Giangiacomo Feltrinelli – publisher

Accidental death of an aristocratic activist

Giangiacomo Feltrinelli was both one of Italy's
richest men and a passionate revolutionary

Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, a leading European publisher and one of Italy’s richest men, died on this day in 1972 after being blown up while trying to ignite a terrorist bomb on an electricity pylon at Segrate near Milan.

It was a bizarre end to the life and career of a man who had helped revolutionise Italian book publishing. He became famous for his decision to translate and publish Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago after the manuscript was smuggled out of the Soviet Union, where it had been banned on the grounds of being anti-Soviet.

This was an event that shook the Soviet empire and led to Pasternak winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Feltrinelli also started the first chain of book shops in Italy, which still bear his name.

He was born in 1926 into a wealthy, monarchist family. At the instigation of his mother, Feltrinelli was created Marquess of Gargnano when he was 12 by Benito Mussolini.

During the Second World War, the family left their home, Villa Feltrinelli, north of Salò on Lake Garda to make way for Mussolini to live there. But in the later stages of the war, Feltrinelli enrolled in the Italian Communist Party and fought against the Germans and the remnants of Mussolini’s regime.

The newspaper front page announcing the
death of Giangiacomo Feltrinelli

From 1949 onwards, Feltrinelli collected documents for the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Library in Milan relating to the development of the international labour and socialist movements.

Feltrinelli established a publishing company in Milan in 1954.

His determination to publish Doctor Zhivago in 1957 was vindicated when it became an international best seller. He later sold the film rights to MGM for 450,000 dollars.

But Feltrinelli was criticised by Italian Communist Party members for defying Moscow and as a result decided not to renew his party membership.

He opened his first Feltrinelli book shop in Pisa in 1957 and, by his death, the chain of shops was the largest in Italy.

After meeting Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Feltrinelli published his writings, along with those of Che Guevara and Ho Chi Minh.

Among other causes, he gave financial support to the Palestine Liberation Front.

Feltrinelli increasingly advocated guerrilla activity in Italy on behalf of the working classes. Anticipating assassination attempts by the CIA or Mossad, he assumed a battle name, Osvaldo, and went underground.

Feltrinelli celebrates publishing the
banned Russian novel Doctor Zhivago

After he was found dead at the foot of the pylon, apparently killed by his own explosives, his death was immediately thought to be suspicious.

His stepfather, the writer Luigi Barzini, considered but ultimately rejected the idea that he was deliberately killed.

In 1979 during an anti-terrorist trial, Red Brigades defendants read a signed statement to the court saying Feltrinelli had been engaged in an operation to sabotage electricity pylons to cause a blackout in a big area of Milan. They said he committed a technical error that led to his fatal accident and the failure of the whole operation.

Forty years after his death, the newspaper Corriere della Sera published forensic reports claiming Feltrinelli had been tied to the pylon before the bomb was detonated, implying he had been killed and framed by Italian or Israeli security forces. There has also been speculation that Feltrinelli was murdered by the KGB.

The Grand Hotel Villa Feltrinelli sits on the shore of Lake Garda

Travel tip:

Villa Feltrinelli, which was vacated by the Feltrinelli family to provide a home for Mussolini during the war, is now the Grand Hotel Villa Feltrinelli in Via Rimembranza, Gargnano. One of the most prestigious hotels in the world, this neo-Gothic villa was built by the Feltrinelli family on the shores of Lake Garda in the 19th century. It is where Mussolini spent his last 600 days, while he headed the Republic of Salò, before he was apprehended and executed while trying to escape from Italy.

Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in Milan

Travel tip:

The Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in Viale Pasubio, Milan, was founded in 1949 as a library. It has an archive of nearly 1.5 million items, 250,000 volumes and 16,000 journals on the themes of equal society and citizens’ rights. The current building, designed by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, is open to visitors from 9.30 to 17.30 Monday to Friday. To arrange a guided tour, contact visiteguidatefgf@gmail.com.

