4 January

NEW - Jasmine Paolini - tennis star

Breakthrough year saw Tuscan soar in rankings

The tennis player Jasmine Paolini, whose outstanding 2024 season saw her match the highest world singles ranking attained by any Italian in the history of women’s tennis, was born on this day in 1996 in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, an historic town around 45km (28 miles) north of the city of Lucca.  Having reached two Grand Slam finals, won her second career WTA 1000 title and helped the Italian squad become Billie Jean King Cup champions in the course of the year, Paolini climbed to No 4 in the world, equalling the achievement of the 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone.  She also won a gold medal in doubles at the 2024 Paris Olympics, partnering Italy’s all-time leading women’s doubles player, Sara Errani. Having finished runner-up to world No 1 Iga Swiatek in the 2024 French Open final and to the Czech player Barbora Krejcikova on the Wimbledon grass five weeks later, Paolini’s next target is to win her first Grand Slam title.  Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta, who was US Open champion in 2015, are the only Italian women so far to win the singles title at one of tennis’s four Grand Slams - the Australian, French and US Opens, and the Wimbledon Championships.  Read more…

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Pino Daniele - singer and songwriter

Naples mourned star with flags at half-mast

The Neapolitan singer-songwriter Pino Daniele died on this day in 2015 in hospital in Rome.  Daniele, whose gift was to fuse his city’s traditional music with blues and jazz, suffered a heart attack after being admitted with breathing difficulties. Daniele, who had a history of heart problems, had been taken to Rome after falling ill at his holiday home in Tuscany.  On learning of his death, the Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris ordered that flags on municipal buildings in the city be flown at half-mast.  Born in 1955, Daniele grew up in a working class family in the Sanità neighbourhood of Naples, once a notorious hotbed of crime. His father worked at the docks.  As a musician, he was self-taught, mastering the guitar with no formal lessons and developing a unique voice, alternately soaring and soft, and gravelly to the point of sounding almost hoarse.  He named the great American jazz musicians Louis Armstrong and George Benson as his major influences but also drew deeply on the life, culture and traditions of his home city, which he loved.  His songs sometimes combined Italian, English and Naples dialect.  Read more…

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Gaetano Merola – conductor and impresario

Neapolitan who founded the San Francisco Opera

Gaetano Merola, a musician from Naples who emigrated to the United States and ultimately founded the San Francisco Opera, was born on this day in 1881.  Merola directed the company and conducted many performances for 30 years from its opening night in September 1923 until his death in August 1953.  He literally died doing what he loved, collapsing in the orchestra pit while conducting the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra during a concert at an outdoor amphitheatre in the city.  The son of a violinist at the Royal Court in Naples, Merola studied piano and conducting at the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella in Naples, graduating with honours at the age of 16.  Three years later he was invited to New York to work as assistant to Luigi Mancinelli, another Italian emigrant, born in Orvieto, who was a noted composer and cellist who was lead conductor of the New York Metropolitan Opera.  Demand for his services grew and he made regular guest appearances with companies across America and beyond, including a stint at Oscar Hammerstein’s London Opera House on the site of what is now the Peacock Theatre in Holborn.   Read more…

Carlo Levi – writer and painter

Author and doctor who highlighted poverty in southern Italy

The anti-Fascist writer, painter and doctor, Carlo Levi, died on this day in Rome in 1975.  He is best remembered for his book Christ Stopped at Eboli - Cristo si è fermato a Eboli - an account of the time he spent in political exile in a remote, impoverished part of Italy.  Levi was born in Turin in 1902. His father was a wealthy Jewish physician and Levi went to the University of Turin to study medicine after finishing school.  While at university he became active in politics and after graduating he turned his attention to painting.  But he never completely abandoned medicine and moved to Paris to continue his medical research while painting.  After returning to Italy, Levi founded an anti-Fascist movement in 1929. As a result he was arrested and sent into exile to a remote area of Italy called Lucania (now renamed Basilicata).  He encountered extreme poverty, which had been unknown in the north where he grew up. As well as writing and painting while he was in exile, he served as a doctor to help the poor villagers he lived among.  When he was released from his political exile he moved back to France but on his return to Italy he was arrested again.  Read more…

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Giovanni Battista Pergolesi – composer

