Bernardo Pisano – musician and priest

First composer to have collection of his music printed

A page from an early printed collection
of music by Bernardo Pisano

Bernardo Pisano, who is believed to have been the first composer of the Italian madrigal, was born on this day in 1490 in Florence.

Pisano - sometimes known as Pagoli - was so important in musical circles during his lifetime that he is also thought to have been the first composer anywhere in the world to have a printed collection of secular music devoted entirely to himself.

Although he was born in Florence, it is supposed that, because he used the name Pisano, he must have also spent some time living in Pisa. 

As a young man, he sang and studied music at the Church of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence. In 1512, he became maestro di cappella there in addition to supervising the choristers and singing in the chapels himself. 

As a favourite of the Medici family, he was appointed to sing in the papal chapel in Rome in 1514 after Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici became Pope Leo X. While there, he also taught Francesco Corteccia, an organist and composer for Cosimo I de’ Medici.

Pisano stayed in Rome for the rest of his life, singing in the papal chapel choir, and he acquired ecclesiastical benefices from the Medici at the cathedrals of Seville and Lerida in Spain.

However, he made the mistake of returning to Florence in 1529 during the three-year period of republican government of the city. He was seized and imprisoned because he was known to have close connections to the Medici family. While he was being kept prisoner, he was accused of being a papal spy and tortured.

After the siege of Florence in 1529, the city was recaptured by papal troops and the Medici were returned to power there. Pisano was released and was able to go back to live in Rome.

Raphael's portrait of Pope Leo X, who
was Pisano's friend and patron

Pisano had written sacred music during his time as maestro di cappella at the Church of the Annunziata. But he was later to be more influential as a composer of secular music and he was believed to be history's first madrigalist.

Madrigals were sung during the 15th and 16th centuries by groups of between two and eight voices. In 1520, a Venetian printer published ‘Musica di Messer Bernardo Pisano sopra del canzone del Petrarca’. While the pieces in the collection were not actually called madrigals, they contained features that have been recognised in retrospect as being distinctive of the madrigal genre. 

The collection was made up of verses by the poet Petrarch set to music by Pisano. He was influenced by the literary theories of the poet and scholar Pietro Bembo, who was a secretary to Pope Leo X and later became a Cardinal appointed by Pope Paul III.

This publication was also the first known collection of secular music by a single composer to be printed. 

Later composers who became masters of the madrigal genre are known to have been aware of this work by Pisano and to have copied some of his stylistic traits from it.

In 1546, Pope Paul III appointed Pisano as maestro di cappella of his private chapel. Among the singers in his group was a Franco/Flemish musician, Jacques Arcadelt, who was later to become famous as a madrigal composer. 

Bernardo Pisano died in 1548 in Rome. He is buried in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva next to the two Medici popes who had been his friends and patrons.

 Giovanni Battista Caccini's Renaissance-style
facade of the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata

Travel tip:

The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata, where Bernardo Pisano was maestro di cappella, is a minor Catholic basilica near the centre of Florence. The church was founded in 1250 by the seven original members of the Servite order and is located in Piazza Santissima Annunziata. In 1252 a friar was commissioned to produce a painting of the Annunciation for the church. He was said to have despaired about being able to do justice to the face of the Virgin and eventually fell asleep while working on it, but when he woke again the painting had been miraculously completed. He attributed this to the work of an angel. The painting has since attracted many pilgrims to visit it, including Pope Alexander VI, who gave a silver effigy to the church. It has since become the tradition for brides in Florence to visit the church to leave their bouquets there.

