To list all the statesmen in Italian history—consisting of thousands of emperors, kings, dukes, doges, dictators, tribunes, senators, consuls, counts, lords, princes, popes, prefects and politicians over a period of more than 2,000 years—would be nearly impossible. Below are some of the more notable and famous Italians who made a name for themselves as political leaders, both in Italy and abroad.
Ancient Rome
Roman Kingdom
Numa Pompilius (754-673 BC) – Second King of Rome and successor of Romulus, reigning from 715-673 BC. Most of the important religious and political institutions of ancient Rome are attributed to him, including the establishment of the Vestal Virgins, the cults of Mars, Jupiter and Quirinus, and the office of Pontifex Maximus.
Tullus Hostilius (710-641 BC) – Third King of Rome, reigning from 673-641 BC. A warlike king, his reign was marked by the conquest of Alba Longa. He also fought successful wars against Fidenae and Veii and against the Sabines. He also constructed the original Senate House, the Curia Hostilia.
Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (710-641 BC) – Fifth King of Rome, reigning from 616-579 BC. He increased the number of senators by adding one hundred men from the leading minor families. Among these was the family of the Octavii, from whom the first emperor, Augustus, would descend. Priscus is said to have built the Circus Maximus, the first and largest stadium at Rome. He drained the marshes of Rome by constructing the Cloaca Maxima, one of the world's earliest sewage systems. He also constructed a stone wall around the city and introduced many Etruscan civilian and military insignia into Roman culture: the sceptre of the king; the trabea; the fasces carried by the lictors; the curule chair; the toga praetexta; the rings worn by senators; the paludamentum; and the phalera.
Servius Tullius (c. 578-539 BC) – Sixth King of Rome, reigning from 578-539 BC. Remembered for his good order in government, the military and public morality, he was considered the wisest and best of Rome's kings. He is credited with the Servian Constitution, which extended voting rights to commoners and introduced two elements into the Roman system of government: a census of every male citizen, to establish his wealth, tax liabilities, military obligation, and the weight of his vote; and the Centuriate Assembly, an assembly with electoral, legislative and judicial powers. Both institutions were foundational for later Roman republicanism. He is also credited with introducing Rome's first minted coinage.
Roman Republic
Lucius Junius Brutus (545-509 BC) – Roman consul and traditional founder of the Roman Republic.
Spurius Cassius Viscellinus (542-485 BC) – One of the most distinguished men of the early Roman Republic. Three times consul. He was the first magister equitum and author of the first agrarian law.
Cincinnatus (519-438 BC) – Roman consul, dictator and general. He became a legendary figure of Roman virtue, particularly civic virtue. His resignation from office has often been praised as an example of outstanding leadership, service to the greater good, humility and modesty.
Marcus Furius Camillus (c. 446-365 BC) – Roman soldier and statesman who defended Rome from the Gauls. He triumphed four times, was five times dictator, and was awarded the title “Second Founder of Rome”. He was the longest-reigning Roman dictator until Sulla and Julius Caesar.
Appius Claudius Caecus (c. 350-271 BC) – Roman consul and dictator. Outstanding statesman and legal expert. He was responsible for the construction of Rome's first aqueduct and major road project.
Manius Curius Dentatus (330-270 BC) – Roman tribune, consul, general and plebeian hero. He led the Romans to victory over the Samnites and defeated Pyrrhus of Epirus near Beneventum, driving Pyrrhus out of Italy. He also oversaw the construction of the Anio Vetus, Rome's second aqueduct.
Marcus Porcius Cato or Cato the Censor (234-149 BC) – Roman senator, orator and historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He was successively military tribune, quaestor, aedile, praetor, junior consul and censor. As praetor, he expelled usurers from Sardinia. As censor, he tried to preserve Rome's ancestral customs and combat degenerate Hellenistic influences. He was also first to write history in Latin.
Gaius Marius (157-86 BC) – Roman statesman and general. He held the office of consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his important reforms of the Roman army. Marius defeated the invading Germanic tribes, earning him the title “Third Founder of Rome”. His life and career were significant in Rome's transformation from Republic to Empire.
