Candido Jacuzzi - inventor

Improvised hydrotherapy device became world's favourite spa bath

Candido Jacuzzi with the pump
he made for his son's treatment

Candido Jacuzzi, whose surname became familiar across the world because of what followed his invention of a hydrotherapy bath for his sick son, was born on this day in 1903 in Casarsa della Delizia, a town in Friuli-Venezia Giulia about 80km (50 miles) northwest of Trieste, the regional capital.

His family joined many Italians in the early 20th century in emigrating to the United States in search of economic prosperity. After a number of years, they set up a business, Jacuzzi Brothers Inc., initially working in the burgeoning aircraft sector before later manufacturing pumps for agricultural use. It was based in Berkeley, California.

Business was successful if not spectacularly so and it was not until 30 years later that Candido, who was by then the father of a young child diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, hit upon the idea that would turn Jacuzzi into a household name.

Jacuzzi's son, Kenneth, was only 15 months old when he was diagnosed with the painful, inflammatory condition, for which there was no cure. He was given hydrotherapy sessions to ease the symptoms and regular immersion in a bath of hot, aerated water, followed by a massage, made him feel much better. 

The problem for Candido and his wife, Ines, was that these therapy sessions involved a two-hour round-trip to a hospital several times a week. It would be much more practical, Jacuzzi thought, if he could install a similar bath at home.

But none existed for home use at the time and the only real option open to him was to build one himself.  Jacuzzi studied the hydrotherapy unit used by the hospital and realized that it was run by pumps, which gave him a head start as pumps were part of the family business. He decided to experiment by modifying an agricultural pump by adding an air intake, reversing its pump action and submerging it in a bathtub of hot water. 

To his great satisfaction, it worked. The strong jet of bubbles emerging from the pump replicated the whirlpool effect of the hospital bath and Kenneth could now have his treatments without leaving the house. 

The therapists who now visited Kenneth at home encouraged Candido to make more of the devices so that other sufferers could benefit.  He talked to his older brothers, who had been the founders of the business, and other family members, and they agreed to give it a try.

Candido Jacuzzi (left) with brothers Gelindo, Frank,
Joseph and Valeriano at their factory in Berkeley

While the merits of the whirlpool bath pump were obvious to Candido and his wife, it needed exposure for its benefits to become more widely known. Thankfully, this came thanks to a daytime TV programme, Queen for a Day, who agreed to take a number of Jacuzzi’s pumps to give away as prizes.

Sales took off, with the unexpected bonus that its appeal would spread beyond those who needed it for medical reasons to others - many celebrities among them - who simply liked the idea of luxuriating in a bath of perpetual bubbles.

To cater for this market, Candido and his nephew, Roy Jacuzzi, devised a way of incorporating their pump in a custom-made fibreglass tub as a single, self-contained unit, a luxury item that could be made large enough to hold two people or more. With its own hot-water supply, it could even be used outside.

After the first two-person Jacuzzi 'Roman' Spa Bath was sold in 1970, the brand soon became a household name. 

Given the family’s humble start, it was quite a success story.  Candido’s family in Italy were not poor. His father, Giovanni, ran a fruit and vegetable shop in Casarsa, selling produce from his farm. But money was tight. Italy as a country was suffering economic hardship at the start of the 20th century and the possibility of war in Europe was looming.

The family was made up of 13 children and keeping them all on the proceeds of the farm was a challenge. Candido’s older brothers had already been sent to Germany for months at a time to find work.

The popularity of the Jacuzzi made it
the world's best-known spa bath brand

Most of them worked as bricklayers but the oldest, Rachele, was smart enough to become a telegraph operator while attending classes to further his education. He joined the Italian army, making a point of studying aeronautics, which he had identified as a field likely to throw up opportunities.

He might have seen active service, but as a world war became more likely, Giovanni decided to protect his older sons from the possibility of being conscripted and sent them to America, at first to Washington State

Rachele used the knowledge he had acquired in the Italian military to get a job with McDonnell Douglas, the aircraft manufacturer, for whom he designed an aircraft propeller with thin, aerodynamically efficient blades made of wood that became known as the “Jacuzzi Toothpick”. 

It was so successful it was bought by both the US and Russian military. Thanks to his rights as the inventor, the two major contracts provided him with enough money to launch the family business, Jacuzzi Brothers Inc., which had its headquarters in San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley. 

Initially, their factory made products for the aviation industry, including one of the first fully enclosed aircraft cabins, which was used by the postal service to transport mail. When one of these planes crashed, however, with Giacomo Jacuzzi, one of Candido’s brothers, among those killed, the family turned their back on the aircraft business and diversified into other products, including water pumps.

Between 1912 and 1920, the whole Jacuzzi family left northern Italy for California, including Candido, then entering his teens, who would work for the company until ill health forced his retirement in 1975 at the age of 72, having been president since 1971. He died in 1986 at the age of 83.

The Church of Santa Croce e Beata Vergine
del Rosario, with its distinctive twin towers

Travel tip:

The town of Casarsa della Delizia is in the province of Pordenone, a town about 15km (9 miles) to its west, surrounded by flat, fertile countryside shaped by waterways and vineyards. The La Delizia wine cooperative, established in 1931, is still a major local institution. Casarsa, with a population of around 8,500 inhabitants, is known mainly for its association with the writer and film-maker, Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose mother was from Casarsa, where he spent part of his childhood. The town became a place of memory for his admirers, these days drawn by the Centro Studi Pier Paolo Pasolini, a cultural centre dedicated to Pasolini’s life and work, hosting exhibitions, archives, and events.  Just outside the main town lies Versuta, a tiny hamlet where Pasolini lived during World War Two. II. In the town centre, the Church of Santa Croce e Beata Vergine del Rosario, the twin towers of which give the town its most recognisable architectural silhouette, has frescoes by Pomponio Amalteo, a notable 16th‑century painter of the Venetian school, the presence of whose work is an example of how Friuli’s religious buildings often hide unexpected artistic treasures.  The fertile quality of the land around Casarsa is due to the nearby Tagliamento River and a network of irrigation channels.  Casarsa is surrounded by vineyards, and seasonal festivals celebrate Friulian varieties such as Friulano, Refosco and Prosecco.   

