27 January

NEW - Nerva - Roman emperor

The first of the Five Good Emperors

The Roman emperor Nerva, who was considered by historians to be a wise and moderate ruler, died on this day in Rome in 98 AD, after just two years in power.  Nerva had ensured that there would be a peaceful transition after his death by selecting the military commander Trajan as his heir in advance. Trajan went on to be a great success as an emperor and adopted Hadrian as his son to secure his dynasty. Nerva is consequently regarded as the first of five ‘good’ Roman emperors.  Marcus Cocceius Nerva was born in 30 AD in Narni in Umbria, but he did not become emperor himself until he was nearly 66 years old, having spent most of his life serving under Nero and his successors.  Nerva was part of Nero’s imperial entourage and he played a big part in exposing a conspiracy against the emperor in 65 AD. He then achieved high office under the two subsequent emperors, Vespasian and Domitian. After Domitian was assassinated by guards and servants in his own palace on September 18, 96 AD, Nerva was declared as the next emperor by the Roman Senate on the same day.  As the new ruler of the Roman Empire, Nerva vowed to restore liberties that had not been allowed under the strict rule of Domitian. Read more…

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Giovanni Arpino - writer and novelist 

Stories inspired classic Italian films

The writer Giovanni Arpino, whose novels lay behind the Italian movie classics Divorce, Italian Style and Profumo di donna – later remade in the United States as Scent of a Woman – was born on this day in 1927 in the Croatian city of Pula, then part of Italy.  His parents did not originate from Pula, which is near the tip of the Istrian peninsula about 120km (75 miles) south of Trieste. His father, Tomaso, was a Neapolitan, while his mother, Maddalena, hailed from Piedmont, but his father’s career in the Italian Army meant the family were rarely settled for long in one place.  In fact, they remained in Pula only a couple of months. As Giovanni was growing up, they lived in Novi Ligure, near Alessandria, in Saluzzo, south of Turin, and in Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna. His father imposed a strict regime on Giovanni and his two brothers, who were required to spend a lot of their time studying.  In fact, Giovanni was separated from his family for a while during the Second World War, when his mother returned to the Piedmontese town of Bra, not far from Saluzzo in the province of Cuneo, to deal with the estate of her father, who passed away in 1940.  Read more…

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Italy elects its first parliament

1861 vote preceded proclamation of new Kingdom

Italians went to the polls for the first time as a nation state on this day in 1861 to elect a government in anticipation of the peninsula becoming a unified country.  The vote was a major milestone in the Risorgimento - the movement to bring together the different states of the region as one country - enabling there to be a parliament in place the following month and for deputies to declare Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia as the first King of Italy in March.  The first parliament convened in Turin as Rome remained under the control of the Papal States until it was captured by the Italian army in 1870.  The body comprised 443 deputies representing 59 provinces. Some provinces, such as Benevento, near Naples, elected just one deputy, whereas the major cities elected many more. Turin, for example, chose 19 deputies, Milan and Naples 18 each.  The eligibility rules were so specific that of a population of around 22 million, only 418,696 people were entitled to vote.  In line with the procedures set down in the electoral laws of the Kingdom of Sardinia, only men could vote - women were not fully enfranchised in Italy until 1945 - and only men aged 25 and above who were literate and paid a certain amount of taxes.  Read more…

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Frank Nitti - mobster

Barber who became Al Capone’s henchman

The mobster who achieved notoriety as Frank Nitti was born Francesco Raffaele Nitto it is thought on this day in 1881, although some accounts put the year of his birth as 1886.  Nitti, who was raised in Brooklyn, New York, where he and Al Capone - his cousin - grew up, would eventually become Capone’s most trusted henchman in the Chicago mob he controlled.  After Capone was jailed for 11 years for tax evasion, Nitti was ostensibly in charge of operations.  Unlike many of the American Mafia bosses in the early part of the 20th century, Nitti was not a Sicilian.  His roots were in the heart of Camorra territory in the shadow of Vesuvius, his birthplace the town of Angri, 8km (5 miles) from nearby Pompei.  Angri was also the home town of Capone’s parents.  Francesco’s father died while he was still a small child. His mother, Rosina, married again within a year to Francesco Dolengo, who emigrated to the United States in 1890.  Nitti, his mother and his sister, Giovannina, left Italy to join him in 1893, settling in Navy Street, Brooklyn.  He was enrolled in a local school but left at around age 13, taking a job as a pinsetter in a bowling alley before becoming a barber.  Read more…

