Oscar Luigi Scalfaro – President of Italy

Devout lawyer served the Republic all his life

Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who was the ninth
President of the Italian Republic

The ninth President of the Italian Republic, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, was born on this day in 1918 in Novara.

After studying law and entering the magistrature he became a public prosecutor and is the last Italian attorney to have obtained a death sentence.

In 1945 he prosecuted the former Novara prefect Enrico Vezzalini and five servicemen, who were accused of collaborating with the Germans. All six were condemned to death and the sentence was carried out a few months later.

Subsequently Scalfaro obtained another death sentence, but the accused was pardoned before the execution could take place.

Scalfaro was brought up to be a devout Catholic and studied law at Milan’s Università Cattolica.

Before the war ended he lost his wife, Maria Inzitari, who died a few weeks after giving birth to their daughter. He never remarried.

In 1948, as a member of Democrazia Cristiana, Scalfaro became a deputy representing Turin and was to keep the seat for more than 40 years, during which he held a number of leadership positions within the Christian Democrat party and in the Chamber of Deputies.

The cloister at the Università Cattolica in Milan, the
largest private university in Europe

At various times Scalfaro was the minister in charge of transport, civil aviation, education and the interior and, in 1987, he tried unsuccessfully to form a Government himself.

He was elected President of the Republic in 1992 and served till 1999. He then became a Senator for life.

He campaigned for the ‘No’ side in the 2006 referendum on constitutional reform and also served briefly as President of the Senate, despite by then being in his late eighties.

Scalfaro died in Rome in 2012 at the age of 93.

The 121m cupola of the Basilica of San
Gaudenzio dominates the Novara skyline

Travel tip:

Novara, where Oscar Luigi Scalfaro was born, is in the Piedmont region to the west of Milan. In the historic centre you can still see part of the ancient Roman walls. The most imposing monument, which has become the symbol of Novara, is the Basilica of San Gaudenzio with its 121-metre high cupola designed by Alessandro Antonelli.

Travel tip:

The seat of the Italian Senate is Palazzo Madama in Rome, which was built on top of the ancient baths of Nero close to Piazza Navona at the end of the 15th century for the Medici family. The Palazzo takes its name from Madama Margherita of Austria, the illegitimate daughter of the Emperor Charles V, who married Alessandro dè Medici. In 1871 after the conquest of Rome by Victor Emmanuel’s troops, Palazzo Madama became the seat of the Senate of the newly-formed Kingdom of Italy.

More reading:

How Moro tragedy blighted career of President Cossiga

(Photo of Universita Cattolica by Scruch CC BY-SA 3.0)
(Photo of Novara cupola by Guido06 CC BY-SA 3.0)


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Ludovico Ariosto – poet

Writer led the way with spirituality and humanity

This painting by Titian, circa 1512, is accepted
as likely to portray Ludovico Ariosto

The man who coined the term humanism - umanesimo - Ludovico Ariosto, was born on this day in 1474 in Reggio Emilia.

He became famous after his epic poem, Orlando furioso, was published in 1516.  It is now regarded by critics as the finest expression of the literary tendencies and spiritual attitudes of the Italian Renaissance.

Ariosto chose to focus on the strengths and potential of humanity, rather than upon its role as subordinate to God, which led to the Renaissance humanism movement.

His family moved to live in Ferrara when he was just ten years old and the poet has said he always felt ferrarese.

His father insisted he studied law but afterwards Ariosto followed his natural instincts to write poetry.

When his father died in 1500, Ariosto had to provide for his four brothers and five sisters and took the post of commander of the Citadel of Canossa at the invitation of Ercole I d'Este.

Then, in 1503, he entered the service of Cardinal Ippolito d’Este, son of Ercole I. He was obliged to follow the Cardinal on diplomatic, and sometimes dangerous, missions and expeditions.

From about 1505 onwards, Ariosto was working on Orlando furioso and he continued to revise and refine it for his entire life.