Brief career of 'opera buffa' genius

Opera composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was born on this day in 1710 as Giovanni Battista Draghi, in Jesi, in what is now the province of Ancona.  He later acquired the name Pergolesi, the Italian word for the residents of Pergola in Marche, which had been the birthplace of his ancestors.  Pergolesi was the most important early composer of opera buffa - comic opera. He wrote a two-act buffa intermezzo for one of his serious operas, which later became a popular work in its own right.  He also wrote sacred music and his Stabat Mater, composed in 1736, has been used in the soundtracks of many contemporary films.  Pergolesi received a musical education at the Conservatorio dei Poveri in Naples where he gained a good reputation as a violinist.  In 1732 he was appointed maestro di cappella to the Prince of Stigliano in Naples and produced for him an opera buffa, Lo frate ‘nnammorato, and a sacred work, believed to be his Mass in D, which were both well received.  The following year his serious opera, Il prigionier superbo, was produced but it was the comic intermezzo, La serva padrona, inserted between the acts, that was most popular, revealing his gift for comic characterisation.  Read more…

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Giuseppe ‘Pino’ Greco - Mafia executioner

Notorious hitman thought to have committed at least 80 murders

The notorious Mafia hitman Giuseppe Greco, who was convicted posthumously on 58 counts of murder but whose victims possibly ran into hundreds, was born on this day in 1952 in Ciaculli, a town on the outskirts of Palermo in Sicily.  More often known as ‘Pino’, or by his nickname Scarpuzzedda - meaning ‘little shoe’ - Greco is considered one of the most prolific killers in the history of organised crime.  The nephew of Michele Greco, who lived on an estate just outside Ciaculli and rose to be head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission - a body set up to settle disputes between rival clans - Pino Greco is generally accepted to have been responsible for 80 deaths, although some students of Cosa Nostra history believe he could have committed more than 300 killings.  Most of Greco’s victims were fellow criminals, the majority of them killed during the Second Mafia War, which began in 1978 and intensified between 1981 and 1983 with more than 1,000 homicides, as rival clans fought each other and against the state, with judges, prosecutors and politicians prominent in the fight against organised crime themselves becoming targets.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Wimbledon 2024: The Official Story of the Championships, by Paul Newman

Wimbledon 2024 - The Official Story of The Championships is the comprehensive, entertaining, and beautifully illustrated retelling of a spell-binding fortnight of tennis at the All England Club. Since 1984 the official 'annual' has reviewed in detail each Championships held at Wimbledon and this 40th edition promises to be one of the best yet with the tournament playing host to established stars and exciting emerging talents. Paul Newman's crafted text, coupled with the stunning images captured by Wimbledon's team of award-winning photographers, provides readers with a wonderful and comprehensive review of a memorable tournament played out under blue skies and on stunningly green courts. Following the full story of the tournament, from qualifying through to the concluding mixed doubles final on Centre Court, the book also focuses on some of the other stories and characters that make Wimbledon so colourful and includes daily features and light-hearted stories from the sold-out grounds in southwest London.

Paul Newman is the tennis correspondent of The Independent. He has worked as a sports journalist for British national newspapers for more than 30 years.

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Jasmine Paolini - tennis star

Breakthrough year saw Tuscan soar in rankings

Jasmine Paolini reached two Grand Slam
finals during an exceptional 2024 season

The tennis player Jasmine Paolini, whose outstanding 2024 season saw her match the highest world singles ranking attained by any Italian in the history of women’s tennis, was born on this day in 1996 in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, an historic town around 45km (28 miles) north of the city of Lucca.

Having reached two Grand Slam finals, won her second career WTA 1000 title and helped the Italian squad become Billie Jean King Cup champions in the course of the year, Paolini climbed to No 4 in the world, equalling the achievement of the 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone.

A popular player with fans for her sunny attitude on court, she also won a gold medal in doubles at the 2024 Paris Olympics, partnering Italy’s all-time leading women’s doubles player, Sara Errani.

Having finished runner-up to world No 1 Iga Swiatek in the 2024 French Open final and to the Czech player Barbora Krejcikova on the Wimbledon grass five weeks later, Paolini’s next target is to win her first Grand Slam title.

Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta, who was US Open champion in 2015, are the only Italian women so far to win the singles title at one of tennis’s four Grand Slams - the Australian, French and US Opens, and the Wimbledon Championships.

Paolini is coached by the 54-year-old former Italian singles player Renzo Furlan, who reached 19 in the world during his own playing career.

