7 April

NEW - Pope Clement XII

Financially shrewd pontiff used papal cash for building projects

Lorenzo Corsini, who during his time as Pope Clement XII substantially built up the wealth of the Vatican, was born on this day in 1740 in Florence.  While he was pontiff, Clement XII began the construction of the Trevi Fountain, established the Capitoline Museums in Rome, and carried out extensive public building works in the Papal States.  Corsini was the son of Bartolomeo Corsini, Marquis of Casigliano, and Elisabetta Strozzi, who was from an old Florentine noble family. He was a nephew of Cardinal Neri Corsini and a distant relative of Saint Andrew Corsini.  After studying at the Jesuit College in Rome, he went to the University of Pisa where he achieved a doctorate in both civil law and canon law.  He practised law under his uncle, Cardinal Corsini, but after the death of both his uncle and father, he renounced his right to become head of his family.  Read more…

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Giovanni Battista Rubini - opera singer

Tenor was as famous in his day as Caruso

Giovanni Battista Rubini, born on this day in 1794, was a tenor as famous in his day as Enrico Caruso would be almost a century later, his voice having contributed to the popularity of opera composers Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti.   He was the first 19th-century non-castrato singer to become a major international star after two centuries in which audiences and composers were obsessed with the castrati.  Rubini's exceptionally high voice could match the coloratura of the castrati and he effectively launched the era of the bel canto tenor, which signalled the end of the dominance of the castrati.  Rubini was just 12 when he was taken on as a violinist and chorister at the Riccardi Theatre in Bergamo, not far from his home town of Romano di Lombardia. He was 20 when he made his professional debut in Pietro Generali’s Le lagrime d’una vedova at Pavia in 1814. Read more…

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Domenico Dragonetti - musician

Venetian was best double bass player in Europe

The composer and musician Domenico Dragonetti  - Europe's finest double bass virtuoso - was born on this day in 1763 in Venice.  Apart from the fame his talent brought him, Dragonetti is remembered as the musician who opened the eyes of Ludwig van Beethoven and other composers to the potential of the double bass.  They met in Vienna in 1799 and experts believe it was Dragonetti’s influence that led Beethoven to include passages for double bass in his Fifth Symphony.   From 1794 onwards until his death in 1846 at the age of 83, Dragonetti lived in London but it was in Venice that he established his reputation.  The son of a barber who was also a musician, Domenico Carlo Maria Dragonetti taught himself to play the guitar and the double bass as a child using his father’s instruments.  It was not long before word of his precocious ability spread. Read more…

The 1906 Vesuvius eruption

Deadliest incident of the 20th century

One of the most violent eruptions in the history of Mount Vesuvius reached its peak on this day in 1906, killing probably in excess of 200 people. The volcano, most famous for the 79AD eruption that buried the city of Pompeii and may have claimed  between 13,000 to 16,000 victims, had been spewing lava for almost 11 months, treating the residents of nearby Naples to regular fireworks displays.  On 5 April, 1906, an indication that a major eruption was imminent came in a failure in the water supply drawn from wells on the mountain sides, with such water as was still flowing having a strong taste of sulphur. The expulsions of lava became more explosive and an ash cloud began to form in the sky above the crater.  In the preceding days, there had been an earthquake on the island of Ustica some 130km (81 miles) away, which was thought to be connected to the Vesuvius eruption.  Read more…

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Gino Severini - painter and mosaicist

Tuscan was leading figure in Futurist movement

The painter and mosaicist Gino Severini, who was an important figure in the Italian Futurist movement in the early 20th century and is regarded as  one of the most progressive of all 20th century Italian artists, was born on this day in 1883 in the hilltop town of Cortona in Tuscany.  He divided his time largely between Rome and Paris, where he died in 1966. Although he was a signatory - along with Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russol and Giacomo Balla - of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s Manifesto of Futurist Painters in 1910, his work was not altogether typical of the movement.  Indeed, ultimately he rejected Futurism, moving on to Cubism, having become friends with Cubist painters Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in Paris, before ultimately turning his interest to Neo-Classicism and the Return to Order movement that followed the First World War.  Read more…

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Marco Delvecchio - footballer

