16 October

Dorando Pietri - marathon runner

Athlete who made his fortune from famous disqualification

The athlete Dorando Pietri, who found fame and fortune after being disqualified in the 1908 Olympic marathon, was born on this day in 1885 in Mandrio, a hamlet near Carpi, in Emilia-Romagna.  In an extraordinary finish to the 1908 race in London, staged on an exceptionally warm July day, Pietri entered the White City Stadium in first place, urged on by a crowd of more than 75,000 who were there to witness the finish, only for his legs to buckle beneath him.  He was helped to his feet by two officials only to fall down four more times before he crossed the finish line.  Each time, officials hauled him to his feet and walked alongside him, urging him on and ready to catch him if he fell.  The final 350 yards (320m) of the event accounted for 10 minutes of the two hours, 54 minutes and 46 seconds recorded as his official time.  Eventually, a second athlete entered the stadium, the American Johnny Hayes, but Pietri had staggered over the line before he could complete the final lap.  The American team was already unpopular with the British crowd, partly because of a row about a flag at the opening ceremony. They lost even more support after they lodged an objection to the result.   Read more…

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Dino Buzzati - author

Novelist likened to Camus whose short stories remain popular

The multi-talented author Dino Buzzati, whose output included five novels, several theatre and radio plays, a children’s novel, five opera libretti, some poetry, a comic book in which he also drew the illustrations, and several books of short stories, was born on this day in 1906 in Belluno.  Buzzati’s most famous novel, Il deserto dei Tartari (1940), titled The Tartar Steppe in the English translation, saw Buzzati compared to Albert Camus and Franz Kafka as a work of existentialist style, but it is for his short stories that he still wins acclaim.  A new collection entitled Catastrophe and Other Stories, which showcases Buzzati’s talent for weaving nightmarish fantasy into ordinary situations, was published earlier this year.  Buzzati, who worked as a journalist for the whole of his adult life and also painted prolifically, was the second of four children born to Giulio Cesare Buzzati, a distinguished professor of international law, and Alba Mantovani, a veterinarian born in Venice.  The family’s main home was in Milan but they had a summer villa in San Pellegrino, a village just outside Belluno in the foothills of the Dolomites, which was where Dino was born.  Read more…

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Election of Pope John Paul II

How Karol Wojtyla became first non-Italian pope for 455 years

Pope John Paul II, who was to have a political and social influence unmatched by any pontiff since the Middle Ages, was elected to be the new leader of the Catholic Church on this day in 1978.  The result of the second Papal conclave in what became known as the Year of the Three Popes was announced after eight ballots. The new pontiff succeeded Pope John Paul I, who had died on September 28 after only 33 days in office, who had himself followed Pope Paul VI, who had passed away in August after reigning for 15 years.  The new man chosen was 58-year-old Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, then Archbishop of Kraków, the first non-Italian to hold office for 455 years since the Dutch Pope Adam VI, who served from 1522-23.  Wojtyla's stand against Poland's Communist regime had brought him respect but he was not seen as a Vatican favourite and his elevation to the highest office stunned the Catholic world.  Yet he would go on to become one of the most familiar faces in the world, remaining in post for almost 27 years, which made him the second longest-serving pope in modern history after Pope Pius IX.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The First London Olympics, by Rebecca Jenkins

In the summer that saw the first successful flight of the Zeppelin, a 140 acre site of scrubland in West London was transformed into the White City, which housed the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition - and a state-of-the-art stadium built to house the First London Olympics. The Olympics were organised by volunteers in just 18 months and at a fraction of the cost of the modern Olympics and yet, just as today, the sport was overshadowed by doping scandals and caused international uproar.  The ferocious competitiveness of a US team dominated by New York Irish-Americans led to a succession of 'scandals' culminating in the historic marathon when Italian confectioner baker Dorando Pietri's heroic efforts at the limits of exhaustion so entranced on-lookers that track officials helped him across the finish line.  Originally published to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of the first London Olympics, this delightful social and sporting history - illustrated with over 70 contemporary images - provided a thought-provoking contrast to the then-forthcoming 2012 London Olympics. 

Rebecca Jenkins is a cultural historian and novelist living in Teesdale, County Durham. A member of both the International Society of Olympic Historians and the Crime Writers’ Association, her non-fiction work includes a biography of the 19th-century actress Fanny Kemble entitled The Reluctant Celebrity. She has published two novels featuring the Regency detective F R Jarrett and two other crime novels.

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15 October

Virgil – Roman poet

Writer’s epic poem commemorates achievements and ideals of Rome

Regarded as the greatest of the Roman poets, Virgil, or Publius Vergilius Maro as he was originally named, was born on this day in 70 BC in the village of Andes near Mantua, in what is now Lombardy.  Virgil is famous for his work, The Aeneid, which told the story of Rome’s founder and the Roman mission to civilise the world under divine guidance. It is widely considered one of the most important poems in the history of Western literature.  Experts have high regard for Virgil’s poetry, not only for the music and diction of his verse and for his skill in constructing an intricate work on a grand scale, but also because of what it reveals about Roman life and behaviour.  Virgil was born of peasant stock and his love of the Italian countryside and the people who worked in it is well reflected in his poetry.  He was educated in Cremona, Milan and Rome and acquired a thorough knowledge of Greek and Roman authors and was trained in rhetoric and philosophy.  When Virgil was 20, Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and began the series of civil wars that did not end until Augustus’s victory at Actium in 31 BC.  Hatred and fear of civil war is powerfully expressed by Virgil in his poetry.  Read more…

