9 September

Roberto Donadoni - footballer and coach

Understated midfielder who helped AC Milan win six Serie A titles

The footballer and coach Roberto Donadoni, who was a key figure in an AC Milan side that dominated Italian football for the best part of a decade, was born on this day in 1963 in Cisano Bergamasco in Lombardy.  A winger or midfielder famed for his ability to create goalscoring opportunities for his team-mates, Donadoni was once described by the brilliant French attacker Michel Platini as ‘the best Italian footballer of the 1990s’. His collection of 21 winner’s medals includes six for winning the Serie A title with AC Milan and three for the European Cup or Champions League.  He was also part of the Italian national team that reached the final of the World Cup in 1994, losing to Brazil on penalties.  Donadoni was never a prolific goalscorer: in more than 500 league and international matches, he found the net only 34 times. Yet he had exceptional technical ability and great passing skills. Read more… 

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Allied troops land at Salerno

Operation that marked start of invasion of Italy

The first wave of an invasion force that would eventually take control of much of the Italian peninsula on behalf of the Allies landed on the beaches around Salerno in Campania on this day in 1943.  More than 450 ships carrying 190,000 troops assembled off the coast on the evening of September 8, shortly after news had broken that terms for the surrender of the Italian half of the Axis forces had been agreed.  The US 36th Infantry Division were in the vanguard of the invasion force, approaching the shore at Paestum at 3.30am on September 9, and there were other landings further up the coast near Battipaglia and Pontecagnano involving British troops.  After news of the Italian surrender, the invasion force, which consisted initially of 55,000 troops, were unsure how much resistance they would encounter.  Read more…

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Francesco Carrozzini - director and photographer

Famous for portraits of wealthy and famous

The American-based director and photographer Francesco Carrozzini was born on this day in 1982 in Monza, Italy.  The son of the late former editor-in-chief of the Italian edition of Vogue magazine, Franca Sozzani, Carrozzini has directed many music videos and documentary films and a small number of feature-length movies, including one about the life of his mother.  In photography, he has become best known for his portraits of the rich and famous, including actors such as Robert De Niro and Cate Blanchett, models including Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista, musicians such as Lana Del Ray and Kanye West, and artists including Jeff Koons and Andres Serrano.  Carrozzini has also photographed political leaders, including the former British prime minister Tony Blair, ex-Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg and former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.  Read more…

Cesare Pavese - writer and translator

Author introduced great American writers to Fascist Italy

Cesare Pavese, the writer and literary critic who, through his work as a translator, introduced Italy to the Irish novelist James Joyce and a host of great American authors of the 20th century, was born on this day in 1908 in Santo Stefano Belbo, a town in Piedmont about 60km from Turin.  Pavese would become an acclaimed novelist after the Second World War but was frustrated for many years by the strict censorship policies of Italy’s Fascist government.  It is thought he devoted himself to translating progressive English-language writers into Italian as the best way by which he could promote the principles of freedom in which he believed.  Pavese’s translations would have given most Italians they first opportunity to read writers such as Herman Melville, William Faulkner, Charles Dickens, Gertrude Stein, John Steinbeck and Daniel Defoe, as well as Joyce.  Read more…

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Oscar Luigi Scalfaro – President of Italy

Devout lawyer served the Republic all his life

The ninth President of the Italian Republic, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, was born on this day in 1918 in Novara.  After studying law and entering the magistrature he became a public prosecutor and is the last Italian attorney to have obtained a death sentence.  In 1945 he prosecuted the former Novara prefect Enrico Vezzalini and five servicemen, who were accused of collaborating with the Germans. All six were condemned to death and the sentence was carried out a few months later.  Subsequently Scalfaro obtained another death sentence, but the accused was pardoned before the execution could take place.  Scalfaro was brought up to be a devout Catholic and studied law at Milan’s Università Cattolica.  Before the war ended he lost his wife, Maria Inzitari, who died a few weeks after giving birth to their daughter. He never remarried.  Read more… 

Book of the Day: The Immortals: How My Milan Team Reinvented Football, by Arrigo Sacchi, with Luigi Garlando

When Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan destroyed Steaua Bucharest 4-0 in the 1989 European Cup final, everything changed. Studded with the world-class talents of their legendary three Dutchmen - Ruud Gullit, Marco Van Basten and Frank Rijkaard – they threw off the shackles of Italian football’s defensive traditions to pioneer a modern, high-pressing and boldly attacking approach. Sacchi revolutionised football and altered the DNA of the next generation of coaches, including Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. This is the story of the crowning achievement of one of football’s greatest-ever teams – told by the man who built it. This is the story of The Immortals.