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The Palazzo del Governo is one of several grand
palaces flanking Trieste's Piazza Unità d'Italia

Travel tip:

The seaport of Trieste, capital of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, officially became part of the Italian Republic in 1954. It had been disputed territory for thousands of years and after it was granted to Italy in 1920, thousands of the resident Slovenians left. The final border with Yugoslavia was settled in 1975 with the Treaty of Osimo. The area today is one of the most prosperous in Italy and Trieste is a lively, cosmopolitan city and a major centre for trade and ship building.  At its heart is the Piazza Unità d'Italia, the main square, which faces the Adriatic and is thought to be Europe's largest square located next to the sea. When it was built, Trieste was the most important seaport of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Its impressive buildings include the city's municipal offices and other important palaces. Trieste has a coffee house culture that dates back to the Habsburg era.  Caffè Tommaseo, in Piazza Nicolò Tommaseo, near the grand open space of the Piazza Unità d’Italia, is the oldest in the city, founded in 1830. Just along the coast is the Castello di Miramare, which stands over the harbour at Grignano, located on the end of a rocky spur jutting into the Gulf of Trieste, about 8km (5 miles) from the city itself. This Habsburg castle was built between 1856 and 1860 for Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, based on a design by Carl Junker.  Legend has it that Ferdinand chose the spot to build the castle after taking refuge from a storm in the gulf in the sheltered harbour of Grignano that sits behind the spur.

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More reading:

The world renowned coffee brand with its roots in Trieste

The father who invented ‘Lorenzo’s Oil’ for sick son

The Italian-American believed to have made the world’s first ice cream cone

Also on this day:

1530: The coronation of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

1607: The premiere of Monteverdi’s historic opera L’Orfeo 

1896: The birth of restaurateur Cesare “Caesar” Cardini

1934: The birth of politician Bettino Craxi

1934: The birth of soprano Renato Scotto

1990: The death of popular president Sandro Pertini

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23 February

Emanuele Notarbartolo - banker and politician

First major figure to be assassinated by Mafia

The banker and politician Emanuele Notarbartolo, whose determination to end corrupt banking practices in Sicily in the late 19th century would cost him his life, was born on this day in 1834 in Palermo.  Notarbartolo served as a conservative Mayor of Palermo from 1873 to 1876 and director of the Banco di Sicilia from 1876 to 1890.  He saved the bank from going bust by stamping down on the practice of doling out large and effectively unsecured loans to favoured individuals but in doing so made many enemies.  Having survived being kidnapped in 1882, Notarbartolo was stabbed to death in his first-class compartment on a train just outside Palermo in 1893. Although ultimately they were set free as the legal process broke down, Raffaele Palizzolo, a rival politician with Mafia connections as well as a fellow member of the Banco di Sicilia board, and a Mafia boss, Giuseppe Fontana, were identified as being responsible for his death. Read more…

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John Keats – poet

Writer spent his final days in the Eternal City

English Romantic poet John Keats died on this day in Rome in 1821.  He had been a published writer for five years and had written some of his greatest work before leaving England.  Ode to a Nightingale, one of his most famous poems, was written in the spring of 1819 while he was sitting under a plum tree in an English garden.  Keats was just starting to be appreciated by the literary critics when tuberculosis took hold of him and he was advised by doctors to move to a warmer climate.  He arrived in Rome with his friend, Joseph Severn, in November 1820 after a long, gruelling journey.  Another friend had found them rooms in a house in Piazza di Spagna in the centre of Rome and they went past the Colosseum as they made their way there.  Keats slept in a room overlooking the Piazza and could hear the sound of the fountain outside. Read more…

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Corrado Cagli - painter

Jewish artist who fought in World War II as a US soldier

The painter Corrado Cagli, one of the outstanding figures in the New Roman school that emerged in the early part of the 20th century, was born in Ancona on this day in 1910.  He moved with his family to Rome in 1915 at the age of five and by the age of 17 had created his first significant work, a mural painted on a building in Via Sistina, the street that links Piazza Barberini with the Spanish Steps in the historic centre of the city.  The following year he painted another mural inside a palazzo on the Via del Vantaggio, not far from Piazza del Popolo.  In 1932, he held his first personal exhibition at Rome’s Galleria d’Arte Moderna.  At this stage, despite being both Jewish and gay, Cagli had the support of the Fascist government, who commissioned him and others to produce mosaics and murals for public buildings.  Read more…

Manfredo Fanti - military general

Risorgimento hero who founded Royal Italian Army

The Italian general Manfredo Fanti, a key figure in the Italian Wars of Independence in the mid-19th century and the founder of the Royal Italian Army, was born on this day in 1806 in Carpi, a town about 20km (13 miles) northwest of Modena in what is now Emilia-Romagna.  Although he ultimately had a disagreement with Giuseppe Garibaldi, the figurehead of the Italian Unification movement, Fanti is still regarded as one of the heroes of the Risorgimento, as a result of the military victories he engineered against the Austrians in the second war of independence, which liberated Lombardy from foreign control, and in the final push for unification in 1860.  Between the second and third wars of independence, after he had been appointed Minister of War in the Cavour government, Fanti organised the absorption of the army of the League of Central Italy into the Royal Sardinian Army. Read more…

