Luisa Sanfelice - executed aristocrat

'Heroine' may have been accidental revolutionary 

Gioacchino Toma's painting, Luisa Sanfelice in 
Prison, in the National Museum of Capodimente

Luisa Sanfelice, an aristocrat executed on the orders of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies because of her involvement with the French-backed Parthenopean Republic, was born on this day in 1764 in Naples.

Sanfelice was hailed as a heroine by supporters of the short-lived republic after revealing a plot among monarchist supporters to stage a violent uprising and reinstate Ferdinand and his wife, Queen Maria Carolina, who had been ousted by an invading French army in 1799. 

She ultimately paid for her actions with her life when King Ferdinand - known also as Ferdinand IV of Naples - returned to power, yet historians believe she had no strong loyalty to either side and perhaps the unwitting victim of her own circumstances, which cast her as a revolutionary almost by accident.

Born Maria Luisa Fortunata de Molina, the daughter of Bourbon general of Spanish origin, she became Luisa Sanfelice - sometimes known as Luigia - at the age of 17 after marrying a dissolute Neapolitan nobleman, Andrea Sanfelice.

Despite their lack of means, the young newlyweds enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle, running up huge debts, which only worsened when the marriage produced three children.

King Ferdinand had Sanfelice killed 
for her part in a failed insurrection 

At the behest of Luisa’s mother, the couple’s children were taken away and put into the care of a convent. Luisa and Andrea were effectively exiled to the Sanfelice family estate near Agropoli in the Cilento region of what is now southern Campania. 

When even these measures failed to curb their excesses, they were forcibly separated, Luisa placed in a conservatory at Montecorvino Rovella, a village in the mountains above Salerno, Andrea in a convent in Nocera, some 40km (25 miles) away. Both managed to escape their captivity and returned to Naples and their home in the Palazzo Mastelloni in the centre of the city, on what is now Piazza Carità.

In 1797, however, Andrea was arrested and thrown into a debtors’ prison.

Luisa’s life now took a different course, ultimately leading to her downfall. 

She began to attend the city’s salons, where wealthy members of society would rub shoulders with artists and intellectuals. Luisa had no political affiliations, mixing with monarchists as comfortably as with republicans. Still a relatively young woman, Luisa inevitably attracted male attention.

One of her suitors was Gerardo Baccher, an officer in the royal army who was loyal to Ferdinand. It was he who confided in her about the plot, for which he and his co-conspirators, had enlisted the help of the Bourbons and of the British fleet under the leadership of Horatio Nelson, to explode bombs during a festival in Naples, and in the ensuing chaos kill the Republic leaders and take control of the city.

Aware that having such knowledge might put her in danger, she asked Gerardo for a safe conduct warrant, so that her life would be spared after the insurrection had taken place. Baccher, smitten with her, willingly acceded to her request. 

Actress Laetitia Casta played 
Sanfelice in a 2004 TV drama

Unbeknown to him, Luisa had become enamoured with a young republican, Ferdinando Ferri. Fearing for his safety, she warned Ferri of what was being planned and handed her safe conduct warrant to him. Ferri duly reported the plot to the authorities, after which Baccher, his brother and others were arrested and killed by firing squad in the courtyard of the Castel Nuovo.

Luisa’s part in the foiling of this plot might never have come to light had it not been for Eleonora Pimentel Fonseca, a journalist and a major figure in the republican movement, who wrote an editorial in Monitore Napoletano, the republican periodical, in which she felt compelled to name ‘one of our distinguished fellow citizens, Luisa Molina Sanfelice, [who] revealed to the government on Friday evening the conspiracy of a few people who were no more wicked than idiots’, adding that ‘Our Republic must not fail to perpetuate the fact and the name of this illustrious citizen.’

After the Parthenopean Republic did collapse, in June 1799, only six months after coming into existence, and King Ferdinand resumed his rule, Luisa was promptly arrested and condemned to death.

She won a stay of execution by claiming she was pregnant, her assertion supported by two doctors in Naples. But Ferdinand sent her to Palermo to see another physician, who determined that she was not pregnant. She was ultimately executed on September 11, 1800.

Luisa Sanfelice’s story has captured the imagination of writers, painters and film-makers, old and new. 

The celebrated 19th century French writer and playwright, Alexandre Dumas père, made her the protagonist of his novel, La sanfelice, which was turned into a film, Luisa Sanfelice, directed by Leo Menardi in 1942. The most recent interpretation of the story for the screen was a TV film made in 2004, directed by the Taviani brothers, Paolo and Vittorio.

