Federico Borromeo - cardinal and cultural patron

Archbishop of Milan who founded Biblioteca Ambrosiana

Federico Borromeo was made Archbishop
of Milan in 1595 at the age of 30

Federico Borromeo, who served as Archbishop of Milan from 1595 until his death in 1631 and founded the city’s Biblioteca Ambrosiana and its integral art gallery, was born on this day in 1564 in Milan.

He followed his cousin and spiritual guide Carlo Borromeo - later canonised as Saint Charles Borromeo - as a leading figure in the Counter-Reformation movement in the Catholic Church.

Federico’s life was also notable for his personal charity during the famine of 1627-28, when he fed up to 2,000 people every day within his own residence, and for his bravery during the 1630 plague outbreak, when he stayed in Milan to visit the sick and the dying, despite the grave risk to his own health.

He was immortalised in Alessandro Manzoni’s seminal novel, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed), in which the author holds up Federico’s work as Archbishop as an example of humble and courageous Christian charity, and even gives him a specific role in helping free Lucia, the kidnapped fiancée of the novel’s principal character, Renzo.

At the time of Federico’s birth, the Borromeo family were among the most powerful in northern Italy. Wealthy from banking and land ownership around Lake Maggiore, they maintained high-ranking political ties to the Duchy of Milan and were influential within the Church.

Federico’s father, Giulio Cesare Borromeo, a condottiero and the 9th Count of Arona, died when he was still a child, after which Carlo played an active role in shaping his life. He was educated at the Universities of Bologna and Pavia, where he earned a doctorate in theology in 1585. He then spent some time in Rome, where he came under the influence of leading Counter‑Reformation thinkers.

He was only 23 when he was created cardinal by Pope Sixtus V, to whom he was distantly related. He participated in a number of papal conclaves and became Archbishop of Milan in 1595, following the death of the incumbent, Gaspare Visconti. 

Federico looked again to Carlo Borromeo for guidance, his cousin having himself held the post between 1564 and 1584. He followed the example of his predecessor by imposing discipline on the clergy, founding churches and colleges at his own expense, and strictly applying the canons of the Council of Trent, which were the cornerstones of the Counter-Reformation movement. 

Federico's cousin, Carlo Borromeo, had
a major influence on the young Federico

Since his time in Rome, Federico had nurtured the idea of a cultural institution of high artistic, literary, and scientific calibre, promoting “a universal service" to the glory of God and the humanistic values of the Catholic Church.

After his appointment as Archbishop of Milan, he sent emissaries to collect manuscripts and printed matter from all over the world and began working with architects Lelio Buzzi, Francesco Maria Richini and later Fabio Mangone on the construction of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.

Founded in 1607, it comprised a public library - one of the first in the world along with the Bodleian Library in Oxford - an art gallery and an academy. It opened its doors to the public - at least those able to read and write - in 1609.

In 1618, Federico added a collection of statues and paintings to the Biblioteca. This later became the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the first art museum to be open to the public.

It began by housing Federico’s personal collection of 184 artworks, among them Caravaggio’s Basket of Fruit, which he commissioned, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Portrait of a Musician, Sandro Botticelli’s Madonna of the Pavilion, an Adoration of the Magi by Titian, and several works by Jan Brueghel the Elder, the Flemish painter who was a close friend.

History has applauded Federico for his courage when Milan was in the grip of plague in 1630. Despite being 65 years old and highly vulnerable, he refused to isolate himself in a countryside villa. Instead, he walked the desolate streets of Milan daily,  visiting hospitals, quarantined homes, and the crowded, infected wards of the Lazzaretto - the plague hospital - to comfort the dying.

A 1670 painting by Luigi Pellegrini Scaramuccia
shows Federico visiting a plague hospital in Milan

His example inspired his subordinates. Nearly 100 of his local clergy - including 62 parish priests - sacrificed their lives while staying behind to administer medicine, food, and the last rites to stricken Milanese. Around 60,000 people, almost half of the city’s inhabitants, are estimated to have died in the outbreak.

On a darker side, Federico Borromeo was a fierce campaigner against witchcraft, which was widely practised in Italy in the Middle Ages and beyond. Before and during his time, the attitude towards witches within the Church changed. Once regarded as harmless village healers offering dubious magic based on folklore, this shift reframed witches as dangerous individuals making pacts with the devil.

The public burning at the stake of those accused of witchcraft became fairly regular occurrences. Federico also organised the raising of funds for the creation of a Milanese prison for witches and wizards.