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Giovanni Battista de Rossi - archaeologist

Excavations unearthed massive Catacomb of St Callixtus

Giovanni Battista de Rossi, the archaeologist who revealed the whereabouts of lost Christian catacombs beneath Rome, was born on this day in 1822 in the Italian capital.  De Rossi’s most famous discovery – or rediscovery, to be accurate – of the Catacomb of St Callixtus, thought to have been created in the 2nd century by the future Pope Callixtus I, at that time a deacon of Rome, under the direction of Pope Zephyrinus, established him as the greatest archaeologist of the 19th century.  The vast underground cemetery, located beneath the Appian Way about 7km (4.3 miles) south of the centre of Rome, is estimated to have covered an area of 15 hectares on five levels, with around 20km (12.5 miles) of passageways.  It may have contained up to half a million corpses, including those of 16 popes and 50 Christian martyrs. Read more…

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Gentile Bellini - Renaissance painter

Bellini family were Venice's leading 15th century artists

Gentile Bellini, a member of Venice's leading family of painters in the 15th century, died in Venice on this day in 1507.  He was believed to be in his late 70s, although the exact date of his birth was not recorded.  The son of Jacopo Bellini, who had been a pioneer in the use of oil paint in art, he was the brother of Giovanni Bellini and the brother-in-law of Andrea Mantegna.  Together, they were the founding family of the Venetian school of Renaissance art.  Although history tends to place Gentile in their shadow, he was considered in his time to be one of the greatest living painters in Venice and from 1454 he was the official portrait artist for the Doges of Venice.  He also served Venice as a cultural ambassador in Constantinople, where he was sent to work for Sultan Mehmed II as part of a peace settlement between Venice and Turkey.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia, by John Dickie

Recognised as the 'first truly definitive English-language study of this myth-laden subject' (Sunday Times), Cosa Nostra is the compelling story of the Sicilian Mafia, the world's most famous, most secretive and most misunderstood criminal fraternity.  The Mafia has been given many names since it was founded 140 years ago: the Sect, the Brotherhood, the Honoured Society, and now Cosa Nostra. Yet as times have changed, the Mafia's subtle and bloody methods have remained the same. Now, for the first time, Cosa Nostra reconstructs the complete history of the Sicilian mafia from its origins to the present day, from the lemon groves and sulphur mines of Sicily, to the streets of Manhattan.  Described by journalist and presenter Andrew Marr as 'Monumental and gripping', Cosa Nostra is a history rich in atmosphere with the narrative pace of the best detective fiction, and hailed by critics in Italy as one of the best books to be written about the Mafia.

John Dickie is Professor of Italian Studies at University College, London. He is an internationally-recognised specialist on many aspects of Italian history and culture and his books have been translated into more than 20 languages. His history of Italian food, Delizia!, was turned into a six-part series for Italian television.

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22 February

Enrico Piaggio - industrialist

Former aircraft manufacturer famed for Italy's iconic Vespa motor scooter

Enrico Piaggio, born on this day in 1905 in the Pegli area of Genoa, was destined to be an industrialist, although he could not have envisaged the way in which his company would become a world leader.  Charged with rebuilding the family business after Allied bombers destroyed the company's major factories during World War II, Enrico Piaggio decided to switch from manufacturing aircraft to building motorcycles, an initiative from which emerged one of Italy's most famous symbols, the Vespa scooter.  The original Piaggio business, set up by his father, Rinaldo in 1884, in the Sestri Ponente district of Genoa, provided fittings for luxury ships built in the thriving port. As the business grew, Rinaldo moved into building locomotives and rolling stock for the railways, diversifying again with the outbreak of World War I, when the company began producing aircraft.  Read more…

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Renato Dulbecco - Nobel Prize-winning physiologist

Research led to major breakthrough in knowledge of cancer

Renato Dulbecco, a physiologist who shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his role in drawing a link between genetic mutations and cancer, was born on this day in 1914 in Catanzaro in Calabria.  Through a series of experiments that began in the late 1950s after he had emigrated to the United States, Dulbecco and two colleagues showed that certain viruses could insert their own genes into infected cells and trigger uncontrolled cell growth, a hallmark of cancer.  Their findings transformed the course of cancer research, laying the groundwork for the linking of several viruses to human cancers, including the human papilloma virus, which is responsible for most cervical cancers.  The discovery also provided the first tangible evidence that cancer was caused by genetic mutations, a breakthrough that changed the way scientists thought about cancer. Read more…

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Giulietta Masina - actress

Married to Fellini and excelled in his films

The actress Giulietta Masina, who was married for 50 years to the film director Federico Fellini, was born on this day in 1921 in San Giorgio di Piano, a small town in Emilia-Romagna, about 20km (12 miles) north of Bologna.  She appeared in 22 films, six of them directed by her husband, who gave her the lead female role opposition Anthony Quinn in La strada (1954) and enabled her to win international acclaim when he cast her as a prostitute in the 1957 film Nights of Cabiria, which built on a small role she had played in an earlier Fellini movie, The White Sheik.  Masina's performance in what was a controversial film at the time earned her best actress awards at the film festivals of Cannes and San Sebastián and from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists (SNGCI).  Both La strada and Nights of Cabiria won Oscars for best foreign film at the Academy Awards.  Read more…