Striker who became TV dance show star

The former Roma and Italy striker Marco Delvecchio, who launched a new career in television after finishing runner-up in the Italian equivalent of Strictly Come Dancing, was born on this day in 1973 in Milan.  Delvecchio scored 83 goals in exactly 300 appearances for Roma, where he was part of the side that won the Scudetto in 2000-01 and where he became a huge favourite with fans of the giallorossi because of his penchant for scoring against city rivals Lazio.  His record of nine goals in the Rome derby between 2002 and 2009 was the best by any player in the club’s history until that mark was overtaken by the Roma great Francesco Totti, whose career tally against Lazio was 11.  Delvecchio’s talents were somewhat underappreciated at international level. He made 22 appearances for the azzurri and the first of his four goals was in the final of Euro 2000.  Read more…

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Book of the Day:  The Popes: A History, by John Julius Norwich

The Popes: A History traces the history of the oldest continuing institution in the world, tracing the papal line down the centuries from St Peter himself – traditionally (though by no means historically) the first pope – to Benedict XVI, who was pope from 2005 to 2013. Of the 280-odd holders of the supreme office, some have unques­tionably been saints; others have wallowed in unspeakable iniquity. One was said to have been a woman – and an English woman at that – her sex being revealed only when she improvidently gave birth to a baby during a papal procession. Pope Joan never existed (though the Church long believed she did) but many genuine pontiffs were almost as colourful: Formosus, for example, whose murdered corpse was exhumed, clothed in pontifical vestments, propped up on a throne and subjected to trial; or John XII of whom Gibbon wrote: 'his rapes of virgins and widows deterred female pilgrims from visiting the shrine of St Peter lest, in the devout act, they should be violated by his successor.’

John Julius Norwich was well known for his histories of Norman Sicily, Venice, the Byzantine Empire and the Mediterranean. The second Viscount Norwich, he was an agnostic with no religious axe to grind. In this rich, authoritative book he does full justice to a rich and important tale. He was the son of the Conservative politician and diplomat Duff Cooper, later Viscount Norwich, and of Lady Diana Manners, a celebrated beauty and society figure.

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Pope Clement XII

Financially shrewd pontiff used papal cash for building projects

Pope Clement XII commission many
architectural works in Rome and Ancona

Lorenzo Corsini, who during his time as Pope Clement XII substantially built up the wealth of the Vatican, was born on this day in 1740 in Florence.

While he was pontiff, Clement XII began the construction of the Trevi Fountain, established the Capitoline Museums in Rome, and carried out extensive public building works in the Papal States.

Corsini was the son of Bartolomeo Corsini, Marquis of Casigliano, and Elisabetta Strozzi, who was from an old Florentine noble family. He was a nephew of Cardinal Neri Corsini and a distant relative of Saint Andrew Corsini.

After studying at the Jesuit College in Rome, he went to the University of Pisa where he achieved a doctorate in both civil law and canon law.

He practised law under his uncle, Cardinal Corsini, but after the death of both his uncle and father, he renounced his right to become head of his family.

Instead, he purchased from Pope Innocent XI, for 30,000 scudi, a position as a prelate. He subsequently devoted his time and his money to the enlargement of the library bequeathed to him by his uncle.  His home in Piazza Navona went on to become the centre of Rome’s scholarly and artistic life.

In 1690, Corsini was made titular Archbishop of Nicomedia and he was chosen as nuncio to Vienna, receiving a dispensation from Pope Alexander VIII because he had not yet been ordained as a priest. He did not proceed to the imperial court, because Leopold I, the Holy Roman Emperor, declared that he had the right to select the nuncio from a list of three names furnished by the pope.

Corsini was appointed as governor general of the Castel Sant’Angelo in 1696. Under Pope Clement XI, his talents were used as a courtier and in 1706 he was named as Cardinal Priest of Santa Susanna, and he was also retained as papal treasurer.

Pope Benedict XIII made him Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura and he was also appointed as the Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli and Cardinal Bishop of Frascati.

Luigi Vanvitelli was Pope
Clement XII's architect of choice

Under Benedict XIII the finances of the Papal States had been drained by the cardinal who had been looking after them. After Pope Benedict’s death, the College of Cardinals selected Corsini as his successor, who was by then aged 78.

After he became Pope in 1730, Corsini took the papal name Clement in honour of Pope Clement XI, who had made him a cardinal.

He restored the Papal finances, demanding restitution from the people who had abused the trust of his predecessor. Soon money was pouring into his treasury, enabling him to undertake extensive building programmes in Rome and the Papal States.

Clement XII restored the Arch of Constantine, paved the streets of Rome, and widened Via del Corso.