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (163-133 BC) – Roman tribune and eldest of the Gracchi brothers, known as the “Fathers of Populism”. As a plebeian tribune, he defended the plebeian cause and proposed agrarian reforms that sought to redistribute land owned by the Roman State and by wealthy patricians to poorer landless farmers and soldiers, resulting in his assassination.
Gaius Sempronius Gracchus (154-121 BC) – Roman tribune and youngest of the Gracchi brothers, known as the “Fathers of Populism”. He continued his brother's agrarian reforms and proposed even more radical judicial and social reforms, including extending Roman citizenship to all Italians and establishing Roman colonies outside of Italy. He too was assassinated with 3,000 of his supporters.
Sulla (138-78 BC) – Roman general and statesman. He seized power following a civil war and revived the office of dictator, which had been inactive since the Second Punic War over a century earlier. Espousing the cause of the optimates (conservative senatorial aristocracy) over the populares (supporters of the plebeians), he enacted a series of reforms to the Roman Constitution, restoring the primacy of the Senate and limiting the power of the tribunes. His seizure of power set a precedent that would later inspire and enable Julius Caesar to do the same.
Marcus Licinius Crassus (c. 115-53 BC) – Roman general and statesman who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Remembered for suppressing the slave revolt of Spartacus and for being one of the three leaders of the First Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great. He was the richest man in Rome and one of the wealthiest men in history. His death ignited the civil war between Caesar and Pompey.
Lucius Sergius Catilina or Catiline (108-62 BC) – Roman senator and general. He had a distinguished military career, but is best known for leading the Catiline conspiracy—an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, the consulship of Cicero and the oligarchic power of the Senate. He and his entire army courageously fought and were slain in battle.
Pompey the Great (106-48 BC) – One of the great generals and statesmen of the late Roman Republic. He triumphed three times, was three times consul, and was one of the three leaders of the First Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Marcus Licinius Crassus. His early military successes earned him the title “the Great”. Remembered for his civil war with Julius Caesar. His defeat was significant in Rome's transformation from Republic to Empire.
Cicero (106-43 BC) – Roman statesman, orator, lawyer and philosopher. Considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists, and one of the greatest statesmen of all time. His influence on the Latin language was so immense that the subsequent history of prose, not only in Latin but in other European languages up to the 19th century, was said to be either a reaction against or a return to his style. As a politician, he was successively governor, consul, praetor, aedile and quaestor. He opposed Julius Caesar, supported Pompey and championed a return to the traditional republican government. A supporter of the assassination of Julius Caesar and an opponent of Mark Antony, he was declared an enemy of the state by the Second Triumvirate and was executed.
Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) – Roman statesman and general. Universally considered one of the greatest generals and statesmen of all time, and one of the most important figures of world history. He was a popularis (defender of the plebeians) and one of the three leaders of the First Triumvirate with Marcus Licinius Crassus and Pompey the Great. His accomplishments, especially his victories in the Gallic Wars, led to him becoming one of the most powerful politicians in the Roman Republic. He extended Rome's territory to the Channel and the Rhine, and became the first Roman general to cross both the Channel and the Rhine. After assuming control of the government as dictator in perpetuity, he began a program of social and governmental reforms, including the creation of the Julian calendar. His assassination played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.
Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis or Cato the Younger (95-46 BC) – Roman statesman and great-grandson of Cato the Censor. A noted orator and stoic, he is remembered for his stubbornness and tenacity, as well as his immunity to bribes, his moral integrity, and his famous distaste for corruption. A defender of republican principles, he opposed Julius Caesar and committed suicide.
Sallust (86-34 BC) – Roman quaestor, tribune, senator, governor and historian. He was a popularis (opponent of the patricians) and a supporter of Julius Caesar. He developed the Gardens of Sallust. Remembered as one of the most important Latin historians of the first century BC. His Latin phrase concordia res parvae crescunt gave rise to the motto “unity makes strength”.