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The Gothic interior of the Basilica di Santa Maria
sopra Minerva in Rome, where Pisano is buried

Travel tip:

The Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva, where Bernardo Pisano is buried, is in Piazza della Minerva in Rome. The name of the church is derived from the fact that the original structure was built directly over the ruins of a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis, that had been wrongly ascribed to the Greek/Roman goddess Minerva. It is located to the east of the Pantheon in the Pigna rione of Rome in the ancient district known as Campus Martius. Dominican friars began building the present Gothic church structure in 1280, modelling it on Santa Maria Novella in Florence. In 1431 the church and adjacent convent was the site of a papal conclave, when 14 Cardinals sitting in the sacristy elected Pope Eugenius IV. After his death, a second conclave was held there in 1447 when 18 Cardinals elected Pope Nicholas V. The church houses a marble sculpture by Michelangelo, Cristo della Minerva, representing the figure of Christ carrying the cross, which is located to the left of the main altar.

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More reading:

How the madrigal genre influenced the composer Monteverdi 

The madrigal writer also known for a brutal murder

The Medici musician who invented the madrigal comedy

Also on this day:

1492: The death of Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca

1812: The death of Ascanio Sobrero, the chemist who discovered nitroglycerine

1935: The birth of tenor Luciano Pavarotti

2006: The death of film director Gillo Pontecorvo

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11 October

Cesare Andrea Bixio - composer and lyricist

Pioneer of Italian film music left catalogue of classic songs

Cesare Andrea Bixio, the composer behind such classic Italian songs as Vivere, Mamma, La mia canzone al vento and Parlami d'amore Mariù, was born in Naples on this day in 1896.  Bixio enjoyed many years of popularity during which his compositions were performed by some of Italy's finest voices, including Beniamino Gigli, Tito Schipa and Carlo Buti, and later became staples for Giuseppe Di Stefano and Luciano Pavarotti.  He was also a pioneer of film soundtrack music, having been invited to compose a score for the first Italian movie with sound, La canzone dell'amore, in 1930. As well as writing more than 1,000 songs in his career, Bixio penned the soundtracks for more than 60 films.  Bixio's father, Carlo, was an engineer from Genoa; his grandfather was General Nino Bixio, a prominent military figure in the drive for Italian Unification.  Read more…

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Anita Cerquetti – soprano

Performer with a powerful voice had brief moment in the spotlight

Anita Cerquetti, the singer whose remarkable voice received widespread praise when she stood in for a temperamental Maria Callas in Rome, died on this day in 2014 in Perugia.  Cerquetti had been singing the title role in Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma at Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1958 when Callas, who had been singing the same part in Rome, walked out after the first act on the opening night.  Despite Callas claiming that her voice was troubling her, the incident, in front of Italian President Giovanni Gronchi, created a major scandal.  Fortunately the performances in Rome and Naples were on alternate days and so for several weeks Cerquetti travelled back and forth between the two opera houses, which were 225km (140 miles) apart. The achievement left her exhausted and three years later she retired from singing and her magnificent voice was heard no more. Read more…

Mattias de’ Medici - Governor of Siena

Distinguished soldier was interested in art and science

Mattias de’ Medici, who was an enthusiastic supporter of the Palio horse race during his time as Governor of Siena, died on this day in 1667.  He is remembered for being a patron of art and of science and for the scientific instruments he acquired while on military campaigns during the Thirty Years War in Germany, which are now housed in the Uffizi galleries in Florence.  Mattias, who was born in 1613, was the third son of Grand Duke II Cosimo de Medici of Tuscany and of Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria.  He was originally intended for the church, but he had little enthusiasm for the ecclesiastical life and so from the age of 16, he pursued a military career instead.  After Cosimo II died in 1621, he was succeeded as Grand Duke by Matteo’s older brother, Ferdinando.  Grand Duke Ferdinando II appointed Mattias as the Governor of Siena. Read more…

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Pierre-Napoleon Bonaparte – adventurer

