25 October

NEW - Emma Gramatica – actress

Celebrating the long career of a seasoned stage and film performer

The theatre and cinema actress Emma Gramatica was born Aida Laura Argia Gramatica on this day in 1874 in Borgo San Donnino, which is today known as Fidenza, in the province of Parma in Emilia Romagna.  Emma appeared in 29 films between 1919 and 1962 and was also a principal actress in the Italian theatre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her sisters, Irma and Anna Gramatica, were also actresses. Her sister, Anna, married the actor Ruggero Capodaglio and therefore became the sister-in-law of the famous actress, Wanda Capodaglio.  While still a teenager, Emma Gramatica made her stage debut next to the celebrated actress Eleonora Duse in La Gioconda by Gabriele D’Annunzio.  Emma became the primattrice (first actress) in the stage companies led by some of the most prestigious names in the Italian theatre.  Read more… 

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Evangelista Torricelli – inventor of the barometer

Physicist's name lives on in scientific terminology

The inventor of the barometer, Evangelista Torricelli, died on this day in 1647 in Florence at the age of just 39.  A disciple of Galileo, Torricelli made many mathematical and scientific advances during his short life and had an asteroid and a crater on the moon named after him.  Torricelli was born into a poor family from Faenza in the province of Ravenna.  He studied science under the Benedictine monk, Benedetto Castelli, a professor of Mathematics at the Collegio della Sapienza, now known as the Sapienza University of Rome, who had been a student of Galileo Galilei.  After Galileo’s death the Grand Duke Ferdinand II de’ Medici asked Torricelli to succeed Galileo as Chair of Mathematics at the University of Pisa.  Torricelli was also interested in optics and designed and built telescopes and microscopes.  Read more…

Carlo Gnocchi – military chaplain

Remembering a protector of the sick and the mutilated

Carlo Gnocchi, a brave priest who was chaplain to Italy’s alpine troops during the Second World War, was born on this day in 1902 in San Colombano al Lambro, near Lodi in Lombardy.  In recognition of his life, which was dedicated to easing the wounds of suffering and misery created by war, his birthday was made into his feast day when he was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on October 25, 2009 in Milan.  Gnocchi was the youngest of three boys born to Henry and Clementine Gnocchi. His father died when he was five years old and his two brothers died of tuberculosis before he was 13.  He was ordained a priest in 1925 in the archdiocese of Milan and afterwards worked as a teacher.  When war broke out he joined up as a voluntary priest and departed first for the front line between Greece and Albania and then for the tragic campaign in Russia. Read more…

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Camillo Sivori – virtuoso violinist

Paganini’s successor was also a talented composer

Ernesto Camillo Sivori, a virtuoso violinist and composer, was born on this day in 1815 in Genoa.  Remembered as the only pupil of the great virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini, Sivori began his career as a travelling virtuoso at the age of 12, having by then also studied with other violin teachers.  He was acclaimed as ‘Paganini reincarnated’, or even, ‘Paganini without the flaws’, by music critics during a lengthy tour of Europe that he made between 1841 and 1845.  During his travels he met some of the best-known composers of the day, such as Mendelssohn, Schumann and Berlioz and he took part in hundreds of concerts.  After being compared to other celebrated violinists, his status as Paganini’s successor was confirmed, even though the great man had died in 1840 and was still remembered in the musical world.  Read more…

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Book of the Day:  A History of Italian Cinema, by Peter Bondanella and Federico Pacchioni

This second edition of A History of Italian Cinema, an update of the bestselling definitive guide, was published to celebrate its 35th anniversary in 2018. Building upon decades of research, Peter Bondanella and Federico Pacchioni’s new edition brings the definitive history of the subject, from the birth of cinema to the present day, up to date with a revised filmography as well as more focused attention on the melodrama, the crime film, and the historical drama. The book is expanded to include a new generation of directors as well as to highlight themes such as gender issues, immigration, and media politics. Accessible, comprehensive, and heavily illustrated throughout, this is an essential purchase for any fan of Italian film.