The story also inspired works of art in the 19th century, notably Modesto Faustini's canvas The Arrest of Luisa Sanfelice and several by Gioacchino Toma, who created Sanfelice Taken to Prison in Palermo (1855), Sanfelice's Cell (approx 1876), and two versions of Luisa Sanfelice in Prison, which are considered as Italian masterpieces.

The staircase inside the 
Palazzo Mastelloni in Naples

Travel tip:

The Sanfelice family’s home in Naples was in the Palazzo Mastelloni, a palace on the Piazza Carità, a square on the Via Toledo in central Naples. They occupied the first floor of the palace, which has existed at least since the 16th century and in which the Mastellone family had an interest since the late 17th century. At the time of Luisa Sanfelice’s arrest in 1799, it was owned by the Marquess Emanuele Mastellone, a minister in the Parthenopean Republic The palace was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1732, after which the Mastelloni bought the entire building and decided to renovate it in Rococo style, the work being carried out under the supervision of Nicola Tagliacozzi Canale, a Neapolitan architect active between about 1723 and 1760.  Among the most striking architectural features of the building is the elliptical staircase with two symmetrical ramps that rises from the first floor courtyard and which was designed with Luisa Sanfelice’s input.

Agropoli's harbour, seen from the elevated 
position of the Cilento town's historic centre

Travel tip:

Agropoli, where the Safelice family owned an estate to which Luisa and Andrea were exiled after running up huge debts in Naples, is a seaside town in Campania at the start of the Cilento coastline. Its name comes from the strategic hilltop location of the old part of the town, which took the name Acropolis, meaning high town, during Greek rule of the area. Byzantines, Saracens and Aragonese all left their mark on its architecture and culture, notably via the Aragonese Castle, on top of the elevated promontory, which offers breathtaking views.  The area is renowned for crystal-clear waters and picturesque beaches, as well as having a historic centre with narrow, winding streets and historical buildings. While preserving its historical charm, Agropoli also offers modern amenities around a bustling harbour, including a variety of restaurants and shops.  It is a popular location for Italian tourists, in particular. 

Also on this day:

1783: The birth of poet and academic Gabriele Rossetti

1907: The birth of entrepreneur Domenico Agusta

1915: The birth of jam and juice maker Karl Zuegg

1940: The birth of racing driver Mario Andretti

1942: The birth of goalkeeper and coach Dino Zoff

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27 February

Italy's appeal for help with Leaning Tower

Fears of collapse prompted summit of engineers

The Italian government finally admitted that it needed help to save the Leaning Tower of Pisa from collapsing on this day in 1964.  There had been numerous attempts to arrest the movement of the tower, which had begun to tilt five years after construction began in 1173.  One side of the tower started to sink after engineers added a second floor in 1178, when the mistake of setting a foundation just three metres deep in weak, unstable soil became clear. Construction was halted.  In fact, in part because of a series of military conflicts, it did not resume for 100 years.  Additions were made to the building over the next 100 years, culminating in the completion of the bell chamber in 1372. Nothing more was done until the 19th century, when an ill-considered plan to dig a path around the base in 1838 resulted in a new increase in the tilt.  Ironically, the tower might have been deliberately destroyed in the Second World War when advancing American soldiers were ordered to blow up any tall building that might have been used by German snipers, regardless of its historical importance.  Thankfully, a German withdrawal before the Americans reached Pisa made it unnecessary.  Read more…

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Mirella Freni – opera singer

Good advice from Gigli helped soprano have long career

Singer Mirella Freni was born Mirella Fregni on this day in 1935 in Modena in Emilia-Romagna.  Freni’s grandmother, Valentina Bartolomasi, had been a leading soprano in Italy from 1910 until 1927, specialising in Wagner roles. By coincidence, her mother worked alongside the mother of tenor Luciano Pavarotti in a tobacco factory in Modena.  Freni was obviously musically gifted and sang an opera aria in a radio competition when she was just ten years old.  One of the judges was the tenor Beniamino Gigli, who advised her to give up singing until she was older to protect her voice.  Freni took his advice and resumed singing when she was 17, making her operatic debut at the Teatro Municipale in Modena at the age of 20 in Bizet’s Carmen.  Her international debut came at Glyndebourne in Franco Zeffirelli’s staging of Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore.  In the 1960 season at Glyndebourne she sang comic roles from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni.  Freni made her Covent Garden debut in 1961, her La Scala debut in 1963 and her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1965.  She started singing the heavier Verdi roles in the 1970s.  Read more…