Although only 5ft 4ins (1.63m) tall, which means she cannot match the serving qualities of taller opponents - current world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, for example, is 6ft (1.83m) - Paolini makes up for her lack of height with powerful groundstrokes and her speed around the court, which she attributes to her Ghanaian heritage on her mother’s side.

Paolini's strength in rallies helps
compensate for her small stature

Paolini’s father, Ugo, is Italian; her mother, Jacqueline, is Polish with a Ghanaian father. The couple met when Ugo was running a bar in Bagna di Lucca and Jacqueline, who grew up in Lodz, arrived in Italy to work as a waitress. They were married within a year.

Their daughter grew up in Bagna di Lucca, where her uncle, Adriano Paolini, introduced her to tennis at the Mirafiume club in the town at the age of five. She worked under the guidance of Marco Picchi and Ivano Pieri, subsequently training at Vicopelago in Lucca, Forte dei Marmi and, from the age of 15, with her current coach Renzo Furlan, who was working for the Italian Tennis Federation at Tirrenia, just outside Pisa.

After winning one junior title at the age of 17 in 2013, Paolini had to wait another four years to make her WTA singles tournament debut at the Swedish Open in 2017. Good results in 2019 propelled her to 94th in the world going into the 2020 season. 

In 2021, she he celebrated her first WTA singles title at the Slovenia Open and entered the main draw of all four Grand Slams for the first time.

Following the 2022 Australian Open, Paolini reached the WTA top 50 for the first time, having achieved her first win over a top-10 player when she knocked out Sabalenka, the then world No 3, at Indian Wells. By October 2023 she had climbed to a career high 31, displacing Elisabetta Cocciaretto as Italian No 1.

Then came substantial progress in 2024, when she played no fewer than 110 singles matches, the programme devised with Furlan providing few breaks but a chance to build real momentum. Beginning with a first fourth-round appearance at the Australian Open in January, the deepest she had been in a Grand Slam to that date, she added a doubles title at the Linz Open in February alongside Errani and a first WTA 1000 title In Dubai, avenging her Australian Open defeat by beating Anna Kalinskaya in the final, taking her to 15 in the world rankings. 

At the French Open, seeded 12th, she overcame Elena Rybakina in the quarter-finals with her first top-five win at a major, then defeated Russia’s Mirra Andreeva in the semi-finals before losing to Swiatek in the final.

Sara Errani partnered Paolini to
doubles gold at the Olympics

She reached the Wimbledon final despite having never previously survived round one at the London venue. Seeded No 7, she knocked out Madison Keys and Emma Navarro in the second week before a semi-final marathon win over Donna Vekić that set a tournament record by lasting two hours and 51 minutes as Paolini came back to triumph from a set down.

The first Italian woman to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals in the open era, she ultimately lost to Krejcikova in three sets.

She and 37-year-old Errani then won gold for Italy at the Olympics, defeating the ‘neutral’ Russian pair of Andreeva and Diana Shnaider in the final, before a singles quarter-final at the Wuhan Open in October allowed her to match Schiavone’s achievement by becoming world No 4. 

Her whirlwind schedule in 2024 also saw Paolini collect more than $5 million in prize money, almost tripling her career earnings.

Errani, with whom Paolini won doubles titles in Rome and China in 2024, also played a key role in the Billie Jean King Cup as the pair won decisive doubles victories against Japan and Poland, before Paolini’s defeat of Rebecca Sramkova in the final against Slovenia gave Italy their first title triumph in the former Federation Cup for 11 years.

The Rocca Ariostesca, once home of the poet
Ludovico Ariosto, attracts visitors to Castelnuovo

Travel tip:

Castelnuovo di Garfagna, Jasmine Paolini’s birthplace, nestles in a valley flanked by the foothills of the Apuan Alps and the Apennines. A town of around 6,000 inhabitants, it can trace its history back to the eighth century, after which its strategic position saw it grow quickly into an important town with defensive walls and castles, which have been enlarged and improved over time. Today, the defensive walls contain the oldest parts of the town, characterised by winding streets and small artisan shops. The more modern part of the town is outside the walls. It developed as a market town from the 13th century, first under the control of Castruccio Castracani, then by the Estensi family of Ferrara, who made the town a seat of Vicarship and built the town’s Duomo - the Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Paolo. Power transferred to Urbino and then Florence for brief periods in the 16th century before its return to the House of Este. Today, it remains a bustling town with direct road and rail links to Lucca, Pisa, Florence and Viareggio. As well as the Duomo, which has a Renaissance facade and a Baroque interior, the Rocca Ariostesca is an important historical building. The castle takes its name from the Italian poet, Ludovico Ariosto, who lived there between 1522 and 1525 when he was governor of the Garfagnana for the House of Este. Just outside the town, the Fortezza di Monte Alfonso, surrounded by huge protective walls, offers stunning views. 

