3 January

Pietro Metastasio – poet and librettist

From street entertainer to leading libretto writer

Pietro Metastasio, who became Europe’s most celebrated opera librettist in the 18th century, was born on this day in 1698 in Rome.  He was christened Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, one of four children born to Felice Trapassi, from Assisi and Francesca Galasti from Bologna. His father served in the papal forces before becoming a grocer in Via dei Cappellari.  While still a child, Pietro could attract crowds by reciting impromptu verses. On one occasion, in 1709, Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, director of the Arcadian Academy, stopped to listen. He was so impressed that he made the young boy his protégé and later adopted him, changing his surname to Metastasio.  He provided the young Metastasio with a good education and encouraged him to develop his talent.  When Gravina was on his way to Calabria on a business trip, he exhibited Metastasio in the literary circles of Naples. Read more…

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Cicero - politician and philosopher

Roman writer and orator revered by Renaissance scholars

Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Roman lawyer, politician, philosopher and orator whose rediscovered works were an important driver of the Renaissance in the 14th century, was born on this day in 106BC in Arpinum, a hill town about 100km (62 miles) southeast of Rome known today as Arpino.  A loyal supporter of the Roman Republic, Cicero’s brilliance as a student of Roman law and his effectiveness as a speaker led to his rapid rise in Roman politics, which saw him become the youngest citizen to attain the rank of consul, the highest political office of the republic, without hailing from a political family.  Although his political career foundered after his opposition to the secret alliance between Caesar, Pompey and Crassus known as the First Triumvirate, Cicero turned to writing, producing many works relating to philosophy, as well as hundreds of letters and speeches.  Read more…

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Sergio Leone – film director

Distinctive style of  ‘Spaghetti Western’ creator

Italian film director, producer and screenwriter Sergio Leone was born on this day in 1929 in Rome.  Leone is most associated with the ‘spaghetti western’ genre of films, such as the Dollars trilogy of westerns featuring Clint Eastwood.  He had a distinctive film-making style that involved juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots.  Leone’s father was a film director and his mother was a silent film actress. He went to watch his father at work on film sets from an early age.  He dropped out of university to begin his own career in the industry at the age of 18 as an assistant to the director Vittorio De Sica.  He began writing screen plays and worked as an assistant director on Quo Vadis and Ben Hur at Cinecittà in Rome.  When the director of The Last Days of Pompeii fell ill, Leone was asked to step in and complete the film.  Read more…

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Giovanni Treccani - businessman and patron of culture

Industrialist used his profits to encourage learning and preserve patrimony

Textile entrepreneur and publisher Giovanni Treccani, who founded an Italian encyclopaedia now known as Enciclopedia Treccani, was born on this day in 1877 in Montichiari near Brescia in Lombardy.  Born Giovanni Treccani degli Alfieri, he was the son of a pharmacist and a noblewoman from Brescia. At the age of 17 he emigrated to Germany to work in the textile industry. He returned a few years later with a small amount of capital and the technical knowledge necessary to set up his own textile business in Italy. He began in a small way but went on to become a captain of industry.  In the years after World War I, Treccani was the owner of several cotton mills. In 1919, he was able to give a generous sum of money to help the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, the oldest scientific institute in Europe, which was in grave difficulties.  Read more…

Beatrice d’Este – Duchess of Milan

The brief life of a politically astute noblewoman from Ferrara

Beatrice d’Este, who became Duchess of Bari and Milan after her marriage to Ludovico Sforza and was an important player in Italian politics during the late 15th century, died on this day in 1497 in Milan.  The Duchess was said to have shown great courage during the Milanese resistance against the French in what was later judged to be the first of the Italian Wars. At the time of the French advance on Milan, with her husband ill, Beatrice made the right decisions on his behalf and helped prevent the Duke of Orleans from conquering her adopted city.  Sadly, she died when she was just 21, after giving birth to a stillborn baby.  Beatrice was born in the Castello Estense in Ferrara in 1475, but spent her early years growing up in her mother’s home city of Naples. When she was 15, her family sent her to marry the 38-year-old Ludovico Sforza. Read more…

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Renato Carosone – singer-songwriter

Composer revived popularity of the traditional Neapolitan song

Renato Carosone, who became famous for writing and performing Neapolitan songs in modern times, was born Renato Carusone on this day in 1920 in Naples.  His 1956 song Tu vuo’ fa’ l’Americano - 'You want to be American' - has been used in films and performed by many famous singers right up to the present day.  Torero, a song released by him in 1957, was translated into 12 languages and was at the top of the US pop charts for 14 weeks.  Carosone studied the piano at the Naples Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella and obtained his diploma in 1937, when he was just 17. He went to work as a pianist in Addis Ababa and then served in the army on the Italian Somali front. He did not return to Italy until 1946, after the end of the Second World War.  Back home, he had to start his career afresh and moved to Rome, where he played the piano for small bands.  Read more…