Colourful life of Italian-born prince

Prince Pierre-Napoleon Bonaparte, a nephew of the Emperor Napoleon, was born on this day in 1815 in Rome.  He was to become notorious for shooting dead a journalist after his family was criticised in a newspaper article.  Bonaparte was the son of Napoleon’s brother, Lucien, and his second wife, Alexandrine de Bleschamp. He grew up with his nine siblings on the family estate at Canino, about 40km (25 miles) north of Rome.  The young Bonaparte helped to keep bandits at bay, spending a lot of time with the local shepherds who were armed and had dogs to protect them.  He set out on a career of adventure, joining bands of insurgents in the Romagna region as a teenager.  In 1831 he spent time in prison for a minor offence and was banished from the Papal States.  He went to the United States to join his uncle, Joseph Bonaparte, in New Jersey. Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Routledge Companion to Global Film Music in the Early Sound Era, by Jeremy Barham (Editor) 

In a major expansion of the conversation on music and film history, The Routledge Companion to Global Film Music in the Early Sound Era draws together a wide-ranging collection of scholarship on music in global cinema during the transition from silent to sound films (the late 1920s to the 1940s). Moving beyond the traditional focus on Hollywood, this Companion considers the vast range of cinema and music created in often-overlooked regions throughout the rest of the world, providing crucial global context to film music history. An extensive editorial introduction and 50 chapters from an array of international experts connect the music and sound of these films to regional and transnational issues - culturally, historically, and aesthetically - across five parts: Western Europe and Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe, North Africa, The Middle East, Asia, Australasia, Latin America and Soviet Russia. Filling a major gap in the literature, this book offers an essential reference for scholars of music, film studies, and cultural history.

Jeremy Barham is Professor of Music at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom.  

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10 October

Stefano Magaddino - mafioso

Longest-ruling Mafia boss in US history

Stefano Magaddino, the Sicilian mafioso who went on to enjoy the longest period of power enjoyed by any crime boss in the history of the American Mafia, was born on this day in 1891 in Castellammare del Golfo.  Known as ‘The Undertaker’ or ‘Don Stefano’, Magaddino controlled a crime empire radiating outwards from Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Erie in New York State.  Geographically, it was a vast area, stretching from the eastern fringe of  New York State to its western outposts in Ohio and extending north-east almost as far as Montreal in Canada, its tentacles reaching across the Canadian border from Buffalo even into Toronto.  One of the original members of The Commission, the committee of seven crime bosses set up in 1931 to control Mafia activity across the whole of the United States, Magaddino was head of the Buffalo Family for more than half a century.  Read more...

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Andrea Zanzotto - poet

Writer drew inspiration from landscapes of Veneto

Andrea Zanzotto, who was regarded as one of Italy’s greatest 20th century poets, was born on this day in 1921 in Pieve di Soligo, the village near Treviso where he lived almost all of his life.  Zanzotto, who spent 40 years as a secondary school teacher, wrote 15 books of poetry, two prose works, two volumes of critical articles and translations of French philosophers such as Michaux, Leiris and Bataille.  His first book of poetry, Dietro il paesaggio (1951), won a literary award judged by several noteworthy Italian poets. Critics reserved their greatest acclaim for his sixth volume, La beltà (1968), in which he questioned the ability of words to reflect truth.  Zanzotto, whose verse was consistently erudite and creative, was known for his innovative engagement with language and his fascination with the rugged landscapes of the Veneto, from which he drew inspiration. Read more…

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Daniele Comboni – Saint

Missionary who worked miracles after his death

The Feast Day - festa - of Saint Daniel Comboni - San Daniele - is held on this day every year in Italy.  Saint Daniel, who was a Roman Catholic missionary to Africa, died on this day at the age of 50 in 1881 in Khartoum in Sudan. He was canonised in 2003 by Pope John Paul II in recognition of two miracle cures claimed to have been brought about by his intercession.  Comboni was born in 1831 at Limone sul Garda in the province of Brescia in Lombardy in northern Italy.  His parents were poor and he was the only one of their eight children to live to become an adult.  Comboni was sent away to school in Verona and after completing his studies prepared to become a priest.  He met and was profoundly influenced by missionaries who had come back from Central Africa and three years after his ordination set off with five other priests to continue their work.  Read more…