The Ponte della Maddalena in Bagni di Lucca has
been standing since the late 12th century

Travel tip:

Bagni di Lucca, where Paolini grew up, is actually a collection of 27 villages in the Lima Valley in northern Tuscany, situated 28km (17 miles), famous largely for the hot springs that have attracted visitors to the area since Etruscan and Roman times. The area enjoyed its most prosperous time during French occupation in the 19th century, when the town became the summer residence of the court of Napoleon and his sister, Elisa Baciocchi. A casino was built, where gambling was part of social nightlife. Bagni di Lucca was also popular with English travellers, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband, Robert Browning, who spent their summers there during their time in Italy in the 1840s and 1850s.  Other illustrious guests said to have visited Bagni di Lucca include the poets Byron, Shelley, Lever, Giusti, Monti and, in the 20th century, Carducci, Pascoli, Montale; writers such as Dumas and musicians Strauss, Listz, Paganini, Puccini and Mascagni. The main sights today include the Art Nouveau complex of the 1839 Casino, Italy's first Anglican church - now a library - and the restored English Cemetery. Also look out of Lorenzo Nottolini’s Ponte delle Catene, one of the oldest iron bridges still standing today, and the mediaeval Ponte della Maddalena, an important crossing probably commissioned by the Countess Matilda of Tuscany in the late 12th century and later renovated under the direction of Castruccio Castracani. It became known as Ponte della Maddalena, from an oratory dedicated to Mary Magdalene, whose statue stood at the foot of the bridge on the eastern bank.

Also on this day:

1710: The birth of composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

1881: The birth of San Francisco Opera founder Gaetano Merola

1952: The birth of Mafia hitman Giuseppe Greco

1975: The death of writer and painter Carlo Levi

2015: The death of singer-songwriter Pino Daniele

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3 January

Cicero - politician and philosopher

Roman writer and orator revered by Renaissance scholars

Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Roman lawyer, politician, philosopher and great orator whose rediscovered works were an important driver of the Renaissance in the 14th century, was born on this day in 106BC in Arpinum, a hill town about 100km (62 miles) southeast of Rome known today as Arpino.  A loyal supporter of the Roman Republic, Cicero’s brilliance as a student of Roman law and his effectiveness as a speaker led to his rapid rise in Roman politics, which saw him become the youngest citizen to attain the rank of consul, the highest political office of the republic, without hailing from a political family.  Although his political career foundered after his opposition to the secret alliance between Caesar, Pompey and Crassus known as the First Triumvirate, forced him into exile, Cicero turned to writing, producing many works relating to philosophy, as well as hundreds of letters and speeches.  Much of his work disappeared after his death, but was rediscovered by 14th century scholars, most notably Francesco Petrarca - Petrarch - as academics sought to enhance their knowledge by seeking out ancient Greek and Roman texts. Read more…

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Giovanni Treccani - businessman and patron of culture

Industrialist used his profits to encourage learning and preserve patrimony

Textile entrepreneur and publisher Giovanni Treccani, who founded an Italian encyclopaedia now known as Enciclopedia Treccani, was born on this day in 1877 in Montichiari near Brescia in Lombardy.  Born Giovanni Treccani degli Alfieri, he was the son of a pharmacist and a noblewoman from Brescia. At the age of 17 he emigrated to Germany to work in the textile industry. He returned a few years later with a small amount of capital and the technical knowledge necessary to set up his own textile business in Italy. He began in a small way but went on to become a captain of industry.  In the years after World War I, Treccani was the owner of several cotton mills. In 1919, he was able to give a generous sum of money to help the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, the oldest scientific institute in Europe, which was in grave difficulties.  In 1923, he donated La Bibbia di Borso d’Este, a rare illustrated manuscript, to the Kingdom of Italy, after paying five million lire to buy it in Paris. This was to prevent a major work of Renaissance art from going overseas. The volume is currently housed in the Biblioteca Estense of Modena.  Read more…

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Sergio Leone – film director