Federico’s other achievements include commissioning the erection of the Colossus of San Carlo Borromeo, a giant 35m (115ft) statue of his cousin, who was canonised in 1610 - just 26 years after his death. The statue, located at the crowning of the Sacred Mount of Arona, overlooking Lake Maggiore, was erected between 1624 and 1698, based on a design by Giovanni Battista Crespi.

Milan’s Cathedral, which he embellished with paintings and sculptures during his lifetime, became his final resting place after he died in Milan in September, 1631. His body lay in state in the duomo before being buried in front of the altar of the Madonna dell'Albero.

Federico Borromeo wrote extensively during his life. His two best known works were his treatises  De pictura sacra (On Sacred Painting), in which he set out the rules that artists should follow when creating religious art, and Musaeum, which might be seen as an early guide book for visitors to the Pinocoteca Ambrosiana, commenting on specific works in his collection.

Milan’s Cathedral, which he embellished with paintings and sculptures during his lifetime, became his final resting place after he died in Milan in September, 1631. His body lay in state in the duomo before being buried in front of the altar of the Madonna dell'Albero.

The Biblioteca Ambrosiana is a major
cultural attraction for visitors to Milan

Travel tip:

The Biblioteca Ambrosiana today houses an extraordinary collection of more than 40,000 manuscripts and a million printed volumes, including works in Greek, Latin, Arabic, Syriac and Ethiopic. Highlights include the Codex Atlanticus, a vast compendium of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings and notes; the Ambrosian Virgil, a 14th-century copy of Virgil's poems that belonged to Francesco Petrarch and is annotated by the poet himself; the Ilias Picta, an illuminated Iliad from the library of Vincenzo Pinelli, the noted botanist and book collector; and De Divina Proportione, a text on mathematical proportions by Luca Pacioli, featuring 60 scientific illustrations drawn directly by Da Vinci. As well as Federico Borromeo’s own collection, the Pinacoteca also has many other masterpieces of Italian, including works by Botticelli, Titian, Raphael, Bramantino, Luini, Bassano, Hayez, and many others. The galleries also preserve historic copies of famous paintings, commissioned by Borromeo for study - including a 17th‑century replica of Da Vinci’s Last Supper. The Ambrosiana’s history includes episodes of foreign plunder, most notably during the Napoleonic occupation, when many Leonardo manuscripts were seized and taken to Paris. Today, only the Codex Atlanticus remains in Milan; other volumes are held at the Institut de France. The library and gallery are housed within the same building at Piazza Pio XI in central Milan. Opening hours are 10am to 6pm daily except Wednesday, with extended hours until 10pm on Saturday.

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Casa Manzoni in Milan was
the home of Alessandro Manzoni

Travel tip:

A literary visit to Milan might also take in Casa Manzoni, the historic 19th-century townhouse in Via Gerolamo Morone, again in central Milan, not far from the city’s famous fashion district. This is the house where the author of I Promessi Sposi, Alessandro Manzoni, lived and wrote from 1814 until his death in 1873. The house includes a museum and is headquarters for the National Centre for Manzoni Studies. Guided tours are available, enabling visitors to see Manzoni’s study, which is preserved almost entirely intact with his original desk, personal items, and massive private library, as well as his living quarters, featuring period furniture, family portraits, and first editions of his literary works. There is also a courtyard and garden.  Normal opening hours are 10pm to 6pm Tuesday to Friday, 2pm to 6pm Saturday, closed on Sunday and Monday. Visitor numbers are controlled, with admission on an hourly basis.

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More reading:

Saint Charles Borromeo, the great reformer who earned appreciation after his death

Giovanni Battista Crespi, the painter, sculptor and architect sponsored by Federico Borromeo

Alessandro Manzoni, the writer credited by some with the greatest novel in Italian literary history

Also on this day:

1497: The birth of lutenist Francesco Canova da Milano

1750: The birth of composer Antonio Salieri

1943: The birth of footballer and politician Gianni Rivera

1954: The birth of astronaut Umberto Guidoni

1985: The birth of model and journalist Beatrice Borromeo

2009: The death of writer and translator Fernanda Pivano

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17 August

The Milan-Monza railway

First line in northern Italy sparked industrial growth 

The first railway line laid in northern Italy was opened on this day in 1840. The line, authorised by Ferdinand I of Austria, within whose empire the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia fell at the time, connected the city of Milan with the smaller city of Monza, covering a distance of 12.8km (eight miles).  It was the second railway line to be built on the Italian peninsula, following on from the shorter Naples-Portici line, which had been opened in October of the previous year.  Italy was a little behind in developing railways. The first steam-powered railway engine had completed its maiden journey some 56 years earlier, in England.   But once Milan-Monza was operational, quickly followed by the first section of what would become a Milan-Venice line, the rest of Italy awoke to their potential.  By the end of the 1840s, there were nine or 10 routes, mainly in the north. Read more…