Arrigo Sacchi is one of the most innovative and successful coaches in the history of football. His great AC Milan team of the late 1980s and early 90s won the Serie A title and back to back European Cups in 1989 and 1990. His high-pressing, attacking style is reflected in the philosophies of many leading modern coaches, including Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. Luigi Garlando is a sports writer and author of non-fiction books for children.

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8 September

Ludovico Ariosto – poet

Writer led the way with spirituality and humanity

The man who coined the term humanism - umanesimo - Ludovico Ariosto, was born on this day in 1474 in Reggio Emilia.  He became famous after his epic poem, Orlando furioso, was published in 1516.  It is now regarded by critics as the finest expression of the literary tendencies and spiritual attitudes of the Italian Renaissance.  Ariosto chose to focus on the strengths and potential of humanity, rather than upon its role as subordinate to God, which led to the Renaissance humanism movement.  His family moved to live in Ferrara when he was just ten years old and the poet has said he always felt ferrarese.  His father insisted he studied law but afterwards Ariosto followed his natural instincts to write poetry.  When his father died in 1500, Ariosto had to provide for his four brothers and five sisters and took the post of commander of the Citadel of Canossa. Read more…

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Michelangelo’s David

Masterpiece emerged from an abandoned block of marble

A huge statue of the Biblical hero David, sculpted by Michelangelo, was unveiled in Piazza della Signoria in Florence on this day in 1504.  The 5.17m (17ft) high statue was placed outside the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of civic government in Florence. The sculpture symbolised the defence of civil liberties in the republic of Florence, which at the time was an independent city state threatened on all sides by rival states. It was thought that the eyes of David were looking towards Rome and seemed to have a warning glare.  David is regarded as one of Michelangelo’s masterpieces. He was sculpted from a block of Carrara marble originally designated to be one of a series of prophets for Florence Cathedral. The marble was worked on by two artists before being abandoned and left exposed to the elements in the yard of the Cathedral workshop.  Read more…

Matteo Strukul – writer

Author is published worldwide in 20 languages

Writer and journalist Matteo Strukul, best known for his best-selling historical novels about the powerful Medici family, was born on this day in 1973 in Padua (Padova) in the Veneto region.  Strukul’s first novel was a dark thriller set in the Veneto, which was published in 2011 in Italian as La ballata di Mila. The novel was translated into English and issued in 2014 as The Ballad of Mila.  He then wrote four historical novels set in Florence between the 15th and 17th centuries following the rise of the house of Medici, which all became best sellers in Italy and have sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide. The first novel, I Medici, una dinastia al potere, was awarded the Premio Bancarella in 2017. This prestigious award has been won in the past by Ernest Hemingway, Boris Pasternak, Umberto Eco, and Ken Follett.  Read more…

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Magda Olivero - soprano

Singer who performed into her 80s and lived to 104

The opera singer Magda Olivero, who became known as the last verismo soprano, died on this day in 2014. She was almost halfway through her 105th year, having been born in 1910.  Olivero became associated with the works among others of Francesco Cilea, Pietro Mascagni, Umberto Giordano and Franco Alfano, all of whom she actually worked with in person, her longevity providing a 21st century link with the world of 19th century Italian opera. She missed the chance to know and work with Giacomo Puccini only narrowly, the composer passing away at the age of 66 when Olivero was 14.  Born in Saluzzo in Piedmont, Olivero made her operatic debut eight years after Puccini’s death in a radio production in Turin in 1932. She gave her last stage performance 49 years later in 1981, although even that was not the end of her career.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Orlando Furioso, Part One, by Ludovico Ariosto. Introduced and translated by Barbara Reynolds

One of the greatest epic poems of the Italian Renaissance, Orlando Furioso is an intricate tale of love and enchantment set at the time of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne's conflict with the Moors. When Count Orlando returns to France from Cathay with the captive Angelica as his prize, her beauty soon inspires his cousin Rinaldo to challenge him to a duel - but during their battle, Angelica escapes from both knights on horseback and begins a desperate quest for freedom. This dazzling kaleidoscope of fabulous adventures, sorcery and romance has inspired generations of writers - including Spenser and Shakespeare - with its depiction of a fantastical world of magic rings, flying horses, sinister wizardry and barbaric splendour. Part Two is available from the same publisher.

