Carlo Eduardo Acton – composer and musician

Musical member of the Acton family was born in Naples

Carlo Acton was the nephew of the
former PM of Naples, Sir John Acton

Opera composer Carlo Eduardo Acton, who was part of the distinguished Italian-based branch of the Acton family, was born on this day in 1829 in Naples.

Carlo became a concert pianist and is particularly remembered for composing the opera Una cena in convitto.

His father, Francis Charles Acton, was the youngest son of General Joseph Acton, and he was also the younger brother of Sir John Acton, the sixth Baronet.

Sir John Acton, Carlo’s uncle, had served as Commander of the naval forces of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Naples while the city was under the rule of King Ferdinand IV. He was the son of Edward Acton, an English physician who had settled in France, and he was the great-grandson of Sir Walter Acton, the second Baronet.

Sir John had succeeded to the title and the family estate in Shropshire in 1791 on the death of his second cousin once removed.

Following his distinguished service in the navy of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Sir John was invited to Naples by Queen Maria Carolina and he was asked to reorganize the Neapolitan navy.

Sir John Acton served as prime minister
of Naples under the rule of Ferdinand IV

One of Sir John's grandchildren, John Dalberg-Acton (1834-1902), better known as Lord Acton, was an historian, English politician, and writer, also born in Naples. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge from 1895 until his death. He edited the first series of the Cambridge Modern History, served as a Liberal Party MP and is remembered for coining the phrase 'power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely' in a letter to an Anglican bishop.

Sir John’s younger brother, Francis Charles Acton, had married Esther Fagan, the daughter of the Irish painter, Robert Fagan, who had spent most of his career working in Rome and Sicily, but had fled to Naples to live there at a time when Napoleon’s armies were known to have been approaching Rome.

Francis and Esther had three sons, the talented musician Carlo, and his two brothers, Richard, and Edward.

Carlo learnt to play the piano and in addition to writing an opera, he composed sacred music. His most well-known sacred composition is his work, Tantum ergo.  

Carlo died at Portici, a small port to the south of Naples, in 1909, at the age of 89.

The Acton family's connection with Naples continued into the 20th century. Sir Harold Acton (1904-1994), the British writer, scholar, and aesthete who was born and died at Villa La Pietra outside Florence, was the author of an authoritative two-volume history of the kingdom of Naples under the Bourbons: The Bourbons of Naples (1957) and The Last Bourbons of Naples (1961).

The Villa Pignatelli is set in beautiful
gardens in Riviera di Chiaia

Travel tip:

An Acton family landmark worth seeing in Naples is Villa Pignatelli, a house commissioned by Carlo’s cousin, the seventh Baronet, Sir Ferdinand Richard Edward Dalberg-Acton, in 1826, three years before the birth of the composer. The villa is in the Riviera di Chiaia in Naples, which is a long street running along the sea front and the Doric columns along the front of the villa can still be seen from the road. It was designed as a neo-classical residence that would be the centrepiece of a park. The property has changed hands several time since the death of Sir Ferdinand in 1841. It was purchased by Carl Mayer von Rothschild, a member of the German family of financiers. Later, it was used by the Jewish community of Naples for services. It was then sold to the Duke of Monteleon, whose widow, Princess Rosa Fici, left it to the Italian state in her will in 1852. Villa Pignatelli now houses a coach museum and a collection of 18th and 19th century English and French vehicles.

The Royal Palace of Portici was built as a home
for Charles III of Spain, King of Naples and Sicily

Travel tip:

Portici, where Carlo Eduardo Acton died, is a town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius situated on the Bay of Naples, about eight kilometers (five miles) southeast of the city of Naples. The city had been destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 1631, but was later rebuilt. Charles III of Spain, King of Naples and Sicily, built a royal palace in the town between 1738 and 1749. A botanical garden run by the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Naples is now located there. The garden has an important collection of desert plants, which include specimens from South Africa and Madagascar. The gardens are open to the public from Monday to Friday in the mornings, and can be visited free of charge.