Marco Malvaldi – crime writer and chemist

Author has mastered the science of detective fiction

Novelist Marco Malvaldi, who has written a prize-winning mystery featuring the real-life 19th century Italian culinary expert Pellegrino Artuso as his fictional sleuth, was born on this day in 1974 in Pisa.  Malvaldi, who is a graduate in chemistry from Pisa University, has also written a travel guide about his home town with the title Scacco alle Torre (Checkmate to the Tower), which has been presented at the Pisa Book Festival. In the book, he writes a story about a nocturnal walk through the city entitled Finalmente soli (Finally Alone), which was inspired by an image taken by a professional photographer, Nicola Ughi, a fellow Pisan, who has become his official portraitist.  He began his writing career in 2007 with a mystery novel, La briscola in cinque (Game for Five), published by Sellerio Editore. The novel’s protagonist, Massimo, a barista, and the owner of a bar named BarLume, which is a play on the Italian word barlume, meaning flicker of light, is forced into the role of investigator in the fictional seaside resort town of Pineta on the Tuscan coast.   Other books in the series followed and three have been translated into English: Il gioco delle tre carte (Three-card Monte), Il re dei giochi (The King of Games) and La carta più alta (The Highest Card).  Read more…

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Giuseppe Verdi – composer

How Italy mourned the loss of a national symbol

Opera composer Giuseppe Verdi died on this day at the age of 87 in his suite at the Grand Hotel et de Milan in 1901.  The prolific composer, who had dominated the world of opera for a large part of the 19th century, was initially buried privately at Milan’s Cimitero Monumentale.  But a month later Verdi’s body was moved to its final resting place in the crypt of a rest home for retired musicians that he had helped establish in Milan.  An estimated crowd of 300,000 people are reported to have turned out to bid Verdi farewell and Va, pensiero, a chorus from his 1842 opera Nabucco, was performed by a choir conducted by Arturo Toscanini.  Verdi meant a great deal to the Italian people because his composition, Va, pensiero had been the unofficial anthem for supporters of the Risorgimento movement, which had sought the unification of Italy.  In his early operas Verdi had demonstrated sympathy with the cause of the Risorgimento and people had come to associate him with the movement’s ideals.  But as he became older and more prosperous he had chosen to withdraw from public life and had established himself on a country estate just outside Busseto, the town of his birth, near Parma in Emilia-Romagna.  Read more…

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Trajan - Roman emperor

Military expansionist with progressive social policies

Marcus Ulpius Traianus succeeded to the role of Roman Emperor on this day in 98 AD.  The 13th ruler of the empire and known as Trajan, he presided over the greatest military expansion in Roman history, the consequence of which was that in terms of physical territory the empire was at its largest during his period in office.  Despite his taste for military campaigns - he conquered Dacia (the area now called Romania), Armenia, Mesopotamia, and the Sinai Peninsula - Trajan was seen as the second of the so-called Five Good Emperors to rule during the years known as Pax Romana, a long period of relative peace and stability.  He was credited with maintaining peace by working with rather than against the Senate and the ruling classes, introducing policies aimed at improving the welfare of citizens, and engaging in massive building projects that were to the benefit of ordinary Romans.  Marcus Ulpius Traianus was born in the Roman province of Baetica, which approximates to the area now known as Andalusia in southern Spain. His father was a provincial governor who then turned soldier, commanding a legion in the Roman war against Jews.  Read more…

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Roberto Paci Dalò – composer and film maker

Music maker coined the definition ‘media dramaturgy’