Nunzia De Girolamo – politician and television presenter

Lawyer who moved from debating to dancing

Politician and lawyer Nunzia De Girolamo, who served as Minister of Agriculture in the government of Enrico Letta from 2013 to 2014, was born on this day in 1975 in Benevento in Campania.  Nunzia became a member of the Italian parliament, representing Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party, in 2008, and she was re-elected to parliament in 2013. She went on to become the youngest member of the Letta cabinet and one of just seven female politicians appointed.  While growing up, Nunzia attended the Liceo Classico Pietro Giannone in Benevento and then entered the faculty of jurisprudence to study law at the University of Rome La Sapienza. After graduating, she went into the legal profession. Nunzia worked in the fields of civil law, employment law, and commercial law before going into politics.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Mafia at Apalachin, 1957, by Michael Newton

On November 14, 1957, state troopers raided an estate in Apalachin, New York, and arrested 59 affluent men, with nearly as many more escaping through the surrounding woods. The next morning's headlines hailed the gathering as a summit meeting of organised crime, alerting America to the reality of a national Mafia whose existence had been hotly debated. This first in-depth study of that historic meeting chronicles how it changed the course of American history by inspiring federal legislation to crack down on labour racketeering; forcing drastic policy revisions within the U.S. Department of Justice; and prompting charges of criminal fraud in one of America's most heatedly contested presidential elections. By explaining the context and consequences of this rarely understood historical footnote, The Mafia at Apalachin, 1957 establishes the gathering at Apalachin as a pivotal event in the history of syndicated crime and of the government's response to the Mafia.

The late Michael Newton was an award-winning author of more than 250 books on topics ranging from cryptozoology to civil rights and organised crime. He lived in Nashville, Indiana.

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9 October

Agostina Segatori – artist’s model and restaurateur

Van Gogh paid Italian café owner with works of art in exchange for meals

Agostina Segatori, whose Italian looks inspired many of the top French painters in the 19th century, was born on this day in 1841 in Ancona, a seaport city in the region of Le Marche.  Little is known about Agostina’s early life, but she had moved to Paris before she was 20, because she posed for Edouard Manet’s painting, L’Italienne there in 1860.  Over the next three decades she was to model for Edouard Joseph Dantan, Jean-Baptiste Corot, Jean-Leon Gerome, Eugene Delacroix and Vincent van Gogh. Agostina had a relationship with Dantan that lasted 12 years. Dantan is reputed to have referred to her as Madame Segatori-Morière, which implied she was married to a Monsieur Morière. She had an illegitimate son, Jean-Pierre, with Dantan. Their relationship was stormy and ended in 1884.  Read more…

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Fra’ Filippo Lippi - Renaissance painter

Mentor of Botticelli who led life of scandal

The controversial 15th century painter Fra’ Filippo Lippi, who famously eloped with a nun who had agreed to pose for him at a Dominican monastery in Prato, died on or close to this day in 1469 in Spoleto, a city in Umbria then part of the Papal States.  He was aged 62 or 63. Because of the scandalous nature of his life, there was speculation after his death that he had been poisoned, possibly by relatives of Lucrezia Buti, the nun who fell for his charms and was the mother of two children by him.  Aside from his colourful private life, Lippi was an important figure in the development of painting.  Himself influenced by Masaccio and Fra’ Angelico, he developed a signature style of his own that was colourful and decorative and characterised by clarity of expression.  His own influence was seen in the works of his pupil Sandro Botticelli and his son, Filippino Lippi. Read more…