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Gianfranco Fini – politician

Party leader who moved away from fascism

Gianfranco Fini, former leader of the Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance), the post-fascist political party in Italy, was born on this day in 1952 in Bologna.  Fini has been President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Silvio Berlusconi’s Government from 2001 to 2006.  His father, Argenio ‘Sergio’ Fini, was a volunteer with the Italian Social Republic, a fascist state in Northern Italy allied with Germany between 1943 and 1945.  His maternal grandfather, Antonio Marani, took part in the march on Rome, which signalled the beginning of Italian Fascism in 1922.  Fini’s first name, Gianfranco, was chosen in memory of his cousin, who was killed at the age of 20 by partisans after the liberation of northern Italy on 25 April, 1945.  Fini became interested in politics at the age of 16. Read more…

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Baldassare Galuppi – composer

Musician from Burano had a talent for comic opera

The prolific Venetian composer Baldassare Galuppi, who worked alongside the playwright Carlo Goldoni, died on this day in 1785 in Venice.  At the height of his career, Galuppi achieved international success, working at different times in Vienna, London and Saint Petersburg, but his main base was Venice, where he held a succession of prestigious posts during his life. Galuppi was born on the island of Burano in the Venetian lagoon and was sometimes referred to as Il Buranello, a signature he used on his music manuscripts. His father was a barber who also played the violin in an orchestra, and is believed to have been his first music teacher.  At the age of 15, Galuppi wrote his first opera, which was performed at Chioggia and Vicenza. He then became harpsichordist at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Abate Metastasio, by Charles Burney

This three-volume biography, first published in 1796, recounts the colourful life of the popular Italian poet and librettist Pietro Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym Metastasio. Charles Burney (1726–1814), a British composer and the author of a celebrated four-volume History of Music published between 1776 and 1789, interweaves his own accounts of the poet's life with Metastasio's original letters translated into English. Metastasio's posthumously published correspondence with his friends and patrons provides the essential thread to understanding his complex life and affairs. The son of a shopkeeper, Metastasio was adopted as a young boy by the director of the Arcadian Academy, Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, who was charmed by the child's extraordinary talent for improvising poetry. Volume 1 covers his childhood and early career, Volume 2 his achievements in Vienna from 1751 to 1770, and Volume 3 his later years.

Charles Burney was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist and book donor to the British Museum. He was a close friend and supporter of Joseph Haydn and other composers.

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2 January

Piero di Cosimo – painter

Florentine artist achieved world wide recognition

A Renaissance artist famous for his portraits and elaborate landscapes, Piero di Cosimo was born on this day in Florence in 1462.  His paintings are now in galleries all over the world and experts credit him with bringing the Renaissance spirit into the 16th century, while adding vivacity and lyricism.  The painter was born Piero di Lorenzo di Chimenti, but he became known as Piero di Cosimo after being apprenticed to the painter Cosimo Rosselli, with whom he frescoed the walls of the Sistine Chapel.  Noted for painting plants and animals in great detail in his countryside scenes, Piero di Cosimo eventually moved to Rome where he became regarded as an excellent portrait painter. His most famous was a Florentine noblewoman, Simonetta Vespucci, who is recognised as Botticelli’s model in his Birth of Venus. Read more…

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Giulio Einaudi - publisher

Son of future president who defied Fascists

Giulio Einaudi, who founded the pioneering publishing house that carries the family name, was born on this day in 1912 in Dogliani, a town in Piedmont.  The son of Luigi Einaudi, an anti-Fascist intellectual who would become the second President of the Italian Republic, Giulio was also the father of the musician and composer Ludovico Einaudi.  Giulio Einaudi’s own political leanings were influenced by his education at the Liceo Classico Massimo d'Azeglio, where his teacher was Augusto Monti, a staunch opponent of Fascism who was imprisoned by Mussolini’s regime in the 1920s.  After enrolling at the University of Turin to study medicine, Einaudi decided to abandon his studies to work alongside his father Luigi in publishing an anti-Fascist magazine Riforma Sociale. His own contribution was to establish a cultural supplement, edited by the writer and translator Cesare Pavese.  Read more…