More reading:

The accidental death of an anarchist

Piazza Fontana bombing

Mussolini's last stand

Also on this day:

1820: The birth of King Victor Emmanuel II

1835: The birth of Giovanni Schiaparelli, who believed there were canals on Mars

(Picture credit: Villa Feltrinelli by BMK via Wikimedia Commons)

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Corrado Gaipa – actor

From The Godfather to voice of Alec Guinness

Corrado Gaipa was a talented character actor who
appeared in more than 30 movies

The respected character actor and voice-dubber Corrado Gaipa was born on this day in 1925 in Palermo.

His versatility as a voice actor brought him considerable work at a time when Italian cinema audiences much preferred to watch dubbed versions of mainstream English-language films rather than hear the original soundtrack with subtitles.

Gaipa’s voice replaced that of Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy.  He was also heard dubbing Spencer Tracy in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Burt Lancaster in The Leopard, Telly Savalas in The Dirty Dozen and Lee J Cobb in The Exorcist.

He was the voice of a number of characters in animation films also, including Bagheera in Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book and Scat-Cat in The Aristocats.

As an actor in his own right, he worked with many leading directors in Italian cinema, including Francesco Rosi and Vittorio Gassman.

His most famous role was probably that of Don Tommasino in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather.

In Mario Puzo’s story, Don Tommasino was an old friend in Sicily of the movie’s main character, Vito Corleone, who sold olive oil to restaurants and stores in New York on behalf of Tommasino.

Gaipa played Don Tommasino in
the original Godfather movie

In return, Corleone calls on Tommasino for help in eliminating the local Mafia chief, Don Ciccio, who he believes was complicit in the murder of his parents.  Gaipa was partially disabled, needing to walk with a stick and sometimes using a wheelchair. As it happens, his character, Tommasino, is crippled by a shotgun blast from one of Ciccio’s bodyguards.

Later in the story, Vito Corleone calls on Tommasino, who replaces Ciccio as the local Mafia capo, to look after his son, Michael Corleone, during a period in which takes refuge in Sicily after committing two murders in New York.

Before embarking on his career, Gaipa was a student at the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Rome, founded by the writer and critic Silvio D’Amico, and named after him following his death.

He made his stage debut in 1948 and for several years was an important actor in radio productions before moving into television.

After appearing on the small screen for the first time in a comedy called La rosa bianca  (The White Rose), he became a regular in TV drama series, including the 1973 hit Napoleon on Sant’Elena, in which he portrayed the English prime minister Lord Liverpool.

Although he struggled with his health over a long period, his death in 1989 at the age of 64 came rather suddenly, denying cinemagoers the chance to see him return to the role of Don Tommasino in The Godfather Part III, for which he was preparing at the time of his death.

Rome's Parioli district is an upmarket residential area

Travel tip:

The Silvio D’Amico National Academy of Dramatic Art can be found in Via Vincenzo Bellini where it meets Via Guido d’Arezzo in the Parioli district of Rome, between the Villa Borghese gardens and the vast Parco di Villa Ada. The academy, which has trained many leading Italian actors, now has university status.  Parioli is regarded as Rome’s most elegant residential area.

Rome hotels by Booking.com

Palermo's Teatro Massimo is the largest opera house in Italy

Travel tip:

Palermo, Gaipa’s home city, is blessed with a number of notable theatres, including the magnificent Teatro Massimo – the largest opera house in Italy – as well as Teatro Politeama, Teatro Biondo, Teatro di Verdura, Teatro Garibaldi and Teatro Santa Cecilia.  The city also boasts a number of theatres devoted to the Sicilian tradition of puppet theatre.

Also on this day:

1955: The birth of footballer and coach Bruno Conti

1960: The birth of rock star Luciano Ligabue

1980: The birth of dancer Flavia Cacace, formerly of Strictly fame

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Pietro Andrea Mattioli – doctor

The first botanist to describe the tomato

As a physician, Pietro Andrea Mattioli described the
first documented case of cat allergy

Doctor and naturalist Pietro Andrea Gregorio Mattioli was born on this day in 1501 in Siena.