Distinctive style of  ‘Spaghetti Western’ creator

Italian film director, producer and screenwriter Sergio Leone was born on this day in 1929 in Rome.  Leone is most associated with the ‘spaghetti western’ genre of films, such as the Dollars trilogy of westerns featuring Clint Eastwood.  He had a distinctive film-making style that involved juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots.  Leone’s father was a film director and his mother was a silent film actress. He went to watch his father at work on film sets from an early age.  He dropped out of university to begin his own career in the industry at the age of 18 as an assistant to the director Vittorio De Sica.  He began writing screen plays and worked as an assistant director on Quo Vadis and Ben Hur at Cinecittà in Rome.  When the director of The Last Days of Pompeii fell ill, Leone was asked to step in and complete the film.  He made his solo debut as a director with The Colossus of Rhodes in 1961.   Leone turned his attention to making spaghetti westerns in the 1960s and his films, A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly were big financial successes.  Read more…

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Beatrice d’Este – Duchess of Milan

The brief life of a politically astute noblewoman from Ferrara

Beatrice d’Este, who became Duchess of Bari and Milan after her marriage to Ludovico Sforza and was an important player in Italian politics during the late 15th century, died on this day in 1497 in Milan.  The Duchess was said to have shown great courage during the Milanese resistance against the French in what was later judged to be the first of the Italian Wars. At the time of the French advance on Milan, with her husband ill, Beatrice made the right decisions on his behalf and helped prevent the Duke of Orleans from conquering her adopted city.  Sadly, she died when she was just 21, after giving birth to a stillborn baby.  Beatrice was born in the Castello Estense in Ferrara in 1475, but spent her early years growing up in her mother’s home city of Naples. When she was 15, her family sent her to marry the 38-year-old Ludovico Sforza, nicknamed Il Moro - The Moor - because of his dark complexion, who was acting as regent of Milan on behalf of his nephew, Gian Galeazzo Sforza.  Ludovico and Beatrice’s wedding celebrations were directed by Leonardo da Vinci, who worked at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan for 17 years.  Read more…

Renato Carosone – singer-songwriter

Composer revived popularity of the traditional Neapolitan song

Renato Carosone, who became famous for writing and performing Neapolitan songs in modern times, was born Renato Carusone on this day in 1920 in Naples.  His 1956 song Tu vuo’ fa’ l’Americano - 'You want to be American' - has been used in films and performed by many famous singers right up to the present day.  Torero, a song released by him in 1957, was translated into 12 languages and was at the top of the US pop charts for 14 weeks.  Carosone studied the piano at the Naples Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella and obtained his diploma in 1937, when he was just 17. He went to work as a pianist in Addis Ababa and then served in the army on the Italian Somali front. He did not return to Italy until 1946, after the end of the Second World War.  Back home, he had to start his career afresh and moved to Rome, where he played the piano for small bands.  He was asked to put together a group for the opening of a new club and signed Dutch guitarist, Peter van Houten and Neapolitan drummer, Gegè di Giacomo, with whom he launched the Trio Carosone.  When Van Houten left to pursue a solo career, Di Giacomo remained with Carosone and they recruited more musicians to form a new band.  Read more…

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Gianfranco Fini – politician

Party leader who moved away from fascism

Gianfranco Fini, former leader of the Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance), the post-fascist political party in Italy, was born on this day in 1952 in Bologna.  Fini has been President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Silvio Berlusconi’s Government from 2001 to 2006.  His father, Argenio ‘Sergio’ Fini, was a volunteer with the Italian Social Republic, a fascist state in Northern Italy allied with Germany between 1943 and 1945.  His maternal grandfather, Antonio Marani, took part in the march on Rome, which signalled the beginning of Italian Fascism in 1922.  Fini’s first name, Gianfranco, was chosen in memory of his cousin, who was killed at the age of 20 by partisans after the liberation of northern Italy on 25 April, 1945.  Fini became interested in politics at the age of 16, after he was involved in a clash with communist activists and he went on to join the Italian Social Movement (MSI), a neo-fascist political party.  After graduating from La Sapienza University in Rome he became involved with the party’s newspaper, Il Secolo d’Italia.   Read more…

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Pietro Metastasio – poet and librettist

