2 November

Battista 'Pinin' Farina - car designer

Family's 'smallest brother' became giant of automobile history

Battista 'Pinin' Farina, arguably the greatest of Italy's long roll call of outstanding automobile designers, was born on this day in 1893 in the village of Cortanze in Piedmont.  His coachbuilding company Carrozzeria Pininfarina became synonymous with Italian sports cars and influenced the design of countless luxury and family cars thanks to the partnerships he forged with Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Lancia, Nash, Peugeot, Rolls Royce and others - most notably Ferrari, with whom his company has had a continuous relationship since 1951.  Among the many iconic marques that Pinin and his designers created are the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider, the Ferrari Dino 206 and the Cisitalia 202.  Battista was the 10th of 11 children raised by his parents in Cortanze, a small community in the province of Asti, situated about 30km (19 miles) east of Turin.  Read more…

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Luchino Visconti – director and writer

The aristocrat of Italian cinema

Luchino Visconti, who most aficionados of Italian cinema would place among the top five directors of all time, was born in Milan on this day in 1906.  Visconti’s movies include Ossessione, Rocco and His Brothers, The Leopard, Death in Venice and The Innocent.  One of the pioneers of neorealism – arguably the first to make a movie that could be so defined – Visconti was also known as the aristocrat of Italian cinema, figuratively but also literally.   He was born Count Don Luchino Visconti di Modrone, the seventh child of a family descendant from a branch of the House of Visconti, the family that ruled Milan from the late 13th century until the early Renaissance.  Paradoxically, although he maintained a lavish lifestyle, Visconti’s politics were of the left. During the First World War he joined the Italian Communist Party, and many of his films reflected his political leanings. Read more…

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Arnoldo Mondadori - publisher

Business launched with socialist magazine became biggest in Italy

Arnoldo Mondadori, who founded what would become Italy’s biggest publishing company, was born on this day in 1889 in Poggio Rusco, a small town about 40km (25 miles) southeast of Mantua.  As the business grew, Mondadori published Italian editions of works by Winston Churchill, Thomas Mann and Ernest Hemingway among others, as well as by some of Italy’s own literary giants, including Gabriele D’Annunzio and Eugenio Montale.  Mondadori was the publisher of news magazines such as Epoca, Tempo and Panorama, launched the women’s magazine, Grazia, struck a deal with Walt Disney to publish children’s magazines, and introduced Italy to detective fiction with a series of crime mysteries called Gialli Mondadori, whose yellow (giallo) covers eventually led to gialli becoming a generic term in the Italian language, used not only to identify a detective novel but to describe unsolved mysteries in real life.  Read more…

Gaspare Nadi - builder and diarist

Craftsmen kept chronicle for 50 years

Gaspare Nadi, a builder who became famous for the insight into life in 15th century Italy provided by a diary he maintained for half a century, was born on this day in 1418 in Bologna.  Nadi worked on several important buildings in Bologna, including the bell tower of the Palazzo d’Accursio and several churches. He built the library of the Basilica of San Domenico.  He attained the position of Master Mason in the local guild of bricklayers, whom he also served for many terms as guild manager and other official positions.  Yet it was the diary he began to compile in 1452 that became his legacy. Written in idiomatic Bolognese, it proved to be an extraordinary document, a source for historians seeking to understand how families and society functioned in the Italy of Nadi’s lifetime.  As well as detailing family issues, the diary explained much about the construction industry of the time. Read more…

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Bartolomeo Colleoni - soldier

Death of an ‘honourable’ Italian military leader

Bergamo soldier Bartolomeo Colleoni, who became known for using his wealth to benefit people, died on this day in 1475.  Colleoni spent most of his life in the pay of the republic of Venice defending the city of Bergamo against invaders.  But he is remembered as one of the most decent condottieri of his era, carrying out charitable works and agricultural improvements in Bergamo and the surrounding area when he was not involved in military campaigns.  Condottieri were the leaders of troops, who worked for the powerful ruling factions, often for high payments.   Bergamo’s Bartolomeo Colleoni was unusual because he remained steadfast to one employer, the republic of Venice, for most of his career.  During a period of peace between Venice and Milan he worked briefly for Milan but the rulers never fully trusted him.  Read more…