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Franco Moschino - fashion designer

Made clothes with sense of humour

The fashion designer Franco Moschino, founder of the Moschino fashion label, was born on this day in 1950 in Abbiategrasso, a town about 24km (15 miles) southwest of Milan.  Moschino became famous for his innovative and irreverent designs, which injected humour into high fashion.  For example, he created a miniskirt in quilted denim with plastic fried eggs decorating the hemline, a jacket studded with bottle tops and a suit covered with cutlery. He designed a dress that resembled a shopping bag and a ball gown made from black plastic bin bags.  Other designs carried messages mocking his own industry, such as a jacket with the motif ‘Waist of Money’ printed round the waistband, another in cashmere with ‘Expensive Jacket’ emblazoned across the back and a shirt with the words ‘I’m Full of Shirt’.  Moschino’s first collections focussed on casual clothes and jeans, but he eventually branched out into lingerie, eveningwear, shoes, menswear and perfumes.  As a young man, Moschino was encouraged to believe that his destiny lay in taking over his father’s iron foundry but his only interest in the plant lay in the layers of dust that clung to the walls, in which he would make drawings.  Read more…

Chiara Iezzi - singer and actress

One half of Paola e Chiara

The actress and singer Chiara Iezzi, who with sister Paola forms half of the top-selling Paola e Chiara pop duo, was born on this day in 1973 in Milan.  The sisters performed together for seven years between 1996 and 2013, selling more than five million records, before breaking up, Chiara deciding to focus increasingly on acting and enjoying some success in the United States.  The duo were reunited in 2023, when they took part in the Sanremo Music Festival for the sixth time, having made their debut at the celebrated Italian song contest 26 years earlier.  Interested in music, acting and fashion since she was in her teens, Chiara  graduated in fashion design, simultaneously taking acting lessons, but it was music that initially provided her with a career.  After seeing her perform in jazz and funk groups, in 1994 the record producer and television presenter Claudio Cecchetto hired her together with Paola to join singer Max Pezzali as backing vocalists in a group called 883, who were popular in Milan in the 1990s.  Two years later, the sisters began to perform as Paola e Chiara, signing a recording contract with Sony Music Italia.  Read more… 

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Simone Di Pasquale – dancer

Ballroom talent has been springboard for business success

Ballroom dancer and television celebrity Simone Di Pasquale was born on this day in 1978.  In 2005, he became a household name after he started to appear regularly on Italian television in Ballando con le Stelle - the equivalent of the US show Dancing with the Stars and Britain’s Strictly Come Dancing. The show, presented by Milly Carlucci, was broadcast every Saturday evening on the tv channel Rai Uno.  Pasquale has also appeared in numerous other television programmes, on stage in musical theatre and as an actor in a television drama.  Born in Rome, Di Pasquale learnt ballroom dancing at a young age and took part in competitions.  In 2000 he paired up with the dancer Natalia Titova, who also later became a celebrity because of Ballando con le Stelle. The couple were engaged from 1998 to 2005.  They took first place in the competition Rising Stars UK in 2004.  In the first season of Ballando con le Stelle, Di Pasquale partnered the Italian actress Hoara Borselli and the couple won the competition. He has taken part in each successive series since.  Di Pasquale has appeared as a guest on numerous programmes on Italian television.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: DK Eyewitness Guide to Florence and Tuscany

Delicious cuisine, spectacular art and lush landscapes await in Florence and Tuscany.  Whether you want to sample delicious Tuscan food and wine, gaze at the iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa or browse eclectic markets in Florence, the DK Eyewitness Guide to Florence and Tuscany makes sure you experience all that this region has to offer.  The birthplace of the Renaissance, Florence is filled with architectural masterpieces and dazzling collections of art. Yet the countryside is just as mesmerizing, with cypress-lined roads leading to picturesque towns and idyllic islands lying just off the coast.  This updated guide brings Florence and Tuscany to life, transporting you there like no other travel guide does with expert-led insights and advice, detailed breakdowns of all the must-see sights, photographs on almost every page, and our hand-drawn illustrations which place you inside the region's iconic buildings and neighbourhoods. DK Eyewitness Florence & Tuscany is your ticket to the trip of a lifetime.

