On This Day in Italy
November
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November 1st
1457: Death of Francesco Foscari, the longest-serving Doge (r. 1423-57) in Venetian history. 1546: Death of the painter Giulio Romano (b. 1499). 1596: Birth of the Baroque painter and architect Pietro Berrettini. Pietro da Cortona, as he is better known, died in 1667 and is buried in the Roman church of SS Luca e Martina, which he designed. 1972: Death of the American poet Ezra Pound (b. 1885), who is buried in the San Michele Cemetery in Venice. |
Funerary monument to Pietro da Cortona
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November 2nd
1906: Birth, in Milan, of the film director Luchino Visconti (d. 1976). Visconti's movies include The Leopard and Death in Venice. 1975: Murder of the film director Pier Paolo Pasolini (b. 1922). |
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November 3rd
1500: Birth of the Florentine goldsmith, sculptor and writer Benvenuto Cellini. Cellini, who died on February 13th 1571, is interred in the church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence. 1584: Death of St Charles Borromeo (b. 1534), an Archbishop of Milan and a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation. 1801: Birth, in Catania, of the opera composer Vincenzo Bellini (d. 1835). |
Monument to Benvenuto Cellini, Ponte Vecchio, Florence
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November 4th
1575: Birth, in Bologna, of the painter Guido Reni (d. 1642). 1918: An entente between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire came into effect, thereby ending the Italian campaign of World War I, in which 650,000 Italian soldiers died. 1966: Florence experienced its worst ever flood, with the floodwater reaching as high as 6 metres in some parts of the city. |
Small cloister of Santa Croce, November 4th 1966
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November 6th
15 CE: Birth of Agrippina the Younger, the mother of one emperor (Nero, r. 54-68), and the wife of another (Claudius, r. 41-54). Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, was murdered on March 23rd 59 CE, at the behest of her son, who had by then succeeded Claudius as emperor. |
Agrippina the Younger, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
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November 9th
1778: Death of the Venetian print-maker and architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi (b. 1720), who is buried in the church of Santa Maria del Priorato in Rome. |
Giovanni Battista Piranesi by Giuseppe Angelini
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November 11th
1417: Election of Pope Martin V (r. 1417-31). His election effectively ended the Western Schism (1378–1417). 1677: Death, in Padua, of the Venetian composer and singer Barbara Strozzi (b. 1619). |
Portrait of Barbara Strozzi by Bernardo Strozzi
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November 12th
1493: Birth of the Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli (d. 1550). |
Hercules and Cacus by Baccio Bandinelli, Florence
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November 13th
1619: Death, in Bologna, of the painter Ludovcio Carracci (b. 1555). |
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November 15th
1701: Birth of the Venetian artist Pietro Longhi (d. 1785), famous for his paintings of scenes of everyday life. |
Marriage by Pietro Longhi, Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia, Venice
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November 16th
42 BCE: Birth of Emperor Tiberius (r. 14-37). Tiberius, son of Livia and Claudius Nero, was adopted by Augustus, Livia's second husband, to succeed him as emperor. |
Emperor Tiberius, Vatican Museums
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November 17th
1503: Birth of the Florentine painter Agnolo di Cosimo (d. 1572), who is better known as il Bronzino. |
Eleonora di Toledo by Bronzino, Uffizi Gallery
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November 18th
1626: Consecration of St Peter's Basilica by Pope Urban VIII (r. 1623-44). The construction of the new basilica began on April 18th, 1506. |
St Peter's Basilica
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November 19th
1523: Election of Pope Clement VII (r. 1523-34). 1665: Death, in Rome, of the French painter Nicholas Poussin (b. 1594), who is buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina. |
Monument to Nicolas Poussin, San Lorenzo in Lucina
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November 20th
1978: Death, in Rome, of the painter Giorgio de Chirico (b. 1888), founder of the Scuola Metafisica. He is buried in the church of San Francesco a Ripa. |
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November 22nd
1533: Birth of Alfonso II d'Este (d. 1597), the last Duke of Ferrara. |
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November 23rd
1572: Death, in Florence, of the painter Agnolo di Cosimo (b. 1503), who is better known as il Bronzino. 1682: Death, in Rome, of the French painter Claude Lorrain (b. 1600), who is buried in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi. |
Monument to Claude Lorrain, San Luigi dei Francesi
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November 24th
1826: Birth of the Florentine writer Carlo Lorenzini (d. 1890), the creator of Pinocchio. Lorenzini wrote under the name Carlo Collodi. |
Pinocchio by Enrico Mazzanti
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November 25th
1454: Birth, in Venice, of Caterina Cornaro (d. 1510), who would become the last queen of Cyprus. |
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November 27th
1570: Death of the architect and sculptor Jacopo Sansovino (b. 1486). Jacopo Tatti (his real name) designed the Libreria Sansoviniana, also known as the Biblioteca Marciana, in Venice, which was praised by the architect Andrea Palladio as ‘the finest building erected since antiquity’. 1602: Birth, in Milan, of the composer and Benedictine nun Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (d. 1678). 1758: Death, in Siena, of the castrato Francesco Bernardi (b. 1686), known as Senesino. |
Biblioteca Maricana, Venice
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November 28th
1632: Birth, in Florence, of the composer Giovanni Battista Lulli, who, at the age of fourteen, moved to France, where he would later change his name to Jean-Baptiste Lully (d. 1687). 1680: Death, in Rome, of the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (b. 1598), who is buried in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. |
Tomb slab of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome
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November 29th
1516: Death of the Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini (b. 1430). 1643: Death of the composer Claudio Monteverdi (b. 1567), who is interred in the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, in Venice. 1797: Birth, in Bergamo, of the composer Gaetano Donizetti (d. 1848). 1902: Birth, in Turin, of Carlo Levi (d. 1975), author of the book Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (Christ Stopped at Eboli). |
Plaque to Claudio Monteverdi, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice
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November 30th
1508: Birth of Andrea Palladio, one of the most influential architects in history. Andrea di Pietro della Gondola (his original name) was born in Padua. He died in Venice on August 19th, 1580. 1642: Birth, in Trento, of the painter and lay Jesuit Andrea del Pozzo (r. 1709). 1647: Death, in Rome, of the painter Giovanni Lanfranco (b. 1582), who painted the frescoes in the dome of the church of Sant' Andrea della Valle. |
Villa Rotondo by Andrea Palladio
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