Luigi Guido Grandi – monk, philosopher and mathematician

Man of religion who advanced mathematical knowledge

Luigi Guido Grande was an
acclaimed mathematician

Luigi Guido Grandi, who published mathematical studies on the cone and the curve, died on this day in 1742 in Pisa.

He had been court mathematician to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III de’ Medici, and because he was also an engineer, he was appointed superintendent of water for the Duchy.

Grandi was born in 1671 in Cremona and was educated at the Jesuit College in the city.

He joined the Camaldolese monks at Ferrara when he was 16 and a few years later he was sent to the monastery of St Gregory the Great in Rome to complete his studies in philosophy and theology in preparation for taking holy orders.

Having become a professor in both subjects at a monastery in Florence, he became interested in mathematics, which he studied privately.

Grandi soon developed such a reputation in the field of mathematics that he was appointed court mathematician by Cosimo III.

Grandi was involved with the drainage of the
Chiana Valley, south of Arezzo

While also serving as Superintendent of Water at the Medici court, he was involved in the drainage of the Chiana valley, which runs north to south between Arezzo and Orvieto.

In 1709 Grandi visited England, where he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1714 he was named Professor of Mathematics by the University of Pisa.

He published studies on the conical loxodrome and on the curve, which he named versiera from the Latin verb, to turn. The curve was later studied by the female scientist Maria Gaetana Agnesi. Through a mistranslation into English, the curve became known in England as Agnesi’s witch, because the translator mistook the word for curve, for the word for witch.

Grandi was perhaps best known for his work on the rose curve, which he named rhodonea. The mathematician died in Pisa on 4 July 1742.

The Sperlari shop in Cremona specialises in torrone (nougat)

Travel tip:

Cremona, where Grandi was born, is famous for having the tallest bell tower in Italy, il Torrazzo, which measures more than 112 metres in height. As well as being well known for making violins, Cremona also produces confectionery. Negozio Sperlari in Via Solferino specialises in the city’s famous torrone (nougat). This concoction of almonds, honey and egg whites was created in the city to mark the marriage of Bianca Maria Visconti to Francesco Sforza in 1441, when Cremona was given to the bride as part of her dowry.

The Bapistery in Pisa's Campo dei Miracoli

Travel tip:

Pisa, where Grandi was a professor at the university until he died, is famous for its Leaning Tower. The tower is one of the four buildings that make up the cathedral complex in the Field of Miracles (Campo dei Miracoli). The Duomo was the first to be constructed and then the Baptistery was added. While work on the tower was being carried out, a cemetery (Campo Santo) was added. During the summer, the Leaning Tower is open to visitors from 08.30 to 22.00. Tickets to climb the tower are limited and booking in advance is recommended if you want to avoid queuing. For more details, visit www.towerofpisa.org/tickets.

More reading:

Why Einstein nodded his respect to this mathematician from Padua

Scientist who emerged from Galileo's shadow

When Italy needed the world's help to save the Leaning Tower

Also on this day:

1914: The birth of the car designer Giuseppe Bertone

1927: The birth of the actress Gina Lollobrigida

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Walter Veltroni - politician

Popular former communist twice elected Mayor of Rome

Walter Veltroni was the first leader of Italy's
centre-left Democratic Party

The politician Walter Veltroni, who was the first leader of Italy’s centre-left Democratic Party (Partito Democratico) and was twice elected Mayor of Rome, was born on this day in 1955 in Rome.

A popular figure, Veltroni helped the PD reach a level of influence in Italian politics that enabled them to provide the leaders of three consecutive governments in Enrico Letta, Matteo Renzi and Paolo Gentiloni before the centre-left were routed at the 2018 general election.

Veltroni had such charisma and broad appeal that he was often tipped as a future prime minister, but his star began to wane after he lost the April 2008 general election in a head-to-head with Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom party.

He had stepped down as Mayor of Rome in order to focus on winning the election so defeat was a crushing blow.  In February 2009, following a heavy defeat for PD in regional elections in Sardinia and amid clashes within the party, he resigned as leader, giving way to his former deputy, Dario Franceschini.

Veltroni's political career had begun in 1976, when he was elected as a Rome city councillor as a member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI).

Veltroni served two terms as
Mayor of Rome

When he was bidding to become Italy’s prime minister, Veltroni claimed he had never been a true communist, yet he had been a member of the Italian Communist Youth Federation from the age of 15.

Veltroni was the son of a manager in the RAI broadcasting network. His maternal grandfather had been a Slovenian diplomat in the Catholic Church who had helped many Jews and anti-fascists escape Nazi persecution in 1943.

A journalist by trade, he rose to the position of editor-in-chief of L'Unità, the newspaper of the the reconstituted Communist party, the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS). His reputation was that of a progressive, however, and he was a driving force in turning the party into a social democratic movement. Under his stewardship, sales of the paper rose by almost a third to 151,000.

Elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1987, he became a minister in Romano Prodi’s centre-left government in 1996 but resigned in 1998 prior to being elected leader of the new Democrats of the Left party (DS), a position he held until he was elected as Mayor of Rome for the first time in 2001.