Pope John II

First Pope to choose a regnal name

John II became Pope on this day in 533 in Rome, the first pontiff to take a new name after being elevated to the Papacy.  John had considered his birth name of Mercurius to be inappropriate as it honoured the pagan god, Mercury.  He chose John as his regnal name - or reign name - in memory of Pope John I, who was venerated as a martyr.  Mercurius was born in Rome and became a priest at the Basilica di San Clemente, a church with ancient origins near the Colosseum.  At that time in history, simony - the buying and selling of church offices - was rife among the clergy.  After the death of Pope John II’s predecessor, there was an unfilled vacancy for more than two months, during which some sacred vessels were sold off.  The matter was brought to the attention of the Roman Senate, which passed its last-known decree, forbidding simony in papal elections.  Read more…

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Riccardo Cassin – climber

Long life of partisan who was fascinated by mountains

The climber and war hero Riccardo Cassin was born on this day in 1909 at San Vito al Tagliamento in Friuli.  Despite his daring mountain ascents and his brave conduct against the Germans during the Second World War, he was to live past the age of 100.  By the age of four, Cassin had lost his father, who was killed in a mining accident in Canada. He left school when he was 12 to work for a blacksmith but moved to Lecco when he was 17 to work at a steel plant.  Cassin was to become fascinated by the mountains that tower over the lakes of Lecco, Como and Garda and he started climbing with a group known as the Ragni di Lecco - the Spiders of Lecco.  In 1934 he made his first ascent of the smallest of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the Dolomites. The following year, after repeating another climber’s route on the north west face of the Civetta, he climbed the south eastern ridge of the Trieste Tower. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Simonetta, by Fay Picardi

Have you ever wondered about who Botticelli chose to depict in his immortal painting Birth of Venus? Was she a real person, his model or his mistress? Most people recognize her image, but few can name her. Even fewer know her personal story. Do you know that her liaisons with the Medici family at the height of the Italian Renaissance caused such a sensation that the intrigue endures today? That Lorenzo de’ Medici wrote love poems to her? That Botticelli asked to be buried at her feet? After years of research, poet and author Fay Picardi carefully unveils the captivating narrative portrait of this fascinating woman and adds enough detail that the reader feels as if he or she is inhabiting Florence during the period of Lorenzo de’ Medici.

Fay Picardi is an internationally published poet. Simonetta is the author’s first prose work. In writing Simonetta’s story, Fay travelled throughout Tuscany and Liguria and carried out research at the Biblioteca degli Uffizi and the Biblioteca Nationale di Firenze.

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1 January

NEW - Italy’s first postage stamps

Kingdom of Sardinia adopts pre-paid labels for letters

The first postage stamps to be used in Italy were issued by the Kingdom of Sardinia on this day in 1850.  It followed proposals drawn up by the statesman Count Camillo Cavour, whose various positions in the Sardinian government at the time included Minister of Commerce, to reform the postal service.  Following the example of other European states, Cavour suggested that these pre-paid labels, which became known as francobolli as the Italian language acquired a new word, would make for a fairer system for delivering mail.  Before stamps were invented, the cost of posting a letter was demanded of the recipient rather than the sender. The cost depended on distance and the number of sheets.  But the charges were inconsistent and confusing and people often refused to pay, leaving letters undelivered, or postal workers were held up as they negotiated payment at the door. It discouraged ordinary people from sending mail. Read more… 

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Claudio Villa - singing star

'King' of Sanremo sold 45 million records

The singer Claudio Villa, who sold 45 million records and won the Sanremo Music Festival four times, was born on New Year's Day in 1926 in the Trastevere district of Rome.  The tenor, nicknamed 'the little king' on account of his diminutive stature and fiery temper, lent his voice to popular songs rather than opera although his voice was of sufficient quality to include operatic arias in his repertoire.  His four wins at Sanremo, in 1955, 1957, 1962 and 1967, is the most by any individual performer, a record he shares with Domenico Modugno, the singer-songwriter who was at his peak in the same era.  Villa recorded more than 3,000 songs and enjoyed a successful film career, starring in more than 25 musicals. His biggest hits included Ti Voglio Come Sei, Binario, Non ti Scordar di Me, Buongiorno Tristezza and Granada.  Read more…

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Cesare Paciotti - shoe designer