Mario Pavesi – entrepreneur

Biscuit maker who gave Italian motorists the Autogrill

Italy lost one of its most important postwar entrepreneurs when Mario Pavesi died on this day in 1990.  Pavesi, originally from the town of Cilavegna in the province of Pavia in Lombardy, not only founded the Pavesi brand, famous for Pavesini and Ringo biscuits among other lines, but also set up Italy’s first motorway service areas under the name of Autogrill.  Always a forward-thinking businessman, Pavesi foresaw the growing influence American ideas would have on Italy during the rebuilding process in the wake of the Second World War and the way that Italians would embrace road travel once the country developed its own motorway network.  He was one of the first Italian entrepreneurs to take full advantage of advertising opportunities in the press, radio, cinema and later television.  Read more…

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Giovanni Zenatello - opera singer and director

Tenor star who turned Verona’s ancient Arena into major venue

The early 20th century opera star Giovanni Zenatello, who was not only a highly accomplished performer on stages around the world but also the driving force behind the establishment of the Arena di Verona as a major venue, was born on this day in 1876 in Verona.  Zenatello spent a large part of his career in the United States but is remembered with enormous respect in Italy - and in particular in his home city - for having teamed up with impresario Ottone Rivato and others to put on a spectacular staging of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida at the Arena in 1913, the first operatic production of the century to take place within the remains of the Roman amphitheatre and the forerunner of hundreds more.  The tenor was already an important figure in Italian opera for his interpretations of Verdi’s Otello and most of the other dramatic or heroic leading male roles in the popular works of the day. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Italian Café Culture & Scooters: Vespa, Lambretta, and the Postwar Mobility Boom in Italy, by Etienne Psaila

In the rubble of postwar Italy, something extraordinary happened. Amid bombed-out cities and economic collapse, two unlikely machines emerged to redefine freedom, beauty, and everyday life: the Vespa and the Lambretta. These sleek, affordable scooters were more than just a means of transport - they were symbols of modernity, aspiration, and Italian ingenuity.  Italian Café Culture & Scooters tells the compelling, factual story of how a devastated nation found movement again - on two wheels. From the design genius of Corradino D'Ascanio to the gritty streets of Milan where Lambretta was born, this book explores how scooters reshaped cityscapes, social norms, and global perceptions of Italian style. It charts the golden years of the 1950s and '60s, the rise of youth and women riders, their cinematic fame, their international export boom, and eventual decline in the face of mass car ownership.  Yet the scooter never died. Through restoration culture, electric rebirth, and the deep emotional bonds they forged, Vespas and Lambrettas remain icons of Italy's industrial past and aesthetic soul. Written in vivid, accessible narrative form and grounded in fact, this book is a sweeping tribute to the machines that helped rebuild a nation-and rolled it into a new era.

Etienne Psaila was educated at the University of Malta and has been writing for more than 25 years, publishing at an average of four titles per year, while also working as an educator. He has written about many subjects but specialises in automotive and motorcycle books.  

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21 February

Death of Pope Julius II

Pope who commissioned Michelangelo for Sistine Chapel

Pope Julius II, who was nicknamed ‘the Warrior Pope’, died on this day in 1513 in Rome.  As well as conducting military campaigns during his papacy he was responsible for the destruction and rebuilding of St Peter’s Basilica and commissioning Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  He is also remembered by students of British history as being the Pope who gave Henry VIII dispensation to marry Catherine of Aragon, his brother’s widow.  Born Giuliano della Rovere, he was the nephew of Francesco della Rovere, who became Pope Sixtus IV.  His uncle sent him to be educated by the Franciscans and he was made a Bishop soon after his Uncle became Pope.  He later became Cardinal Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome and was very influential in the College of Cardinals.  One of his major rivals was Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, who was elected Pope Alexander VI in 1492. Read more…

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Giuseppe Abbati - painter and revolutionary

Early death robbed Italian art of bright new talent

Italy lost a great artistic talent tragically young when the painter and patriot Giuseppe Abbati died on this day in 1868.  Only 32 years old, Abbati passed away in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence, having contracted rabies as a result of being bitten by a dog.  Abbati was a leading figure in the Macchiaioli movement, a school of painting advanced by a small group of artists who began to meet at the Caffè Michelangiolo in Florence in the late 1850s.  The group, in which Giovanni Fattori, Silvestro Lega and Cristiano Banti were other prominent members, were also for the most part revolutionaries, many of whom had taken part in the uprisings that occurred at different places in the still-to-be-united Italian peninsula in 1848.  Abbati, born in Naples, had joined Giuseppe Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand, losing his right eye in the Battle of the Volturno in 1860. Read more…

Domenico Ghirardelli – chocolatier

Built famous US business with skills learned in Genoa

The chocolatier Domenico Ghirardelli, founder of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in San Francisco, was born on this day in 1817 in a village just outside Rapallo in Liguria.  Also known as Domingo, Ghirardelli arrived in San Francisco in 1849 during the rapid expansion years of the Gold Rush, having spent the previous 10 years or so in Peru, where he had run a successful confectionery business.  After making money as a merchant, initially ferrying supplies to prospectors in the gold fields, he set up his first chocolate factory in 1852, drawing on the skills he acquired as an apprentice in Genoa.  By the end of the century, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company was one of the city’s most successful businesses, with a prestige headquarters on North Point Street, a short distance from Fisherman’s Wharf, in a group of buildings that became known as Ghirardelli Square. Read more…

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Raimondo Montecuccoli – military leader