Also on this day:

79: Vesuvius erupts, destroying Pompeii and other cities

665: The death of Saint Patricia of Naples

1509: The birth of Borgia cardinal Ippolito II d'Este

1609: Galileo demonstrates the potential of telescope

1691: The birth of architect Alessandro Galilei 

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24 August

Parmigianino - Mannerist painter

Artist from Parma left outstanding legacy

The artist Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola – better known as Parmigianino – died on this day in 1540 in Casalmaggiore, a town on the Po river south-east of Cremona in Lombardy.  Sometimes known as Francesco Mazzola, he was only 37 years old when he passed away but had nonetheless made sufficient impact with his work to be regarded as an important influence on the period that followed the High Renaissance era of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.  Known for the refined sensuality of his paintings, Parmigianino – literally ‘the little one from Parma’ – was one of the first generation of Mannerist painters, whose figures exuded elegance and sophistication by the subtle exaggeration of qualities associated with ideal beauty.  Parmigiano is also thought to have been one of the first to develop printmaking using the technique known as etching and through this medium his work was copied, and circulated to many artistic schools in Italy and other countries in northern Europe, where it could be studied and admired.  Parmigianino’s figures would often have noticeably long and slender limbs and strike elegant poses.  Read more…

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Carlo Gambino - Mafia Don

Sicilian thought to be model for Mario Puzo's Godfather

Carlo Gambino, who would become one of the most powerful Mafia Dons in the history of organised crime, was born on this day in 1902 in Palermo, Sicily.  For almost two decades up to his death in 1976, he was head of the Gambino Crime Family, one of the so-called Five Families that have sought to control organised crime in New York under one banner or another for more than a century.  He is thought to have been the real-life Don that author Mario Puzo identified as the model for Vito Corleone, the fictional Don created for the best-selling novel, The Godfather.  During Gambino's peak years, the family's criminal activities realised revenues of an estimated $500 million per year.  Yet Gambino, who kept a modest house in Brooklyn and a holiday home on Long Island, claimed to make a living as a partner in a company that advised on labour relations.  Despite coming under intensive surveillance by the FBI, he managed to avoid prison during a life spent almost exclusively in crime.  Everything he did was planned meticulously to avoid detection, even down to communicating with associates through coded messages.  Read more…

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Peppino De Filippo - comedian, actor and playwright

Talented Neapolitan who lived in shadow of his brother

The playwright and comic actor Peppino De Filippo was born Giuseppe De Filippo on this day in 1903 in Naples.  A highly accomplished performer on stage in serious as well as comedy roles, De Filippo also had a list of film credits numbering almost 100, of which he is best remembered for his screen partnership with the brilliant comic actor Totò.  To an extent, however, he spent his career in the shadow of his older brother, Eduardo De Filippo, who after Luigi Pirandello was regarded as the second great Italian playwright of the 20th century.  The two fell out in the 1940s for reasons that were never made clear, although it later emerged that they had many artistic differences.  They were never reconciled, and though Peppino went on to enjoy a successful career and was widely acclaimed it annoyed him that he was always seen as a minor playwright compared with his brother.  When Peppino published an autobiography in 1977, three years before he died, he called it Una famiglia difficile - A Difficult Family. In the book he described his relationship with his sister, Titina, as one of warmth and affection, but portrays Eduardo as something of a tyrant.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Don Carlo: Boss of Bosses, by Paul Meskil and James Pierre

Carlo Gambino rose from penniless immigrant to be capo di tutti capi - boss of all bosses - of the Mafia in America, the most powerful Mafia don in the country. He controlled a crew of 800 sworn mafiosi, as well as over 2,000-plus associates. His crime family oversaw nearly 50 criminal and legitimate enterprises, which grossed over $1 billion a year in revenue. Yet, despite these remarkable accomplishments, few know of Carlo Gambino, let alone his story. In Don Carlo: Boss of Bosses, the life and crimes of Carlo Gambino are highlighted in full detail in this updated, second edition of Paul Meskil's 1974 true-crime classic. The reader will also have the opportunity to meet such celebrity gangsters as Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, Al "Scarface" Capone, Meyer Lansky, Vito Genovese, and Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia, all of whom were Gambino's contemporaries... and all of whom became mere pawns on Gambino's chessboard, as the wily old don consolidated his nefarious power, en route to becoming the most successful gangster of all time. Meskil's riveting opus (updated with new photos and a gripping epilogue by mob historian James Pierre) explores the dichotomies of family, wealth, and power within La Cosa Nostra's bloody underworld, and will leave readers shell-shocked, from the first page to the very last.