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Giovanni Migliara – painter

19th century artist captured many beautiful views for posterity

Giovanni Migliara, who rose from working as a theatre set designer to becoming court painter to King Charles Albert of Sardinia, was born on this day in 1785 in Alessandria in Piedmont.  He was first apprenticed to the sculptor Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, but then went on to study at the Brera Academy.in Milan with Giocondo Albertolli.  He began working as a set designer with Teatro Carcano in Milan in 1804 and then moved to La Scala in 1805, where he served under the direction of Alessandro Sanquirico until 1809. His theatre work enabled him to acquire skills as a landscape artist and a creator of perspective.  Migliara had to stop working while he was suffering from a serious lung problem but from about 1810 he started painting miniatures and then moved on to watercolours and then oils on canvas, silk and ivory, drawing inspiration from Venetian painters.  In 1812 he exhibited four views of Milan at the Brera Academy, officially signalling his return to the world of art.  Migliara specialised in painting views and romantic, historical subjects. Because of the high quality of his work he became a favourite of the aristocracy living in Milan at the time.  Read more…

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Gibbon's moment of inspiration

Walk around the Forum sparked idea for epic work 

The English writer and historian Edward Gibbon claimed that the inspiration to write the book that - unbeknown to him - would grant him literary immortality came to him while exploring the ruins of the Forum in Rome on this day in 1764.  Gibbon, who had enjoyed modest success with his first book, entitled Essay on the Study of Literature, was in Rome after deciding to embark on the Grand Tour, taking in the Italian cities of Florence, Naples and Venice as well as the capital.  Later, in his memoirs, Gibbon wrote that:  "It was at Rome, on the fifteenth of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing Vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the City first started to my mind."  In the event, the book expanded to cover rather more than the city of Rome.  The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ran to six volumes and as many as 5,000 pages in the original version and saw Gibbon, whose second work - Mémoires Littéraires de la Grande Bretagne - had been dismissed as having little merit by fellow writers and historians, eventually recognised as in the forefront of historians in Europe.  Read more…

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Angelo Schiavio - footballer

Scored goal that won Italy's first World Cup

Angelo Schiavio, the hero of the Italian football team’s first World Cup victory in 1934, was born on this day in 1905 in Bologna.  The centre forward, a prolific goalscorer for his home-town club in Serie A, scored the winning goal in the final against Czechoslovakia to hand victory to the Azzurri in the 16-team tournament, of which the Italians were hosts.  In the final at the Stadio Flaminio in Rome, the Azzurri had gone behind to a goal by the Czech winger Antonin Puc with 19 minutes remaining, but equalised 10 minutes later through Raimundo Orsi, the Argentina-born forward from Juventus, taking the match into extra time.  Schiavio struck the decisive goal, driven home with his right foot from a pass by Enrique Guaita, another Argentine – one of 12 to represent Italy and Argentina in the days before playing for more than one nation was outlawed.  It was his fourth goal of the tournament, sparking massive celebrations in Rome and across Italy, albeit in a mood of triumph hijacked by Benito Mussolini and his Fascist regime.  Rumours circulated, almost inevitably, that match officials had been bribed to make decisions favouring the Italians.  Read more…

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Roberto Vittori – astronaut

High-flying Colonel contributed to space research

Roberto Vittori, the last non-American to fly on board the US Space Shuttle, was born on this day in 1964 in Viterbo.  An Italian air force officer, Vittori was selected by the European Space Agency to be part of their Astronaut Corps and has participated in three space flights.  In 2011 Vittori was on board the Space Shuttle that travelled to the International Space Station to install the AMS-02 cosmic ray detector to examine dark matter and the origin of the Universe.  Vittori had to grapple the six-tonne AMS-02 with the Space Shuttle’s robotic arm and move it to the station for installation. This was to be the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour.  He is one of five Italians to have visited the International Space Station. The others are Umberto Guidoni, who was the first European to set foot on board when he flew on Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2001, Paolo Nespoli, who visited as recently as 2017 and at 61 is the European Space Agency’s oldest active astronaut, Luca Parmitano and Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman in space.  Nespoli, who has participated in three International Space Station missions, was coming to the end of a 159-day stay when Vittori visited.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Aeneid, by Virgil. Translated by David West

After a century of civil strife in Rome and Italy, Virgil wrote The Aeneid to honour the emperor Augustus by praising his legendary ancestor Aeneas. As a patriotic epic imitating Homer, The Aeneid also set out to provide Rome with a literature equal to that of Greece. It tells of Aeneas, survivor of the sack of Troy, and of his seven-year journey: to Carthage, where he falls tragically in love with Queen Dido; then to the underworld; and finally to Italy, where he founds Rome. It is a story of defeat and exile, of love and war, hailed by Tennyson as 'the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man'. More recently, The Times called this edition 'the most truthful translation ever, conveying as many nuances and whispers as are possible from the original'.

Virgil studied rhetoric and philosophy in Rome where he became a court poet. As well as The Aeneid, his Eclogues earned him the reputation as the finest Latin poet.  Before his retirement, David West taught Classics at the University of Newcastle.

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14 October

Palma Giovane - painter

Mannerist took the mantle of Tintoretto 

The Venetian artist Jacopo Negretti, best known as Jacopo Palma il Giovane - Palma the Younger - or simply Palma Giovane, died in Venice on this day in 1628.  Essentially a painter of the Italian Mannerist school, Palma Giovane's style evolved over time and after the death of Tintoretto in 1594 he became the most revered artist in Venice.  He became in demand beyond Venice, too, particularly in Bergamo, the city in Lombardy that was a dominion of Venice, and in central Europe.  He received many commissions in Bergamo and was often employed in Prague by the Habsburg Emperor, Rudolph II, who was a noted art connoisseur.  Palma had been born into a family of painters. His great uncle, also called Jacopo, was the painter Palma Vecchio - Palma the Elder - while his father, Antonio Negretti, was a pupil of the elder Palma’s workshop manager, Bonifacio Veronese, whose shop and clientele he inherited after the latter’s death.  The younger Palma is said to have developed his skills making copies in the style of Titian, although the claim in some biographies that he worked in Titian's workshop in Venice is now thought to be incorrect.  Read more…