He served two terms as Mayor, on the second occasion being elected after securing an unprecedented 61.4 per cent of the vote.

Critics say Veltroni achieved very little tangible progress for Rome as Mayor, failing to solve the city’s mounting traffic problems or to stop rising crime levels.

Veltroni embraces George Clooney after conducting
the film star's marriage in Venice

Yet he restored a feelgood factor in the city, commissioning bold building projects from renowned architects and attempting to recreate the atmosphere of the city in the 1950s and 1960s, as captured by Federico Fellini’s film, La Dolce Vita, giving the city its own film festival and inviting Hollywood celebrities to visit.

One of the stars with whom he became closely acquainted was George Clooney, who saw in Veltroni similarities with the American Democratic president Bill Clinton.  Later, after Veltroni had taken a back seat in Italian politics, Clooney asked Veltroni to conduct his marriage to his Anglo-Lebanese fiancee Ama Alamuddin, the ceremony taking place in Venice.

Whatever he did or did not achieve, whether his association with celebrities was fitting for a politician or not, Veltroni’s supporters say he promoted a culture of openness and tolerance, of solidarity and welcome in the capital.

The ruins of the Circus of Maxentius on Via Antica Appia

Travel tip:

Visitors to Rome tend to head for the major tourist attractions such as the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum and St Peter’s Basilica, but these places are inevitably thronged with visitors, especially in the summer months.  For a more peaceful experience, try a walk along the first stretch of the Via Appia Antica - the Appian Way - the ancient Roman road that linked Rome with the port of Brindisi some 550km (340 miles) away in the southeast corner of the peninsula. Beginning at Porto San Sebastiano, two miles south of the Colosseum, while some of the road is open to traffic other sections are preserved in their original form, passing through pleasant parkland, and there are numerous catacombs, tombs and other ruins along the way.

The beautiful porticoed facade of the Basilica of St Paul
Outside the Walls in the Ostiense district

Travel tip:

Another place in Rome where crowds are likely to be less overwhelming is the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, which was built on the site of the burial place of the Apostle Paul, in the Ostiense district south of the city centre. There has been a church on the site since the 4th century but most of the current structure is much newer, a fire in 1823 having destroyed much of the basilica itself, which dates back to 395. The reconstruction, though, produced a magnificent building, reopened in 1840, lavishly decorated with gold mosaics and marble columns that made for a strikingly beautiful interior. The facade, also decorated with gold mosaic, is guarded by an atrium of 150 pillars with a statue of St Paul in the centre.

More reading:

Paolo Gentiloni - the modern centre-left prime minister descended from nobility

How Matteo Renzi was inspired by the scout movement

When Italy almost had a Communist prime minister

Also on this day:

1871: The birth of Ulisse Stacchini, architect of Milan landmarks

1900: The birth of film director Alessandro Blasetti

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Carlo Pisacane – socialist and revolutionary

Patriot who put deeds before ideas

Carlo Pisacane's revolutionary philosophy
influenced Benito Mussolini

Carlo Pisacane, Duke of San Giovanni, was killed on this day in 1857 at Sanza in Campania, while trying to provoke an uprising in the Kingdom of Naples.

Pisacane is remembered for coming up with the concept ‘propaganda of the deed’, an idea that influenced Mussolini and many rebels and terrorists subsequently.

He argued that violence was necessary, not only to draw attention or generate publicity for a cause, but to inform, educate and rally the masses to join in.

Pisacane was born into an impoverished, noble family in Naples in 1818.

He joined the Neapolitan army at the age of 20, but became interested in the political ideas of Giuseppe Mazzini and went to England and France before going to serve in the French army in Algeria.

After the revolution of 1848 he came back to Italy, where he played a part in the brief life of the Roman Republic. After the city was captured by the French he went into exile again in London.

Pisacane regarded the rule of the House of Savoy as no better than the rule of Austria and went to Genoa to involve himself with the uprisings planned by Mazzini and his followers.

Giuseppe Mazzini had the idea to start
an insurrection in Naples

Mazzini came up with the idea of starting an insurrection in the Kingdom of Naples and Pisacane volunteered to organise it. He sailed from Genoa with a few followers on board the steamer, Cagliari, in June 1857.

They landed first on the island of Ponza, which was being used as a penal colony at the time. They overpowered the guards and liberated hundreds of prisoners.

They then sailed on to Sapri in Campania from where he led about 300 men towards the area known as the Cilento. When they were confronted at Padula, Pisacane was stabbed. He was finally killed at Sanza by angry locals who thought he was a wandering gypsy who had been stealing their food.

Pisacane had written essays about his political beliefs, saying that ideas result from deeds, not deeds from ideas, and that people will not be free when they are educated, but educated when they are free. These essays were published posthumously in France.

Pisacane’s disastrous landing was commemorated in the poem, La Spigolatrice di Sapri by Luigi Mercantini. This was translated into English by Henry Longfellow with the title, The Gleaner of Sapri. The poem also inspired the 1952 historical drama film, Eran trecento - They were 300 - starring Rossano Brazzi.