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Pope Benedict XIV

Erudite, gentle, honest man was chosen as a compromise

Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini began his reign as Pope Benedict XIV on this day in 1740 in Rome.  Considered one of the greatest ever Christian scholars, he promoted scientific learning, the Baroque arts and the study of the human form.  Benedict XIV also revived interest in the philosophies of Thomas Aquinas, reduced taxation in the Papal States, encouraged agriculture and supported free trade.  As a scholar interested in ancient literature, and who published many ecclesiastical books and documents himself, he laid the groundwork for the present-day Vatican Museum.  Lambertini was born into a noble family in Bologna in 1675. At the age of 13 he started attending the Collegium Clementinum in Rome, where he studied rhetoric, Latin, philosophy and theology. Thomas Aquinas became his favourite author and saint.  Read more…

Cesare Borgia – condottiero

Renaissance prince turned his back on the Church

Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, became the first person in history to resign as a Cardinal on this day in 1498 in Rome.  Cesare was originally intended for the Church and had been made a Cardinal at the age of 18 after his father’s election to the Papacy. After the assassination of his brother, Giovanni, who was captain general of the Pope’s military forces, Cesare made an abrupt career change and was put in charge of the Papal States.  His fight to gain power was later the inspiration for Machiavelli’s book The Prince.  Cesare was made Duke of Valentinois by King Louis XII of France and after Louis invaded Italy in 1499, Cesare accompanied him when he entered Milan. He reinforced his alliance with France by marrying Charlotte d’Albret, the sister of John III of Navarre.  Pope Alexander encouraged Cesare to carve out a state of his own in northern Italy. Read more…

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Franco Sensi - businessman

Oil tycoon who rescued AS Roma football club

The businessman Francesco ‘Franco’ Sensi, best known as the businessman who transformed a near-bankrupt AS Roma into a successful football club, died on this day in 2008 in the Gemelli General Hospital in Rome.  He was 88 and had been in ill health for a number of years. He had been the longest-serving president of the Roma club, remaining at the helm for 15 years, and it is generally accepted that the success the team enjoyed during his tenure - a Serie A title, two Coppa Italia triumphs and two in the Supercoppa Italiana - would not have happened but for his astute management.  His death was mourned by tens of thousands of Roma fans who filed past his coffin in the days before the funeral at the Basilica of San Lorenzo al Verano, where a crowd put at around 30,000 turned out to witness the funeral procession.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Growth of the Italian Economy, 1820-1960, by Jon Cohen and Giovanni Federico

This volume in the Cambridge University Press series entitled New Studies in Economic and Social History examines Italy's transformation from a largely rural state in the nineteenth century to today's industrial powerhouse. At the time of unification in 1861, much of the country was backward, poor, and agrarian: few would have believed that a hundred years later Italy would become one of the seven largest industrial countries, its people among the wealthiest in the world. This process of development and structural change has generated an enormous and evolving literature, alive with controversies and compelling insights. New research and reinterpretation of existing data have led to a re-evaluation of the nature of Italian dualism, while revisions to national income accounts are modifying the traditional picture of economic growth. In The Growth of the Italian Economy, 1820-1960, Jon Cohen and Giovanni Federico provide a concise, up-to-date account of this literature, highlighting new views on old issues, and signalling areas in need of further research.

The late Jon S Cohen was Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Toronto, where he taught from 1972. Giovanni Federico is Professor of Economic History at the University of Pisa and an authority the history of Italian agriculture.