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Alesso Baldovinetti - painter

One of first to paint realistic landscapes

The early Renaissance painter Alesso Baldovinetti, whose great fresco of the Annunciation in the cloister of the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence is still intact, was born on this day in 1425 in Florence.  Baldovinetti was among a group described as scientific realists and naturalists in art which included Andrea del Castagno, Paolo Uccello and Domenico Veneziano. Influenced by Uccello’s use of visual perspective, he had a particular eye for detail and his views of the Arno river in his Nativity and Madonna and Child are regarded as among Europe’s earliest paintings of accurately reproduced landscapes.  Veneziano’s influence is reflected in the pervasive light of his earliest surviving works, and he was also greatly influenced by Fra' Angelico. Historians believe that in the 1460s Baldovinetti was the finest painter in Florence, although some argue that he did not fulfil all his initial promise.  Born into the family of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Baldovinetti rejected the chance to follow his father’s trade in favour of art.  In 1448, he became a member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. It is thought that he assisted with decorations in the church of Sant’ Egidio in Trastevere.  Read more…

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Alessandro Safina – singer

Tenor who has blended opera and rock

Alessandro Safina, a singer trained in opera who has expanded the so-called ‘crossover’ pop-opera genre to include rock influences, was born on this day in 1963 in Siena.  A household name in Italy, the tenor is less well known outside his own country but has recorded duets with international stars such as Sarah Brightman, South Korean soprano Sumi Jo, Rod Stewart, former Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde, Scottish actor and singer Ewan McGregor and the superstar Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.  Safina’s biggest album to date is Insieme a Te, which has sold more than 700,000 copies.  It was written in collaboration with the Italian pianist and composer Romano Musumarra, who helped realise Safina’s ambition of creating soulful rock-inspired music for the tenor voice.  He first performed songs from the album at the Olympia theatre in Paris in 1999.  Safina was born into an opera-loving family and earned money to pay for singing lessons by working in his father’s stationery business.  Set on becoming a professional singer from the age of nine, he began attending a music academy at 12 and was accepted for a place at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence at 17.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Venice: City of Pictures, by Martin Gayford

Venice was a major centre of art in the Renaissance: the city where the medium of oil on canvas became the norm. The achievements of the Bellini brothers, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese are a key part of this story. Nowhere else has been depicted by so many great painters in so many diverse styles and moods. Venetian views were a speciality of native artists such as Canaletto and Guardi, but the city has also been represented by outsiders: J M W Turner, Claude Monet, John Singer Sargent, Howard Hodgkin, and many more. Then there are those who came to look at and write about art. The reactions of Henry James, George Eliot, Richard Wagner and others enrich this tale. Since the advent of the Venice Biennale in the 1890s, and the arrival of pioneering modern art collector Peggy Guggenheim in the late 1940s, the city has become a shop window for the contemporary art of the whole world, and it remains the site of important artistic events. In Venice: City of Pictures, Gayford – who has visited Venice countless times since the 1970s, covered every Biennale since 1990, and even had portraits of himself exhibited there on several occasions – takes us on a visual journey through the past five centuries of the city known as La Serenissima - the Most Serene. It is a unique and compelling portrait of Venice that will delight lovers of the city and lovers of its art. 

Martin Gayford writes about art and jazz. His previous books include Michelangelo: His Epic Life and A History of Pictures: From the Cave to Computer Screen, which he co-wrote with David Hockney. 

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Learco Guerra - racing cyclist

“Human Locomotive” set record for most wins in one season

Learco Guerra's speed in races led to him
being nicknamed the "Human Locomotive"

The racing cyclist Learco Guerra, who won the Giro d'Italia in 1934 and was world champion in 1931, was born on this day in 1902 in San Nicolò Po, a hamlet on the banks of the Po river in Lombardy, about 15km (9 miles) south of Mantua.

He gained the nickname of "Human Locomotive" by the editor of Gazzetta dello Sport, organisers of the Giro d’Italia, for his ability to maintain high speeds over long periods.

Guerra’s single Giro d’Italia victory came in a year when he won 18 races, including 10 stages of the Giro d’Italia, the Giro di Lombardia and four rounds of the national championships. It was a record by an individual rider in a single season that would stand until the 1970s.

His fame was exploited by the Fascist government, which profited from his heroic status. Benito Mussolini praised his 'manly Italian virtues' of strength, stamina and determination.

Guerra himself became a member of the National Fascist Party, which prompted conspiracy theories among some of his rival cyclists, who noted that the route chosen for the 1934 Giro d’Italia, with notably few hill stages, suited Guerra’s qualities perfectly. 

Until the age of 25, Guerra worked as a bricklayer with his father, who was a master builder in a construction company in Mantua.

Guerra's rival, the five-times Giro
d'Italia winner Alfredo Binda

His dreams of becoming a cycle racer came true thanks to a friend, who obtained a bicycle for him and helped him enter the historic Milan-Sanremo race. He competed in a jersey belonging to the powerful Maino racing team, although he was not a member.

In the event all the real members of the Maino team retired, while Guerra finished 17th, even though his bike was not only old but was designed for track competition rather than road racing.

The significance of that performance did not escape the notice of team boss Giovanni Maino, who saw Guerra as someone who might take on the great Alfredo Binda, the five-times Giro winner from the Legnano team. Guerra thus turned professional at the age of 27. 

In 1930, Guerra won the first of what would be five consecutive Italian National Road Race Championships, finishing second in the Tour de France the same year, ahead of Binda, who proved in poor form. 

In the 1931 Giro, in which he won four stages, his victory in the opening Milan-Mantua stage gave him the honour of being the first rider to wear the pink jersey, which was being awarded for the first time as a symbol of primacy in the standings. Pink was chosen as the colour because the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper was printed on pink paper. 