Marcus Antonius or Mark Antony (83-30 BC) – Roman general and statesman. He was a supporter of Julius Caesar and served as one of his generals during the conquest of Gaul and the Civil War. After Caesar's assassination, he became one of the three leaders of the Second Triumvirate with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Octavian. However, when Rome declared war on Queen Cleopatra, he betrayed the Roman government and joined Cleopatra. He was proclaimed a traitor by the Roman Senate, leading to a civil war with Octavian. Despite his treason, Antony is regarded as one of Rome's greatest generals.
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (c. 63-12 BC) – Roman statesman, general, architect and son-in-law of Octavian Augustus. He was responsible for the construction of some of the most notable buildings in the history of Rome and for important military victories, such as the Battle of Actium against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. As a result of these victories, Octavian became the first Roman Emperor. He assisted Augustus in making Rome a city of marble and in renovating aqueducts. He was responsible for the creation of many baths, porticoes and gardens, as well as the original Pantheon. He was also the inventor of the harpax.
Roman Empire
Octavian Augustus (63 BC - 14 AD) – Founder of the Roman Empire and 1st Roman Emperor, reigning from 27 BC to 14 AD. Universally recognized as one of the great administrative geniuses and one of the most important figures of world history. He dramatically enlarged the Roman Empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, completing the conquest of Hispania, and founding dozens of Italic colonies and cities all around the Empire. He developed networks of roads with an official courier system, introduced a standing army, established the Praetorian Guard, and created official police and fire-fighting services for Rome. He was the longest-reigning Roman emperor.
Tiberius (42 BC - 37 AD) – 2nd Emperor of the Roman Empire, reigning from 14 AD to 37 AD. One of the greatest Roman generals. His conquest of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Raetia and parts of Germania—which he had accomplished during the reign of Emperor Augustus—laid the foundations for the northern frontier of the Empire. During his reign he focused on economic growth and public security. His administration was that of a wise, intelligent statesman with a strong sense of duty. He left the Empire in a state of prosperity and peace.
Claudius (10 BC - 54 AD) – 4th Emperor of the Roman Empire, reigning from 41 AD to 54 AD. He was a capable and efficient administrator and an ambitious builder, constructing many new roads, aqueducts, and canals across the Empire. During his reign the Roman Empire underwent its first major expansion since the reign of Augustus. The provinces of Thrace, Noricum, Pamphylia, Lycia, and Judea were annexed. He also began the conquest of Britannia and banned Druidism. His 13-year reign would not be surpassed by any of his successors until Domitian, who reigned for 15 years.
Vespasian (9-79 AD) – 9th Emperor of the Roman Empire, reigning from 69 AD to 79 AD. He founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empire for 27 years. His fame came from his military success; he commanded the Legio II Augusta during the Roman invasion of Britannia and subjugated Judaea during the First Judeo-Roman War. He reformed the financial system of Rome, increased imperial expansion in Britannia, and initiated several ambitious construction projects, including the building of the Flavian Amphitheatre, known today as the Roman Colosseum.
Trajan (53-117 AD) – 13th Emperor of the Roman Empire, reigning from 98-117 AD. Remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presided over the greatest military expansion in Roman history, leading the Empire to attain its maximum territorial extent, annexing the Nabataean Kingdom, Dacia, Armenia and Mesopotamia. He is also known for his philanthropic rule, overseeing extensive public building programs and implementing social welfare policies, which earned him his enduring reputation as the second of the Five Good Emperors who presided over an era of peace and prosperity. He left numerous landmarks such as Trajan's Forum, Trajan's Market and Trajan's Column.
Hadrian (76-138 AD) – 14th Emperor of the Roman Empire, reigning from 117 AD to 138 AD. Considered the third of the Five Good Emperors. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Britannia. He abandoned Trajan's expansionist policies and instead was dedicated to the development of stable, defensible borders, and encouraged military preparedness and discipline. He developed permanent fortifications and military posts along the Empire's borders. He also fostered, designed or personally subsidized various civil and religious institutions and building projects, including the completion of the Pantheon.