As the author of an illustrated work on botany, Mattioli provided the first documented example of an early variety of tomato that was being grown and eaten in Europe.

He is also believed to have described the first case of cat allergy, when one of his patients was so sensitive to cats that if he went into a room where there was a cat he would react with agitation, sweating and pallor.

Mattioli received his medical degree at the University of Padua in 1523 and practised his profession in Siena, Rome, Trento and Gorizia.

He became the personal physician to Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, in Prague and to Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, in Vienna.

While working for the imperial court it is believed he tested the effects of poisonous plants on prisoners, which was a common practice at the time.

Mattioli's book about the work of
Greek physician Dioscorides

Mattioli’s interest in botany led him to describe 100 new plants and document the medical botany of his time in his Discorsi (Commentaries) on the Materia Medica of Dioscorides, a Greek physician and botanist. Dioscorides had written a five-volume encyclopaedia about herbal medicine and other medicinal substances that had been widely read for 1,500 years.

The first edition of Mattioli’s work appeared in 1544 in Italian. There were several later editions and translations into Latin, French, Czech and German.

He added descriptions of plants not in the original work and not of any known medical use. The woodcuts in Mattioli’s work were of a high standard, helping the reader to identify the plants.

The Scottish botanist Robert Brown later named a plant genus Matthiola in his honour.

Mattioli died in 1577 during a visit to Trento, now the capital city of Trentino-Alto Adige.

Siena's Piazza del Campo viewed from the air

Travel tip:

Mattioli’s birthplace, Siena, is famous for its shell-shaped Piazza del Campo, where the Palio di Siena takes place twice each year. It was established in the 13th century as an open marketplace and is now regarded as one of the finest medieval squares in Europe. The red brick paving, fanning out from the centre in nine sections, was put down in 1349. The city’s Duomo was designed and completed between 1215 and 1263 on the site of an earlier structure. It has a beautiful façade built in Tuscan Romanesque style using polychrome marble.

The Piazza del Duomo in Trento

Travel tip:

Trento is a city on the Adige river, which was formerly part of Austria-Hungary. It is famous as the location of the Council of Trent in the 16th century, an ecumenical council that led to a Catholic resurgence in the wake of the Protestant Reformation.  It was annexed by Italy in 1919 and is now one of the country’s most prosperous cities.

Hotels in Trento from Booking.com



More reading:

Ulisse Aldrovandi - the 'father' of natural history

How Prospero Alpini 'discovered' the coffee-drinking habit that took Italy by storm in the 18th century

Cesare Battisti - the patriot who campaigned for Trentino

Also on this day:

1863: The birth of writer and patriot Gabriele D'Annunzio

1921: The birth of Fiat patriarch Gianni Agnelli

(Picture credit: Piazza del Duomo by Casalmaggiore Provincia via Wikimedia Commons)

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Sidney Sonnino – politician

Minister who pushed Italy to switch sides in World War One

Sidney Sonnino was an influential figure
in shaping Italy's foreign policy

Sidney Sonnino, the politician who was Italy’s influential Minister of Foreign Affairs during the First World War, was born on this day in 1847 in Pisa.

Sonnino led two short-lived governments in the early 1900s but it was as Foreign Affairs Minister in 1914 that he made his mark on Italian history, advising prime minister Antonio Salandra to side with the Entente powers – France, Great Britain and Russia – in the First World War, abandoning its Triple Alliance partnership with Germany and Austria-Hungary.

His motives were entirely driven by self-interest. A committed irredentist who saw the war as an opportunity to expand Italy's borders by reclaiming former territory, he reasoned that Austria-Hungary was unlikely to give back parts of Italy it had seized previously.

Instead, he sanctioned the secret Treaty of London with the Entente powers, which led Italy to declare war on Austria-Hungary in 2015.