In the same year, Guerra also won the Road World Championships in Copenhagen. In what were the best years of his career, he also triumphed in the Milan-Sanremo in 1933 and was again second in the 1933 Tour de France. 

Guerra set a record for the most road
race victories in a single season

His stupendous form of 1934 carried over into 1935, when he numbered another five stages of the Giro d’Italia among eight race victories. Overall, in the course of his career he numbered 31 stage wins in the Giro, a tally bettered only by Binda (41) and Mario Cipollini (42). 

Guerra retired from racing in 1945 but stayed in cycling as a successful team boss. His Faema and Emi teams provided many champions in the 1950s, including the four-times Giro d’Italia winner Charly Gaul, a native of Luxembourg.

Sadly, Guerra died in 1963 at the age of just 60, having undergone two operations in the hope of overcoming Parkinson’s disease. Binda was one of the pallbearers at his funeral, which was preceded by a procession through streets lined with fans. He was laid to rest in the family tomb in the Monumental Cemetery of Mantua.

In 1994 a museum dedicated to Learco Guerra was opened in Piazza Broletto in Mantua, thanks to his cousin Otello Giovanni Pozzi. Among the memorabilia on display are that first pink jersey from the Giro and his world champion jersey 1931.  A museum dedicated to his friend and fellow Mantuan sportsman, the racing driver Tazio Nuvolari, is in the same building.

The Po river close to where Learco Guerra was 
born. It is the widest and longest river in Italy

Travel tip:

The Po, which flows past the hamlet where Learco Guerra was born, is the longest river in Italy, rising in Cottian Alps in the far west of the country and reaching the Adriatic Sea in the east over a meandering course of 652km (405 miles). Its 70,000 sq km (27,000 sq ml) drainage basin forms Italy’s widest and most fertile plain, but one that has suffered a number of devastating floods, the majority in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Po’s principal tributaries include the Sesia, Ticino, Adda, Oglio, and Mincio rivers. The Po is navigable from its mouth to Pavia. The Venetian Republic built dikes to control floods and canals to divert silt, and in the area between Ferrara and the Adriatic numerous undertakings have reclaimed thousands of acres during the past three centuries. The Po valley produces a variety of crops, including rice, corn, wheat, and grapes for wine production. It is home to the industrial cities of Milan, Turin, and Bologna but also the historical cities of Verona and Mantua. The valley’s cuisine is renowned for its delicious pasta dishes, cured meats, and cheeses.

The Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, which was for
four centuries the seat of the Gonzaga family

Travel tip:

Mantua is an atmospheric old city in Lombardy, to the southeast of Milan, famous for its Renaissance Palazzo Ducale, the seat of the Gonzaga family between 1328 and 1707. The Camera degli Sposi is decorated with frescoes by Andrea Mantegna, depicting the life of Ludovico III Gonzaga and his family, who ruled Mantua for 34 years in the 15th century. The nearby 15th century Basilica of Sant’Andrea was originally built to accommodate the large number of pilgrims who came to Mantua to see a precious relic, an ampoule containing what were believed to be drops of Christ’s blood mixed with earth, while the Palazzo Te is a fine example of the Mannerist school of architecture, the masterpiece of the architect Giulio Romano. The name for the palace came about because the location chosen had been the site of the Gonzaga family stables at Isola del Te on the edge of the marshes just outside Mantua’s city walls. 

Also on this day: 

1425: The birth of painter Alesso Baldovinetti

1628: The death of painter Palma Giovane

1963: The birth of singer Alessandro Safina

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13 October

Execution of former King of Naples

Joachim Murat, key aide of Napoleon, shot by firing squad

Joachim Murat, the French cavalry leader who was a key military strategist in Napoleon's rise to power in France and his subsequent creation of an empire in continental Europe, was executed on this day in 1815 in Pizzo in Calabria.  The charismatic Marshal was captured by Bourbon forces in the coastal town in Italy's deep south as he tried to gather support for an attempt to regain control of Naples, where he had been king until the fall of Napoleon saw the throne returned to the Bourbon king Ferdinand IV in May 1815.  Murat was held prisoner in the Castello di Pizzo before a tribunal found him guilty of insurrection and sentenced him to death by firing squad. The 48-year-old soldier from Lot in south-west France had been an important figure in the French Revolutionary Wars and gained recognition from Napoleon as one of his best generals, his influence vital in the success of Napoleon's campaigns in Egypt and Italy and in victories against the numerically superior Prussians and Russians.  He was a flamboyant dresser, going into battle with his uniform bedecked in medals, gold tassels, feathers and shiny buttons.  Yet for all his peacock tendencies, he was renowned as a bold, brave and decisive leader. Read more…

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Giorgio Massari - architect

Work in 18th century Venice had echoes of Palladio

The architect Giorgio Massari, who designed a number of significant churches and palaces in Venice in the 18th century, was born on this day in 1687.  Massari’s legacy in Venice includes the imposing Palazzo Grassi on the Grand Canal and the church of Santa Maria del Rosario, commonly known as the Gesuati, on the Giudecca Canal, which is acknowledged as his masterpiece.  He redesigned Santa Maria della Visitazione - known as the Pietà - the church on the Riva degli Schiavoni famous for its association with the great Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi, who wrote some of his most famous music while working as a violin teacher at the adjoining orphanage.  Outside Venice, Massari designed villas and churches around Brescia, Treviso and Udine.  His designs, especially his churches and villas, were often influenced by the work of the 16th century Classical architect Andrea Palladio and by Massari’s fellow Venetian, the Baroque sculptor and architect Baldassare Longhena.   Massari was born in the San Luca parish of the San Marco sestiere. His father, Stefano, was a carpenter from a village near Brescia in Lombardy.  Read more…