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16 August

Tonino Delli Colli – cinematographer

Craftsman who shot Life is Beautiful and Italy's first colour film

Antonio (Tonino) Delli Colli, the cinematographer who shot the first Italian film in colour, died on this day in 2005 in Rome.  The last film he made was Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful, shot on location in Arezzo in Tuscany, for which he won his fourth David di Donatello Award for Best Cinematography.  Delli Colli was born in Rome and started work at the city’s Cinecittà studio in 1938, shortly after it opened, when he was just 16.  By the mid 1940s he was working as a cinematographer, or director of photography, who is the person in charge of the camera and light crews working on a film. He was responsible for making artistic and technical decisions related to the image and selected the camera, film stock, lenses and filters. Directors often conveyed to him what was wanted from a scene visually and then allowed him complete latitude to achieve that effect.  Read more…

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Jannik Sinner – tennis player

The astonishingly fast rise of a top Italian sportsman

Jannik Sinner, who is the only Italian man to be ranked tennis world No 1 in singles, was born on this day in 2001 in Innichen, also known as San Candido, in northern Italy.  Sinner has won five Grand Slam titles - the Australian Open in 2024 and 2025, the US Open in 2024 and Wimbledon in 2025 and 2026. He also led the Italian team to victory in the Davis Cup competition in 2023 - the first time Italy had won the Davis Cup since 1976 - and again as Italy retained the title in 2024. Sinner grew up in Sexten - Sesto in Italian - in the Dolomites, where his father worked as a chef and his mother as a waitress in a ski lodge, in a part of the predominantly German-speaking South Tyrol province. Sinner was a competitive skier between the ages of seven and 12.  But he also had a talent for tennis and decided to focus on that sport exclusively from the age of 13. Read more…

Umberto Baldini – art restorer

Saved hundreds of artworks damaged by Arno floods

Umberto Baldini, the art historian who helped save hundreds of paintings, sculptures and manuscripts feared to have been damaged beyond repair in the catastrophic flooding in Florence in 1966, died on this day in 2006.  Baldini was working as director of the Gabinetto di Restauro, an office of the municipal authority in Florence charged with supervising restoration projects, when the River Arno broke its banks in the early hours of November 4, 1966.  With the ground already saturated, the combination of two days of torrential rain and storm force winds was too much and dams built to create reservoirs in the upper reaches of the Arno valley were threatened with collapse.  Consequently thousands of cubic metres of water had to be released, gathering pace as it raced downstream and eventually swept into the city at speeds of up to 40mph.  Read more... 

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Vincenzo Coronelli – globe maker

Friar whose globes of the world were in big demand

Vincenzo Coronelli, a Franciscan friar who was also a celebrated cartographer and globe maker, was born on this day in 1650 in Venice.  He became famous for making finely-crafted globes of the world for the Duke of Parma and Louis XIV of France.  This started a demand for globes from other aristocratic clients to adorn their libraries and some of Coronelli’s creations are still in existence today in private collections.  Coronelli was the fifth child of a Venetian tailor and was accepted as a novice by the Franciscans when he was 15. He was later sent to a college in Rome where he studied theology and astronomy.  He began working as a geographer and was commissioned to produce a set of globes for Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma. Each finely crafted globe was five feet in diameter.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Life is Beautiful, by Roberto Benigni and Vincenzo Cerami

Life is Beautiful, Roberto Benigni's 1997 tragicomedy which was shot by Tonino Delli Colli, is a two-part story. The first section depicts the love story between Guido and the teacher Dora; the second part is set in a concentration camp, which Guido presents to his young son as a gigantic adventure playground. It won three Oscars and was named Best European Film of the Year in Spain, France, and Germany. It is based in part on the book In the End, I Beat Hitler, by Rubino Romeo Salmonì, and on the experiences of Benigni's father, who was forced to spend two years in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. This is the original screenplay, a collaboration between Benigni and screenwriter Vincenzo Cerami.

The actor and writer Roberto Benigni shares with Sir Laurence Olivier the honour of being the only person to win the Oscar for Best Actor for a film directed by himself. Vincenzo Cerami, who died in 2013, was an Italian screenwriter, novelist and poet. He contributed to, wrote or adapted screenplays for more than 40 films.