Antoninus Pius (86-161 AD) – 15th Emperor of the Roman Empire, reigning from 138-161 AD. Mild-mannered and an effective administrator, he was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors. His reign is notable for the peaceful state of the Empire, with no major revolts or military incursions, and for his governing without ever leaving Italy. A successful military campaign in southern Scotland early in his reign resulted in the construction of the Antonine Wall. He left his successors a large surplus in the treasury, expanded free access to drinking water throughout the Empire, and sent a diplomatic mission to China.
Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) – 17th Emperor of the Roman Empire, reigning from 161-180 AD. Known as a stoic and as a philosopher king, he was the last of the rulers traditionally known as the Five Good Emperors. During his reign the Roman Empire defeated the Parthian Empire in the East, and defeated the Germanic tribes in the Marcomannic Wars. His death in 180 is seen as an end to the Pax Romana. For many generations his reign symbolized the Golden Age of the Roman Empire. The only dark mark on his reign was the exceedingly cruel and unfortunate persecution of Christians.
Constantine the Great (c. 272-337 AD) – The first Christian Emperor of the Roman Empire, reigning from 306-337 AD. He reunited the Roman Empire under one emperor after it had been divided by Diocletian. His Edict of Milan proclaimed religious tolerance for Christianity. He enacted numerous administrative, financial, social and military reforms to strengthen the Empire. He restructured the government, separating civil and military authorities. He introduced the solidus coin and dynastic succession. He also pursued successful military campaigns against the barbarian tribes on the Roman frontiers: Franks, Alamanni, Goths and Sarmatians. His near 31 year reign—the second longest after Augustus—changed the course of Christian and world history.
Middle Ages
Boethius (c. 477-524) – Roman senator, consul, magister officiorum and philosopher. Described as “the last of the Romans”, he is considered the last great representative of ancient Roman culture and the first great intellectual of the Middle Ages. With Cassiodorus, he was one of the most important figures of the transitional period of barbarian rule following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. He entered the service of King Theodoric for thirteen years and became the highest-ranking Roman official. He was later accused of conspiracy to restore Roman rule and was executed for treason. While in prison he wrote “The Consolation of Philosophy”, the last great work of classical antiquity and the single most influential work on Medieval and early Renaissance Christianity.
Cassiodorus (c. 485-580) – Roman statesman, scholar and monk. With Boethius, he was one of the most important figures of the transitional period following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. He devoted himself to both politics and culture, and helped save the culture of Rome at a time of impending barbarism. He entered the service of King Theodoric, becoming his closest advisor. He was successively quaestor, consul and magister officiorum. He also served as chancellor and wrote all of Theodoric's official letters. He later became Praetorian Prefect of Italy, the highest-ranking public office in Italy. He made a great contribution to Western culture by establishing a monastery school and the first scriptorium, collecting ancient manuscripts and enjoining his monks to copy the works of both secular and Christian authors, thereby preserving ancient writings.
Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540-604) – 67th Pope of the Catholic Church from 590-604, Prefect of Rome from 573-575 and papal ambassador to Constantinople from 579-586. With no emperor or competent imperial authority to defend Rome, he became the de facto political ruler of Rome and the most important civil leader in Italy, directing both the affairs of the Church and the government. He negotiated treaties, paid troops, appointed generals and governors, arranged relief and aid for other Italian cities, and oversaw the day-to-day functions of the city of Rome. He organized Rome's defenses to protect the city from the Longobard invaders and negotiated a truce using his own funds. He worked to convert the Longobards to Catholicism and to negotiate a peace between them and the Byzantine Empire. His most important accomplishment was sending the Gregorian Mission to Britain, which successfully converted the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity.
Pope Leo IV (790-855) – 106th Pope of the Catholic Church from 847-855. He is remembered for repairing Roman churches that were damaged during the Arab raids on Rome, including the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, and for building the Leonine Wall around Vatican Hill. He also organized a league of Italian cities which defeated the Saracens at sea in the Battle of Ostia.