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Vajont Dam Disaster

Catastrophic flood may have killed 2,500

Prone to earthquakes because of its geology, Italy has suffered many natural disasters over the centuries, yet the horrific catastrophe that took place on this day in 1963 in an Alpine valley about 100km north of Venice, killing perhaps as many as 2,500 people, was to a significant extent man-made.  The Vajont Dam Disaster happened when a section of a mountain straddling the border of the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions in the Friulian Dolomites collapsed in a massive landslide, dumping 260 million cubic metres of forest, earth and rock into a deep, narrow reservoir created to generate hydroelectric power for Italy's industrial northern cities.  The chunk of Monte Toc that came away after days of heavy rain was the size of a small town and hit the surface of the reservoir in less than a minute, at a speed estimated at 100km per hour (62mph).  Read more…

Stefanina Moro – partisan

Amazing courage of a young girl who protected her compatriots

Brave teenager Stefanina Moro, who served as a partisan during World War II, died on this day in 1944 in Asti as a result of injuries inflicted upon her by Nazis, who caught her and tortured her for information.  Stefanina, who was born in Genoa in 1927, is thought to have been between 16 and 17 years old when she died of her wounds in a hospital in Asti.  After growing up in the Quezzi district in Genoa, Stefanina became a partisan and later served as una staffetta - a courier - responsible for maintaining communications between groups of partisans to help the Italian resistance movement during the war of Italian liberation.  Sadly, in 1944, Stefanina was captured by Nazis and taken to the Casa del Fascio - the local Fascist party headquarters - in Cornigliano, about seven kilometres (4 miles) west of Genoa, to be interrogated.  Read more…

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Gabriele Falloppio – anatomist and physician

Professor made key discoveries about human reproduction   

Gabriele Falloppio, one of the most important physicians and anatomists of the 16th century, died on this day in 1562 in Padua.  Often known by his Latin name Fallopius, he lived only 39 years yet made a series of discoveries that expanded medical knowledge significantly.  He worked mainly on the anatomy of the head and the reproductive organs in both sexes and is best known for identifying the tubes that connect the ovaries to the uterus, which are known even today as Fallopian tubes.  He also discovered several major nerves of the head and face, and identified many of the components of the hearing and balance systems.  Falloppio described all his findings in a book published a year before he died, entitled Observationes anatomicae.  Educated initially in the classics, the death of his father plunged his family into financial difficulties.  Read more…

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Salimbene di Adam – historian

Friar's records provided important information on history of Italy

Salimbene di Adam, a Franciscan friar, whose yearly chronicles became a valued source for historians, was born on this day in 1221 in Parma in Emilia-Romagna.  Sometimes also referred to as Salimbene di Parma, he was the son of Guido di Adam, a wealthy Parma citizen. Salimbene entered the Franciscan Order in 1238 and served his novitiate in the Monastery of Fano on the Adriatic coast.  As Fra Salimbene, he led a wandering existence and never held any office in his order. He transferred from one monastery to another, meeting notable people and becoming an eyewitness to historic events.  In the 1240s he travelled to Lucca, Pisa and Cremona, and also visited France.  On his return to Italy in 1248 he went to Ferrara but after a number of years went on his travels again, staying in Franciscan convents in northern Italy.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Van Gogh: Masters of Art, by Anna Paola Rapelli 

Tracing the arc of van Gogh's career, this volume presents his portraits and self-portraits, landscapes, and haunting interiors. Readers will learn details of van Gogh's complicated personal life including his struggles with mental illness and his close but difficult relationship with his brother, Theo. Also included here are an anthology of paintings, information on the museums where they reside, a timeline of the painter's personal and artistic highlights, and bibliography. Overflowing with impeccably reproduced images, Van Gogh: Masters of Art offers full-page spreads of masterpieces as well as highlights of smaller details - allowing the viewer to appreciate every aspect of the artist's technique and oeuvre. Chronologically arranged, the book covers important biographical and historic events that reflect the latest scholarship. Additional information includes a list of works, timeline, and suggestions for further reading.

Anna Paola Rapelli is an art historian and journalist, who teaches art history in Milan.

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