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Francesca Bertini - silent movie actress

Diva described as Italy’s first film star

The actress Francesca Bertini, one of the three so-called divas of Italy’s silent movie era, died on this day in 1985 in Rome at the age of 93. Between her screen debut in 1907 and her effective retirement in 1935, Bertini appeared in 139 titles. Her last appearance came in 1976, at the age of 84, when the director Bernardo Bertolucci persuaded her to accept a cameo in his epic historical drama, Novecento (1900).  Bertini, Lyda Borelli and Pina Menichelli were regarded as Italy’s three biggest female stars of the silent movie years and though Borelli came to be seen as the most talented of the three, there is no doubt that Bertini was a woman of outstanding ability. She has been described as Italy's first film star.  Her most famous film, Assunta Spina, a 1915 production, not only saw her take the title role but write scripts and direct many of the scenes, introducing a level of realism into the performances that was ahead of its time.  Bertini’s birth was registered in 1892 at an orphanage in Florence as Elena Taddei, although it is unclear whether Taddei was the name of her father. Her mother was said to be Adelina di Venanzio Fratiglioni, an unmarried woman who was thought to have been an actress herself.  Read more…

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Eugenio Barsanti - engineer

Created world’s first working internal combustion engine

The engineer Eugenio Barsanti, whose internal combustion engine was the first working example of the technology to be produced anywhere in the world, was born on this day in 1821 in Pietrasanta, a town in northern Tuscany.   The Belgian-French engineer Étienne Lenoir and the German Nicolaus Otto are credited with the first commercially successful internal combustion engines, but Barsanti’s machine, which he developed with partner Felice Matteucci, was unveiled in 1853 - six years before Lenoir’s and eight years ahead of Otto’s.  Barsanti might have achieved commercial success himself but shortly after reaching an agreement with a company in Belgium to produce his machine on a commercial scale he contracted typhoid fever, from which he never recovered.  A rather sickly child, known by his parents as Nicolò, Barsanti took the name Father Eugenio after entering the novitiate of the Piarists, the oldest Catholic religious order dedicated to education.  He took a teaching position at Collegio San Michele in Volterra. It was there, while lecturing on the explosive energy created by mixing hydrogen and air that he realised the potential of using combustible gases to lift the pistons in a motor.   Read more…

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Mario Buda - anarchist

Prime suspect in Wall Street Bombing 

Mario Buda, the anarchist suspected but never convicted of the 1920 Wall Street bombing, was born on this day in 1884 in Savignano sul Rubicone, a town in the Emilia-Romagna region, about 90km (56 miles) southeast of Bologna.  Some 38 people were killed, with hundreds more injured, when a horse-drawn cart packed with explosives exploded close to the New York Stock Exchange building on the famous thoroughfare. Buda was identified by a blacksmith who had rented him the horse and Federal agents began an investigation.  The Italian, who had emigrated to the United States in 1907, was known to the police after being arrested previously in connection with a double-murder in the town of Braintree, Massachusetts. He had escaped from custody on that occasion and evaded detection again, boarding a ship to return to Italy before he could be questioned over the bombing. Born into a family of modest means, Buda led an unsettled youth. He was arrested for robbery at the age of 15 and later served a jail term after being indicted on a charge of noise pollution at night. On his release, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker but remained restless.  Read more... 

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Claudius - Roman emperor

Suspicious death of leader who conquered Britain

The Roman emperor Claudius, whose reign was notable among other things for turning Britain into a province of the Empire, died on this day in 54 AD.  It is a widely held view that he was murdered, by poisoning, on the orders of his scheming fourth wife, Julia Agrippina, the mother of his successor, Nero, in one of the power struggles that at the time were ever present.  It is thought he ingested some poisonous mushrooms that his taster, the eunuch Halotus, had assured him were safe to eat, either at an official banquet on the evening of October 12 or at his first meal of the following day.  When Claudius began to show signs of distress, one version of the story is that his physician, Xenophon, pushed a feather into his throat, ostensibly to make him vomit, but actually to ensure that he did not recover by administering more poison, with which he had coated the feather.  There have been arguments that the poisoning story was nonsense and that, at 63, Claudius died from natural causes related to ageing. Yet Agrippina - sometimes referred to as Agrippina the Younger - seemed to have had a clear motive.  Read more…

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Piero Dusio - sportsman and entrepreneur

His Cisitalia company revolutionised automobile design

The footballer, racing driver and businessman Piero Dusio was born on this day in 1899 in Scurzolengo, a village in the hills above Asti, in Piedmont.  Dusio made his fortune in textiles but it is for his postwar venture into car production that he is most remembered. Dusio’s Cisitalia firm survived for less than 20 years before going bankrupt in the mid-1960s but in its short life produced a revolutionary car - the Cisitalia 202 - that was a gamechanger for the whole automobile industry.  Dusio played football for the Turin club Juventus, joining the club at 17 years old, and was there for seven years before a knee injury forced him to retire at the age of only 24, having made 15 appearances for the senior team, four of them in Serie A matches.  He kept his connection with the club and from 1942 to 1948 was Juventus president. In the short term, though, he was forced to find a new career. He was offered a job with a Swiss-backed textile firm in Turin as a salesman. He took to the job immediately and made an instant impression on his new employers, selling more fabric in his first week than his predecessor had in a year.  Within a short time he had been placed in charge of sales for the whole of Italy.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Death of Joachim Murat: 1815 and the Unfortunate Fate of One of Napoleon's Marshals, by Jonathan North