Barbara Reynolds was an English scholar of Italian Studies, lexicographer and translator. She wrote and edited several books concerning Dorothy L Sayers and was president of the Dorothy LSayers Society. She died at the age of 100 in April 2015.

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7 September

NEW - Guido Bentivoglio - cardinal, historian and diplomat

17th century ambassador who set standards for modern statecraft

The cardinal, archbishop and papal nuncio Guido Bentivoglio, an important figure in the development of modern international diplomacy, died on this day in 1644 in Rome.  Born in 1579 in Ferrara, Bentivoglio’s life was notable for having helped reset the Vatican’s approach to international relations, both through his astute and pragmatic methodology and his influential writings. His most notable written work, Della Guerra di Fiandra, is regarded as setting a new standard for historical writing. Published between 1632 and 1639, it documented in great detail what Bentivoglio  had learned from his eight years as papal nuncio in Flanders after decades of civil war between Habsburg rebels and the region’s Spanish rulers.  Bentivoglio’s blend of political acumen and ecclesiastical authority enabled him to navigate the religious and political tensions of a region divided between Catholic and Protestant powers. Read more… 

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Genoa Cricket and Football Club

Italy's historic first football club

Italy's oldest surviving football club was founded on this day in 1893 in Genoa.  Originally named Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club, it was established by British Consular officials and for a number of years football was a minor activity.  Initially, Italians could not be members.  Football became more its focus after an English maritime doctor, James Spensley, arrived in Genoa in 1897 and organised a match against Football Club Torinese, which had been formed in Turin in 1894. Spensley insisted the club's rules be altered to allow Italians to play.  The match took place in January 1898 and although the attendance was only around 200 spectators, it was deemed a success by those who took part, particularly the Turin side, who won.  After a return match, plans were drawn up to form an Italian Football Federation and to organise a first Italian Championship. Read more… 

Giuseppe Gioachino Belli – poet

Sonnet writer satirised life in 19th century Rome

The poet Giuseppe Gioachino Belli was born on this day in 1791 in Rome and was christened Giuseppe Francesco Antonio Maria Gioachino Raimondi Belli.  He was to become famous for his satirical sonnets written in Romanesco, the dialect of Rome.  After taking a job in Civitavecchia, a coastal town about 70km (44 miles) northwest of Rome, Belli’s father moved the family to live there, but after he died - of either cholera or typhus - his wife returned to Rome with her children and took cheap lodgings in Via del Corso.  Living in poor circumstances, Belli began writing sonnets in Italian at the suggestion of his friend, the poet Francesco Spada.  In 1816, Belli married a woman of means, Maria Conti, and went to live with her in Palazzo Poli, the palace that forms the backdrop to the Trevi Fountain. This gave him the freedom to develop his literary talents. Read more…

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Kidnapping of Pope Boniface VIII

When the Pope was slapped down by a disgruntled landowner

An army, representing King Philip IV of France and the anti-papal Colonna family, entered Anagni in Lazio and captured Pope Boniface VIII inside his own palace on this day in 1303.  The Pope was kept in custody for three days and was physically ill-treated by his captors until the local people rose up against the invaders and rescued him.  Boniface VIII returned to Rome, but he was physically and mentally broken after his ordeal and died a month later.  The Pope had been born Benedetto Caetani in Anagni in 1230. He became Pope Boniface VIII in 1294 after his predecessor abdicated. He organised the first Catholic Jubilee Year to take place in Rome in 1300 and founded Sapienza University in the city in 1303, the year of his death.  But Boniface VIII is mainly remembered for his conflicts with Philip IV of France.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Galileo, by John L Heilbron