Brilliant tactician outwitted his opponents

Raimondo, Count of Montecuccoli, a soldier, strategist and military reformer who served the Habsburgs with distinction during the Thirty Years’ War, was born on this day in 1609 in Pavullo nel Frignano in the Duchy of Modena and Reggio.  As well as being Count of Montecuccoli, Raimondo also became a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and the Duke of Melfi in the Kingdom of Naples.  He was born in the Castle of Montecuccolo in Pavullo nel Frignano near Modena and at the age of 16 began serving as a soldier under the command of his uncle, Count Ernest Montecuccoli, who was a General in the Austrian army.  After four years of active service in Germany and the Low Countries, Raimondo became a Captain of Infantry.  He was wounded at the storming of new Brandenburg and at the first Battle of Breitenfeld, where he was captured by Swedish soldiers.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces, by Miles J Unger

Michelangelo was not only the greatest artist in an age of giants, but a man who reinvented the practice of art itself. Throughout his long career he clashed with patrons by insisting that he had no master but his own demanding muse and promoting the novel idea that it was the artist, rather than the lord who paid for it, who was the creative force behind the work.  Miles Unger narrates the astonishing life of this driven and difficult man through six of his greatest masterpieces. Each work expanded the expressive range of the medium, from the Pietà Michelangelo carved as a brash young man, to the apocalyptic Last Judgment, the work of an old man tested by personal trials. Throughout the course of his career he explored the full range of human possibility. In the gargantuan David he depicts Man in the glory of his youth, while in the tombs he carved for the Medici he offers a sustained meditation on death and the afterlife. In the Sistine Chapel ceiling he tells the epic story of Creation, from the perfection of God's initial procreative act to the corruption introduced by His imperfect children. In the final decades of his life, his hands too unsteady to wield the brush and chisel, he exercised his mind by raising the soaring vaults and dome of St. Peter's in a final tribute to his God.  Unger’s Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces brings to life the irascible, egotistical, and undeniably brilliant man whose artistry continues to amaze and inspire us after 500 years. 

Miles J Unger writes on art, books, and culture for The Economist.  He is also the author of Picasso and the Painting That Shocked the World; The Watercolors of Winslow Homer; Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de’ Medici; and Machiavelli: A Biography.

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20 February

NEW - Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici - banker

Medici dynasty was built on his fortune

Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, who created the wealth upon which the Medici dynasty of Renaissance Italy was built, died on this day in 1429 in Florence.  Although Cosimo de’ Medici, his son, is regarded as the founder of the dynasty as the first Medici to rule Florence, it was the fortune that Cosimo inherited from his father that enabled him to command power and influence in the city.  Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici founded the Medici Bank in 1397 and at the time of his death was one of the wealthiest men in Europe. Although he had another son who survived to be an adult, Lorenzo, the bulk of his fortune passed to Cosimo.  Born in Florence, it is thought in 1360, he was the son of Averardo de’ Medici and Jacopa Spini. Bicci was Averardo’s nickname. Averardo, a wool merchant, died comfortably off, but not wealthy.  His estate was divided between his five sons and Giovanni’s share was relatively small. Read more… 

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The Barber of Seville premieres in Rome

Rival fans wreck debut of Rossini’s most famous opera

The Barber of Seville, the work that would come to be seen as Gioachino Rossini’s masterpiece of comic opera, was performed for the first time on this day in 1816 at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.  Commissioned by the theatre’s owner, Duke Francesco Sforza-Cesarini, it had a libretto by Cesare Sterbini based on the French comedy play Le Barbier de Séville and was originally entitled Almaviva or The Useless Precaution, out of deference to Giovanni Paisiello, the most popular composer in Italy in the 18th century, whose own version of Il barbiere di Siviglia had been very successful.  The second part of the same text, by Pierre Beaumarchais, was behind Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro, which premiered four years after Paisiello’s.  Nonetheless, Paisiello’s loyal fans saw Rossini’s opera as an attempt to steal their favourite’s thunder, whatever name he gave it, and organised what was nothing short of an act of sabotage. Read more…

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Ferruccio Lamborghini - car maker

Tractor manufacturer inspired by Enzo Ferrari's 'insult'

Fans on one side of a great rivalry in Italy's performance car market were in mourning on this day in 1993 following the death at the age of 76 of Ferruccio Lamborghini.  Lamborghini, who made his fortune from building tractors to service Italy's post-war agricultural recovery, set up as a car maker in 1963 in direct competition with Enzo Ferrari, who had been selling sports cars with increasing success since 1947.  It is said there was no love lost between the two, not least because they first met when Lamborghini turned up at Ferrari's factory in Maranello, a few kilometres from Modena, to complain to Enzo in person that Ferrari were using inferior parts.  Lamborghini had become a collector of fast cars and complained that Ferraris were noisy and rough, re-purposed track cars. Ferrari responded by saying he was not prepared to be lectured about high performance cars by a tractor manufacturer. Read more…

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Laura Bassi – scientist

Ground-breaking academic paved the way for women

Brilliant physicist Laura Bassi died on this day in 1778 in Bologna.  She had enjoyed a remarkable career, becoming the first woman to earn a Chair in Science at a university anywhere in the world.  When she was just 13 her family’s physician had recognised her potential and took charge of her education.  When she was 20 he invited philosophers from the University of Bologna along with the Archbishop of Bologna, who later became Pope Benedict XIV, to examine her progress.  They were all impressed and Bassi was admitted to the Bologna Academy of Sciences as an honorary member, the first female ever to be allowed to join.  Her theses at the university showed influences of Isaac Newton’s work on optics and light. She was a key figure in introducing his ideas about physics to Italy.  When she received her degree from the university there was a public celebration in Bologna.  Read more…