Joachim Murat, son of an innkeeper, had won his spurs as Napoleon’s finest cavalry general and then won his throne when, in 1808, Napoleon appointed him king of Naples. He loyally ran this strategic Italian kingdom with his wife, Napoleon’s sister Caroline, until, in 1814, with Napoleon beaten and in retreat towards ruin and exile, the royal couple chose to betray their imperial relation and dramatically switched sides. This notorious betrayal won them temporary respite, but just a year later Murat engineered his own dramatic fall. A series of blunders took the cavalier king from thinking he had secured his dynasty to fleeing his kingdom. His native France did not welcome him, initially because Napoleon had not forgiven him, then, after Napoleon’s fall following Waterloo, because the restored Bourbons were offering a reward for Murat’s head. Fleeing again, fate brought him to Corsica where, welcomed at last, Murat turned to plotting the reversal in his fortunes he so felt he deserved. Murat soon resolved to bet everything on a hare-brained plan to return to Naples as a conquering hero and king. His aim was to take a small band of followers, land near his capital, organise regime change and reclaim his throne. In September 1815, he set off with his small band of followers. What happened next forms the core of this part-tragic, part-ridiculous story and a lesson in how not to stage a coup. Just five days after landing in Calabria, King Joachim was hauled before a firing squad and executed. The fall of Joachim Murat is the final act of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe as well as being a dramatic story in its own right. Based on research in the archives of Paris and Naples, Jonathan North’s aim with The Death of Joachim Murat is to restore some history to a tale that, until now, lay smothered under two centuries of fable and neglect.

Jonathan North is a historian specialising in Napoleonic history. His books on the subject include With Napoleon in Russia: The Illustrated Memoirs of Faber du Faur; In the Legions of Napoleon: The Memoirs of a Polish Officer in Spain and Russia, 1808-1812; and Napoleon’s Army in Russia: The Illustrated Memoirs of Albrecht Adam, 1812.

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12 October

Piero della Francesca - Renaissance painter

Mathematician famous for exploring perspective

Piero della Francesca, recognised as one of the greatest painters of the early Renaissance, died on this day in 1492 in what was then Borgo Santo Sepolcro, near Arezzo.  He was thought to have been around 77 years old – his exact birth date is not known – and it has been popularly theorised that he was blind in the later years of his life, although evidence to support the claim is sketchy.  Della Francesca’s work was characterised by his exploration of perspective and geometric form, which was hardly surprising since in his own time he was as famous among his peers as a mathematician and geometer as well as an artist.  He came to be recognized in the 20th century as having made a major contribution to the Renaissance.  His fresco cycle The History – or Legend – of the True Cross in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo, painted between 1452 and 1466, and his diptych – two-panelled – portraits of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza - the Duke and Duchess of Urbino, dated at between 1465 and 1472, which can be seen in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, are among his best-known works.  Read more…

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Gillo Pontecorvo - film director

Most famous film was banned in France

The film director Gillo Pontecorvo, whose best known film, La battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers) won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1966 and was nominated for three Academy Awards, died on this day in 2006 in Rome, aged 86.  A former journalist who had been an Italian Resistance volunteer and a member of the Italian Communist Party, Pontecorvo had been in declining health for some years, although he continued to make documentary films and commercials until shortly before his death.  Although it was made a decade or so after the peak years of the movement, La battaglia di Algeri is in the tradition of Italian neorealism, with newsreel style footage and mainly non-professional actors.  Pontecorvo also won acclaim for his 1960 film Kapò, set in a Second World War concentration camp, and Burn! (1969) - titled Queimada in Italy - which was about the creation of a so-called banana republic on the fictitious Caribbean island of Queimada, starring Marlon Brando and loosely based on the failed slave revolution in Guadeloupe.   Kapò, which was also nominated for an Oscar, won an Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Nastro d'Argento (Silver Ribbon) award for Didi Perego as best supporting actress.  Read more…

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Luciano Pavarotti - tenor

Singer who became known as ‘King of the High Cs’

Luciano Pavarotti, one of the greatest operatic tenors of all time, was born on this day in 1935 in Modena in Emilia-Romagna.  Pavarotti made many stage appearances and recordings of arias from opera throughout his career. He also crossed over into popular music, gaining fame for the superb quality of his voice.  Towards the end of his career, as one of the legendary Three Tenors, he became  known to an even wider audience because of his concerts and television appearances.  Pavarotti began his professional career on stage in Italy in 1961 and gave his final performance, singing the Puccini aria, Nessun Dorma, at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. He died the following year as a result of pancreatic cancer, aged 71.  The young Pavarotti had dreamt of becoming a goalkeeper for a football team but he later turned his attention to training as a singer.  His earliest influences were his father’s recordings of the Italian tenors, Beniamino Gigli, Tito Schipa and Enrico Caruso. But Pavarotti has said that his own favourite tenor was the Sicilian, Giuseppe di Stefano. Pavarotti experienced his first singing success as a member of a male voice choir from Modena, in which his father also sang.  Read more…

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Ascanio Sobrero - chemist

Professor who discovered nitroglycerine

The chemist Ascanio Sobrero, who discovered the volatile compound that became known as nitroglycerine, was born on this day in 1812 in Casale Monferrato in Piedmont.  Nitroglycerine has a pharmaceutical use as a vasodilator, improving blood flow in the treatment of angina, but it is more widely known as the key ingredient in explosives such as dynamite and gelignite.  Its commercial potential was exploited not by Sobrero but by Alfred Nobel, the Swedish businessman and philanthropist who gave his name to the annually awarded Nobel Prizes.  Sobrero, aware of how much damage it could cause, had actually warned against nitroglycerine being used outside the laboratory.  Little is known about Sobrero’s early life, apart from his being born in Casale Monferrato, a town about 60km (37 miles) east of Turin.  He studied medicine in Turin and Paris and then chemistry at the University of Giessen in Germany, earning his doctorate in 1832. In 1845 he returned to the University of Turin, becoming a professor there.  Sobrero had acquired some knowledge of explosives from the French chemist Théophile-Jules Pelouze, who had taught at the University of Turin while he was a student.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Piero della Francesca: Artist and Man, by James R Banker