Just over 400 years ago, in 1610, Galileo published the Siderius nuncius, or Starry Messenger, a 'hurried little masterpiece' in John Heilbron's words. Presenting to the world his remarkable observations using the recently invented telescope - of the craters of the moon, and the satellites of Jupiter, observations that forced changes to perceptions of the perfection of the heavens and the centrality of the Earth - the appearance of the little book is regarded as one of the greatest moments in the history of science. It was also a point of change in the life of Galileo himself, propelling him from professor to prophet.  But this is not the biography of a mathematician. Certainly he spent the first half of his career as a professor of mathematics and has been called 'the divine mathematician'. Yet he was no more (or less) a mathematician than he was a musician, artist, writer, philosopher, or gadgeteer. This fresh lively biography of the 'father of science' paints a rounded picture of Galileo, and places him firmly within the rich texture of late Renaissance Florence, Pisa, and Padua, amid debates on the merits of Ariosto and Tasso, and the geometry of Dante's Inferno - debates in which the young Galileo played an active role. Galileo's character and career followed complex paths, moving from the creative but cautious humanist professor to a 'knight errant, quixotic and fearless', with increasing enemies, and leading ultimately and inevitably to a clash with a pope who was a former friend.

John Lewis Heilbron was an American historian of science best known for his work in the history of physics and the history of astronomy. He was Professor of History and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Guido Bentivoglio - cardinal, historian and diplomat

17th century ambassador who set standards for modern statecraft

Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio, as painted in 
1623 by the Flemish artist, Anthony van Dyck

The cardinal, archbishop and papal nuncio Guido Bentivoglio, an important figure in the development of modern international diplomacy, died on this day in 1644 in Rome.

Born in 1579 in Ferrara, Bentivoglio’s life was notable for having helped reset the Vatican’s approach to international relations, both through his astute and pragmatic methodology and his influential writings.

His most notable written work, Della Guerra di Fiandra, is regarded as setting a new standard for historical writing. Published in multiple volumes between 1632 and 1639, it documented in great detail what Bentivoglio had learned from his eight years as papal nuncio in Flanders after decades of civil war between Habsburg rebels and the region’s Spanish rulers.

Bentivoglio’s blend of political acumen and ecclesiastical authority, enabling him to navigate the religious and political tensions of a region divided between Catholic and Protestant powers, came to the fore during this time.

Della Guerra di Fiandra and his earlier work, Relazioni in tempo delle sue nunziature, provided observations of his terms as papal nuncio in both Flanders and France. They became points of reference for historians and diplomats for many years to come and added considerably to the understanding of European politics.

Ironically, given his reputation for enlightened moderation, Bentivoglio is also remembered as having been a member of the panel of cardinals who in 1633 condemned the scientist Galileo Galilei to be burned at the stake - a sentence later commuted to indefinite house arrest - after the Inquisition had found him guilty of heresy.  

Born on September 4, 1579, Bentivoglio hailed from the Ferrara branch of the influential Bentivoglio family of Bologna, the younger son of the marchese, Cornelio Bentivoglio. His upbringing was steeped in humanist education, preparing him for a life of ecclesiastical service and cultural sophistication.

A Spanish edition of Bentivoglio's
seminal work, The War in Flanders

Bentivoglio attended university in Ferrara and Padua, where in 1598 he received a doctorate in both civil and canon law. During his time in Padua, it is thought Bentivoglio attended mathematics lessons in which, somewhat ironically, his tutor was Galileo, who was a professor at the University of Padua between 1592 and 1610. 

After completing his doctorate, Bentivoglio returned to Ferrara, where he met Pope Clement VIII, who was visiting the city. Clement saw in him an individual of enormous potential and asked him to return to Rome with him as his private chamberlain.

Clement VIII died in 1605 but his successor, Pope Paul V, was similarly impressed with Bentivoglio and appointed him titular archbishop of Rhodes in May 1607, despite not having yet received the sacred orders. The appointment was to give him appropriate credentials to be nuncio at the court of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella in the Netherlands, a position to which he was appointed a month later. 

After nine years in Flanders, Bentivoglio was transferred to Paris as nuncio in France, where he witnessed the volatile regency of Marie de’ Medici, the supposed assassination of the powerful Italian-born politician Concino Concini, and the rise of Louis XIII. His reports provided Rome a clear-eyed view of French politics, balancing ecclesiastical interests with diplomatic realism.