The late Peter Bondanella was the author of a number of groundbreaking books, including Hollywood Italians, The Cinema of Federico Fellini, and The Films of Roberto Rossellini. In 2009, he was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and the Arts for his contributions to the history of Italian cinema and his translations or editions of Italian literary classics (Dante, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Vasari, Cellini).  Federico Pacchioni is Chair of Italian Studies at Chapman University in Orange, California. 

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Emma Gramatica – actress

Celebrating the long career of a seasoned stage and film performer

Emma Gramatica came from an acting 
background in the early 20th century

The theatre and cinema actress Emma Gramatica was born Aida Laura Argia Gramatica on this day in 1874 in Borgo San Donnino, which is today known as Fidenza, in the province of Parma in Emilia-Romagna.

Emma appeared in 29 films between 1919 and 1962 and was also a principal actress in the Italian theatre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her sisters, Irma and Anna Gramatica, were also actresses. Anna, married the actor Ruggero Capodaglio and therefore became the sister-in-law of the famous actress, Wanda Capodaglio.

While still a teenager, Emma Gramatica made her stage debut next to the celebrated actress Eleonora Duse in La Gioconda by Gabriele D’Annunzio.

Emma became the primattrice (first actress) in the stage companies led by some of the most prestigious names in the Italian theatre of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Ermete Zacconi, Flavio Andò, Enrico Reinach, and Ermete Novelli.

In the early part of the 20th century, she formed the famous theatre company Gramatica-Carini-Piperno, employing leading performers such as Renzo Ricci and Lola Braccini.

Emma’s film debut came - in the silent era - in 1916 when she appeared as a marriage wrecker in Quando il canto si spegne (When the Song is Over) opposite Luigi Serventi. The press praised her for her stage qualities but criticised her looks and theatricality and said they couldn’t accept her in the part of a mistress for whom a man would break up his marriage. 

As a result, Emma was to stay away from films until the arrival of sound cinema in Italy.

In 1931, by which time she was 57, she appeared in the film La Vecchia Signora, playing the part of an impoverished old lady selling chestnuts in the streets to support her niece.

As an older actress, Gramatica was
able to earn extra cash

She appeared in Napoli d’altri tempi in 1938, which starred Vittorio De Sica, and in Mamma in 1941, playing the mother of the opera singer Mario Sarni, played by the famous tenor Beniamino Gigli. In the film Sorelle Matterassi in 1944, Emma and her sister, Irma, played the parts of two old spinsters.

Emma Gramatica was in her seventies when she achieved her most important film and television successes.

Her most famous film was Miracolo a Milano, a neorealist fable directed by Vittorio De Sica in 1951, when she played the part of old Lolotta, who finds a baby among the cauliflowers in her garden and names him Totò, the movie’s central character played by Francesco Golisano. She brings him up to be both optimistic and kind.

Emma also appeared in Don Camillo: Monsignor in 1961 starring Fernandel and Gino Cervi.

The Don Camillo stories, featuring the characters Don Camillo and Peppone - the parish priest and Communist mayor of a fictional town in rural post-World War Two Italy - were the creation of writer and journalist Giovannino Guareschi in the 1940s and 1950s. They were hugely popular and have been adapted many times for film, radio and TV.

Emma received many awards and honours in Italy during her career and the Legion of Honour in France. The sculptor Mario Rutelli celebrated Emma’s looks in 1905 by creating a bronze portrait bust of her. 

The actress died in Ostia, a town near the ancient port of Rome, at the age of 91 in 1965. She was laid to rest in her family tomb in the cemetery of Signa in Via Sorelle Gramatica in Florence, with her sister, Irma, and her parents.

Fidenza's Piazza Garibaldi is flanked by the
Palazzo Comunale, the town hall

Travel tip:

Fidenza, where Emma Gramatica was born, is an historic town of 27,000 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, about 30km (19 miles) northwest of Parma and 45km (28 miles) southeast of Piacenza along the ancient Via Emilia. Originally known as Fidentia during Roman times, the town was later called Borgo San Donnino, in honour of Saint Domninus, a Christian martyr. It was renamed Fidenza in 1927. The town’s attractions include a 12th–13th century Romanesque cathedral, dedicated to St Domninus, with a façade attributed to the sculptor Benedetto Antelami. The town’s central square, Piazza Garibaldi, flanked by the Palazzo Comunale (Town Hall), is a lively civic space. Fidenza is close to Busseto - the birthplace of Verdi - the spa town of Salsomaggiore Terme, and the fortified village of Fontanellato. Fidenza had prominence in medieval times as a key stop along the Via Francigena, the pilgrimage route connecting Canterbury to Rome.