In the event, although Sonnino backed the winning side, the promises made in the Treaty of London, namely that Italy would win territories in Tyrol, Dalmatia and Istria, were not fulfilled. Despite suffering major casualties, including 600,000 dead, Italy was granted only minor territorial gains.

The perception that prime minister Vittorio Orlando – the third prime minister during Sonnino’s term as Minister of Foreign Affairs – had been humiliated as the spoils were divided at the Treaty of Versailles in part paved the way for Mussolini to capture the imagination of a disaffected nation.

At the Versailles summit: Sonnino is on the right with
Marshall Foch and premier Clemenceau of France, British
PM David Lloyd George and Italy's Vittorio Orlando

Sonnino had come from an unusual background.  The son of an Italian father of Jewish heritage and a Welsh mother, he was raised as an Anglican.  The family’s wealth came from his grandfather, who had left the Jewish ghetto in Livorno to move to Egypt, where he made his fortune in banking.  They lived in the Castello Sonnino, on a clifftop overlooking the sea in Quercianella, south of Livorno.

Educated at the University of Pisa, where he graduated in law, Sonnino had a brief career as a diplomat before teaming up with his friend Leopoldo Franchetti, who would also go on to have a career in politics, in conducting one of the first major studies of Sicilian society, and in particular the workings of the Mafia.

Sonnino was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies for the first time in 1880 and remained a deputy until he resigned in 1919 in the wake of the Versailles humiliation.

He was known throughout his career as a sternly intransigent moralist but praised for his honesty and was seen as incorruptible and an able diplomat. He was a friend of southern Italy, introducing a number of measures that helped revive the southern Italian economy.

Sonnino died in Rome in 1922 after suffering a stroke.

The Castello Sonnino's clifftop setting on a
promontory near Livorno

Travel tip:

The Castello Sonnino stands on a promontory south of Livorno near the hamlet of Quercianella. It was built in neo-medieval style by Sidney Sonnino on the site of a 16^th-century fort built by the Medici. Sonnino was said to be fascinated by the rough solitude of that stretch of Italian coastline.  After his death, he was buried in a cave in a nearby cliff.

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Pisa's Piazza dei Cavalieri, looking towards the
Piazza dell'Orologio

Travel tip:

Pisa’s Piazza dei Cavalieri is the site of many historical buildings of political importance in the Renaissance, most of which are now part of the University of Pisa, including the Scuola Normale Superiore building, designed by the important Italian Renaissance artist and architect Giorgio Vasari. Look out also for the Palazzo dell'Orologio and the Chiesa di Santo Stefano, also designed by Vasari.

More reading:

How General Armando Diaz led Italian forces to a decisive victory over the Austrians

The Villa Giusti Armistice and the end of World War One in Italy

Mussolini and the rise of Italian Fascism

Also on this day:

1544: The birth of the great Renaissance poet Torquato Tasso

1851: Verdi's Rigoletto debuts at La Fenice

1924: The birth of mental health pioneer Franco Basaglia

(Picture credits: Castello Sonnino by Luca Aless; Piazza dei Cavalieri by Stephen Sommerhalter)

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Corrado Parnucci – architectural sculptor

Prolific artist whose work adorns cities of Michigan

Corrado Parnucci moved to New York
with his father at the age of just four 

The architectural sculptor Corrado Giuseppe Parnucci, who left his artistic mark on more than 600 buildings in Detroit and other cities in the US state of Michigan, was born on this day in 1900 in Buti, a Tuscan village about 15km (9 miles) east of Pisa.

Taken to live in America at the age of four, Parnucci – generally known as Joe – settled in Detroit after accepting some work there in 1924.

Among the Detroit landmarks with architectural embellishments by Parnucci are the Buhl Building, The Players, the Guardian Building, the David Stott Building, the Detroit Masonic Temple, the Detroit Historical Museum and the Wilson Theater.  Most of those buildings went up during the 1920s as the city’s skyline underwent huge change.