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15 August

NEW - Luigi Pulci - Renaissance poet

Medici favourite behind milestone work

Luigi Pulci, a major Italian poet of the early Renaissance best known for his epic comic poem, Morgante, was born in Florence on this day in 1432.  Morgante, which featured a real-life Frankish military leader under Emperor Charlemagne who became legendary after dying heroically in battle, was significant in that it could be said to have created the mock-heroic epic genre in Western literature. Luigi was the youngest son among nine children of Jacopo di Francesco Pulci, an impoverished nobleman. After a difficult childhood caused by his family's poverty, he was introduced to the Medici family in 1461 and came under the patronage of Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, otherwise known as Lorenzo the Magnificent. The de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, Lorenzo became the most powerful supporter of Renaissance culture.  Read more…

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Gianfranco Ferré - fashion designer

Sought to create clothes for real women 

Gianfranco Ferré, who became one of the biggest names in Italian fashion during the 1980s and 1990s, was born on this day in 1944 in Legnano, a town in Lombardy north-west of Milan, between the city and Lake Maggiore, where in adult life he made his home.  Ferré was regarded as groundbreaking in fashion design in the same way as Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent in that his clothes were created with real people rather than catwalk models in mind, yet without compromise in terms of aesthetic appeal.  At the peak of his popularity, his clients included Sharon Stone, Elizabeth Taylor, the Queen of Jordan, Paloma Picasso, Sophia Loren and the late Diana, Princess of Wales.  Ferré first trained to be an architect, placing emphasis on the structure of his garments in which strong seams were often a prominent feature.  Read more…

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Carlo Cipolla - economic historian

Professor famous for treatise on ‘stupidity’

Carlo Maria Cipolla, an economic historian who for many years was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, was born on this day in 1922 in Pavia.  One of the leading economic historians of the 20th century, he wrote more than 20 academic books.  Yet it was for his bestselling humorous treatise, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, that he became famous. In the book, Cipolla divided the human species into four types, each sharing one characteristic of another type.  They were either (a) bandits, whose actions bring benefits for themselves but losses for others; (b) intelligent people, whose actions bring benefits for themselves and for others; (c) naive or helpless people, whose actions bring benefits for others but who tend to be exploited and therefore incur losses for themselves; or (d) stupid people, whose actions result not only in losses for themselves but for others too.  Read more…

Francesco Zuccarelli - landscape painter

Tuscan-born artist appealed to English tastes

Francesco Zuccarelli, who was considered to be the most important landscape painter to emerge from Venice in the 18th century, was born on this day in 1702.  Zuccarelli’s picturesque Arcadian landscapes were especially appealing to English buyers, and he was more famous in England even than his contemporary, Canaletto.  His fame in England prompted Zuccarelli to spend two periods of his life there. He settled in London for the first time at the end of 1752 and remained for 10 years, enjoying great success.  After returning to Italy after being elected to the Venetian Academy, he went back to England from 1765 to 1771, during which time he was a founding member of the Royal Academy and became one of George III’s favourite painters.  Born in Pitigliano in southern Tuscany, Zuccarelli received his early training in Florence. Read more…

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Ferragosto

A chance to enjoy quieter cities while Italians take a holiday

Italy, San Marino and the Italian speaking region of Switzerland all celebrate Ferragosto on this day every year with a public holiday.  This day of celebration originated during Roman times, when Feriae Augusti, the festival of the Roman Emperor Augustus, took place on 1 August. It was a day of rest for working people to signal the culmination of weeks of hard work by labourers on the land.  The month of August itself is named after Augustus. Its original name was sextilis, as it was the sixth month in the Roman calendar. Just as Julius Caesar had previously renamed quintilis - the fifth month - Iulius after himself, it was only natural for Augustus, as Julius Caesar’s chosen heir, to follow suit.  Over the centuries, it became traditional for workers to wish their employers ‘Buon Ferragosto, and to receive a bonus of extra money from their bosses in return.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Italian Renaissance: A Cultural History, by Virginia Cox 

The extraordinary creative energy of Renaissance Italy lies at the root of modern Western culture. In this magisterial study, Virginia Cox offers a fresh vision of this iconic moment in cultural history. Her lucid and absorbing book explores key artistic, literary and intellectual developments, as well as histories of food and fashion, map-making, exploration and anatomy. Alongside towering figures from Petrarch and Boccaccio to Leonardo, Machiavelli, and Isabella d'Este, Cox unveils lesser-known Renaissance protagonists including printers, travel writers, actresses, courtesans, explorers-even celebrity chefs. In this extensively revised and expanded edition, The Italian Renaissance: A Cultural History includes an incisive overview of Italy's relationship with the European and non-European worlds, embracing ethnic and religious diversity within Italy, the global dissemination and hybridisation of Italian Renaissance culture, and Italian global encounters, including Jesuit missions to Asia. Pulling together the latest scholarship with original research and insight, Cox's book speaks both to general readers and specialists in the field.

Virginia Cox taught at the universities of Edinburgh, UCL, and Cambridge before moving to the Department of Italian Studies at New York University in 2003.

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