The late Paul Meskil, born in Albany, New York, was a reporter for the New York Daily News until 1991. He also worked at the New York World-Telegram and World Journal Tribune and was a consultant on organized crime for BBC and Thames Television.

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23 August

Roberto Assagioli – psychiatrist

Harsh imprisonment sparked new psychiatric theories

Roberto Assagioli, the pioneering psychiatrist who founded the science of psychosynthesis, died on this day in 1974 in Capolona in the province of Arezzo in Tuscany.  His innovative psychological movement, which emphasised the possibility of progressive integration, or synthesis, of the personality, aimed at finding inner peace and harmony. It is still admired and is being developed by therapists and psychologists today.  Assagioli explained his ideas in four books - two published posthumously - and the many different pamphlets he wrote during his lifetime. In 1940 the psychiatrist had to spend 27 days in solitary confinement in prison, having been arrested by Mussolini’s Fascist government for praying for peace and encouraging others to join him. He later claimed this experience helped him make his psychological discovery.  Assagioli was born under the name of Roberto Marco Grego in 1888 into a middle-class, Jewish background in Venice.  His father died when he was two years old and his mother remarried quickly to Alessandro Emanuele Assagioli. As a young child Roberto was exposed to art and music and learnt many different languages.  Read more…

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Pino Presti – bass player and composer

Talented musician could sing, play guitar, compose and conduct

Pino Presti, one of the most important personalities in the Italian music business, was born Giuseppe Prestipino Giarritta on this day in 1943 in Milan.  He is a bass guitar player, arranger, composer, conductor and record producer and his work ranges between the different music genres of pop, jazz, funk, latin and dance.  His father, Arturo Prestipino Giarritta, was a well-known violinist and Presti began studying piano and music theory at the age of six.  He taught himself to play the bass guitar and began playing professionally at the age of 17, having developed his own special technique using either the pick or thumb.  Presti was a pioneer of electric bass and was probably the first to play a Fender Jazz Bass in Italy.  His talent for playing the instrument led him to collaborate with the major Italian pop artists of the 1960s, including the famous singer, Mina, who is Italy's all-time top-selling female recording artist. Presti arranged and conducted 86 tracks and composed four songs for her, also sometimes backing her as a singer.  Among the many other artists he worked with were Bobby Solo, Gigliola Cinquetti and Adriano Celentano.  Read more…

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Giovanni Minzoni - priest

Devout Catholic murdered for opposing Fascists

Don Giovanni Minzoni, a Catholic priest whose name is commemorated in many street names around Italy, was murdered by Fascist thugs in the small town of Argenta in Emilia-Romagna on this day in 1923.  A parish priest in the town, midway between the cities of  Ferrara and Ravenna, Don Minzoni was attacked at around 10.30pm as he returned to his rectory in the company of Enrico Bondanelli, a parishioner, when he was set upon by two men who were attached to a Fascist militia in Casumaro, almost 50km (31 miles) from Argenta on the other side of Ferrara. He was pelted with stones and, when the blows made him fall to the ground, was beaten. What proved to be the fatal blow was struck with a heavy walking stick. He had a fractured skull and, despite being helped home by Bondanelli and neighbours, died a couple of hours later. His attackers were later named as Giorgio Molinari and Vittore Casoni, who were allegedly acting on the orders of Italo Balbo, a Blackshirt Commander who would later be seen as an heir to dictator Benito Mussolini.  Don Minzoni, a former military chaplain, had made no secret of his opposition to the Fascist regime. Read more…

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Rita Pavone - teenage singing star