Parnucci also sculpted work for buildings in most other major Michigan cities, including Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor and Flint, and accepted numerous commissions from private individuals.

One of his masterpieces is the moulded plaster ceiling in the dining room of Meadowbrook Hall, the Tudor revival mansion built for Matilda Dodge, ex-wife of Dodge Motors co-founder John F Dodge. He also worked on the home of Edsel Ford, the son of Ford founder Henry.

The entrance to the Guardian Building in Detroit,
flanked by Parnucci carvings either side

Although Parnucci worked in a wide range of styles, from Romanesque to Aztec, he was particularly known as a pioneer of Greco Deco, which combined Greek and Roman traditions with the then highly-fashionable Art Deco.

Born into a family of 13 children, he emigrated to New York with his father. For reasons not known, he was the only one of the family who accompanied his father, who found work as a grocer yet had to place his son in the care of a Catholic orphanage until the rest of the family were able to join them 18 months later, taking a house in MacDougall Street in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan, just south of Washington Square

Nonetheless, Corrado grew up a bright boy and showed an aptitude for art at school, which brought him to the attention of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, a society heiress who went on to found the Whitney Museum of American Art, and who had a philanthropic interest in New York slum kids.

It was with her help that he attended sculpture classes and later obtained a scholarship to an arts institute in New York.

On leaving college, Parducci was apprenticed to architectural sculptor Ulysses Ricci.

The cathedral of St Peter in Marquette

In 1924 Parducci travelled to Detroit to work for Albert Kahn, the foremost American industrial architect of his time. Parducci planned to stay for only a few months before returning to New York.

However, Detroit was enjoying a boom time as the automotive industry blossomed and he soon realised the opportunity to make a good living was something he could not turn down. After a short time, having set up his own studio, he decided he would stay.

When the Depression brought commercial building projects to a standstill, Parducci diversified into sculpting for churches, which became a major focus of his work.  His projects included a basilica in Royal Oak, Michigan, cathedrals in Marquette and Detroit and the Shrine of the Holy Innocents at the Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Chicago.

Parducci died in Detroit in 1981, having worked at his studios until a few days before his death.

The main square in Parnucci's home town of Buti

Travel tip:

Buti, a town of Roman origin on the eastern slopes of Monte Pisano, is home to about 5,500 people.  It is notable for the Villa Medicea, built by the Medici family in the 16^th century, for the fortress of Castel Tonini that stands guard over the town, and the nearby fortified village, Castel di Nocco, which were among eight fortifications that once stood in the area, a throwback to the days when the town was a prize to be captured in the long-running battle for supremacy waged by Lucca, Pisa and Florence.

Palazzo della Carovana in Pisa's Piazza dei Cavalieri

Travel tip:

Many visitors to Pisa do not venture beyond the Campo dei Miracoli, home of the Leaning Tower, the handsome Romanesque cathedral and the equally impressive baptistry. But there is much more to the city, where a large student population ensures a vibrant cafe and bar scene. There are also many Romanesque buildings, Gothic churches and Renaissance piazzas, among them Piazza dei Cavalieri, which is notable for the Palazzo della Carovana, built by Giorgio Vasari in 1564.


More reading:

Giuseppe Moretti, the sculptor whose statue of Vulcan stands guard over Birmingham, Alabama

Ernesto Basile, the pioneer of Stile Liberty

Renzo Piano, the architect behind the Pomidou Centre and the Shard

Also on this day:

1749: The birth of Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart's colourful librettist

1872: The death of Risorgimento hero Giuseppe Mazzini

(Picture credits: Guardian Building by Carptrash; Cathedral of St Peter by Bobak; square in Buti by Sailko; Palazzo della Carovano by Archeologo; via Wikimedia Commons)

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Amerigo Vespucci – explorer

Medici clerk who discovered a new world

Amerigo Vespucci began exploring as an observer
at the invitation of the King of Portugal 

Explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci was born on this day in 1454 in Florence.