Pope John X (c. 860 – 929) – 125th Pope of the Catholic Church from 914-928. He attempted to unify Italy under the leadership of King Berengario I, and was instrumental in the defeat of the Saracens at the Battle of Garigliano, a precursor to the Crusades, which the pope personally led. Despite being the foremost statesman of his age, his reputation has been seriously maligned, first by the calumnies of Liutprand of Cremona, and later by the anti-Catholic propaganda of Protestants and illuminists.
Pietro II Orseolo (961-1009) − 26th Doge of Venice from 991-1009 and Duke of Dalmatia. He initiated the period of eastern expansion of the Republic of Venice that would last for the next 500 years. He defeated the Narentine pirates that had infested the Adriatic Sea and liberated the Latin cities of Istria and Dalmatia, which all swore loyalty and fidelity to Venice. He greatly expanded Venetian influence through marriages, which enabled one grandson to become King of Croatia and another grandson to become the second King of Hungary. He also founded the Festa della Sensa (Ascension Festival)—the oldest festival in Venice—and the Marriage of the Sea ceremony to symbolize the maritime dominion of Venice.
Pope Gregory VII (1015 - 1085) - 157th Pope of the Catholic Church from 1073-1085. Best known for the Gregorian Reform and for the role he played in the Investiture Controversy. Hailed as one of the greatest Roman pontiffs in history. He was a superb administrator and a great papal statesman.
Domenico Selvo (c. 1000's - 1087) – 31st Doge of Venice from 1071-1084. His domestic policies, alliances and battles laid the foundations for much of the subsequent policies of the Republic of Venice. The first decade of his reign was marked by peace and prosperity. He expanded Venetian trade, supervised the construction of St. Mark's Basilica and commissioned its first mosaics. By gaining power through a vote and then willingly surrendering power, he left a long-term impact on the Venetian succession process, which became a model for peaceful, anti-nepotistic transitions of power.
Ruggero II or Roger II of Sicily (1095-1154) – Founder of the Kingdom of Sicily and first King of Sicily, reigning from 1130-1154. Born to a Norman father and an Italian mother. He united the whole of southern Italy and Sicily under a single ruler for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire. He initiated the Sicilian conquest of North Africa, leading to the establishment of the Sicilian Kingdom of Africa. He also founded the Sicilian Parliament, which is considered the oldest parliament in the world. During his reign Sicily became the leading maritime power in the Mediterranean.
Enrico Dandolo (c. 1107-1205) – 41st Doge of Venice from 1192-1205. One of the most important doges in Venetian history. He was deeply ambitious and displayed tremendous energy and mental capacity. Remembered for his piety, longevity, cleverness, and for his role in the Fourth Crusade. He began the first codification of the Republic's laws. He also enacted important reforms to the Venetian currency system, introducing the first European token coin since ancient Rome (the quartarolo) and the first nearly pure silver and high denomination coin minted in western Europe in over five centuries (the grosso), which became the dominant coin of Mediterranean commerce. His conquest of the Byzantine Empire laid the foundations of the Venetian colonial empire.
Pope Innocent III (1161-1216) – 176th Pope of the Catholic Church from 1198-1216. Regarded as one of the most powerful and influential of the medieval popes, and is said to have been the most powerful person in Europe at the time. He extended his political power over the Italian peninsula, gaining temporal sovreignty over Rome, Romagna, the March of Ancona and the Duchy of Spoleto. He also greatly extended the scope of the crusades, directing crusades against Muslim Spain and the Holy Land (which he intended to lead himself), as well as the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars.
Cangrande I della Scala (1291-1329) – Lord of Verona from 1308-1311. The best known, loved and celebrated scion of the Scaligeri dynasty. Best remembered as the friend and protector of Dante Alighieri. During his life he was known for his military conquests and was celebrated as a successful warrior and ruler. He was an able conqueror, a brilliant tactician, a brave fighter, an astute politician, a prudent administrator, and a generous patron of the arts and learning. Poets, painters, grammarians and historians were welcome during his reign.