Francesco Maria II della Rovere - the last Duke of Urbino

Last male in famous family line

Francesco Maria II della Rovere, the last holder of the title Duke of Urbino and the last surviving male from a famous noble family, was born on this day in 1549 in Pesaro in Le Marche.  Descended from the 15th century Pope Sixtus IV, Francesco Maria II’s only male heir, Federico Ubaldo della Rovere, died without fathering a son, which meant the Duchy reverted to Francesco Maria II, who in turn was convinced he should give it to Pope Urban VIII, of the Barberini family.  Federico’s daughter, Vittoria della Rovere, had been convinced she would be made Duchess of Urbino but had to be content with the Duchies of Rovere and Montefeltro, as well as an art collection that became the property of Florence after she had married Ferdinando II de’ Medici.  Pope Sixtus IV is best known for building the Sistine Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official papal residence in Vatican City.  Read more…

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Pino Aprile – journalist

Author wrote about unification from the point of view of the South

Writer Pino Aprile, who became internationally famous as the author of Terroni, a book outlining 'all that has been done to ensure that the Italians of the south became Southerners', was born on this day in 1950 in Gioia del Colle, in Puglia.  Terroni was first published in 2010, a year before Italy celebrated the 150th anniversary of becoming a unified country. Over 200,000 copies were sold in Italy and an English version of Terroni, translated by Ilaria Marra Rosiglioni, was published in 2011.  With the stage set for the tricolore to fly proudly over a year of celebrations in Italy, Terroni appeared just before the party started, to provide readers with stark examples of what Aprile claims happened to people living in the south of the country when troops fighting for Victor Emmanuel II arrived in their towns and villages - a catalogue of alleged massacres, executions, rapes, and torture. Read more…

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The Battle of Parabiago

When Visconti fought Visconti for control of Milan

One of the bloodiest battles of the 14th century took place on this day near the village of Parabiago, about 20km (12 miles) northwest of Milan.  The Battle of Parabiago in 1339 saw the armies of Azzone Visconti, the ruler of Milan, defeat an attempt to unseat him by his exiled uncle, Lodrisio Visconti, leader of a mercenary army named the Compagnia di San Giorgio - the Company of St George.  In 1311, Lodrisio had helped Matteo Visconti and his son Galeazzo regain the rulership of Milan from the Della Torre family, who had previously held power in the city but was later instrumental in imprisoning Galeazzo and his son, Azzone, as part of a power struggle. When Galeazzo and Azzone ultimately escaped, Lodrisio fled.  Initially holding up in his castle at Seprio, about 38km (24 miles) northwest of Milan, near the city of Varese, he was besieged by soldiers led by Azzone, who destroyed the castle but failed to capture Lodrisio. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence, by Tim Parks

The Medici are famous as the rulers of Florence at the high point of the Renaissance, their power derived from the family bank. Medici Money tells the fascinating, frequently bloody story of the family and the dramatic development and collapse of their bank (from Cosimo who took it over in 1419 to his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent who presided over its precipitous decline). The Medici faced two apparently insuperable problems: how did a banker deal with the fact that the Church regarded interest as a sin and had made it illegal? How in a small republic like Florence could he avoid having his wealth taken away by taxation? But the bank became indispensable to the Church. And the family completely subverted Florence's claims to being democratic. They ran the city. Medici Money explores a crucial moment in the passage from the Middle Ages to the modern world, a moment when our own attitudes to money and morals were being formed. To read this book is to understand how much the Renaissance has to tell us about our own world. 

Tim Parks has lived in Italy since 1981. He is the author of numerous novels, collections of essays, accounts of life in Italy and many translations of Italian writers.

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Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici - banker

Medici dynasty was built on his fortune

Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici; this portrait by
Alessandro Allori hangs in the Uffizi in Florence

Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, who created the wealth upon which the Medici dynasty of Renaissance Italy was built, died on this day in 1429 in Florence.

Although Cosimo de’ Medici, his son, is regarded as the founder of the dynasty as the first Medici to rule Florence, it was the fortune that Cosimo inherited from his father that enabled him to command power and influence in the city. The Medici family would rule Florence, barring a few interruptions, for the next 300 years.

Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici founded the Medici Bank in 1397 and at the time of his death was one of the wealthiest men in Europe. Although he had another son who survived to be an adult, Lorenzo, the bulk of his fortune passed to Cosimo.

Born in Florence, it is thought in 1360, he was the son of Averardo de’ Medici and Jacopa Spini. Bicci was Averardo’s nickname.

Averardo, a wool merchant, died comfortably off, but not wealthy. His estate was divided between his five sons and Giovanni’s share was relatively small, compelling him to build his fortune through skill and opportunity rather than inheritance. 

Giovanni's uncle, Vieri, on the other hand, was rich. From another branch of the Medici family, he owned one of the 70-plus banks thought to have existed in Florence in the second half of the 14th century and was good at his business, much of which involved loans and investments.

Vieri took the young De’ Medici on and supervised his rise through the ranks, being sufficiently impressed with the speed at which he learned that he made him a junior partner of the bank’s branch in Rome. In 1385, thanks to a dowry of 1500 florins that his wife, a noblewoman called Piccarda Bueri, brought to their marriage, he was able to take control of the Rome branch. The branch grew and when Vieri retired, in 1393, he decided to place De’ Medici in charge of the entire business.

In 1397, De’ Medici moved from Rome to Florence and opened the Medici Bank, establishing a headquarters at the crossroads between Via Porta Rossa and Via Calimala in an area of the city called Orsanmichele, a short distance from Piazza della Signoria.