Largely neglected for the four centuries after his death, the 15th century Italian artist Piero della Francesca is now seen to embody the fullest expression of the Renaissance perspective painter, raising him to an artistic stature comparable with that of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. But who was Piero, and how did he become the person and artist that he was? Until now, in spite of the great interest in his work, these questions have remained largely unanswered. Piero della Francesca: Artist and Man puts that situation right, integrating the story of Piero's artistic and mathematical achievements with the full chronicle of his life for the first time. Fortified by the discovery of over one hundred previously unknown documents, most unearthed by the author himself, James R. Banker at last brings this fascinating Renaissance enigma to life. The book presents us with Piero's friends, family, and collaborators, all set against the social background of the various cities and courts in which he lived - from the Tuscan commune of Sansepolcro in which he grew up, to Renaissance Florence, Ferrara, Ancona, Rimini, Rome, Arezzo, and Urbino, and eventually back to his home town for the final years of his life. As Banker shows, the cultural contexts in which Piero lived are crucial for understanding both the man and his paintings. 

James R Banker is Professor Emeritus of Italian History at North Carolina State University. For many years he lived in Florence and in Sansepolcro, Piero's home town in the Tuscan hills southeast of Florence.

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11 October

NEW - Mattias de’ Medici - Governor of Siena

Distinguished soldier was interested in art and science

Mattias de’ Medici, who was an enthusiastic supporter of the Palio horse race during his time as Governor of Siena, died on this day in 1667.  He is remembered for being a patron of art and of science and for the scientific instruments he acquired while on military campaigns during the Thirty Years War in Germany, which are now housed in the Uffizi galleries in Florence.  Mattias, who was born in 1613, was the third son of Grand Duke II Cosimo de Medici of Tuscany and of Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria.  He was originally intended for the church, but he had little enthusiasm for the ecclesiastical life and so from the age of 16, he pursued a military career instead.  After Cosimo II died in 1621, he was succeeded as Grand Duke by Matteo’s older brother, Ferdinando.  Grand Duke Ferdinando II appointed Mattias as the Governor of Siena, to replace their aunt, Caterina de’ Medici, who had been governor of the city until her death in 1629.  After he arrived in Siena, Mattias took up residence in the Royal Palace in Piazza del Duomo and he quickly became very popular with the people living in the city.  Read more…

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Anita Cerquetti – soprano

Performer with a powerful voice had brief moment in the spotlight

Anita Cerquetti, the singer whose remarkable voice received widespread praise when she stood in for a temperamental Maria Callas in Rome, died on this day in 2014 in Perugia.  Cerquetti had been singing the title role in Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma at Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1958 when Callas, who had been singing the same part in Rome, walked out after the first act on the opening night.  Despite Callas claiming that her voice was troubling her, the incident, in front of Italian President Giovanni Gronchi, created a major scandal.  Fortunately the performances in Rome and Naples were on alternate days and so for several weeks Cerquetti travelled back and forth between the two opera houses, which were 225km (140 miles) apart. The achievement left her exhausted and three years later she retired from singing and her magnificent voice was heard no more.  Cerquetti was born in Montecosaro near Macerata in the Marche. She studied the violin, but after a music professor heard her singing at a wedding she was persuaded to switch to vocal studies. After just one year she made her debut singing Aida in Spoleto in 1951.  Read more…

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Cesare Andrea Bixio - composer and lyricist

Pioneer of Italian film music left catalogue of classic songs

Cesare Andrea Bixio, the composer behind such classic Italian songs as Vivere, Mamma, La mia canzone al vento and Parlami d'amore Mariù, was born in Naples on this day in 1896.  Bixio enjoyed many years of popularity during which his compositions were performed by some of Italy's finest voices, including Beniamino Gigli, Tito Schipa and Carlo Buti, and later became staples for Giuseppe Di Stefano and Luciano Pavarotti.  He was also a pioneer of film soundtrack music, having been invited to compose a score for the first Italian movie with sound, La canzone dell'amore, in 1930. As well as writing more than 1,000 songs in his career, Bixio penned the soundtracks for more than 60 films.  Bixio's father, Carlo, was an engineer from Genoa; his grandfather was General Nino Bixio, a prominent military figure in the drive for Italian Unification and one of the organisers of Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand.  Carlo, who died when Cesare was only six years old, married a Neapolitan, Anna Vilone, who wanted him to pursue a career in engineering, like his father. However, after developing an interest in music at an early age he had other ideas.  Read more…

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Pierre-Napoleon Bonaparte – adventurer

Colourful life of Italian-born prince

Prince Pierre-Napoleon Bonaparte, a nephew of the Emperor Napoleon, was born on this day in 1815 in Rome.  He was to become notorious for shooting dead a journalist after his family was criticised in a newspaper article.  Bonaparte was the son of Napoleon’s brother, Lucien, and his second wife, Alexandrine de Bleschamp. He grew up with his nine siblings on the family estate at Canino, about 40 kilometres north of Rome.  The young Bonaparte helped to keep bandits at bay, spending a lot of time with the local shepherds who were armed and had dogs to protect them.  He set out on a career of adventure, joining bands of insurgents in the Romagna region as a teenager.  In 1831 he spent time in prison for a minor offence and was banished from the Papal States.  He went to the United States to join his uncle, Joseph Bonaparte, in New Jersey. He spent some time in New York before going to serve in the army of the President of Columbia. At the age of 17 he became the President’s aide and was given the rank of Commander.  Bonaparte returned to the family estate at Canino where he enjoyed hunting with his brothers.  Read more…

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Recording of the Day: Anita Cerquetti - The Verdi Soprano