DK Eyewitness travel guides have been helping travellers to make the most of their breaks since 1993. Filled with expert advice, striking photography and detailed illustrations, DK Eyewitness guides offer travel tips to more than 200 destinations.

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26 February

Napoleon escapes from Elba

Emperor leaves idyllic island to face his Waterloo

French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the Italian island of Elba, where he had been living in exile, on this day in 1815.  Less than a year before he had arrived in Elba, an island dotted with attractive hills and scenic bays, following his unconditional abdication from the throne of France.  Several countries had formed an alliance to fight Napoleon’s army and had chosen to send him to live in exile on the small Mediterranean island about 10km (6 miles) off the Tuscan coast.  They gave Napoleon sovereignty over the island and he was allowed to keep a small personal army to guard him. He soon set about developing the iron mines and brought in modern agricultural methods to improve the quality of life of the islanders.  But he began to be worried about being banished still further from France. He had heard through his supporters that the French Government were beginning to question having to pay him an annual salary.  He had also been told that many European ministers felt Elba was too close to France for comfort.  Napoleon also missed his wife, Marie-Louise, who he believed his captors were preventing from joining him.  Read more…

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Dante Ferretti – set designer

Three-times Oscar winner worked with Fellini and Scorsese

Dante Ferretti, who in more than half a century in movie production design has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won three, was born on this day in 1943 in the city of Macerata, in the Marche region of central Italy.  Ferretti, who works in partnership with his wife, the set decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo, won two of his Oscars for films directed by Martin Scorsese, with whom he has enjoyed a collaboration that began 25 years ago this year.  Nominated for his first film with Scorsese, The Age of Innocence (1993) and subsequently for Kundun (1998) and Gangs of New York (2003), he was successful with The Aviator (2005) and Hugo Cabret (2012).  Both Oscars, for Best Scenography, were shared with Lo Schiavo, with whom he also shared an Oscar for Tim Burton’s 2008 film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.  Ferretti also enjoyed long collaborations with Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini, and worked with a string of other major directors, including Elio Petri, Ettore Scola, Franco Zeffirelli, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Terry Gilliam, Anthony Minghella, Brian de Palma, Julie Taymor and Kenneth Branagh.  Read more…

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Angelo Mangiarotti - architect and designer

Iconic glass church among legacy to city of Milan 

Angelo Mangiarotti, regarded by his peers as one of the greats of modern Italian architecture and design, was born on this day in 1921 in Milan.  Many notable examples of his work in urban design can be found in his home city, including the Repubblica and Venezia underground stations, the iconic glass church of Nostra Signora della Misericordia in the Baranzate suburb and several unique residential properties, including the distinctive Casa a tre cilindri - composed of a trio of cylindrical blocks - in Via Gavirate in the San Siro district of the city.  He also worked extensively in furniture design with major companies such as Vistosi, Fontana Arte, Danese, Artemide, Skipper and the kitchen producer Snaidero.  Mangiarotti graduated from the Architecture School of the Politecnico di Milano in 1948. He moved to the United States in 1953 and worked in Chicago as a visiting professor for the Illinois Institute of Technology. While in Illinois, he met internationally renowned architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Konrad Wachsmann, all of whom were substantial influences.  Read more…

Emanuele Severino - philosopher

Thinker famous for theories on eternity and being

The contemporary philosopher Emanuele Severino, who died in January 2020, was born on this day in 1929 in Brescia, in northern Italy.  Severino is regarded by many as one of Italy’s greatest thinkers of the modern era, yet came into conflict with the Catholic Church, so much that the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the body that once stood in judgment of those it deemed as heretics, banished him from the Church in 1969 on the basis that his beliefs were not compatible with Christianity.  The basis for their action was his belief in “the eternity of all being”, which essentially denies the existence of God as a creator.  Severino believed that the ancient Greek theory of all things coming from nothing and returning to nothing after being granted temporary existence was flawed, and that the Greek sense of becoming was an error. He contended that the idea that an entity can move from ‘being’ to ‘non-being’ and vice-versa was absurd.  He argued that everything is eternal, not only all people and all things, but every moment of life, every feeling, every aspect of reality, and that nothing becomes or ceases to be.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Invisible Emperor: Napoleon on Elba from Exile to Escape, by Mark Braude