Exclusive brand worn by many celebrities

The shoe designer Cesare Paciotti, whose chic collections have attracted a celebrity clientele, was born on New Year’s Day in 1958 in Civitanova Marche, a town on the Adriatic coast.  His company, Paciotti SpA, is still headquartered in Civitanova Marche, as it has been since his parents, Giuseppe and Cecilia, founded their craft shoe-making business in 1948, producing a range of shoes in classical designs made entirely by hand.  Today, the company, which trades as Cesare Paciotti, has major showrooms in Milan, Rome and New York and many boutique stores in cities across the world. The business, which also sells watches, belts, other accessories and some clothing lines, has an annual turnover estimated at more than $500 million (€437 million).  Cesare Paciotti inherited the family firm in 1980 at the age of 22.  Read more… 

Guglielmo Libri – book thief

Nobleman stole more than 30,000 books and documents

The notorious 19th century thief Guglielmo Libri, who stole tens of thousands of historic books, manuscripts and letters, many of which have never been found, was born on this day in 1803 in Florence.  A distinguished and decorated academic, Libri was an avid collector of historic documents whose passion for adding to his collections ultimately became an addiction he could not satisfy by legal means alone.  He stole on a large scale from the historic Laurentian Library in Florence but it was after he was appointed Chief Inspector of French Libraries in 1841 – he had been a French citizen since 1833 – that his nefarious activities reached their peak.  As the man responsible for cataloguing valuable books and precious manuscripts across the whole of France, Libri had privileged access to the official archives of many cities. Read more…

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Valentina Cortese – actress

Vibrant performer made more than 100 films

Film star Valentina Cortese was born on this day in 1923 in Milan.  She had an acting career lasting nearly sixty years and won an Academy Award nomination for her performance as an ageing, alcoholic movie star in Francois Truffaut’s Day for Night in 1973.  Cortese was born to a single mother, who sent her to live with her maternal grandparents in Turin when she was six years old.  She enrolled in the National Academy of Dramatic Arts in Rome at the age of 15 and made her screen debut in 1940. This paved the way for her first internationally acclaimed film in 1948, an Italian adaptation of Les Miserables with Gino Cervi and Marcello Mastroianni, in which she played the roles of both Fantine and Cosette.  She then appeared in the British film The Glass Mountain in 1949 and also appeared in many American films of the period, while continuing to work in Europe with directors such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Francois Truffaut.  Read more…

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Capodanno in Italy

Toasting the New Year the Italian way

New Year’s Day is called Capodanno in Italy, which literally means ‘head of the year’.  It is a public holiday, and schools, Government offices, post offices and banks are closed.  After a late start following the New Year’s Eve festivities, many families will enjoy another traditional feast together, either at home or in a restaurant.  Visitors and residents will attend church services throughout the country before sitting down to a festive meal and toasting the new year with a glass of good Prosecco.   Rai Uno often broadcasts a New Year’s Day concert live.  The Catholic Church remembers cardinal-priest Giuseppe Maria Tomasi di Lampedusa who died on this day in 1713.  He was the son of the Prince of Lampedusa in Sicily but he renounced his inheritance and joined a religious order.  Later in life he worked to reform the church and was created a cardinal-priest by Pope Clement XI who admired his sanctity.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The World Encyclopedia of Stamps and Stamp Collecting, by James Mackay

The World Encyclopedia of Stamps and Stamp Collecting is a newly updated guide to getting the most out of the world’s most popular hobby, with countless examples of rare, vivid and historical stamps spanning two centuries, plus advice on price and guidance about acquisition. Read some of the fascinating stories behind the world’s most sought-after stamps, from the famous commemoratives of American presidents to issues from some of the most remote post offices in the world. Stamps trace the character and history of the country from which they originate, and this encyclopedic visual directory is an engrossing account of some of the most bizarre, vivid and poignant examples ever created.

Dr James MacKay was one of the foremost authors on stamps and stamp collecting, writing over 100 books and thousands of articles. He owned one of the largest private stamp collections in the world.

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Italy’s first postage stamps

Kingdom of Sardinia adopts pre-paid labels for letters

Italy's equivalent of the 'Penny Black' -
the 1850 Cinque Centesimi stamp

The first postage stamps to be used in Italy were issued by the Kingdom of Sardinia on this day in 1850.

It followed proposals drawn up by the statesman Count Camillo Cavour, whose various positions in the Sardinian government at the time included Minister of Commerce, to reform the postal service. 

Following the example of other European states, Cavour suggested that these pre-paid labels, which became known as francobolli as the Italian language acquired a new word, would make for a fairer system for delivering mail.

Before stamps were invented, the cost of posting a letter was demanded of the recipient rather than the sender. The cost depended on distance and the number of sheets. 

But the charges were inconsistent and confusing and people often refused to pay, leaving letters undelivered, or delivery workers were delayed in their rounds s they negotiated payment at the door. It discouraged ordinary people from sending mail.