A street in the well preserved 
Roman resort of Ostia, near Rome

Travel tip:

Ostia - Lido di Ostia, to give its full name - is a seaside escape popular with Romans, offering long stretches of sandy beaches, vibrant nightlife, and seafood restaurants. It is situated on the Tyrrhenian coast just 30km (18 miles) southwest of the capital and easily accessible by train from central Rome. It blends beach culture with history, thanks to its proximity to the ancient Roman city of Ostia Antica. Highlights include the scenic pier Pontile di Ostia and Borghetto dei Pescatori, a quaint fishing village that forms part of the resort.  Ostia Antica, founded in the 4th century BC, was the bustling port of ancient Rome. The remains offer a remarkably preserved glimpse into Roman urban life. The city was a hub for trade, grain storage, and maritime defense, reflecting Rome’s imperial might. Among the best preserved buildings are a Roman theatre, still used for performances today, a Forum and Baths and some apartment buildings that are rare examples of multi-story Roman housing.  Ostia Antica has the advantage for visitors of being quieter and less crowded, for example, than the world famous ruins at Pompeii, but is an equally important site. 

More reading:

Why Eleonora Duse is regarded as one of the greatest acting talents of all time

Vittorio De Sica and the golden age of neorealism in Italian cinema

Gino Cervi - from Don Camillo to Maigret

Also on this day:

1647: The death of scientist Evangelista Torricelli

1815: The birth of virtuoso violinist Camillo Sivori

1902: The birth of Carlo Gnocchi, chaplain to Italy’s WW2 alpine troops

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24 October

Domitian - Roman emperor

Authoritarian ruler was last of the Flavian dynasty

The emperor Domitian, the last of three members of the Flavian dynasty to rule Rome, was born on this day in 51AD.  He was the son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, during whose reigns he had a minor role in the government of the empire that was largely ceremonial. Yet when Titus died suddenly only two years after succeeding his father in 79AD, Domitian quickly presented himself to the Praetorian Guard to be proclaimed emperor.  The official record was that Titus, who had spent virtually the whole of his period on the throne dealing with the aftermath of the catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD and a devastating fire in Rome, succumbed to a fever on a trip to the Sabine territories north of the city, but there were suspicions that he had been poisoned by his brother, perhaps in revenge for not having been given a position of power. Read more…

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Nicola Bombacci - revolutionary

Communist who eventually allied with Mussolini

Nicola Bombacci, who was executed with Fascist leader Benito Mussolini after partisans intercepted their attempt to flee Italy in 1945, was born on this day in 1879 in Civitella di Romagna, a small town about 40 minutes by road from the city of Forlì in Emilia-Romagna.  Although he ended his life as a political ally of the right-wing dictator, Bombacci’s roots were in Marxism. Indeed, he had been a founder-member in 1921 of the Italian Communist Party, alongside among others Antonio Gramsci, the left-wing intellectual who was subsequently arrested by Mussolini and sentenced to 20 years in jail.  He shifted his position during the 1930s, seeing fascism as a form of national socialism that could unify Italy. He embraced Mussolini's Italian Social Republic, the German puppet state in northern Italy created after the Nazis had freed the deposed Mussolini from house arrest in 1943. Read more…

Tito Gobbi – baritone

Singer found fame on both stage and screen

Opera singer Tito Gobbi was born on this day in 1913 in Bassano del Grappa in the Veneto region.  He had a career that lasted 44 years and sang more than 100 different operatic roles on stages all over the world.  Gobbi also sang in 25 films and towards the end of his career directed opera productions throughout Europe and America.  His singing talent was discovered by a family friend while he was studying law at the University of Padua, who suggested that he studied singing instead. As a result, Gobbi moved to Rome in 1932 to study under the tenor, Giulio Crimi.  At his first audition he was accompanied at the piano by Tilde De Rensis, the daughter of musicologist Raphael De Rensis. She was later to become Gobbi’s wife.  Gobbi made his debut in 1935 in Gubbio, singing the role of Count Rodolfo in Vincenzo Bellini’s La sonnambula. Read more… 