In the spring of 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated. Having overseen an empire spanning half the European continent and governed the lives of some eighty million people, he suddenly found himself exiled to Elba, less than a hundred square miles of territory. This would have been the end of him, if Europe's rulers had had their way. But soon enough Napoleon imposed his preternatural charisma and historic ambition on both his captors and the very island itself, plotting his return to France and to power. After 10 months of exile, he escaped Elba with just of over a thousand supporters in tow, marched to Paris, and retook the Tuileries Palace - all without firing a shot. Not long after, tens of thousands of people would die fighting for and against him at Waterloo.  Braude dramatizes this strange exile and improbable escape in granular detail and with novelistic relish, offering sharp new insights into a largely overlooked moment. He details a terrific cast of secondary characters, including Napoleon's tragically-noble official British minder on Elba, Neil Campbell, forever disgraced for having let "Boney" slip away; and his young second wife, Marie Louise who was 22 to Napoleon's 44, at the time of his abdication. The Invisible Emperor is a surprising new perspective on one of history's most consequential figures, which both subverts and celebrates his legendary persona.

Mark Braude has been a visiting fellow at the American Library in Paris and a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. In addition to The Invisible Emperor, he is the author of Kiki Man Ray and Making Monte Carlo. His work has appeared in The New Republic, The Los Angeles Times, The Globe and Mail and elsewhere.

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25 February

Carlo Goldoni – playwright

Greatest Venetian dramatist whose work still entertains audiences today

Carlo Goldoni, the author of The Servant of Two Masters, one of Italy’s most famous and best-loved plays, was born on this day in 1707 in Venice.  Goldoni became a prolific dramatist who reinvigorated the commedia dell’arte dramatic form by replacing its masked, stock figures with more realistic characters. He produced tightly constructed plots with a new spirit of spontaneity and is considered the founder of Italian realistic comedy.  The son of a physician, Goldoni read comedies from his father’s library when he was young and ran away from his school at Rimini with a company of strolling players when he was just 14.  Later, while studying at the papal college in Pavia, Goldoni read comedies by Plautus, Terence and Aristophanes and learnt French so he could read plays by Molière.  He was eventually expelled for writing a satire about the ladies of Pavia and was sent to study law.  Although he practised law in Venice and Pisa and held diplomatic appointments, his real passion was writing plays for the theatres in Venice.  In 1748 he began writing for the Teatro Sant’Angelo company and dispensed with masked characters altogether for his play, La Pamela, a serious drama based on Samuel Richardson’s novel.  Read more…

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Benedetto Croce – philosopher and historian

Prolific writer opposed the Fascists and supported democracy

Benedetto Croce, one of the most important figures in Italian life and culture in the first half of the 20th century, was born on this day in 1866 in Pescasseroli in the region of Abruzzo.  Croce was an idealist philosopher, historian and erudite literary scholar whose approach to literature influenced future generations of writers and literary critics. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 16 times.  He became a Senator in 1910 and was Minister for Education from 1920 to 1921 in the last pre-Fascist government of the so-called Giolitti era. He is also remembered for his major contribution to the rebirth of Italian democracy after World War II.  Croce was born into a wealthy family and raised in a strict Catholic environment.  However, from the age of 16 he gave up Catholicism and developed a personal philosophy of spiritual life.  In 1883, while he was still a teenager, he was on holiday with his family on the island of Ischia when an earthquake struck Casamicciola and destroyed the house they were staying in. His mother, father and sister were all killed, but although he was buried for a long time, he managed to survive.  Read more…

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Alberto Sordi - actor

Comic genius who appeared in 190 films

Alberto Sordi, remembered by lovers of Italian cinema as one of its most outstanding comedy actors, died on this day in 2003 in Rome, the city of his birth.  He was 82 and had suffered a heart attack.  Italy reacted with an outpouring of grief and the decision was taken for his body to lie in state at Rome's town hall, the Campidoglio.  Streams of his fans took the opportunity to file past his coffin and when his funeral took place at the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano it was estimated that the crowds outside the church and in nearby streets numbered one million people.  Only the funeral of Pope John Paul II, who died two years later, is thought to have attracted a bigger crowd.  Sordi was the Italian voice of Oliver Hardy in the early days of his career, when he worked on the dubbing of the Laurel and Hardy movies.  He made the first of his 190 films in 1937 but it was not until the 1950s that he found international fame.  He appeared in two movies directed by Federico Fellini - The White Sheik and I vitelloni.  In the latter, he played an oafish layabout, something of a simpleton but an effeminate and vulnerable character to whom audiences responded with warmth and affection due to Sordi's interpretation.  Read more…