Vespucci was the first to discover the ‘new world’, which later came to be called the Americas, taking the Latin version of his first name.

He was the son of a notary in Florence and a cousin of the husband of the beautiful artist’s model, Simonetta Vespucci. He was educated by his uncle, Fra Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, a Dominican friar, and he was later hired as a clerk by the Medici family.

He acquired the favour of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, who sent him to the Medici office in Cadiz in Spain to investigate the managers, who were under suspicion.

Later, as the executor of an Italian merchant who had died in Seville, Vespucci fulfilled the deceased’s contract with Castile to provide 12 vessels to sail to the Indies. He then continued supplying provisions for expeditions to the Indies and was invited by the King of Portugal to participate as an observer on several voyages of exploration.

Although letters have been forged and fraudulent claims have been made about his discoveries, Vespucci is known to have taken an active part in at least two real voyages of exploration.

Vespucci's arrival in the 'new world', as imagined by the
Flemish engraver Theodor de Bry 

In 1499, on a voyage intended to round the southern end of the African mainland into the Indian ocean, Vespucci is believed to have crossed the Atlantic, hitting land in what is now Guyana on the South American mainland, then sailed southwards, discovering the mouth of the Amazon river and seeing Trinidad and the Orinoco river, before returning to Spain.

In 1501, he was on a voyage which reached the coast of Brazil and sailed along the coast of South America to Rio di Janeiro’s bay. He wrote in a letter to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici that the land masses were ‘larger and different from the Asia described by Marco Polo and, therefore, must be a new world, a previously unknown fourth continent.’

In 1507, an author of a geography book, Martin Waldseemüller, suggested the name America, especially for the Brazilian part of the new world, in honour of the ‘illustrious man’ who discovered it. This is how the names for North America and South America originated.

Vespucci was made chief navigator of Spain in 1508 by King Ferdinand and was commissioned to start a school of navigation, where he developed a rudimentary method of determining longitude. He died in 1512 at his home in Seville, aged 57.

The church of San Salvatore di Ognissanti
is the parish church of the Vespucci family

Travel tip:

The parish church of the Vespucci family is the Church of All Saints - Chiesa di San Salvatore di Ognissanti - in Borgo Ognissanti, close to the Santa Maria Novella railway station. In the Vespucci Chapel, a fresco by Domenico Ghirlandaio depicts the Madonna della Misericordia protecting members of the Vespucci family. It is believed to show Amerigo Vespucci as a child among them. Vespucci later named a bay in Brazil, San Salvatore di Ognissanti, which is the origin of the name of the city of Salvador in Brazil.

Find a Florence hotel on TripAdvisor 

The statue of Amerigo
Vespucci by the Ufizzi 

Travel tip:

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence has a posthumous portrait of Amerigo Vespucci, which has been attributed to Cristofano dell’Altissimo. Outside the gallery there is also a statue of Amerigo Vespucci. The Uffizi is one of the most important art galleries in the world and attracts so many visitors it is vital to book a ticket in advance to avoid a long wait. The complex of buildings that make up the gallery was designed by Giorgio Vasari as offices - uffizi - for the Medici family in 1560.

Florence hotels by Booking.com


More reading: 

Why Simonetta Vespucci was seen as the embodiment of female perfection

Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici - the art enthusiast who was Botticelli's patron

Created by an Italian - New York's monument to Christopher Columbus

Also on this day:

1809: The birth of statesman and Chianti wine 'inventor' Bettino Ricasoli

1908: The founding of football superpower Internazionale of Milan

1948: The birth of radical politician Emma Bonino

(Picture credit: Church of San Salvatore di Ognisanti by Sailko; statue by Jebulon)

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Carlo Gesualdo – composer

Madrigal writer was also a murderer

Carlo Gesualdo devoted himself to music
from an early age

Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa, who composed highly experimental music for his time, was born on this day in 1566 in the principality of Venosa, then part of the Kingdom of Naples.