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San Giusto of Trieste - martyr

Patron saint of maritime city 

San Giusto of Trieste - also known as Saint Justus of Trieste - died on this day in 293 after being found guilty of being a Christian, which was illegal under Roman law at the time.  His death occurred during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian, who was notable for his persecution of Christians.  After his trial, he was given the opportunity to renounce his faith and make a sacrifice to the Roman gods.  He refused to do so and was condemned to death by drowning. The story handed down over the centuries was that weights were attached to his ankles before he was thrown from a small boat into the Gulf of Trieste, off the shore of the area known today as Sant'Andrea.  The legend has it that on the night of San Giusto’s death, his friend Sebastian, said to have been a bishop or priest, was told in a dream that the body had broken free of the weights and been washed ashore.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Pininfarina: Masterpieces of Style, by Luciano Greggio

For almost 90 years Pininfarina has been synonymous with Italian coachbuilding. Some of the most iconic cars in the history of not only Italian but also worldwide motoring have been clothed by a firm that has been recognised as the creator of true works of art. Battista Farina, known as "Pinin", was the master craftsman who in 1930 founded in Turin the `'Societa Anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina''. The quality and the beauty of his creations soon established the firm's reputation and well before the outbreak of the Second World War it could boast magnificent bodies on Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Fiat chassis. 1947 saw the presentation of a milestone in the history of Italian design, the Cisitalia 202. Between the 1950s and 1990s the company produced iconic designs such as the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider and the "Duetto", the Lancia Aurelia B24 and the Flaminia, the Fiat Dino Spider and the 124 coupe, not to mention the innumerable Ferraris bodied by the prestigious Turin firm that from 1952 had become Maranello's coachbuilder of choice. Numerous 250 GTs, the 250 Le Mans, the 365 Daytona, the 308 GTB, the Testarossa and the 288 GTO are all Pininfarina-bodied Ferraris. Pininfarina: Masterpieces of Style is the full story of this iconic Italian design firm finally told in a single volume.

An expert in international car history, journalist Luciano Greggio is the author of Bertone 90 years 1912-2002 (2002), Abarth The man, the machines (2002) and Zagato Masterpieces of Style (2017).

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1 November

Sistine Chapel ceiling revealed

All Saints’ Day chosen to show off Michelangelo’s work

Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes in the Sistine Chapel were unveiled for public viewing for the first time on this day in 1512.  The date of All Saints’ Day was chosen by Pope Julius II, who had commissioned Michelangelo, because he felt it appropriate to show off the frescoes on a significant festival in the Catholic Church year.  The frescoes, the central nine panels of which depict stories from the Book of Genesis, have become one of the most famous works of art in the world, the image of  The Creation of Adam rivalled only perhaps by Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa for iconic status.  Yet Michelangelo was reluctant initially to take on the project, which was first mooted in 1506 by Julius II, who felt that the Sistine Chapel, which had restored by his uncle, Pope Sixtus IV, ought to have a ceiling with more meaningful decoration than the gold stars on a blue background of his uncle’s design.  Read more…

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Annibale Bergonzoli - soldier

Commander who was both decorated and imprisoned by the British

The military commander Annibale Bergonzoli, who served the Italian army in both world wars and led an Italian expeditionary force supporting General Francisco Franco’s nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, was born on this day in 1884 in Cannobio, a town on the shore of Lago Maggiore. Bergonzoli had the distinction of being awarded a medal for bravery by the British during World War One only to be held by them as a prisoner of war after being captured during World War Two. As a boy, Bergonzoli always had a taste for adventure. He completed a 1.5 mile (2.4km) swim across Lago Maggiore at the age of seven. He enrolled at the Military Academy of Modena, graduating with the rank of sub-lieutenant in 1907. He joined the Royal Italian Army in 1911 and was immediately sent to take part in the Italo-Turkish War. Read more…

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Pietro da Cortona – painter and architect