Giovanni's son, Cosimo, built the
Medici powerbase on the bank's success

Giovanni De’ Medici was a shrewd businessman and the Medici Bank prospered in part thanks to his careful investment in the cloth trade. By the early 15th century, it had already become one of the most respected financial institutions in Europe, with branches in Venice, Rome and Naples as well as Florence. 

Under his leadership, the structure of the bank was revised in a way that meant that it functioned as a collection of partnerships, rather than having a central structure. This meant that if one branch suffered a loss, the impact on the bank as a whole would be less. In this way, the Medici Bank enjoyed financial resilience that other institutions lacked.

Giovanni was not an overtly political operator but had a knack for forming advantageous friendships, the most successful of all being the relationship he forged with the Catholic Church during his time in Rome. 

His decision to align himself with Baldassarre Cossa, a cardinal who would become the Antipope John XXIII during the Western Schism. In return for support from the Medici Bank, Cossa appointed them as managers of the papal treasury, a lucrative privilege that earned the bank a substantial amount in commissions.

Although Cossa was deposed after five years, Giovanni had by then foreseen the return of the papacy to Rome and found favour with Oddone Colonna, who as Pope Martin V maintained the Medici as papal bankers.

At the same time, he honoured Baldassare Cossa’s trust in him by paying a 38,000 ducat ransom to secure his release from prison in Germany. When Cossa died in 1419, Giovanni sponsored the construction of a magnificent tomb for him in the Florence Baptistery.

The Old Sacristy, a Brunelleschi masterpiece,
where Giovanni de' Medici is buried

Subsequent popes also retained the services of the Medici banks, setting the family on the path to becoming one of the richest dynasties in Europe. 

Through all this, Giovanni De’ Medici diligently protected the image he liked to portray as a humble businessman rather than a political figure. He insisted that he and his sons rejected the finery they could easily have afforded in favour of dressing like ordinary Florentines. He always believed that keeping on the side of the people would serve the family well. 

As an example, when Florence was hit by a serious outbreak of plague in 1417, Giovanni made substantial funds available to help the sick. He also used his considerable influence within the Signoria, Florence’s ruling council, to replace the city’s inequitable and oppressive poll tax with a new property tax he had designed himself that shifted the burden of tax to the wealthy, even at considerable cost to himself.

The Medici’s long tradition of patronage of the arts can also be attributed to a large degree to the example set by Giovanni, who made large donations to the work of artists such as Filippo Brunelleschi and Jacopo della Quercia.

Most notably, he commissioned the great Florentine architect Brunelleschi, famous for the colossal dome of Florence’s duomo, to renovate the ancient Basilica of San Lorenzo, destined to become the church of the Medici family. 

The Old Sacristy in the basilica is regarded as among Brunelleschi’s masterpieces - and of early Renaissance architecture in general. Donatello also contributed significant sculptural work to the project. 

The structure was completed in 1428, a year before Giovanni died. As per his wishes, Giovanni De’ Medici was buried in the Old Sacristy. His wife was buried with him after her death four years later.

De’ Medici was thought to be 69 at the time of his death. Though less flamboyant than some of his descendants, his achievements were foundational. By establishing the Medici Bank and securing the family’s early fortunes, he set in motion a dynasty that would shape European history for centuries. 

The Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence became
the family church of the Medici dynasty

Travel tip:

The Basilica di San Lorenzo, the burial place of the principal members of the Medici family, is one of the largest churches in Florence, situated in the middle of the market district in Piazza di San Lorenzo. Filippo Brunelleschi was commissioned to design a new building in 1419 to replace the original 11th century Romanesque church on the site but the new church was not completed until after his death. It is considered one of the greatest examples of Renaissance architecture.  Numerous architects worked at the church, including Michelangelo. Brunelleschi designed the central nave, with the two collateral naves on either side, and the Old Sacristy. The sacristy chapel is a cube with a lateral length of about 11 metres (36 feet), covered with a hemispheric dome, that is without any decoration beside its twelve ribs that converge in an oculus. The interior became a standard in Renaissance architecture, as did Brunelleschi’s use of white walls. 

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The beautiful Florence Baptistery, featuring 
Ghiberti's 'Gates of Paradise' is a city landmark

Travel tip:

The Florence Baptistery, where Giovanni De’ Medici commissioned a tomb for Baldassare Costa, is also known as the Baptistery of Saint John, dedicated to the patron saint of the city, John the Baptist. The octagonal baptistery stands where Piazza del Duomo meets Piazza San GThe architecture of the Baptistery takes inspiration from the Pantheon, an ancient Roman temple, yet it is also a highly original artistic achievement, although the identity of the architects who worked on its construction in the 11th and 12th century is undocumented. What is known is that the North Doors and the famous East Doors - dubbed the Gates of Paradise and widely regarded as a masterpiece of Renaissance art - were constructed in the 15th century by the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti. The project was awarded to Ghiberti after he entered a competition for designs in which the judges were unable to decide between his submission and that of Filippo Brunelleschi, with whom he might have shared the commission had the latter not refused.

