 13, having acquired the nickname Nina, she began working as a dressmaker’s apprentice.  She continued working in fashion, eventually joining the house of Raffin as a designer.  In 1904 she married an Italian jeweller named Luigi Ricci and they later had a son, Robert. Read more…

Franchino Gaffurio – composer

Musician whose name has lived on for centuries in Milan

Renaissance composer Franchino Gaffurio was born on this day in 1451 in Lodi, a city in Lombardy some 40km (25 miles) southeast of Milan.  He was to become a friend of Leonardo da Vinci later in life and may have been the person depicted in Leonardo’s famous painting, Portrait of a Musician.  The oil on wood painting, which Da Vinci is thought to have completed in around 1490, is housed in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. Gaffurio was born into an aristocratic family, who sent him to a Benedictine monastery, where he acquired musical training.  He later became a priest and lived in Mantua and Verona before settling in Milan, where he became maestro di cappella (choirmaster) at the Duomo in 1484. He was to retain the post for the rest of his life.  Gaffurio was one of Italy’s most famous musicians in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Read more…

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Alberico Gentili – international lawyer

Academic gave the world its first system of jurisprudence

Alberico Gentili, who is regarded as one of the founders of the science of international law, was born on this day in 1552 in San Ginesio in the province of Macerata in Marche.  He was the first European academic to separate secular law from Roman Catholic theology and canon law and the earliest to write about public international law.  He became Regius Professor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford in England and taught there for 21 years.  Gentili graduated as a doctor of civil law in 1572 from the University of Perugia but was exiled from Italy in 1579 and eventually went to live in England because he became a Protestant.  He taught at Oxford from 1581 until his death in 1608 and became well-known for his lectures on Roman law and his writing on legal topics.  In 1588 Gentili published De jure belli commentatio prima - First Commentary on the Law of War. Read more…

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Luca Longhi - artist

‘Quiet’ painter trained his children to follow in his footsteps

Luca Longhi, a portrait painter also known for his beautiful religious paintings who was working during the late Renaissance and Mannerist periods, was born on this day in 1507 in Ravenna in Emilia-Romagna.  He was the father of the painters Francesco Longhi and Barbara Longhi, who were both trained by him and worked in his workshop.  Little is known about Luca Longhi’s own artistic training, but it is thought he probably attended the Ravenna workshops of local artists Francesco Zaganelli and his brother, Bernardino Zaganelli.  The painter and art historian Giorgio Vasari visited Ravenna in 1548 and wrote about "Master Luca de Longhi" in his book, The Lives of the Artists. He says: “Luca de Longhi is a man of good nature, quiet and (a) scholar (who) has done in his homeland Ravenna, and outside, many beautiful oil pictures and portraits. He has done and still works with patience and study.” Read more…

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Book of the Day: Sport Brands (Routledge Sports Marketing Series), by Patrick Bouchet, Dieter Hillairet and Guillaume Bodet

Sport brands are a central element of modern sport business and a ubiquitous component of contemporary global culture. This groundbreaking book offers a complete analysis of the topic of sport brands from both a marketing management approach (strategy and implementation) and a psycho-sociological approach (consumption and wider society). In doing so it explores both supply and demand sides, offering a complete introduction to the nature, purpose and value of sport brands not found in any other sports marketing text. Sports Brands covers the whole heterogeneity of sport brands, going much further than the sport team and league brands covered in most other books. As well as teams and leagues, the book considers the brands of sports celebrities, events, media, computer games and governing bodies, as well as the ethical, professional and technological ‘label brands’ associated with sport. Richly illustrated with cases, examples and data, the book explores the tangible and intangible influence of sport brands, their economic and social value, and the subcultures and communities that grow up around them. 

Patrick Bouchet is Professor of Sport Management and Marketing within the Sport Sciences Faculty at the University of Burgundy, France.  Dieter Hillairet is Lecturer in Sport Management and Marketing within the University of Clermont-Ferrand, France.  Guillaume Bodet is Lecturer of Sport Marketing and Management within the Institute of Sport and Leisure Policy and the Centre for Olympic Studies and Research, School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at the University of Loughborough, UK. 

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