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Sir Moses Montefiore - businessman

Italian-born philanthropist who made his fortune in London

The businessman and philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore, who made his fortune in England and became a prominent supporter of Jewish rights, was born in Livorno on this day in 1784.  Born into a Sephardic Jewish family, his grandfather, Moses Vita (Haim) Montefiore, had emigrated from Livorno to London in the 1740s, but regularly returned to Italy, as did other members of the family.  Moses Montefiore was born while his parents, Joseph Elias and Rachel - whose father, Abraham Mocatta, was a powerful bullion broker in London - were in Livorno on business.  Their son was to amass considerable wealth in his working life, accumulating such a fortune on the London stock exchange he was able to retire at 40, but in his youth his family’s situation was so perilous he had to abandon his education without qualifications in order to find a job.  Read more…

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Luciano Berio – composer

War casualty who became significant figure in Italian music

The avant-garde composer Luciano Berio, whose substantial catalogue of diverse work made him one of the most significant figures in music in Italy in the modern era, was born on this day in 1925 in Oneglia, on the Ligurian coast.  Noted for his innovative combining of voices and instruments and his pioneering of electronic music, Berio composed more than 170 pieces between 1937 and his death in 2003.  His most famous works are Sinfonia, a composition for orchestra and eight voices in five movements commissioned by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1968, and dedicated to the conductor Leonard Bernstein, and his Sequenza series of 18 virtuoso solo works that each featured a different instrument, or in one case a female voice alone.  Berio's musical fascinations included Italian opera, particularly Monteverdi and Verdi.  Read more… 

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Book of the Day: God on Earth: Emperor Domitian: The re-invention of Rome at the end of the 1st century AD, edited by Aurora Raimondi Cominesi, Nathalie de Haan, Eric M. Moormann and Claire Stocks

In life, the emperor Domitian marketed himself as a god; after his assassination he was condemned to be forgotten. Nonetheless he oversaw a literary, cultural, and monumental revival on a scale not witnessed since Rome’s first emperor, Augustus. Published in tandem with an exhibition in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden and the Mercati Traianei in Rome, this volume offers a fresh perspective on Domitian and his reign. This collection of papers, produced by a group of international scholars, offers a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to the emperor and his works that begins with an overview of Rome and its imperial system and ends with a reappraisal of Domitian and his legacy. The subject of memory sanctions after his death, Domitian’s reputation has suffered as a result of the negative press he received both in antiquity and thereafter. Building upon recent scholarship that has sought to re-evaluate the last of the Flavian emperors, the papers in God on Earth: Emperor Domitian present the latest research on Domitian’s building programmes and military exploits as well as the literary sources produced during and after his reign, all of which paint a picture of an emperor who – despite being loathed by Rome’s elite – did much to shape the landscape of Rome as we know it today.

Dr Aurora Raimondi Cominesi, Dr Nathalie de Haan and Eric M Moormann are respectively project curator, senior lecturer in Ancient History and chair of Classical Archaeology at Radboud University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Claire Stocks is Lecturer for Classics at Newcastle University in the UK. 

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23 October

Francesco Foscari – Doge of Venice

Ignominious ending to a long and glorious reign

After 34 years as Doge of Venice, Francesco Foscari was abruptly forced to leave office on this day in 1457.  Stripped of his honours, he insisted on descending the same staircase from the Doge’s Palace that he had climbed up in triumph more than a third of a century before, rather than leave through a rear entrance.  Eight days later the former Doge was dead. The story behind the downfall of Foscari and his son, Jacopo, fascinated the poet Lord Byron so much during his visit to Venice in 1816 that he later wrote a five-act play about it.  This play, The Two Foscari: An Historical Tragedy, formed the basis of Verdi’s opera, I due Foscari, and ensured that the sad story of the father and son was never forgotten.  Francesco Foscari, who was born in 1373, was the 65th Doge of the Republic of Venice. He had previously served the Republic in many roles, including Procurator of St Mark’s. Read more…