The idea of the postage stamp came from Sir Rowland Hill, a British reformer, in 1837.  He proposed that the sender pay a simple, low, uniform rate. The postage stamp would be issued as proof of payment. 

As a result, the Penny Black - the first postage stamp in history - came into being in 1840.

Following Sardinia, other Italian states followed suit, with stamps issued in Tuscany from April 1851, the Papal States (January 1852), Modena (June 1852), Parma (June 1852), the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Naples - January 1858; Sicily - January 1859), and Romagna (September 1859).

The first Sardinian stamps, which carried an embossed profile picture of King Victor Emmanuel II, had values from five centesimi to 40 centesimi. Like the British Penny Black, the five centesimi Sardinian stamp was also black.

The Kingdom of Sardinia, ruled by the Savoy family, at the time included what are today the Piemonte, Ligure and Valle d’Aosta regions, as well as the island of Sardinia. The Savoys were based in Turin and the early stamps were printed on the Turin presses of printer Francesco Matraire.

The Marzocco - the Lion of
Florence - on a Tuscan stamp

The stamps of the Duchy of Tuscany, featured the Lion of Florence - the Marzocco - while the Papal States displayed the Papal coat of arms.

Sardinia, who had the idea for pre-paid postage some years before stamps when they printed pre-paid letter sheets, continued to print stamps after the unification of Italy in 1860, when stamps issued by other states and territories in the peninsula were withdrawn. 

Italy joined the Universal Postal Union in 1875.  Stamps at first displayed the profile of the monarch but a change came in April 1910 when a series of commemorative stamps was issued to mark the 50th anniversary of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand. 

Italy broke new ground again in 1917 by issuing the first airmail stamp. Poste italiane overprinted their existing special delivery stamps to mark an experimental airmail flight between Turin and Rome.

The magnificent Basilica of Superga stands on
a hill overlooking the Savoy capital, Turin

Travel tip:

By 1850, Turin had become the nerve centre of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the state ruled by the House of Savoy that would soon lead the unification of Italy. Although the kingdom’s name referenced the island of Sardinia, the real power base was always Piemonte, and Turin was its capital and administrative engine. The House of Savoy had ruled the region since the Middle Ages, gradually expanding from their Alpine homeland.  Turin was the dynastic capital, filled with palaces, military academies, and  administrative buildings that expressed Savoy authority. The city housed the royal court, the ministries, and the bureaucracy that contemporary observers described as unusually efficient and ambitious compared to other Italian states.  Architecturally, the city still reflected the Baroque redesign initiated when it became the Savoy capital in the 1500s: straight avenues, monumental squares, and grand palaces intended to project dynastic prestige.  Some say its architecture and layout made it feel more French than Italian.  Two of the most striking reminders of the Baroque age are the Palazzo Reale, the Royal Palace of Turin, which was once the Savoys’ principal royal residence and is now a major museum, and the majestic Basilica of Superga, which Filippo Juvara built on a hill overlooking the city. 

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A copy of Donatello's Marzocco
in Florence's Piazza della Signoria 

Travel tip:

The Marzocco, which appeared on the first stamps issued by the Duchy of Tuscany, is the heraldic lion of Florence, the city’s secular symbol and one of its oldest civic emblems. It is said to represent strength, justice, independence, and republican liberty.  The city adopted the lion as its totemic animal for a number of reasons, one legend being that the lion was chosen because it could “tear apart the eagle” - the symbol of the Holy Roman Empire. The origin of the name is uncertain, possibly deriving from Mars, the ancient pagan protector of Florence, or from St Mark, whose symbol is also a lion.  The best‑known version of the Marzocco in art is Donatello’s Marzocco, sculpted between 1418 and 1420 in fine Tuscan sandstone.  The sculpture, which shows a seated lion with one paw resting on the Florentine lily shield, originally stood in Piazza della Signoria from 1812 until it was moved to the Bargello Museum in 1885 and replaced by a replica. The lion’s symbolic power was so strong that Florentine soldiers were sometimes called marzoccheschi – “sons of the Marzocco”.

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More reading:

Camillo Benso Count of Cavour - Italy’s first prime minister

Italy elects its first parliament

Filippo Juvara - the Baroque architect who shaped ‘royal’ Turin

Also on this day:

1803: The birth of notorious book thief Guglielmo Libri

1923: The birth of actress Valentina Cortese

1926: The birth of singer Claudio Villa

1958: The birth of shoe designer Cesare Paciotti

Capodanno - New Year’s Day - in Italy

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