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Enrico Caruso – opera singer

Tenor's voice still regarded as greatest of all time 

Operatic tenor Enrico Caruso was born on this day in 1873 in Naples.  Believed by many opera experts to be the greatest tenor of all time, Caruso had a brilliant 25-year singing career, appearing at many of the major opera houses in Europe and America.  He made more than 200 recordings of his beautiful voice, some made as early as 1902.  Caruso was born in Via San Giovanello agli Ottocalli in Naples and baptised the next day in the nearby church of San Giovanni e Paolo.  At the age of 11 he was apprenticed to a mechanical engineer and also worked alongside his father in a factory.  At the same time he was singing in his church choir and was told his voice showed enough promise for him to consider becoming a professional singer.  Until she died in 1888, he was encouraged by his mother. To earn money, he started to work as a street singer in Naples, progressing to singing Neapolitan songs as entertainment in cafes. Having decided to become an opera singer, Caruso took singing lessons, keeping up with them even during his compulsory military service.  He made his stage debut in 1895 at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples.  Read more...

Enea Salmeggia – artist

Painter was dubbed the Raphael of Bergamo

Prolific painter Enea Salmeggia, who was active during the late Renaissance period and left a rich legacy of art in northern Italy, died on this day in 1626 in Bergamo in the region of Lombardy.  Salmeggia, also known as Il Talpino, or Salmezza, went to Rome as a young man, where he studied the works of Raphael. His style has often been likened to that of Raphael and he has even been called the Bergamo Raphael by some art lovers. A drawing formerly attributed to Raphael, now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, of two figures seated with some architectural studies, has subsequently been ascribed to Enea Salmeggia.  The artist was born at Salmezza, a frazione of Nembro, a comune - municipality - in the province of Bergamo, between 1565 and 1570. It is known that he grew up in Borgo San Leonardo in Bergamo, where his father, Antonio, was a tailor.  He learnt the art of painting from other Bergamo painters and is also believed to have studied under the Bergamo artist Simone Peterzano in Milan. Caravaggio was one of Peterzano’s most famous pupils and it has been suggested that Salmeggia could have been studying with Peterzano at the same time as Caravaggio.  Read more…

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Giovanni Battista Morgagni - anatomist

The father of modern pathological anatomy

Anatomist Giovanni Battista Morgagni, who is credited with turning pathology into a science, was born on this day in 1682 in Forlì in Emilia-Romagna.  Morgagni was professor of anatomy at the University of Padua for 56 years and taught thousands of medical students during his time there.  He was sent by his parents to study philosophy and medicine at the University of Bologna when he was 18 and he graduated as a doctor from both faculties.  In 1706 he published his work, Adversaria anatomica, which was to be the first volume of a series and helped him become known throughout Europe as an accurate anatomist.  He succeeded to the chair of theoretical medicine at the University of Padua in 1712 and was to teach medicine there until his death in 1771.  Morgagni was promoted to the chair of anatomy after his first three years in Padua, following in the footsteps of many illustrious scholars. He brought out five more volumes of his Adversaria anatomica during his early years in Padua.  In 1761, when he was nearly 80, he brought out the work that was to make pathological anatomy into a science – De Sedibus et causis morborum per anotomem indagatis (Of the seats and cause of diseases investigated through anatomy). Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Servant of Two Masters, by Carlo Goldoni. Translated by Stephen Mulrine

An edition that includes the full text, plus a short introduction that takes in the life of the playwright, the plot and subplot and themes of the play.  Disguising herself as her dead brother, Beatrice travels to Venice to find Florindo, the man responsible for his death. However her servant, Truffaldino, enters into the pay of Florindo and struggles to keep his two lives and masters apart.  Over 250 years since it was written, this classic Italian comedy remains blisteringly hilarious and relevant. The plight of Truffaldino trying to keep two jobs afloat is still delighting audiences today in the hit adaptation One Man, Two Guvnors. Translated by Stephen Mulrine this is the original and a masterpiece of comic absurdity.

Stephen Mulrine was a Glasgow-born poet and playwright who wrote extensively for radio and television, and published many translations, including works by Ibsen, Chekhov, Pushkin, Gogol and Turgenev. He was a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

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