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Carlo Caracciolo - newspaper publisher

Left-leaning aristocrat who co-founded L’Espresso and La Repubblica 

The newspaper publisher Carlo Caracciolo, who was the driving force behind the news magazine L’Espresso and the centre-left daily La Repubblica, was born on this day in 1925 in Florence.  Caracciolo aligned himself politically with the Left and spent the last two years of World War Two fighting against the Fascists as a member of a partisan unit.  Yet he was born into Italian aristocracy, inheriting the titles Prince of Castagneto and Duke of Melito with the death of his father in 1965. After his younger sister, Marella, married the Fiat chairman, Gianni Agnelli, in 1953, he became one of the best connected individuals in Italian society. Tall and handsome, effortlessly elegant in his dress sense and instinctively well-mannered, he could not disguise his refined roots but never flaunted them. He was at his most comfortable in the company of left-wing intellectuals. Read more…

Alex Zanardi - racing driver and Paralympian

Crash victim who refused to be beaten

Alessandro 'Alex’ Zanardi, a title-winning racing driver who lost both legs in an horrific crash but then reinvented himself as a champion Paralympic athlete, was born on this day in 1966 in the small town of Castel Maggiore, just outside Bologna.  Zanardi was twice winner of the CART series - the forerunner of IndyCar championship of which the marquee event is the Indianapolis 500 - and also had five seasons in Formula One.  But in September 2001, after returning to CART following the loss of his contract with the Williams F1 team, Zanardi was competing in the American Memorial race at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz track in Germany when he lost control of his car emerging from a pit stop and was struck side-on by the car of the Canadian driver Alex Tagliani.  The nose of Zanardi’s car was completely severed and the Italian driver suffered catastrophic injuries.  Read more…

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Saint John of Capistrano

Patron saint of lawyers and chaplains

The feast day of Saint John of Capistrano (San Giovanni da Capestrano) is being celebrated today in Abruzzo and is marked by Catholics in the rest of Italy and the world.  The patron saint of the legal profession and military chaplains, St John is particularly venerated in Austria, Hungary, Poland and Croatia as well as in different parts of America.  St John was born in Capestrano, about halfway between L’Aquila and Pescara in the Abruzzo region of Italy, in 1386.  He studied law at the University of Perugia and was then appointed Governor of Perugia by King Ladislaus of Naples.  When war broke out between Perugia and the Malatesta family in 1416, John was sent to broker peace, but ended up in prison.  While in captivity he decided not to consummate his recent marriage but to study theology instead. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Venice and the Doges: Six Hundred Years of Architecture, Monuments, and Sculpture, by Toto Bergamo Rossi

A feast for the eyes and an entertaining, erudite read, Venice and the Doges opens with an illustrated survey of the 120 doges who led the Venetian Republic, before continuing with a detailed survey of the incredible array of sculptures and monuments that memorialize them. Although celebrated for painting and music, Venice has a sculptural tradition that was overshadowed by Florence and Rome. Based on new scholarship, this volume reveals the true magnificence of six centuries of Venetian sculpture. With the oldest works dating to the 13th century, these masterpieces fill the city's churches and include pieces by great masters from the Lombardo family to Antonio Rizzo, Jacopo Sansovino, Alessandro Vittoria and Baldassare Longhena. The sculptural marvels of Venice tell the story of a procession of doges, politicians, scholars, conquerors, merchants and even a saint, Pietro Orseolo, over a thousand-year history. Engaging text highlights the adventurous, eventful, and sometimes glorious lives of these legendary figures, while the newly commissioned photography showcases the grandeur and beauty of a neglected aspect of Venice s cultural history.

Francesco Bergamo Rossi, known as Toto, was born in Venice in 1967. He obtained his degree in architecture from Ca’ Foscari University before going on to specialise in restoration. He is general manager of the Venetian Heritage Foundation.

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