He was to become known both for his extraordinary music and for the brutal killing of his first wife and her aristocratic lover after he caught them together.

Gesualdo was the nephew of Carlo Borromeo, who later became Saint Charles Borromeo. His mother, Geronima Borromeo, was the niece of Pope Pius IV.

Although Gesualdo was sent to Rome to begin an ecclesiastical career, he became heir to the principality after his older brother died. He married his cousin, Donna Maria D’Avalos, and they had a son, Emanuele.

Gesualdo was devoted to music from an early age and mixed with musicians and composers, learning to play the lute, harpsichord and guitar.

Donna Maria began an affair with Fabrizio Carafa, Duke of Andria and Count of Ruova, and one night in 1590 Gesualdo caught them in flagrante at the Palazzo San Severo in Naples. He killed them both on the spot.

A delegation of officials from Naples inspected the room where they were killed and found the corpses were mutilated.

The Palazzo San Severo, where Gesualdo murdered his
wife and her aristocratic lover

Witnesses said he had returned to the room to make certain they were dead. But the court decided Gesualdo had not committed a crime.

After Gesualdo’s father died, he became Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza. He arranged to marry Leonora d’Este and travelled to the Este court at Ferrara.

At the time the court was a centre of musical activity and the madrigal was popular. Surrounded by some of the finest musicians in Italy, Gesualdo wrote his first book of madrigals, having worked with three renowned female singers.

Back at his castle in the town of  Gesualdo, in the province of Avellino, he established a group of resident singers and musicians to perform his music, both sacred and secular, which he later published with a printer in Naples.

Listen to one of Gesualdo's best-known madrigals

His relationship with his second wife was poor and she spent a lot of time away. His son by his second marriage died in 1600.

Gesualdo began to suffer from depression and it has been claimed he asked his servants to beat him regularly. He died alone at his castle three weeks after the death of his eldest son, Emanuele, in 1613.

The church of Gesu Nuovo in Naples, where Carlo
Gesualdo was buried after his death in 1613

He was buried in the chapel of Saint Ignatius, in the church of Gesu Nuovo in Naples. His tomb was destroyed in the earthquake of 1688 and covered over when the church was rebuilt. The composer now lies beneath the church, but his burial plaque is still visible.

It has been said the the guilt he felt over the murders he committed was expressed through his music, which was among the most experimental of the Renaissance. Similar music was not composed again until the 19th century.

Gesualdo’s most famous works are his six books of madrigals, but his music and life story has inspired other music, operas and books.  The Music Conservatory in Potenza is named the Conservatoria di Musica Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa in his honour.

The Aragonese Castle in Venosa, built in 1470, which
Gesualdo turned into a residence 

Travel tip:

Venosa, where Carlo Gesualdo was born, is in the province of Potenza in Basilicata. One of the main sights is the Aragonese Castle, built in 1470, which he turned into a residence. It now houses the National Museum of Venosa and a collection of Roman artefacts. The nearby Archaeological Area of Notarchirico covers the Palaeolithic period with eleven layers dating from 600,000 to 300,000 years ago. Remains of ancient wildlife, including extinct species of elephants, bisons and rhinoceroses, have been found, as well as a fragment of a femur from the Homo erectus species of ancient humans.

Hotels in Venosa from Booking.com

The town of Gesualdo in Campania, which is called 'the city
of the prince of musicians' in honour of Carlo Gesualdo

Travel tip:

Gesualdo, in the province of Avellino in Campania, is called ‘the city of the prince of musicians’ in honour of the composer, who wrote madrigals at the castle, which he transformed from a fortress into a palace able to accommodate writers, such as Torquato Tasso, and musicians.

More reading:

How Carlo Borromeo led moves to stop the spread of Protestantism

Luca Marenzio, the madrigal writer who influenced Monteverdi

Salomone Rossi, the leading Jewish composer of the Renaissance

Also on this day:

La Festa della Donna - International Women's Day

1949: The birth of evergreen singer-songwriter Antonello Venditti

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