The Italian soprano Anita Cerquetti was a phenomenon.  Her operatic career began in 1951 in Spoleto, debuting as Aida, and took her to the world's great opera houses before ending in Holland in 1960. After just nine seasons, the then 29-year-old singer retired from the stage. There are only two commercial records of her (on Decca); the record companies at the time filled the major soprano roles with Callas or Tebaldi.  But thanks to numerous live recordings which circulated on the black market from the very beginning, Anita Cerquetti is still held in honour today. Why? Because here is a voice that exudes pure sensuality with the most opulent femininity. Because her voice is one of the most beautiful that opera has ever heard: never aggressive, sharp or shrill, but round, soft, lyrical and emphatic. Her voice was practically made for Giuseppe Verdi's romantic heroines - perfectly suited to the softly swinging, melancholy melodic arches of Ernani and Vespri siciliani-Elvira, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, Don Carlo's Elisabetta, and Leonora in La Forza del destino, even for the formidable octave leaps of the imperious Nabucco-Abigaille.  The Verdi Soprano box set, which honours Anita Cerquetti as the leading Verdi interpreter of her time, is now being released in October on the 10th anniversary of her death.

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Mattias de’ Medici - Governor of Siena

Distinguished soldier was interested in art and science

A portrait of Mattias de' Medici by
the court painter, Justus Sustermans

Mattias de’ Medici, who was an enthusiastic supporter of the Palio horse race during his time as Governor of Siena, died on this day in 1667.

He is remembered for being a patron of art and of science and for the scientific instruments he acquired while on military campaigns during the Thirty Years War in Germany, which are now housed in the Uffizi galleries in Florence.

Mattias, who was born in 1613, was the third son of Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici of Tuscany and of Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria.

He was originally intended for the church, but he had little enthusiasm for the ecclesiastical life and so from the age of 16, he pursued a military career instead.

After Cosimo II died in 1621, he was succeeded as Grand Duke by Matteo’s older brother, Ferdinando.  Grand Duke Ferdinando II appointed Mattias as the Governor of Siena, to replace their aunt, Caterina de’ Medici, who had been governor of the city until her death in 1629.

After he arrived in Siena, Mattias took up residence in the Royal Palace in Piazza del Duomo and he quickly became very popular with the people living in the city.

He took part in the Battle of Lutzen in 1632, during the Thirty Years War in Germany. After he returned to Siena, he ruled the city again before becoming involved in the Wars of Castro.

A portrait of Mattias
in military uniform 

Mattias was given supreme authority over the grand duchy’s military affairs by his brother, Ferdinando, and he commanded the League of the Republic of Venice, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Parma, and the Duchy of Modena and Reggio, in the struggle against Pope Urban VIII.

As a reward for his military victories, his brother, Ferdinando, presented Mattias with the Villa of Lappeggi in a beautiful area of countryside near Florence.

Mattias was an enthusiastic  supporter of the arts and he became a keen collector. He was the patron of Justus Sustermans, the Flemish court painter of the Medici family, and of Baldassare Franceschini, who was also known as Il Volteranno.

His interests centred on painting, and he paid for the training of Livio Mehus, a Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver, many of whose works are listed in an inventory of Mattias’s possessions made in 1669. As a soldier, Mattias was particularly interested in battle painting, and the artist Giacomo Cortese, who, like Mattias, had experienced military combat, was employed by him in the 1650s. 

Mattias was said to have been delighted with four paintings of battles in which he had fought himself, which have been identified in a room in the Villa of Lappeggi.  This room also contains a damaged fresco, which has been identified as Victory and Fame by Franceschini. 

Mattias promoted Siena’s famous Palio during its early history and a horse from his stable regularly took part in the event.

During his time in Germany, he acquired many scientific instruments, such as dials, astrolabes, quadrants, and compasses, which were given to the Uffizi gallery. 

Mattias never married and as he got older, he suffered from gout. He was considering re-entering the church, but illness prevented it. He died in Siena in 1667 at the age of 54. He was buried in the Medici family tombs in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence.

His embalmed body was exhumed in 1857 during an investigation into the Medici remains in the church. He was found dressed as a Knight of Malta in black velvet, wearing velvet shoes and with a gold medal on his chest.

The Palio di Siena still attracts huge crowds
to witness the event in Piazza del Campo

Travel tip:

The Palio di Siena is a horse race that takes place in the Piazza del Campo in Siena twice each year, on 2 July and 16 August. Ten horses and bareback riders, who are dressed in the colours of their districts, represent 10 of the 17 contrade, or city wards, in a competition that dates back to 1633, when it was inaugurated soon after Mattias de’ Medici became governor of the city.  The 10 participants race each other on a temporary dirt track around the perimeter of the shell-shaped piazza. The race consists of three laps, which the horses cover at such a furious pace that the whole thing is over in about 90 seconds. It is not uncommon for riders to fall off but a riderless horse can still be declared the winner if the colours of their contrada are still attached to the bridle. 

The Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence, which
houses the tombs of the Medici family

Travel tip:

The Basilica of San Lorenzo, where Mattias de’ Medici is buried, is one of the largest churches in Florence. It is at the centre of the main market district of the city, and is the burial place of all the principal members of the Medici family. It is one of several churches that claim to be the oldest in Florence, having been consecrated in 393 AD, at a time when it stood outside the city walls. For hundreds of years it was the city's cathedral, before the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was completed in the 15th century. In 1419, Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici - father of Cosimo de’ Medici, the founder of the banking dynasty - offered to finance a new church to replace an 11th-century Romanesque building. Filippo Brunelleschi, the leading Renaissance architect of the first half of the 15th century, famous for the colossal dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, was commissioned to design it, although it was not completed until after his death.

Also on this day:

1815: The birth of adventurer Pierre-Napoleon Bonaparte

1896: The birth of composer and lyricist Cesare Andrea Bixio

2014: The death of soprano Anna Cerquetti

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