Outstanding exponent of Baroque style

Artist Pietro da Cortona was born Pietro Berrettini on this day in 1596 in Cortona in Tuscany.  Widely known by the name of his birthplace, Cortona became the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and contributed to the emergence of Baroque architecture in Rome.  Having been born into a family of artisans and masons, Cortona went to Florence to train as a painter before moving to Rome, where he was involved in painting frescoes at the Palazzo Mattei by 1622.  His talent was recognised and he was encouraged by prominent people in Rome at the time. He was commissioned to paint a fresco in the church of Santa Bibiana that was being renovated under the direction of Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1624.  Then, in 1633, Pope Urban VIII commissioned Cortona to paint a large fresco on the ceiling of the Grand Salon at Palazzo Barberini. Read more…

Antonio Canova - sculptor

Genius who could bring marble to life 

Sculptor Antonio Canova was born on this day in 1757 in Possagno in the hills near Asolo in the Veneto.  He became famous for creating lifelike figures, possessing the ability to make the marble he worked with resemble nude flesh. One of his masterpieces is the group, The Three Graces, now in the Victoria and Albert museum in London.  Canova’s father and grandfather were both stone cutters and his grandfather taught him to draw at an early age.  The noble Falier family of Venice took an interest in Canova’s talent and brought him to the city to learn his trade in the workshop of Giuseppe Bernardi.  Canova also studied anatomy, history and languages and later moved to work in Rome. His first big success was his funerary monument to Clement XIV, which was inaugurated in the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli.  Read more…

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Giulio Romano – artist and architect

Painter from Rome left his mark on Mantua

Giulio Romano, who was the principal heir to the artist Raphael and one of the most important initiators of the Mannerist style of painting, died on this day in 1546 in Mantua.  He is most remembered for his masterpiece, the Palazzo del Te, built on the outskirts of Mantua as a pleasure palace for the Gonzaga family, which was designed, constructed and decorated entirely by him and his pupils.  The artist had been born in Rome some time in the 1490s and was given the name Giulio di Pietro di Filippo de’ Gianuzzi. He was known originally as Giulio Pippi, but later was referred to as Giulio Romano because of where he was born.  Giulio was apprenticed to Raphael when still a child and worked on the frescos in the Vatican loggias to designs by Raphael. He also collaborated with him on the decoration of the ceiling in the Villa Farnesina.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man and his Times, by William E Wallace

In this vividly written biography, William E Wallace offers a new view of the artist. Not only a supremely gifted sculptor, painter, architect and poet, Michelangelo was also an aristocrat who firmly believed in the ancient, noble origins of his family. The belief in his patrician status fuelled his lifelong ambition to improve his family's financial situation and to raise the social standing of artists. Michelangelo's ambitions are evident in his writing, dress and comportment, as well as in his ability to befriend, influence and occasionally say 'no' to popes, kings and princes. Written from the words of Michelangelo and his contemporaries, Michelangelo: The Artist, the Man and his Times not only tells his own stories, but also brings to life the culture and society of Renaissance Florence and Rome.

Dr William E Wallace is the Barbara Murphy Bryant Distinguished Professor of Art History at Washington University in St. Louis, where he has taught since 1983.  He has written more than 80 essays on Renaissance art and four books on Michelangelo.

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31 October

Eduardo De Filippo - Neapolitan dramatist

Playwright captured essence of city's spirit

One of Italy’s greatest dramatists, Eduardo De Filippo, died on this day in 1984 in Rome at the age of 84.  An actor and film director as well as a playwright, De Filippo – often referred to simply as Eduardo – is most remembered as the author of a number of classic dramas set in his native Naples in the 1940s that continue to be performed today.  Arguably the most famous of these was Filomena Marturano, upon which was based the hit movie Marriage, Italian Style, which starred Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni under the direction of Vittorio de Sica.  De Filippo’s other memorable works included Napoli Milionaria, Le voci di dentro and Sabato, domenica e lunedi.  All of these plays showcased De Filippo’s ability to capture the essence of life in Naples in his time, particularly in the working class neighbourhoods that he felt were the beating heart of the city.  Read more…