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More reading:

The colourful life of Baldassare Cossa

Why Cosimo di Giovanni de’ Medici is seen as the founder of the Medici dynasty

The architectural genius of Filippo Brunelleschi

Also on this day:

1339: The Battle of Parabiago

1549: The birth of Francesco Maria II della Rovere

1778: The death of scientist Laura Bassi

1816: Rossini’s Barber of Seville premieres 

1950: The birth of journalist Pino Aprile

1993: The death of car maker Ferruccio Lamborghini

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19 February

Massimo Troisi – actor, writer and director

Tragic star died hours after completing finest work

Massimo Troisi, the comic actor, writer and director who suffered a fatal heart attack in 1994 only 12 hours after shooting finished on his greatest movie, was born on this day in 1953 in a suburb of Naples.  Troisi co-directed and starred in Il Postino, which won an Oscar for best soundtrack after being nominated in five categories, the most nominations in Academy Award history for an Italian film.  He also wrote much of the screenplay for the movie, based on a novel, Burning Patience, by the Chilean author Antonio Skármeta, which tells the story of a Chilean poet exiled on an Italian island and his friendship with a postman whose round consists only of the poet’s isolated house.  Plagued by heart problems for much of his life, the result of several bouts of rheumatic fever when he was a child, Troisi was told just before shooting was due to begin that he needed an urgent transplant operation.  Read more…

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Luigi Boccherini – musician

Composer gave the cello prominence in his charming quintets

Cellist and composer Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini was born on this day in 1743 in Lucca in Tuscany.  Boccherini is particularly known for a minuet from his String Quintet in E, which became popular after its use by characters posing as musicians in the 1955 film, The Ladykillers, which starred Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers.  Though his works became neglected after his death in 1805 they enjoyed a revival after the Boccherini Quintet, which was formed in Rome, started performing them in the 1950s.  Boccherini’s father was himself a cellist and double bass player and sent the young Luigi to study in Rome.  In 1757 they went to Vienna together where the court employed them both as musicians in the Imperial Theatre orchestra.  In 1764 Luigi obtained a permanent position back in Lucca, playing in both the church and theatre orchestras.  Read more…

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Domenico Grimani - cardinal and art collector

Owned works by Da Vinci, Titian and Raphael among others

The Venetian cardinal Domenico Grimani, whose vast art collection now forms part of the Museo d'Antichità in the Doge's Palace in Venice, was born on this day in 1461.  Grimani acquired works among others by Italian Renaissance masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgione, Titian and Raphael, as well as by Hans Memling and Hieronymus Bosch, two of the great Early Netherlandish painters of the 15th century.  He also owned the illustrated manuscript that became known as the Grimani Breviary, produced in Ghent and Bruges between 1510 and 1520, which is considered one of the most important  works of Flemish art from the Renaissance period.  Gerard David, Gerard Horenbout, Simon Bening and other illustrators contributed to the work, which was acquired by Grimani for 500 gold ducats, and subsequently bequeathed to the Venetian Republic.  Read more…

Orazio Vecchi – composer

Late Renaissance church musician wrote madrigal comedies to entertain audiences

Orazio Vecchi, who is regarded as a pioneer of dramatic music because of his innovative madrigal comedies, died on this day in 1605 in the city of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region.  His most famous composition, L’Amfiparnaso, was always intended as music for entertainment. It was a set of 15 pieces that were dramatic in nature, although they were not meant for the stage.  Vecchi is known to have been baptised in December 1550 in Modena. He was educated  at a Benedictine monastery and took holy orders.  He knew composers of the Venetian school, such as Giovanni Gabrieli, and he composed himself in the form of sacred music, such as masses and motets, as well as canzonette and madrigals for entertainment.  Vecchi served as maestro di cappella at the cathedral of Salò and as choirmaster at the cathedral of Reggio Emilia. Read more…

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Vittorio Grigolo - opera singer

Tenor courted public popularity as way to land 'serious' roles

The operatic tenor Vittorio Grigolo was born on this day in 1977 in Arezzo in Tuscany.  Grigolo has performed at many of the world's leading opera houses and starred in Werther by Jules Massenet at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.  Yet he has achieved fame as a serious performer after first releasing an album of popular songs and using reality TV shows to put himself in the public eye.  Brought up in Rome, Grigolo was a child prodigy who began to sing at the age of four, his love for music inspired by his father, who liked the family house to be filled with the sound of opera arias.  He won a place at the prestigious Sistine Chapel Choir School by the time he was nine and at 13 appeared on the same stage as the opera legend Luciano Pavarotti as the shepherd boy in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca at the Rome Opera House.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Postman (Il Postino): A Novel, by Antonio Skármeta. Translated by Katherine Silver

Antonio Skármeta’s The Postman - originally published as Ardiente paciencia (Burning Patience) - is a short, lyrical novel first published in Chile in 1985. The novel follows Mario Jiménez, a shy young fisherman who abandons the sea to become a postman on the small coastal island of Isla Negra. His only customer is the exiled poet Pablo Neruda, who receives mountains of fan mail.  As Mario delivers letters, an unlikely friendship forms. Mario admires Neruda’s poetry and asks for help in wooing Beatriz González, a beautiful barmaid he has fallen for. Neruda teaches him about metaphors, desire, and the power of words, and Mario gradually discovers his own poetic voice. The story unfolds against the backdrop of Chile’s political transformation, culminating in the rise of Salvador Allende and the looming instability that precedes the 1973 coup. The novel blends personal tenderness with national upheaval, giving it both intimacy and historical weight. As well as being the inspiration for Il Postino, which transposes the story from Chile to a small Italian island, it was also turned into a film in Chile, entitled Burning Patience, directed by Skármeta.

Antonio Skármeta was a Chilean writer, screenwriter, director and diplomat. As well as being the author of many novels, plays, and short stories, he was popularly known for hosting a television show on literature and the arts. He served as Chile’s ambassador to Germany from 2000 to 2003. Katherine Silver is an award-winning literary translator.

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