The award-winning contemporary musician and composer Roberto Paci Dalò was born on this day in 1962 in Rimini.  Paci Dalò is the co-founder and director of the performing arts ensemble Giardini Pensili and has composed music for theatre, radio, television and film.  After completing musical, visual and architectural studies in Fiesole, Faenza and Ravenna, Paci Dalò focused on sound and design and their use in film, theatre and collaborative projects.  He has been a pioneer in the use of digital technologies and telecommunication systems in art and has been particularly interested in performing arts as a meeting point of languages.  Since 1985 he has written, composed and directed more than 30 groundbreaking music-theatre works which have been presented worldwide.  Paci Dalò has composed music for acoustical ensembles, electronics and voices and has produced radio works for the main European broadcasting corporations.  His films and videos have been regularly presented in international festivals.  Paci Dalò taught Media Dramaturgy at the University of Siena.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome, by Chris Scarre

Focusing on the succession of the rulers of imperial Rome, this highly readable work of reference uses timelines with at-a-glance visual guides to each reign and its main events. Biographical portraits of the 56 principal emperors from Augustus to Constantine, together with a concluding section on the later emperors, build into a straightforward, single-volume history of imperial Rome. Biographical information is illustrated with busts of each emperor, coin portraits, battle plans and cutaway diagrams of imperial monuments. Supporting datafiles for every emperor list key information such as name at birth, wives and children, full imperial titles and place and manner of death. Genealogical trees and over 90 sidebars and special features on subjects ranging from Nero’s Golden House to Diocletian’s Palace allow the reader to delve even deeper. Colourful contemporary judgments by such writers as Suetonius and Tacitus are balanced by judicious character assessments made in the light of modern research. The famous and the infamous – Caligula and Claudius, Trajan and Caracalla – receive their due, while lesser names emerge clearly from the shadows for the first time. Chronicle of the Roman Emperors is at once a book to be enjoyed as popular history, an essential work of reference, and a source of visual inspiration, bringing to life one of the most powerful and influential empires the world has ever known.

Chris Scarre is an academic and writer in the fields of archaeology, pre-history and ancient history. He is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Durham. 

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Nerva – Roman emperor

The first of the Five Good Emperors

Nerva used his time in power
to do good for the Romans

The Roman emperor Nerva, who was considered by historians to be a wise and moderate ruler, died on this day in Rome in 98 AD, after just two years in power.

Nerva had ensured that there would be a peaceful transition after his death by selecting the military commander Trajan as his heir in advance. Trajan went on to be a great success as an emperor and adopted Hadrian as his son to secure his dynasty. Nerva is consequently regarded as the first of five ‘good’ Roman emperors.

Marcus Cocceius Nerva was born in 30 AD in Narni in Umbria, but he did not become emperor himself until he was nearly 66 years old, having spent most of his life serving under Nero and his successors.

Nerva was part of Nero’s imperial entourage and he played a big part in exposing a conspiracy against the emperor in 65 AD. He then achieved high office under the two subsequent emperors, Vespasian and Domitian.

After Domitian was assassinated by guards and servants in his own palace on September 18, 96 AD, Nerva was declared as the next emperor by the Roman Senate on the same day.

As the new ruler of the Roman Empire, Nerva vowed to restore liberties that had not been allowed under the strict rule of Domitian and, as a gesture of goodwill, Nerva publicly swore that no senator would be put to death while he was in office.

He called an end to holding trials based on treason, released all those who had been imprisoned on such charges and granted an amnesty to those who had been exiled.

The remains of the palace of Domitian on Palatine 
Hill, renamed by Nerva as the House of the People 

Confiscated property was returned to its owners and the huge palace that Domitian had built for himself on the Palatine Hill was renamed the House of the People. Nerva himself took up residence in Domitian’s former villa in the Gardens of Sallust, which was an ancient Roman estate that lay between the Pincian and Quirinal hills in the northeast of Rome.

However, during his brief time as emperor, Nerva was never able to assume complete control over the Roman army and because he had no natural son of his own, a revolt by the Praetorian Guard, who briefly took him hostage, forced him to adopt a son and name him as his heir and successor.

Nerva chose Trajan, who was at that time a general in the army in charge of the Roman troops stationed at the German frontier.

During his time in power, Nerva tried to do some good for the people. He granted allotments of land to poor citizens and he is credited with establishing a system of trusts to provide for the maintenance of poor children throughout Italy. This benevolent policy was also adopted by Trajan and other emperors after him.