Precocious talent who conquered America

Rita Pavone, who was one of Europe's biggest teenage singing stars in the 1960s and was still performing live concerts as recently as 2014 and sang at the Sanremo Music Festival in 2020, was born on this day in 1945 in Turin. The singer had her first hit single when she was just 17 years old and enjoyed success at home and in America during a career that spanned more than five decades, going on to become an accomplished actress on television and in the theatre.  She announced she was quitting show business in 2006 but came out of retirement in 2013 to record two studio albums as a tribute to the stars who had influenced her in throughout her career, then embarking on a series of live concerts in Italy in 2014 and performing in Toronto, Canada exactly 50 years after her first appearance there.  In 2016, she appeared in Ballando Con le Stelle - the Italian equivalent of the US show Dancing With the Stars and Britain's Strictly Come Dancing - and finished third with partner Simone Di Pasquale, reaching the final despite being the oldest competitor.  Pavone spent her early years living in a two-room apartment in Turin.  She was the third of four children yet it was not until 1959 that the family was able to move somewhere bigger.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Creating Harmony in Life: a Psychosynthesis approach, by Roberto Assagioli

This collection of early lectures by Roberto Assagioli, originally published in Italian under the title Psicosintesi: Per l’armonia della vita (1966), describes how to apply psychosynthesis mainly for self improvement. Although some decades have passed since the first Italian edition, Creating Harmony in Life contains inspirational principles and expresses ideas in the fields of education and society which can still be considered innovative in our time. It is an essential work for understanding the principles, techniques and application of psychosynthesis for the personal development of the reader. Many of the topics discussed were developed further by the author in subsequent texts and articles, nevertheless, the value of this book lies in their being presented together, thus conveying a completely new vision of the world and humankind.

Roberto Assagioli received his first degree in neurology and psychiatry at Istituto di Studii Superiori Pratici e di Perfezionamento, in Florence in 1910.  He trained in psychiatry at the psychiatric hospital Burghölzli in Zürich in Switzerland before opening the first psychoanalytic practice in Italy, known as Istituto di Psicosintesi.

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22 August

Giada De Laurentiis - TV chef

Food Network star who was born in Rome

The TV presenter, chef, author and restaurateur Giada Pamela De Laurentiis was born in Rome on this day in 1970.  A classically-trained chef who learned her craft in Paris, she worked in the kitchens of a number of restaurants in Los Angeles before breaking into television. Since 2003 she has been a regular on the Food Network, the American cable channel.  Born into a theatre and movie background, De Laurentiis takes her name from her mother, the actress Veronica De Laurentiis, whose parents were the producer Dino De Laurentiis and the actress Silvana Mangano.  Her father is the actor-producer Alex De Benedetti.  Giada spent her first seven years in Rome, where her mother still has a home near the Spanish Steps, but after her parents divorced she and her sisters moved to Los Angeles.  Her grandfather had a home in Hollywood and had by then become a restaurateur and Giada has memories of spending time in the kitchen of his DDL Foodshow delicatessen and restaurant in Los Angeles, where she acquired her interest in cooking.  Her own entry into the catering business came via a roundabout route.   Read more…

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History’s first air raid

Balloon bombs dropped on Venice

Venice suffered the first successful air raid in the history of warfare on this day in 1849.  It came six months after Austria had defeated the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in the First Italian War of Independence as the Austrians sought to regain control of Venice, where the revolutionary leader Daniele Manin had established the Republic of San Marco.  The city, over which Manin’s supporters had seized control in March 1848, was under siege by the Austrians, whose victory over the Piedmontese army in March 1849 had enabled them to concentrate more resources on defeating the Venetians.  They had regained much of the mainland territory of Manin’s republic towards the end of 1848 and were now closing in on the city itself, having decided that cutting off resources while periodically bombarding the city from the sea would bring Venice’s capitulation.  However, because of the shallow lagoons and the strength of Venice’s coastal defences, there were still parts of the city that were out of the range of the Austrian artillery.  It was at this point that one of Austrian commander Josef von Radetzky’s artillery officers, Lieutenant Franz von Uchatius, came up with the unlikely idea of attaching bombs to unmanned balloons.  Read more…

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Bruno Pontecorvo - nuclear physicist