As part of his aim to improve the wellbeing of his subjects through economic development, Clement XII granted Ancona in Le Marche freeport status and commissioned the architect Luigi Vanvitelli to redesign the ancient port.

He also commissioned Vanvitelli to build the Lazzaretto of Ancona as a quarantine station for the port.

After Clement XII’s death in 1740 his remains were transferred to a tomb in the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, for which he had commissioned the building of a new facade after organising a competition, won by Alessandro Galilei, who completed it in 1735.

The Arch of Clementine with the
Arch of Trajan in the foreground

Travel tip:

The architect Luigi Vanvitelli  worked extensively in Ancona in the 1730s under Pope Clement XII, who commissioned him to modernize and expand Ancona’s maritime infrastructure, which had fallen into decline. His contributions included redesigning the port layout, building the Molo Nuovo (New Pier) and most notably the Lazzaretto, also known as the Mole Vanvitelliana, a striking pentagonal complex built on an artificial island, which originally served as a quarantine station for travelers and goods. He also built the Chiesa del Gesù and Casa degli Esercizi spirituali - a church and adjoining spiritual retreat house facing the port, and the Arch of Clementine, which he built just a few metres away from the Arch of Trajan, built 1600 years earlier by the Senate and people of Rome in honour of the Emperor Trajan, who expanded the port of the city out of his own pocket, improving the docks and the fortifications.

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The statue of Pope Clement XII in
front of the San Domenico church

Travel tip:

Also in Ancona, in front of the Chiesa di San Domenico and looking out across the rectangular Piazza del Plebescito, is a statue of Pope Clement XII, the work of the sculptor Agostino Cornacchini, which was erected in 1738. It was originally destined for the portico of the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, where it remained for just under a year before being moved to Ancona at the suggestion of the pope’s nephew, Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini, in recognition of the work he had commissioned to modernise the port and the city.  Piazza del Plebiscito is also known locally as Piazza del Papa. The Chiesa di San Domenico, at the top of the square’s incline, is a Baroque church built by Carlo Marchionni and completed in 1778. The interior is notable for two outstanding paintings, the Annunciation by Guercino in the first chapel on the left, and Titian’s altarpiece, The Crucifixion. 

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More reading:

How the election of Antipope Clement VII sparked a split in Catholic Church

Pope Innocent XII, the pontiff who ended the practice of nepotism in the papal appointments

The flamboyant pope who helped make books available to ordinary people

Also on this day:

1763: The birth of musician Domenico Dragonetti 

1794: The birth of opera singer Giovanni Battista Rubini

1883: The birth of painter and mosaicist Gino Severini

1906: Vesuvius eruption kills more than 200

1973: The birth of footballer Marco Delvecchio

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6 April

The L’Aquila Earthquake

Shock measuring 6.3 magnitude killed more than 300

The central Italy region of Abruzzo suffered a major disaster on this day in 2009 when an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 caused extensive damage and considerable loss of life in the city of L’Aquila and surrounding villages.  The main shock struck at 3.32am, when many of the victims would have been asleep, although there had been two smaller tremors the day before in an area with a long history of seismic turbulence, giving rise to speculation that a major quake was imminent.  The epicentre was only a little outside L’Aquila, a city with a population of about 70,000, damaging up to 11,000 buildings in the 13th century city.  A total of 309 people lost their lives and such was the scale of devastation that up to 65,000 people were left homeless in the city and neighbouring villages.  It was the deadliest earthquake to hit Italy since the Irpinia quake in Campania killed almost 2,500 people in 1980. Read more…

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Sergio Franchi – tenor

Budding opera star became popular for singing romantic ballads

The tenor and actor Sergio Franchi was born Sergio Franci Galli on this day in 1926 in Codogno in the province of Lodi in northern Italy.  Franchi earned recognition as a performer in Britain in the 1960s and subsequently went to America where he became such a success he was once invited by John F Kennedy to sing the US national anthem at a rally.  Franchi was born to a Neapolitan father and a Ligurian mother who were living in Codogno in the Lombardy region. As a child he sang with his father who played the piano and guitar.  When he was 16, Franchi formed a band to earn extra money and went on to sing with a male group in jazz clubs.  Franchi’s father was a successful businessman but he lost all his assets during the German occupation of Italy in World War II.  After the war a family friend suggested to Franchi’s father that he should emigrate. Read more…

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Raphael - Renaissance painter and architect