From street entertainer to leading libretto writer

Pietro Metastasio, who became Europe’s most celebrated opera librettist in the 18th century, was born on this day in 1698 in Rome.  He was christened Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, one of four children born to Felice Trapassi, from Assisi and Francesca Galasti from Bologna. His father served in the papal forces before becoming a grocer in Via dei Cappellari.  While still a child, Pietro could attract crowds by reciting impromptu verses. On one occasion, in 1709, Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, director of the Arcadian Academy, stopped to listen. He was so impressed that he made the young boy his protégé and later adopted him, changing his surname to Metastasio.  He provided the young Metastasio with a good education and encouraged him to develop his talent.  When Gravina was on his way to Calabria on a business trip, he exhibited Metastasio in the literary circles of Naples, but after the young boy became ill, he placed him in the care of a relative to help him recuperate.  Gravina decided Metastasio should never improvise again but should concentrate on his education and reserve his talent for nobler efforts.  Read more…

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Baldassare Galuppi – opera composer

Musician from Burano had a talent for comic opera

The prolific Venetian composer Baldassare Galuppi, who worked alongside the playwright Carlo Goldoni, died on this day in 1785 in Venice.  At the height of his career, Galuppi achieved international success, working at different times in Vienna, London and Saint Petersburg, but his main base was Venice, where he held a succession of prestigious posts during his life. Galuppi was born on the island of Burano in the Venetian lagoon and was sometimes referred to as Il Buranello, a signature he used on his music manuscripts. His father was a barber who also played the violin in an orchestra, and is believed to have been his first music teacher.  At the age of 15, Galuppi wrote his first opera, which was performed at Chioggia and Vicenza. He then became harpsichordist at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence.  In the early part of his career, Galuppi was successful in the opera seria genre, but after 1749 many of his operas were comic collaborations with the Venetian dramatist Carlo Goldoni. The most popular of his comic operas was his 1754 composition Il filosofo di campagna – The Country Philosopher.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Cicero Selected Works, translated by Michael Grant

Lawyer, philosopher, statesman and defender of Rome's Republic, Cicero was a master of eloquence, and his pure literary and oratorical style and strict sense of morality have been a powerful influence on European literature and thought for over two thousand years in matters of politics, philosophy, and faith. This selection demonstrates the diversity of his writings, and includes letters to friends and statesmen on Roman life and politics; the vitriolic Second Philippic Against Antony; and his two most famous philosophical treatises, On Duties and On Old Age - a celebration of his own declining years. Written at a time of brutal political and social change, Cicero's lucid ethical writings formed the foundation of the Western liberal tradition in political and moral thought that continues to this day. This Penguin Classics edition of Cicero Selected Works conveys, through Michael Grant’s translation, the elegance of Cicero's writings. Grant’s introduction describes their social and political background, while maps, genealogical charts, timelines and a glossary place the works in context.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman orator and statesman, a leading barrister and a successful politician. Cicero received honours usually reserved only for the Roman aristocracy and was one of the greatest Roman orators.

Michael Grant was successively Chancellor's Medallist and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor of Humanity at Edinburgh University, first Vice-chancellor of Khartoum University, President and Vice-chancellor of Queen's University, Belfast and President of the Classical Association. From 1966 until his death in 2004, Grant lived with his wife in Gattaiola, a village near Lucca in Tuscany.

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2 January

Pope John II

First Pope to choose a regnal name

John II became Pope on this day in 533 in Rome, the first pontiff to take a new name after being elevated to the Papacy.  John had considered his birth name of Mercurius to be inappropriate as it honoured the pagan god, Mercury.  He chose John as his regnal name - or reign name - in memory of Pope John I, who was venerated as a martyr.  Mercurius was born in Rome and became a priest at the Basilica di San Clemente, a church with ancient origins near the Colosseum.  At that time in history, simony - the buying and selling of church offices - was rife among the clergy.  After the death of Pope John II’s predecessor, there was an unfilled vacancy for more than two months, during which some sacred vessels were sold off.  The matter was brought to the attention of the Roman Senate, which passed its last-known decree, forbidding simony in papal elections.  This decree was confirmed by the Gothic King, Athalaric, who ordered it to be engraved in marble and placed in St Peter’s Basilica.  He added a stipulation that if a disputed election took place in the future, a sum of money was to be paid by the Roman clergy, which would be distributed among the poor.  Read more…