The text of Orlando furioso is kept at the
Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea in Ferrara

The first edition was published in Venice in 1516 and the second in Ferrara in 1521. Both were written in the ottavo rima form, eight line stanzas, in the tradition of Boccacio.

The poem follows the fortune of its hero, Orlando, who goes mad out of unrequited love against the backdrop of war between Christians and Saracens. Ariosto’s own refined spirituality is said to come through in his characters.

Orlando furioso instantly became popular and profoundly influenced the literature of the Renaissance.

Ariosto went on to compose seven satires and five comedies, while he was having to serve as governor of the Garfagnana, a wild province in the Apennines, out of financial necessity.

But by 1525 he had saved enough money to return to Ferrara, where he secretly married his mistress, Alessandra Benucci, and bought a house with a garden to settle down in.

He produced a third edition of Orlando furioso, which was published a few months before his death in 1533, and he wrote an appendix to it that was published posthumously.

The statue of Ludovico Ariosto in the
city of Reggio Emilia

Travel tip:

Reggio Emilia is an ancient walled city in the region of Emilia-Romagna. There is a statue of Ariosto and you can see the villa he was born in, near the municipal building in the centre. You can also see a villa outside the town, Il Mauriziano, where he spent  time while he was governing the city on behalf of the Dukes of Ferrara.

Travel tip:

Ferrara, where Ariosto lived for most of his life, is a city in Emilia-Romagna, about 50 kilometres to the north east of Bologna, which has many palaces dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, when it hosted the court of the House of Este. Dominating the centre is the magnificent Castello Estense, where Lucrezia Borgia lived after her marriage to Alfonso I d’Este. The moated, brick-built castle is open to the public every day from 9.30 till 5.30 pm, apart from certain times of the year when it is closed on Mondays. For more details and ticket prices visit www.castelloestense.it.

More reading:

Petrarch - the poet whose work is said by some to have launched the Renaissance

Titian - the giant of Renaissance art

The precocious genius of Raphael

Books:

Ariosto's Orlando furioso

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Genoa Cricket and Football Club

Italy's historic first football club

The Genoa team that won Italy's first national
football championship in 1898

Italy's oldest surviving football club was founded on this day in 1893 in Genoa.

Originally named Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club, it was established by British Consular officials and for a number of years football was a minor activity.  Initially, Italians could not be members.

Football became more its focus after an English maritime doctor, James Spensley, arrived in Genoa in 1897 and organised a match against Football Club Torinese, which had been formed in Turin in 1894. Spensley insisted the club's rules be altered to allow Italians to play.

The match took place in January 1898 and although the attendance was only around 200 spectators, it was deemed a success by those who took part, particularly the Turin side, who won.  After a return match, plans were drawn up to form an Italian Football Federation and to organise a first Italian Championship.

Genoa were the inaugural champions, although only four teams took part and the competition was completed in the course of one day, in May, at the Velodromo Umberto I in Turin.   Spensley's team beat Internazionale of Milan in the final.

Genoa Cricket and Football Club has played at the
Stadio Luigi Ferraris since 1911

Nonetheless, in the statistical record books the 1898 title carries no less weight than the 2016 version, which involved 20 teams playing 38 matches each over a period of nine months.

Genoa, who responded to winning the 1898 title by changing their name to Genoa Cricket and Football Club, dropping athletics from the title, and went on to win again four times in the next five years, usually with Spensley in goal.  They also took part in the first organised international match when they played a friendly against Nice in 1903.

In all they have been Italian champions nine times, although their last success was in 1923-24.

The club's English heritage is celebrated by supporters, who often display banners in English.  Although forced by the ruling Fascists to change the club name to an Italianised Genova 1893 Circolo del Calcio in 1928, they reverted to Genoa Cricket and Football Club in 1945 and still go under that name today.

Spensley's part in the heritage of the Ligurian port city is recognised with a plaque on the wall of the house where he lived.

Originally based in the Campasso district of Genoa, they have played since 1911 at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, the oldest Italian football ground still staging professional football.  The stadium has been shared since 1946 with Genoa's much younger neighbours, Sampdoria.