Precocious genius from Urbino famous for Vatican frescoes

The Renaissance painter and architect commonly known as Raphael was born Raffaello Sanzio in Urbino, in the Marche region of Italy, on this day in 1483.  Raphael is regarded as one of the masters of the Renaissance, along with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.  He was more prolific than Da Vinci and, some argue, more versatile than Michelangelo, and was certainly influenced by both.  The young Raphael was taught to paint by his father, Giovanni Santi, who was a painter for the Duke of Urbino, Federico da Montefeltro, but his talents surpassed those of his father, who died when he was just 11 years old.  He was soon considered one of Urbino's finest painters and was commissioned to paint for a church in a neighbouring town while still a teenager.  In 1500, Raphael moved to Perugia in Umbria to become assistant to Pietro Vannucci, otherwise known as Perugino. Read more…

Maurizio and Giorgio Damilano – race walkers

Maurizio won Olympic gold in Moscow

Twins Maurizio and Giorgio Damilano, both former race walkers, were born on this day in 1957 in Scarnafigi in the province of Cuneo in Piedmont.  Maurizio won the gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics in the 20km race walk, while his brother, Giorgio, finished 11th.  In sympathy with the American-led boycott of the Moscow Games following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Italian athletes competed under the Olympic flag rather than the Italian tricolore.  Damilano was one of eight Italians to win gold medals in Moscow.  Giorgio was less successful than Maurizio, but did win the 20km race walk at the 1979 Italian Athletics Championships.  Maurizio was also the 1987 and 1991 World Champion in the 20km race walk. He had 60 caps for representing the national team between 1977 and 1992. He was supported through much of his career by the Italian car manufacturer, Fiat.  Read more…

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Pier Giorgio Frassati – social activist

Brave Catholic has inspired youth of the world

Pier Giorgio Frassati, who was dedicated to social justice issues and spent his brief life helping the poor, was born on this day in 1901 in Turin.  He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1990, who dubbed him ‘the Man of the Eight Beatitudes,’ alluding to a passage in the Gospel According to Matthew.  Frassati’s father, Alfredo, owned the newspaper La Stampa, and his mother, Adelaide, was a painter, whose works were purchased by King Victor Emmanuel III.  Although he was from a wealthy background, even as a child Frassati showed compassion for the poor. He was educated at a school run by Jesuits and grew up to become dedicated to social action as a means of combating inequalities.  He was an ardent opponent of Fascism and was arrested in Rome for protesting with the Young Catholic Workers Congress, continuing to hold his banner aloft while being attacked by the police.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Fault Lines: Earthquakes and Urbanism in Modern Italy, by Giacomo Parrinello

Earth's fractured geology is visible in its fault lines. It is along these lines that earthquakes occur, sometimes with disastrous effects. These disturbances can significantly influence urban development, as seen in the aftermath of two earthquakes in Messina, Italy, in 1908 and in the Belice Valley, Sicily, in 1968. Following the history of these places before and after their destruction, Fault Lines explores plans and developments that preceded the disasters and the urbanism that emerged from the ruins. These stories explore fault lines between "rural" and "urban," "backwardness" and "development," and "before" and "after," shedding light on the role of environmental forces in the history of human habitats.  In his review, Professor John Foot, of the University of Bristol, described Fault Lines as ‘an extremely interesting and well-written book, which takes two major Italian disasters in detail and uses them to tell a series of stories about urban change, the state, national identity, and other issues.’ 

Giacomo Parrinello is a Marie Curie Fellow in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University and the Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna. He has published in the fields of environmental history, history of urban planning, and modern Italian history.

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5 April

Giovanni dalle Bande Nere - condottiero

Medici soldier who fathered Cosimo I de' Medici

Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, the military leader regarded as the last of the great Italian condottieri, was born on this day in 1498 in Forlì, in what is now the Emilia-Romagna region.  The condottieri were professional soldiers, mercenaries who hired themselves out to lead the armies of the Italian city-states and the Papacy in the frequent wars that ensued from the Middle Ages through to the Renaissance.  Giovanni spent the greater part of his military career in the service of Pope Leo X, the Medici pope. Indeed, he was a Medici himself, albeit from a then secondary branch of the family. Baptised Ludovico, he was the son of Giovanni de’ Medici, also known as Il Popolano and a great-nephew of Cosimo the Elder, the founder of the dynasty.  It was his mother, Caterina Sforza, the powerful daughter of the Duke of Milan, who renamed him Giovanni in memory of his father. Read more…

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Vincenzo Gioberti - philosopher and politician