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Riccardo Cassin – climber

Long life of partisan who was fascinated by mountains

The climber and war hero Riccardo Cassin was born on this day in 1909 at San Vito al Tagliamento in Friuli.  Despite his daring mountain ascents and his brave conduct against the Germans during the Second World War, he was to live past the age of 100.  By the age of four, Cassin had lost his father, who was killed in a mining accident in Canada. He left school when he was 12 to work for a blacksmith but moved to Lecco when he was 17 to work at a steel plant.  Cassin was to become fascinated by the mountains that tower over the lakes of Lecco, Como and Garda and he started climbing with a group known as the Ragni di Lecco - the Spiders of Lecco.  In 1934 he made his first ascent of the smallest of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the Dolomites. The following year, after repeating another climber’s route on the north west face of the Civetta, he climbed the south eastern ridge of the Trieste Tower and established a new route on the north face of Cima Ovest di Lavaredo.  In 1937 Cassin made his first climb on the granite of the Western Alps. Over the course of three days he made the first ascent of the north east face of Piz Badile in the Val Bregaglia in Switzerland.  Read more…

Giulio Einaudi - publisher

Son of future president who defied Fascists

Giulio Einaudi, who founded the pioneering publishing house that carries the family name, was born on this day in 1912 in Dogliani, a town in Piedmont.  The son of Luigi Einaudi, an anti-Fascist intellectual who would become the second President of the Italian Republic, Giulio was also the father of the musician and composer Ludovico Einaudi.  Giulio Einaudi’s own political leanings were influenced by his education at the Liceo Classico Massimo d'Azeglio, where his teacher was Augusto Monti, a staunch opponent of Fascism who was imprisoned by Mussolini’s regime in the 1920s.  After enrolling at the University of Turin to study medicine, Einaudi decided to abandon his studies to work alongside his father Luigi in publishing an anti-Fascist magazine Riforma Sociale. His own contribution was to establish a cultural supplement, edited by the writer and translator Cesare Pavese, which so offended Mussolini that in 1935 the magazine was closed down and the staff arrested.  Einaudi spent 45 days in jail along with Pavese and several writers who would later become celebrated names, including Vittorio Foa, Massimo Mila, Carlo Levi and Norberto Bobbio.  Read more…

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Piero di Cosimo – painter

Florentine artist achieved world wide recognition

A Renaissance artist famous for his elaborate landscapes, Piero di Cosimo was born on this day in Florence in 1462.  His paintings are now in galleries all over the world and experts credit him with bringing the Renaissance spirit into the 16th century, while adding vivacity and lyricism.  The painter was born Piero di Lorenzo di Chimenti, but he became known as Piero di Cosimo after being apprenticed to the painter Cosimo Rosselli, with whom he frescoed the walls of the Sistine Chapel.  Early in his career he was influenced by the Flemish artist, Hugo van der Goes, and from him acquired a love for painting the countryside with all the plants and animals in great detail.  Piero di Cosimo eventually moved to Rome where he began painting scenes from classical mythology and he also developed a reputation for eccentric behaviour among his fellow artists.  But he was regarded as an excellent portrait painter and regularly received commissions. His most famous portrait, of a Florentine noblewoman, Simonetta Vespucci, who was the mistress of Giuliano de' Medici, is now in a gallery in France.  Read more…

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Book of the Day:  Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes, by Eamon Duffy

This engrossing book encompasses the extraordinary history of the papacy, from its beginnings to the present day. This new edition covers the unprecedented resignation of Benedict XVI and the election of the first Argentinian pope.  Saints and Sinners has been described as a wonder of comprehensive compression - a sumptuously illustrated, one-volume history of one of the most influential human institutions in world history. Duffy's lively portraits of the 261 scholars, scoundrels, and spiritual guides who have led the Roman Catholic Church are embedded in six historical essays that proceed chronologically from St. Peter to John Paul II. Duffy, a reader in church history and fellow at Cambridge, writes in the mannered yet affable tone of an avuncular English don. His narrative and arguments convey his own Catholic conviction that "the story of the popes is a crucial dimension of the providential care of God for humankind throughout history." Yet he also offers candid assessments of papal moral failings, including spectacular failures such as the orchestration of the Spanish Inquisition and the willed ignorance of Germany's Third Reich. Duffy's glossary of theological terms ensures that no secular reader will be lost in Christian arcana, and his excellent bibliographical essay will help motivated students zero in on the best resources for learning more about any period of Catholic history. 

Eamon Duffy, professor of the History of Christianity and fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, is also the author of The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400–1580 and The Voices of Morebath.

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