The restored Mausoleum of Augustus,
where Nerva's ashes were buried

Although these measures put a strain on the Roman economy, some money was raised by selling off Domitian’s luxurious possessions, such as the gold and silver statues he had commissioned to be made of himself. Nerva also refused to have similar statues made to honour him.

At the beginning of January in 98 AD, Nerva suffered a stroke and then developed a fever. He died of natural causes in his villa in the Gardens of Sallust on 27 January. He was deified by the Senate and his ashes were laid to rest in the Mausoleum of Augustus. He was the last Roman emperor to be interred there.

Nerva was succeeded by Trajan, who was greeted by the Roman citizens with great enthusiasm.

There is a modern equestrian statue of Nerva in Gloucester, in England, a Roman city that was founded in his honour. There is also a statue of him in his birthplace, Narni, in Umbria.

The Five Good Emperors was a description coined by the Renaissance political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, who noted that while most emperors to succeed to the throne by birth were “bad” in his view, Nerva and his four immediate successors -Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, all of whom succeeded by adoption - enjoyed a reputation as benevolent dictators, governing by earning the good will of their subjects.

The Piazza Principale in Narni in Umbria, which 
has preserved much of its mediæval heritage

Travel tip:

Narni, where Nerva was born, is a hill town in the region of Umbria that is close to the exact geographical centre of Italy, with a stone in the town marking the precise spot. Narni has retained its mediæval appearance with stone buildings and narrow cobbled streets, but it is also famous for having the Ponte d’Augusto, one of the largest Roman bridges ever built. One arch of the bridge, which is still standing, is 30 metres (98 feet) high. Among other sights worth visiting are the church of Santa Maria Imprensole, considered the jewel of Narni's Romanesque architecture, and the recently restored castle, the Rocca Albornoziana, which was erected in the last half of the 14th century. A big draw for visitors is Narni Underground, a tourist itinerary through subterranean passages, caves, tunnels and ancient aqueducts of the city. The imaginary land of Narnia, featured in the works of author C S Lewis, is named after Narni, which was a place name he came across in an atlas that he looked at when he was a child.

A section of ruins that were
part of the Horti Sallustiani

Travel tip:

The Gardens of Sallust - Horti Sallustiani - was a Roman estate that included a landscaped pleasure garden developed by the historian Sallust in the 1st century BC. It occupied a large area of northeastern Rome between the Pincian and Quirinal hills, near the Via Salaria and later Porta Salaria. The modern rione - administrative district - in which it is situated is known as Sallustiano. The gardens featured elaborate landscaping, pavilions, fountains, and imaginative topiary arrangements. They were later maintained by Roman emperors as a public amenity and even served as a temporary residence for some. Among the greenery there were often arcades for walking away from the sun, spas, temples and statues, often replicas of Greek originals.  Today, you can wander through the remnants, which still retain a touch of their former grandeur.

Also on this day:

98: Trajan becomes emperor of Rome

1861: Italy elects its first parliament

1881: The birth of mobster Frank Nitti

1901: The death of opera composer Guiseppe Verdi

1927: The birth of novelist Giovanni Arpino

1962: The birth of musician and composer Roberto Paci Dalò

1974: The birth of crime writer Marco Malvadi

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26 January

Valentino Mazzola - footballer

Tragic star may have been Italy’s greatest player

The footballer Valentino Mazzola, captain of the mighty Torino team of the 1940s, was born on this day in 1919 in Cassano d’Adda, a town in Lombardy about 30km (19 miles) northeast of Milan.  Mazzola, a multi-talented player who was primarily an attacking midfielder but who was comfortable in any position on the field, led the team known as Il Grande Torino to five Serie A titles in seven seasons between 1942 and 1949. He scored 109 goals in 231 Serie A appearances for Venezia and Torino and had become the fulcrum of the Italy national team, coached by the legendary double World Cup-winner Vittorio Pozzo.  In just over a decade at the top level of the Italian game he achieved considerable success and some who saw him play believe he was the country’s greatest footballer of all time.  His life was cut short, however, when he and most of the Torino team – and at the same time the Italian national team – were killed when a plane carrying them home from a friendly in Portugal crashed in thick fog on its approach to Turin airport on May 4, 1949.  The Superga Disaster – so-called because the aircraft collided with the rear wall of the Basilica of Superga, which stands on a hill overlooking the city – claimed the lives of 18 players.  Read more…