A monument in Sarpi
commemorates Pisacane

Travel tip:

The port of Sapri on the Tyrrhenian Sea, where Pisacane landed with his followers, is one of the most southern points of the Cilento and is close to the border with Basilicata. The people of Sapri celebrate Pisacane’s landing every year with a three-day festival in August.

Pisacane's memorial
stone in Sanza

Travel tip:

The small town of Sanza, where Pisacane was killed, is on a hill about 35km (22 miles) to the north of Sapri, surrounded by mountains and on the edge of the Vallo di Diano National Park. Sanza has an annual celebration on 2 July, the day of the revolutionary’s death, which is known as Carlo Pisacane Day. A ceremony will be held today next to Pisacane’s memorial stone.

More reading:

The making of Benito Mussolini

Giuseppe Mazzini: hero of the Risorgimento

Garibaldi and the Expedition of the Thousand

Also on this day:

1922: The birth of fashion designer Pierre Cardin

The Palio di Siena

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Alberto Magnelli - abstract painter

Self-taught artist whose work became known as Concrete Art

Animated Tension (1953): An example of the abstract art of
the Italian painter Alberto Magnelli

The abstract painter Alberto Magnelli, who became a leading figure in the Concrete Art movement, was born on this day in 1888 in Florence.

Concrete Art is described as abstract art that is entirely free of any basis in observed reality and that has no symbolic meaning. It had strong geometric elements and clear lines and its exponents insisted the form should eschew impressionism and that a painting should have no other meaning than itself.

The movement took its name from the definition of concrete as an adjective rather than a noun, meaning ‘existing in a material or physical form’.

It became Magnelli’s focus after he moved to Paris in 1931. Until then, he had experimented in various genres.

Alberto Magnelli taught himself to paint
while on holiday in rural Tuscany

He was born into a comfortable background in Florence, his father coming from a wealthy family of textile merchants.  He never studied art formally but would spend hours in museums and churches looking at paintings and frescoes. He particularly admired the Renaissance artists Andrea del Castagno, Paolo Uccello, and Piero della Francesca.

Magnelli’s first paintings were landscapes, which he began to produce while on holiday in the Tuscan countryside.  His work was good enough for him to submit to the Venice Biennale, as a result of which he made his first sale in 1909.

By 1915, he had moved towards painting in abstract style, having become part of a circle of artists in Florence in which the Futurist Gino Severini was a prominent member and having met Cubists such as Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger.

After the First World War, in which he did compulsory military service, he continued to paint entirely abstract works but was unhappy that the avant-garde movement in Italy appeared to be supportive of Fascism and returned to painting quiet Tuscan landscapes, and figure studies. These had echoes of the Metaphysical style of Italian artists Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà.

Some of Magnelli's works, such as The Readers (1931), had
 echoes of the Metaphysical movement in Italian art

Towards the end of the 1920s, suffering a crisis in confidence, he almost gave up painting but decided to return to Paris in the hope of making a fresh start. There he joined the Abstraction-Création group.

Following the invasion of France by the Nazis, during the Second World War, Magnelli and his future wife, Susi Gerson, went to live in Grasse with several other artists. Some of the group, including Gerson, were Jewish so they were forced to hide. Because conventional art materials were in short supply, Magnelli created textural geometric collages using materials such as corrugated cardboard, emery cloth, music paper, stitched wire, and metal plates.

He also made paintings on schoolchildren’s wood-framed slate boards. Many of these were geometric compositions constructed from flat areas of colour and inscribed white lines, while others were inscriptions of purely geometric lines. It was the beginning of Concrete Art. He again exhibited at the Venice Biennale and major galleries organised retrospectives of his work.

Following the Second World War, Magnelli returned to Paris which was to be his home for the rest of his life.  He died there in 1971.

The Giubbe Rosse has been serving customers in Florence's
Piazza della Repubblica since 1896

Travel tip:

Florentine artists of Magnelli’s era used to meet at the Caffè Giubbe Rosse in Piazza della Repubblica, which took its name from the red jackets - giubbe rosse - the waiters still wear to this day. When opened in 1896, it was called Fratelli Reininghaus after the German brothers who founded it. The writer and poet Alberto Viviani called the Giubbe Rosse a "fucina di sogni e di passioni - a forge of dreams and passions".

The central square in Sansepolcro, Tuscany

Travel tip:

Sansepolcro, which is the birthplace of Piero della Francesca,  is a town of 16,000 inhabitants situated about 110km (68 miles) east of Florence and 38km (24 miles) northeast of Arezzo. The historic centre is entirely surrounded with fortified walls, built in the early part of the 16th century. The centre of the town is the Piazza Torre di Berta, named after the 13th-century tower of the same name, off which can be found the impressive Palazzi Pichi and Giovagnoli and the 14th-century cathedral, dedicated to St John the Evangelist.

More reading:

Giorgio di Chirico, founder of the Scuola Metafisica 

Carlo Carrà and the Futurist movement

Giorgio Morandi - master of still life



Also on this day:

1586: The birth of 'lost' composer Claudio Saracini

1878: The birth of career burglar and cult figure Gino Meneghetti

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