Writings helped bring about unification of Italy

Vincenzo Gioberti, a philosopher regarded as one of the key figures in the Italian unification, was born on this day in 1801 in Turin.  He became prime minister of Sardinia-Piedmont in December 1848, albeit for only two months.  Although he was an associate of the republican revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini - and was arrested and then exiled as a result - he did not agree with Mazzini’s opposition to the monarchy and was not an advocate of violence.  However, he was staunchly in favour of a united Italy, particularly because of his conviction that Italians represented a superior race, intellectually and morally, and that by pulling together as one nation they could assert a profound influence on civilisation that would benefit the world.  Gioberti’s book Del Primato civile e morale degli Italiani (The civic and moral primacy of the Italians) detailed examples from history to underline his theories about Italian supremacy. Read more…

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Anna Antonacci – soprano

Acclaimed performer has perfected her portrayal of Rossini heroines

Italian opera singer Anna Caterina Antonacci, who is considered one of the finest sopranos of her generation, was born on this day in 1961 in Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna.   Particularly known for her roles in Rossini’s operas, Antonacci has been awarded many prizes and honours during her career. In 2021, she was elected as one of the ‘Accademici Effettivi’, by the panellists of the General Assembly of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, one of the oldest, and most prestigious, musical institutions in the world. After studying in Bologna, Antonacci entered the chorus at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in 1981. She made her solo debut in 1984 in Pistoia as the Contessa di Ceprano, in Rigoletto, by Giuseppe Verdi. In 1986, in Arezzo in Tuscany, she sang the role of Rosina, the heroine of Giacchino Rossini’s comic opera The Barber of Seville.  Read more…

Vincenzo Viviani – mathematician and scientist

Galileo follower's name lives on as moon crater

Forward-thinking scientist Vincenzo Viviani was born on this day in 1622 in Florence.  Viviani worked as an assistant to Galileo Galilei and after his mentor's death continued his experimental work in the field of mathematics and physics. This work was considered so important that Viviani has had a small crater on the moon named after him.  While at school in Florence, Viviani was given a scholarship to buy mathematical books by the Grand Duke Ferdinando II de' Medici. He later became a pupil of Evangelista Torricelli and worked with him on physics and geometry.  By the time he was 17 he was working as an assistant to Galileo Galilei. After Galileo’s death in 1642, Viviani edited the first edition of his teacher’s collected works.  Viviani was appointed to fill Torricelli’s position at the Accademia dell’Arte del Disegno in Florence after his death in 1647.  Read more…

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Francesco Laparelli - architect and military engineer

Italian who designed Valletta, the fortified capital of Malta

The architect Francesco Laparelli da Cortona, who worked as assistant to Michelangelo Buonarroti at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome but is chiefly renowned for the design of Valletta, the fortified capital city of Malta, was born on this day in 1521 in the hilltop city of Cortona in what is now Tuscany.  Laparelli designed the bell tower for Cortona’s cathedral but turned his talents towards military engineering after serving as an officer under Cosimo de’ Medici during the battle for control of the Republic of Siena in the 1550s. He went on to serve on Cortona’s city council and worked with other engineers on the Fortezza del Girifalco above the city. The cost of the fortress and other work on the city walls eventually bankrupted the city but Laparelli’s reputation was established.  He was summoned to Rome by Pope Pius IV in 1560.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Mercenaries and Their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy, by Michael Mallett 

Michael Mallett's classic study of Renaissance warfare in Italy is as relevant today as it was when it was first published a generation ago. His lucid account of the age of the condottieri - the mercenary captains of fortune - and of the soldiers who fought under them is set in the wider context of the Italian society of the time and of the warring city-states who employed them. A fascinating picture emerges of the mercenaries themselves, of their commanders and their campaigns, but also of the way in which war was organized and practised in the Renaissance world. The book concentrates on the 15th century, a confused period of turbulence and transition when standing armies were formed in Italy and more modern types of military organisation took hold across Europe. But it also looks back to the middle ages and the 14th century, and forward to the Italian wars of the 16th century when foreign armies disputed the European balance of power on Italian soil. Mercenaries and Their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy, which embodies much scholarly research into this neglected, often misunderstood subject, is essential reading for any one who is keen to understand the history of warfare in the late medieval period and the Renaissance.

The late Michael Mallett was professor of history at the University of Warwick. He is best known for his outstanding books on Renaissance Italy, in particular The Florentine Galleys in the Fifteenth Century and The Borgias.

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