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Giovanni Lanfranco - painter

Artist from Parma whose technique set new standards

The painter Giovanni Lanfranco, whom some critics regard as the equal of Pietro da Cortona and Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) among the leading masters of High Baroque painting in Rome, was born on this day in 1582 in Parma.  A master of techniques for creating illusion, such as trompe l'oeil and foreshortening, he had a major influence on 17th century painting in Naples also, inspiring the likes of Mattia Preti, Luca Giordano and Francesco Solimena.  Lanfranco is best known for his Assumption of the Virgin (1625-7) in the duomo of Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome, the altar fresco of the Navicella (1627-28) in St Peter’s Basilica, the cupola of the Gesù Nuovo church (1634-36) in Naples and the fresco of the Cappella del Tesoro, in Naples Cathedral (1643).  His St Mary Magdalen Transported to Heaven (c.1605), currently housed in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, is another outstanding example of his work, as is The Ecstasy of the Blessed Margaret of Cortona (1622), in the Pitti Palace in Florence.  Lanfranco’s dome frescoes were influenced by the work of Antonio da Correggio, the master of chiaroscuro.  Read more…

Gabriele Allegra – friar and scholar

Sicilian who learned Chinese to carry out his life’s work

The Blessed Gabriele Allegra, a Franciscan friar who translated the entire Catholic Bible into Chinese, is remembered on this day every year.  He was born Giovanni Stefano Allegra in San Giovanni la Punta in the province of Catania in Sicily in 1907 and he entered the Franciscan seminary in Acireale in 1918.  Gabriele Allegra was inspired to carry out his life’s work after attending a celebration for another Franciscan who had attempted a translation of the Bible into Chinese in the 14th century. For the next 40 years of his life the friar devoted himself to his own translation.  Gabriele Allegra was ordained a priest in 1930 and set sail for China. On his arrival he started to learn Chinese.  With the help of his Chinese teacher he prepared a first draft of his translation of the Bible in 1947 but it was not until 1968 that his one volume Chinese Bible was published for the first time.  Gabriele Allegra died on 26 January 1976 in Hong Kong. Although he was primarily a scholar, he had also helped the poor, the sick and lepers along the way.  He was declared Venerable in 1994.  Read more…

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Hebrew Bible in print for first time

Bologna printer makes history

The first printed edition of the Hebrew Bible was completed in Bologna on this day in 1482.  Specifically, the edition was the Pentateuch, or Torah, which consists of the first five books of the Christian and Jewish Bibles - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  Torah, in Hebrew, means 'instruction'.  The book was given that name because the stories within it, which essentially form the opening narrative of the history of the Jewish people, and the interpretations offered of them, were intended to set out the moral and religious obligations fundamental to the Jewish way of life.  The book was the work of the Italian-Jewish printer Abraham ben Hayyim dei Tintori, from Pesaro.  The text consisted of large, clear square letters, accompanied by a translation in the Jewish biblical language Aramaic and a commentary by Rashi, who had been the foremost biblical commentator of the Middle Ages.  It was published and financed by Joseph ben Abraham, a member of the Caravita banking family in Bologna. The editor was the Hebrew scholar Yosef Hayyim ben Aaron, of Strasbourg.  The printing press had been invented in Germany in 1439.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Immortal Torino: How the Superga Air Crash Robbed Italian Football of its Champions, by Roberto Pennino