In both positions, in Flanders and France, Bentivoglio’s style was marked by restraint, observation, and cultural sensitivity. He navigated Protestant-Catholic tensions with tact, often prioritizing long-term influence over short-term victories.

Elevated to cardinal by Pope Gregory XV, Bentivoglio became Protector of France at the Vatican, a role that positioned him as a key intermediary between the French crown and the Holy See and which he kept from 1621 to 1641. 

The Inquisition hearing in 1633 that found the
great scientist, Galileo Galilei, guilty of heresy

He also served as a patron of the arts, commissioning works from painters such as Anthony van Dyck, and collecting tapestries and manuscripts.

Particularly enthusiastic about supporting northern European artists  working in Rome, he commissioned Van Dyck to paint his portrait, while his portrait bust was sculpted by François Duquesnoy, known as Il Fiammingo,  a Flemish sculptor active in Rome.

In the middle of this period came his part in the condemnation of Galileo, who was found guilty of heresy for writing a book that supported the view - for which, he claimed, there was scientific proof - that the sun rather than the earth was the centre of the solar system, as had been put forward by the Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus. In orthodox Roman Catholic doctrine, it was regarded as an indisputable fact of scripture that the opposite was true, that the sun moved around the earth. 

In a later collection of his works, Memorie, Bentivoglio expressed sympathy for Galileo's plight, brought on "all by his own fault, for having wanted to bring into print the new opinions about the motion of the Earth against the true accepted sense of the Church". 

It seems possible, given the Catholic Church’s struggle with emerging science, that Bentivoglio was torn between his intellectual leanings and his institutional loyalties. Nonetheless, his signature was on the decree.

Some may be tempted to believe, though, that Bentivoglio might have been an influence in the comparative leniency extended to Galileo. 

The astronomer, mathematician, philosopher and engineer – often described as ‘the father of modern science’ - could have been burned at the stake but was given the option of life imprisonment provided he recanted his findings as “abjured, cursed and detested”, to which he agreed with great reluctance.

The following day, his sentence of imprisonment was commuted to house arrest, after which Galileo was allowed to live at his villa at Arcetri, near Florence, for the remaining nine years of his life.

The 14th century Estense Castle dominates the
central part of the city of Ferrara

Travel tip:

Bentivoglio’s home city of Ferrara, about 50 km (31 miles) northeast of Bologna, was ruled by the Este family between 1240 and 1598. Building work on the magnificent Estense Castle in the centre of the city began in 1385 and it was added to and improved by successive rulers of Ferrara until the end of the Este line.  The castle was purchased for 70,000 lire by the province of Ferrara in 1874 to be used as the headquarters of the Prefecture.   Ferrara is also notable for Palazzo dei Diamanti, a palace in Corso Ercole I d’Este, that takes its name from the 8500 pointed diamond shaped stones that stud the façade, diamonds being an emblem of the Este family. It was designed by Biagio Rossetti and completed in 1503. The palace now houses the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Ferrara on its first floor.

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The anatomical theatre at the University
of Padua attracts curious visitors

Travel tip:

The founding of the University of Padua is officially recorded to have taken place in 1222 but this was actually the first time it was mentioned in an historical document, which means it is certainly older. Only the University of  Bologna, founded in 1088, is older. Padua’s university was formed, in fact, when a large group of students and professors left the University of Bologna in search of more academic freedom. The first subjects to be taught were law and theology. The main university building, Palazzo del Bò in Via VIII Febbraio in the centre of Padua, used to house the medical faculty. You can take a guided tour to see the lectern used by Galileo when he taught at the university between 1592 and 1610. The university buildings also house nine museums, a botanical garden and the oldest surviving permanent anatomical theatre in Europe, built in around 1595 and which used to hold public dissections, which attracted scientists and artists in large numbers, keen to enhance their knowledge of the human body.

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More reading: 

What led Galileo Galilei to be convicted of heresy by the Catholic Church

How Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V, used his position to acquire wealth to buy art

Pope Gregory XV, the last pontiff to issue a papal ordinance against witchcraft 

Also on this day: 

1303: Pope Boniface VIII captured by King Philip IV of France

1791: The birth of poet Giuseppe Gioachino Belli

1893: The founding in Genoa of Italy’s oldest surviving football club

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