On This Day in Italy
April
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April 2nd
1725: Birth of the Venetian adventurer and writer Giacomo Casanova (d. 1798). 2005: Death of Pope John Paul II (r. 1978-2005), the second longest reigning pope in history. |
Monument to Pope John Paul II, Rome
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April 4th
1534: Birth of the architect Martino Longhi the Elder (d. 1591). 1566: Death of the painter Daniele Ricciarelli, better known as Daniele da Volterra (b. 1509). After Michelangelo's death, he was hired to cover the genitals in the fresco of the Last Judgment, which earned him the nickname Il Braghettone (the breeches maker). |
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April 5th
1527: Birth, in Milan, of the painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo (d. 1593), best known for his imaginative depiction of people made entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish and books. |
Vertumnus by Giuseppe Arcimboldo
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April 6th
1520: Death of the Renaissance painter Raphael, who is buried in the Pantheon. 1641: Death, in Naples, of the painter Domenico Zampieri (b. 1581), who was better known as il Domenichino, on account of his short size. |
Tomb of Raphael, the Pantheon, Rome
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April 8th
1492: Death of Lorenzo de' Medici (b. 1449), de facto ruler of the Republic of Florence. He was known as Lorenzo the Magnificent. 1848: Death, in Bergano, of the composer Gaetano Donizetti (b. 1797). |
Monument to Donizetti, Bergamo
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April 9th
1555: Election of Pope Marcellus II, who only reigned for 22 days. Marcello Cervini degli Spanocchi was the last pope not to change his name on becoming pope 1701: Birth of the architect and surveyor Giovanni Battista Nolli (d. 1756), best known for his ichnographic plan of Rome, the Pianta Grande di Roma. |
The Nolli Map of Rome
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April 11th
1514: Death, in Rome, of the Renaissance architect Donato Bramante (b. 1444). 1987: Death, in Turin, of Primo Levi (b. 1919), chemist, writer and holocaust survivor. His most famous book is, perhaps, The Periodic Table. |
The 'Tempietto' by Bramante, Rome
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April 12th
1484: Birth of the Florentine architect and engineer Antonio Sangallo the Younger (d. 1546). Sangallo designed and built St Patrick's Well in Orvieto, which is famous for its double-helix ramps. 1684: Death, in Cremona, of Nicolò Amati (b. 1596), who is acknowledged as the greatest of the Amati family of violin makers. 1710: Birth of the castrato singer Gaetano Majorano (d. 1783), better known as Caffarelli. |
St Patrick's Well by Antonio Sangallo the Younger, Orvieto
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April 13th
1519: Birth of Catherine de' Medici (d. 1589), who, in 1547, married the French king Henry II. 1808: Birth, in Florence, of Antonio Meucci, who many credit with the invention of the telephone. 2006: Death, in Florence, of the Scottish novelist Muriel Spark (b 1918). |
Catherine de' Medici
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April 15th
1446: Death of the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi. 1452: Birth of Leonardo da Vinci. The great Renaissance polymath was born in the hamlet of Anchiano, which lies a short distance to the west of Florence. |
Monument to Leonardo da Vinci, Milan
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April 18th
1480: Birth of Lucrezia Borgia (d. 1519), the daughter of Pope Alexander VI (r. 1492-1503) and Vannozza dei Cattanei. 1506: Pope Julius II (r. 1503-13) laid the foundation stone of the new St Peter's Basilica. The basilica was consecrated 120 years later, on November 18th, 1626. |
St Peter's Basilica, Rome
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April 19th
1588: Death of the painter Paolo Caliari, better known as Paolo Veronese (b. 1528). 1768: Death of the Venetian painter Giovanni Antonio Canal (b. 1697), better known as Canaletto. |
Birthplace of Canaletto, Venice
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April 21st
1397: Birth, in Florence, of the mathematician and astronomer Paolo del Pozzo Toscanelli (d. 1482). 1555: Birth, in Bologna, of the painter Ludovcio Carracci (d. 1619). 1574: Death of Cosimo I de' Medici (b. 1519), Grand Duke of Tuscany, who ruled Florence from 1537. |
Cosimo I de' Medici, Florence
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April 22nd
1658: Birth, in Verona, of the violinist and composer Giuseppe Torelli (d. 1709). |
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April 23rd
1857: Birth, in Naples, of the composer Ruggero Leoncavallo (d. 1919), best known for his opera Pagliacci . |
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April 24th
1859: Birth of Luigi Lavazza (d. 1949), founder of the Lavazza Coffee Company. |
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April 25th
1595: Death, in Rome, of the poet Torquato Tasso, who penned the epic poem Gerusalemme liberata. 1874: Birth, in Bologna, of Guglielmo Marconi (d. 1937), inventor and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics. 1945: Surrender of the Nazi occupiers of northern Italy and the dissolution of the puppet government of Benito Mussolini. |
Portrait of Torquato Tasso
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April 26th
121 CE: Birth, in Rome, of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-80). |
Marcus Aurelius, Capitoline Museums, Rome
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April 27th
1937: Death, in Rome, of the left-wing intellectual Antonio Gramsci (b. 1891). 2014: Canonisation of Pope John XXIII (r. 1958-63) and Pope John Paul II (r. 1978-2005) by Pope Francis (r. 2013-). |
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April 28th
1916: Birth of the car designer Ferruccio Lamborghini (d. 1993). 1945: Death of Benito Mussolini (b. 1883). Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were summarily shot by partisans. |
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April 29th
1380: Death of St Catherine of Siena (b. 1347), who is buried in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, in Rome. |
Tomb of St Catherine of Siena, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome
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April 30th
1504: Birth, in Bologna, of the painter and architect Francesco Primaticcio (d. 1570), who spent most of working life in France. |