Travel tip:

Genoa, wedged between the Ligurian Sea and the Apennine mountains, is a colourful port city. There is much to enjoy about the city's vibrant character as well as many outstanding buildings, such as the Romanesque Cathedral of San Lorenzo, with its black-and-white-striped façade and frescoed interior.

The bronze fountain that forms the centrepiece of
the Piazza de Ferrari in Genoa

Travel tip:

Genoa's Piazza de Ferrari, as well as being renowned for its bronze fountain, is surrounded by the headquarters of a number of banks, reflecting the status the city enjoyed at the end of the 19th century as Italy's financial centre, alongside Milan.  The Teatro Carlo Felice opera house is another nearby attraction.

(Photo of Piazza de Ferrari by Twice25/Rinina25 CC BY-SA 2.5)
(Photo of Stadio Luigi Ferraris by Gabriel Rinaldi CC BY-SA 4.0)

More reading:

Tough backdrop to Italy's first football championship

Meeting in a restaurant led to formation of Internazionale

Giuseppe Meazza - Italian football's first superstar

Books:

Calcio: A History of Italian Football, by John Foot

Forza: The Fall and Rise of Italian Football, by Paddy Agnew

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Andrea Camilleri – author

Creator of Inspector Montalbano

Andrea Camilleri, pictured in 1980

Writer and film producer Andrea Camilleri was born on this day in 1925 in Porto Empedocle in Sicily.

Famous for creating the fictional character Inspector Montalbano, Camilleri is a prolific, best-selling novelist who has generated worldwide interest in the culture and landscapes of Sicily.

Camilleri studied literature and although he never completed his course he began to write poems and short stories. He was taught stage and film direction and became a director and a screen writer. He worked on several television productions for RAI, including the Inspector Maigret series.

He wrote his first novel in 1978 but it was not until 1992 that one of his novels, La stagione della caccia - The Hunting Season - became a best seller.

In 1994 Camilleri published La forma dell’acqua - The Shape of Water - which was the first novel to feature the character of Inspector Montalbano, a detective serving the police in Vigàta, an imaginary Sicilian town.

The book was written in Italian but had a real Sicilian flavour, with local phrases and sayings and descriptions of the classic Sicilian dishes particularly favoured by Montalbano.

Luca Zingaretti, instantly recognisable
as Inspector Montalbano

When the series was adapted for Italian television, featuring Luca Zingaretti as Montalbano, the popularity of the books increased even more.

Camilleri’s home town, Porto Empedocle, on which Vigàta is modelled, has now changed its name to Porto Empedocle Vigàta to encourage tourism still further.

In 2012, Camilleri’s novel The Potter’s Field, translated into English by Stephen Sartorelli, was announced as the winner of the Crime Writers’ Association International Dagger.

At the time of writing, Camilleri lives in Rome where he works as a TV and theatre director.

He has now written 24 Inspector Montalbano novels, whch have sold millions of copies. The translated versions have also sold well in the UK, Australia and America and the Montalbano TV series has become popular in the UK.

Well-known in Italy as a heavy smoker, Camilleri celebrated his 91st birthday today.

Travel tip:

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean and, along with its surrounding small islands, a region of Italy. It has the tallest active volcano in Europe, Mount Etna, which casts black ash over the island with its constant eruptions. The island of Lampedusa, part of the Sicilian province of Agrigento, is the southernmost part of Italy, just 113 kilometres away from Tunisia.

The centre of Porto Empedocle, birthplace of Camilleri
and fictional home town of Montalbano

Travel tip:

Porto Empedocle, the birthplace of Camilleri, is a port town on the coast of the Strait of Sicily in the province of Agrigento. One of the main sights is the Torre del Caricatore di Girgenti, which was commissioned by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, to protect the area’s grain reserves.

Books:

Blade of Light, the latest Inspector Montalbano mystery by Andrea Camilleri, is available now. Also available in paperback.



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