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Angelo Rizzoli – publisher

Rags to riches story of an editorial entrepreneur

Printer, publisher and film producer Angelo Rizzoli was born on this day in 1889 in Milan.  Rizzoli was orphaned very young and grew up in poverty, but by the time he was in his 20s he had become an entrepreneur.  He was brought up in the orphanage of Martinitt in Milan, which had been founded in the 16th century in Via Manzoni for orphaned and abandoned Roman Catholic boys. It was there that he learnt the trade of a printer.  Along with another trained print worker, and using his savings for the downpayment on a Linotype machine, he opened a typographical firm under the name of A. Rizzoli & C. in Via Cerva in Milan in 1911. The company was later to evolve into the publishing giant, RCS MediaGroup.  Rizzoli acquired Novella magazine, a bi-weekly aimed mainly at women and went on to add new publications, such as Annabella, Bertoldo, Candido, Omnibus, Oggi and L’Europeo.  Read more… 

Galileo Ferraris - electrical engineer

Pioneer of alternating current (AC) systems

The physicist and electrical engineer Galileo Ferraris, who was one of the pioneers of the alternating current (AC) system for transmitting electricity and invented the first alternators and induction motors, was born on this day in 1847 in Piedmont.  The AC system was a vital element in the development of electricity as a readily-available source of power in that it made it possible to transport electricity economically and efficiently over long distances.  Ferraris did not benefit financially from his invention, which is still the basis of induction motors in use today. Another scientist, the Serbian-born Nikola Tesla, patented the device after moving to the United States to work for the Edison Corporation.  Tesla had been working simultaneously on creating an induction motor but there is evidence that Ferraris probably developed his first.  Read more…

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Bud Spencer – swimmer-turned-actor

Competed at two Olympics before turning to screen career

The actor known as Bud Spencer was born Carlo Pedersoli on this day in 1929 in Naples.  He was best known for the series of so-called spaghetti westerns and comedies he made with another Italian-born actor, Terence Hill.  Hill was from Venice and his real name was Mario Girotti.  They began their partnership in 1967 in a spaghetti western directed by Giuseppe Colizzi called God Forgives…I Don’t! and were asked to change their names so that they would sound more American.  Pedersoli came up with Bud Spencer because his movie idol was Spencer Tracy and his favourite American beer was Budweiser.   The two would go on to make 18 movies together, with westerns such as Ace High (1968) and They Call Me Trinity (1970) winning them box office success. As Carlo Pedersoli, he had already achieved a measure of fame as a swimmer.  Read more… 

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Book of the Day: De Filippo Four Plays: The Local Authority; Grand Magic; Filumena Marturano; Napoli Milionaria by Eduardo De Filippo. Translated by Carlo Ardito.

Eduardo de Filippo was one of Italy's leading popular dramatists, a fearless social critic, a supreme man of the theatre, and a humane and compassionate writer. The works in De Filippo: Four Plays present different facets of his prolific output, which focused on the lives of the Neapolitan people, their dubious cunning nourished by centuries of hunger, their fantasies and their love of life. The Local Authority, Grand Magic and Filumena Marturano are translated by Carlo Ardito, and Napoli Milionaria was translated by Peter Tinniswood for the Royal National Theatre's production in 1991.

Eduardo de Filippo was a Neapolitan actor, playwright, screenwriter, author and poet. His best known works include Napoli Milionaria, Filumena and Sabato, domenica e lunedì (Saturday, Sunday and Monday). Carlo Ardito is a playwright, adaptor and translator whose work has been performed on stage and BBC radio in Britain, and throughout the English-speaking world.

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30 October

NEW - Giuseppe Ravizza - inventor

His writing machine was forerunner of typewriter

The 19th century inventor Giuseppe Ravizza, whose Cembalo Scrivano machine could be seen as the world’s first typewriter, died on this day in 1885 in Livorno, on the Tuscan coast, about 25km (16 miles) south of Pisa. Ravizza created the first working prototype for his writing machine in 1846 and was granted patent in 1855. Yet, although he hailed from a wealthy Piedmontese family in Novara, he did not have the opportunity in pre-unification Italy to manufacture the device on a commercial scale. As a result, the invention of the typewriter is most commonly credited to Christopher Latham Sholes, an American inventor whose design was not patented until 1868, yet had many of the characteristics of Ravizza’s Cembalo Scrivano.  The American machine was eventually manufactured at scale by E Remington and Sons in 1873.  Read more…