Defection to Soviet Union sparked unsolved mystery 

Bruno Pontecorvo, a nuclear physicist whose defection to the Soviet Union in 1950 led to suspicions of espionage after he had worked on research programmes in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, was born on this day in 1913 in Marina di Pisa.  One of eight children born to Massimo Pontecorvo - a Jewish textile manufacturer who owned three factories - Bruno was from a family rich in intellectual talent. One of his brothers was the film director Gillo Pontecorvo, another the geneticist Guido Pontecorvo.  After high school, he enrolled at the University of Pisa to study engineering, but after two years switched to physics in 1931. He received a doctorate to study at the University of Rome La Sapienza, where Enrico Fermi had gathered together a group of promising young scientists, whom he dubbed “the Via Panisperna boys” after the name of the street where the Institute of Physics  was then situated.  Fermi described the 18-year-old Pontecorvo as one of the brightest young men he had met and invited Pontecorvo to work with him on his experiments bombarding atomic nuclei with slow neutrons.  Read more…

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Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi – bishop

Progressive priest who shaped the destiny of a future Pope

Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi, Bishop of Bergamo, who was a mentor for the future Pope John XXIII, died on this day in 1914 in Bergamo.  He was Bishop of the Diocese of Bergamo from 1905 until his death and is remembered with respect because of his strong involvement in social issues at the beginning of the 20th century when he sought to understand the problems of working class Italians.  Radini-Tedeschi was born in 1857 into a wealthy, noble family living in Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna.  He was ordained as a priest in 1879 and then became professor of Church Law in the seminary of Piacenza.  In 1890 he joined the Secretariat of State of the Holy See and was sent on a number of diplomatic missions.  In 1905 he was named Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bergamo by Pope Pius X and was consecrated by him in the Sistine Chapel.  Radini-Tedeschi was a strong supporter of Catholic trade unions and backed the workers at a textile plant in Ranica, a district of Bergamo Province, during a labour dispute.  Working for him as his secretary at the time was a young priest named Angelo Roncalli who had been born at Sotto il Monte just outside Bergamo into a large farming family.  Read more…

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Luca Marenzio – composer

Madrigal writer influenced Monteverdi

Luca Marenzio, a prolific composer of madrigals during the late Renaissance period, died on this day in 1599 in the garden of the Villa Medici on Monte Pincio in Rome.  Marenzio wrote at least 500 madrigals, some of which are considered to be the most famous examples of the form, and he was an important influence on the composer Claudio Monteverdi.  Born at Coccaglio, a small town near Brescia in 1553, Marenzio was one of seven children belonging to a poor family, but he received some early musical training at Brescia Cathedral where he was a choirboy.  It is believed he went to Mantua with the maestro di cappella from Brescia to serve the Gonzaga family as a singer.  Marenzio was then employed as a singer in Rome by Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo and, after the Cardinal’s death, he served at the court of Cardinal Luigi d’Este.  He travelled to Ferrara with Luigi d’Este and took part in the wedding festivities for Vincenzo Gonzaga and Margherita Farnese.  While he was there he wrote two books of madrigals and dedicated them to Alfonso II and Lucrezia d’Este.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Giada's Italy: My Recipes for La Dolce Vita, by Giada De Laurentiis

For Giada, a good meal is more than just delicious food—it’s taking pleasure in cooking for those you love, and slowing down to embrace every moment spent at the table. In Giada’s Italy, she returns to her native Rome to reconnect with the flavours that have inspired the way she cooks and shares what it means to live la dolce vita.  Here she shares recipes for authentic Italian dishes as her family has prepared them for years, updated with her signature flavors. Her Bruschetta with Burrata and Kale Salsa Verde is a perfect light dinner or lunch, and Grilled Swordfish with Candied Lemon Salad can be prepared in minutes for a quick weeknight meal. Sartu di Riso is a showstopping entrée best made with help from the family, and because no meal is complete without something sweet, Giada’s Italian-inflected desserts like Pound Cake with Limoncello Zabaglione and Chianti Affogato will keep everyone at the table just a little bit longer.  Filled with stunning photography taken in and around Rome, intimate family shots and stories, and more recipes than ever before, Giada’s Italy will make you fall in love with Italian cooking all over again.

Giada De Laurentiis is the Emmy Award-winning star of Food Network's Everyday Italian, Giada at Home, Giada's Holiday Handbook, and Giada in Italy; she is also a judge on Food Network Star, a contributing correspondent for NBC's Today show, and the author of seven New York Times bestselling books.

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(To the best of our knowledge, all entries were factually accurate at the time of writing. In the case of individuals still living at the time of publication, some of the information may need updating.)

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