It was just after five o’clock on 4 May 1949 as the Avio Linee Italiane Fiat G.212, carrying 18 players of AC Torino and 13 other passengers, was preparing to land at Turin-Aeritalia airport.   Thick fog meant visibility was poor, and strong winds had blown the plane off course. It was around 10 miles from the runway and flying in excess of 100mph, when out of the fog suddenly emerged the Basilica of Superga. With no time for the pilot to react, the plane crashed into the Basilica, killing all 31 passengers instantly – including manager Erno Egri Erbstein, English coach Leslie Lievesley, and three well-known Italian sports journalists: Renato Casalbore, the founder of Tuttosport, Renato Tosatti, Gazzetta del Popolo, and Luigi Cavallero, La Stampa.  Known as Grande Torino, in honour of their achievements, AC Torino had dominated their domestic league, and on the international stage their players were the backbone of the national team. They were on the verge of winning their fifth successive championship, when they flew to Lisbon to face Benfica in a friendly on 1 May, before flying home via Barcelona three days later. Two days after the crash AC Torino were declared Italian champions, before the club’s reserve and youth team players completed the club’s fixtures and topped the table by five points.  Published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of one of Italian football’s most heartbreaking tragedies, and drawing on testimonies from colleagues and team-mates who survived, Immortal Torino is the emotional story of the rise and tragic fall of one of Italian football’s greatest teams.

Roberto Pennino is a Dutch lawyer and writer with Italian roots. Immortal Torino was first published in Dutch in 2018 before being translated into Italian in 2019. In 2019 he published Forza Olandesi, a history of Dutch players in the Italian Serie A. He is also the author of Italië 1982, an in-depth, behind-the-scenes account about Italy’s World Cup title in Spain. 

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25 January

Noemi - singer-songwriter

Debut album topped Italian charts

The singer-songwriter Noemi - real name Veronica Scopelliti - was born in Rome on this day in 1982.  Noemi’s first album, Sulla mia pelle, released in 2009, sold more than 140,000 copies, topping the Italian album charts.  It followed her appearance in the second series of the Italian version of The X-Factor, the television talent show that was launched in the United Kingdom in 2004.  Although she did not win the competition, Noemi proved to be the most popular singer, finishing fifth overall.  Soon afterwards, she landed her first recording contract, with Sony Music, and released a single, Briciole, which reached number two in the Italian singles chart.  Heavily influenced by soul music, Noemi established immediately the style that has seen her nicknamed the ‘lioness of Italian pop’.  The elder of two daughters of Armando and Stefania Scopelliti, Noemi - Veronica as she was then - had early experience of appearing in the spotlight - at 19 months she was chosen to model nappies in a TV commercial for Pampers.  She inherited her love for music from her father, who played guitar in a group, and began learning the piano at seven and the guitar at 11.  Read more…

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Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza - explorer

Italian whose name is commemorated in an African capital

The explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, from whom Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo took its name, was born on this day in 1852 in Castel Gandolfo, a town 25km (16 miles) southeast of Rome.  His birth name was Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzà but he became a French citizen in 1874 after obtaining sponsorship from the French government to help fund his African expeditions, and adopted a French version of his name.  Although it was because of de Brazza that much of Congo became a French colony, the transference of sovereignty took place without bloodshed and de Brazza was well liked for his friendly nature and commitment to peace. Its capital, founded in 1880, was named Brazzaville in his honour and the name was retained even after the Republic of Congo became fully independent in 1960.  De Brazza was born into a noble family, the seventh of 13 children. His father, Ascanio Savorgnan di Brazzà, was a sculptor and painter who had studied under Antonio Canova; his mother, Giacinta Simonetti, hailed from a Roman family with Venetian roots. The family also owned houses in what is now Friuli Venezia Giulia at Brazzacco and Soleschiano, near Manzano, in the province of Udine.  Read more…

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Giangiacomo Ciaccio Montalto - magistrate

Brave investigator murdered by the Sicilian Mafia

The fearless magistrate Giangiacomo Ciaccio Montalto was assassinated by Mafia gunmen in Valderice, a small town near the Sicilian city of Trapani, on this day in 1983.  Ciaccio Montalto, a state prosecutor who had been involved in every major organised crime investigation in western Sicily over the previous 12 years, was a short distance from his home in the early hours of the morning when his Volkswagen Golf was forced off the road.  Three men armed with machine guns and pistols opened fire, hitting Ciaccio Montalto multiple times, leaving his bullet-ridden body slumped in the driver’s seat. Used to hearing gunshots, none of the nearby residents ventured out to see what had happened and it was not until 7.15am that a passing carabinieri patrol came across the car and discovered the magistrate’s body. He was 41 years old.  The VW’s clock, which police believed stopped working because of the damage to the car, was showing 1.12am, which suggested that Ciaccio Montalto had been dead for just over six hours.  Ciaccio Montalto was an Italian magistrate who was a public prosecutor in Trapani.  Read more…