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Charles Atlas - bodybuilder

Poor immigrant from Calabria who transformed his physique

The bodybuilder Charles Atlas was born Angelo Siciliano on this day in 1893 in the Calabrian town of Acri.  Set 720m above sea level straddling two hills in the province of Cosenza, on the edge of what is now the mountainous Sila National Park, Acri was a poor town and while Angelo was growing up his father, Santos, began thinking about joining the growing number of southern Italians who had gone to forge a new life in America. They made the move when Angelo was 11.  The journey by sea from Naples took around two weeks. After registering their arrival at Ellis Island, the immigrant inspection station in New York Bay, the family settled in Brooklyn.  Most accounts of Angelo’s life suggest that his father, a farmer, returned to Italy within a short time but his mother remained, taking work as a seamstress and endeavouring to make a better life for her children. Read more… 

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Antonino Votto – conductor

Outstanding operatic conductor made recordings with Callas

Operatic conductor Antonino Votto was born on this day in 1896 in Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna.  He became famous in the 1950s because he conducted the orchestra for the acclaimed recordings made by soprano Maria Callas for EMI.  Votto was also considered one of the leading operatic conductors of his time on account of his performances at La Scala in Milan, where he worked regularly for nearly 20 years.  After Votto had attended the Naples conservatory for his music studies he went to work at La Scala, where he became an assistant conductor to Arturo Toscanini.  He made his official debut there in 1923, leading a performance of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut.  Votto went on to build a reputation as one of the most outstanding conductors of Italian opera, appearing at many other operatic venues in Italy and abroad.  Read more…

Luisa Spagnoli - businesswoman

Inventor of Baci chocolates who diversified into fashion

The businesswoman Luisa Spagnoli, who is credited with creating the Perugina company’s famous Baci chocolates and later developed clothing lines using wool from angora rabbits, was born on this day in 1877 in Perugia.  Spagnoli was one of the four partners who launched the Perugina brand in 1907. She is said to have invented the confection that came to be known as Baci as a way to avoid wasting surplus chocolate and hazelnuts left over from the company’s other lines.  Perugina, now owned by Nestlé, grew to be Italy’s biggest chocolate manufacturer and Baci its best-selling product. The romantic messages inside the wrappers that remain a popular feature of the chocolates to this day are said to have been inspired by the clandestine romance between Spagnoli and the son of one of the other partners.  Read more…

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Poggio Bracciolini – scholar and humanist

Calligrapher who could read Latin changed the course of history

Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini, who rediscovered many forgotten Latin manuscripts including the only surviving work by the Roman poet and philosopher, Lucretius, died on this day in 1459 in Florence.  For his services to literature he was commemorated after his death with a statue by Donatello and a portrait by Antonio del Pollaiuolo.  Bracciolini was born in 1380 at Terranuova near Arezzo in Tuscany. In 1862 his home village was renamed Terranuova Bracciolini in his honour.  He studied Latin as a child under a friend of the poet, Petrarch. His linguistic ability and talent for copying manuscripts neatly was soon noted by scholars in Florence.  He later studied notarial law and at 21 was received into the notaries guild in Florence.  After becoming secretary to the Bishop of Bari, Bracciolini was invited to join the Chancery of Apostolic Briefs in the Roman Curia of Pope Boniface IX.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience, by Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale

From the early Italian adventurers who played an important role in the European expansion across the Atlantic to the political and business leaders of the 1990s, La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience tells a dramatic story. At its heart is the mass migration that took place between 1880 and 1924, when a whole culture left its ancient roots to settle in the cities and towns of America. The New York Times Book Review described the book as: "A saga of a people, their struggles, and the triumphs in a new world, told with drama and passion. It is a book that should be read by all Americans interested in what binds us together, despite our different backgrounds and histories."

Gerlando "Jerre" Mangione, whose parents were both from Agrigento in Sicily, was an American writer and scholar of the "Sicilian-American experience".  Ben Morreale was a distinguished Italian-American novelist and historian.

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