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Antonio Scotti - baritone

Neapolitan singer who played 35 seasons at the Met

The operatic baritone Antonio Scotti, who performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York for a remarkable 35 consecutive seasons, was born on this day in 1866 in Naples.  Scotti's career coincided with those of many fine baritones and experts did not consider his voice to be among the richest. Yet what he lacked in timbre, he compensated for in musicality, acting ability and an instinctive grasp of dramatic timing.  Later in his career, he excelled in roles that emerged from the verismo movement in opera in the late 19th century, of which the composer Giacomo Puccini was a leading proponent, drawing on themes from real life and creating characters more identifiable with real people.  For a while, Scotti's portrayal of the chief of police Baron Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca, for example, was the yardstick against which all performances were measured, at least until Tito Gobbi's emergence in the 1930s.  Indeed, in 1924 the Met chose a gala presentation of Tosca as a fitting way for Scotti to mark the 25th anniversary of his debut there.  Scotti's parents in Naples were keen for him to enter the priesthood but he chose to pursue his ambitions in music. Read more…

Friuli earthquake

First of two disasters to rock Italy in the same year

A devastating earthquake hit the area now known as Friuli-Venezia Giulia on this day in 1348.  With a seismic intensity believed to be the equivalent of 6.9 on the Richter scale, the effects of the quake were felt right across Europe.  According to contemporary sources, houses and churches collapsed and there were numerous casualties. It was recorded that even as far away as Rome, buildings had been damaged.  The epicentre is believed to have been north of Udine to the east of the small towns of Tolmezzo, Venzone and Gemona.  The earthquake happened on 25 January early in the afternoon and its effects were immediately felt in Udine, where the castle and cathedral were both damaged.  In Austria the town of Villach was later hit by a landslide caused by the earthquake. Buildings in Carniola, part of present day Slovenia, and in Vicenza, Verona and Venice were also damaged.  It was recorded that the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome was damaged by the earthquake and an ancient tower nearby developed a permanent tilt. Aftershocks were felt in different parts of Italy for several weeks.  Read more…

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Paolo Mascagni – physician

Scientist was first to map the human lymphatic system

The physician Paolo Mascagni, whose scientific research enabled him to create the first map of the complete human lymphatic system, was born on this day in 1755 in Pomarance, a small town in Tuscany about 40km (25 miles) inland from the western coastline.  Mascagni described his findings in a book with detailed illustrations of every part of the lymphatic system he had identified, which was to prove invaluable to physicians wanting to learn more about a part of the human body vital to the regulation of good health. He also commissioned the sculptor Clemente Susini to create a full-scale model in wax of the lymphatic system, which can still be seen at the Museum of Human Anatomy at the University of Bologna.  Later he created another significant tome, his Anatomia Universa, which comprises 44 enormous copperplate illustrations that set out to bring together in one book the full extent of human knowledge about the anatomy of the human body.  The ‘book’ in the event was so large it was never bound, each plate measuring more than 3ft 6ins (1.07m) by 2ft 6ins (0.76m), designed in such a way that those from the same plane of dissection can be placed together and show the whole body in life size.  Read more…

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Recording of the Day: Sulla mia pelle, by Noemi (Special Edition)

Sulla mia pelle was the first studio album by Italian singer Noemi, released on October 2, 2009 by Sony Music. The album followed the release of the single L'amore si odia, a duet with Fiorella Mannoia which features on the album, which debuted at number one in the Italian singles chart. The song Sulla mia pelle, which is the last of the album’s 10 tracks and gives it its title, was composed by Noemi, who promoted the album with a tour that took place in two parts between October 2009 and January 2010, and between April and October 2010, establishing the Rome-born artist as a major new talent on the Italian music scene.

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