Cola di Rienzo (1313-1354) – Italian notary, tribune, rector, senator and popular leader who twice became the de facto ruler of Rome in 1347 and 1354. He attempted to restore the Roman Republic and unite Italy under his leadership. Known as “the Last of the Tribunes”. He bore the title “Tribune of Freedom, Peace, Justice, and Liberator of the Holy Roman Republic”. His brief reign—totaling less than seven months—had a lasting impact on history. He is considered an early populist and proto-Fascist figure. Remembered as a romantic hero.
Galeazzo II Visconti (c. 1320-1378) – Co-Lord of Milan from 1354-1378. He played an important role in expanding Milanese dominion and centralizing the power of the Visconti, laying the foundations for the greater expansions of his son Gian Galeazzo Visconti. He was a patron of the arts and learning, and a patron of Petrarch. He also founded the University of Pavia, which would become one of the most important in Europe.
Renaissance
Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1351-1402) – The first Duke of Milan, reigning from 1395-1402. He brought the Visconti dynasty to the height of its wealth and power, and almost succeeded in uniting all of northern and central Italy under his rule. An able administrator, he coined money bearing the title Rex Italicorum, signifying his intention to make himself King of Italy. He founded the Certosa di Pavia, began the construction of Milan Cathedral, completed the Visconti Castle in Pavia, and created the Calà del Sasso—the longest stairway in the world.
Francesco Foscari (1373-1457) – 65th Doge of the Venice from 1423-1457. His reign was the longest in Venetian history and marked the height of Venetian power. Under him the Republic of Venice reached its greatest territorial extent, bringing all of Veneto, Friuli, Brescia and Bergamo under Venetian sovereignty.
Cosimo de' Medici (1389-1464) – The first member of the Medici dynasty to serve as de facto ruler of Florence, reigning from 1434-1464. Remembered as a moderate ruler, a skilled diplomat, and a great patron of the arts. He spent some 600,000 gold florins (approximately $460 million today) from his own purse to support charity, public works, buildings, scholarly learning, and other arts. He patronize men such as Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, Luca Della Robbia, Donatello, Michelozzi and Brunelleschi. His administration laid the foundations for the Golden Age of Florence. Posthumously awarded the title “Father of the Fatherland”.
Pope Nicholas V (1397-1455) – 208th Pope of the Catholic Church from 1447-1455. He was a key figure in the Roman Renaissance and sought to make Rome the capital of literature and art. He strengthened fortifications, restored ancient Roman aqueducts, rebuilt many churches, paved new streets, rebuilt the Leonine City, founded the Vatican Library, and planned the construction of the Apostolic Palace and St. Peter's Basilica.
Francesco I Sforza (1401-1466) – Duke of Milan from 1450-1466 and founder of the Sforza dynasty. A moderate and skillful ruler. He modernized the city and duchy of Milan. He created an efficient system of taxation that generated enormous revenues and his court became a center of Renaissance learning and culture. He played an important role in bringing about the Peace of Lodi and the Italic League, which brought peace and stability to Italy for 40 years. He was the first European ruler to follow a foreign policy based on the concept of the balance of power, and was the first Italian ruler to conduct extensive diplomacy outside the peninsula to counter the power of threatening states such as France. His policies succeeded in keeping foreign powers from dominating Italian politics for the rest of the century.
Ludovico III Gonzaga (1412-1478) – Marchese of Mantua from 1444-1478. He is considered the most remarkable scion of the Gonzaga family. Remembered as a devoutly religious ruler and patron of literature and the arts. Under his leadership Mantua became one of the capitals of the Italian Renaissance and the Gonzaga family rose to its highest level of prestige.
Federico da Montefeltro (1422-1482) – Lord of Urbino from 1444-1474 and the first Duke of Urbino from 1474-1482. Nicknamed “the Light of Italy”. He was a renowned intellectual, general and civil leader with an impeccable reputation for martial skill and honor. As a condottiero, he remained undefeated on the battlefield. As a ruler, he commissioned the construction of the Ducal Palace of Urbino and the construction of a great library—the second largest in Italy after the Vatican Library—with . He also supported the development of artists, including Raphael. Remembered as one of the most benevolent, honorable, cultured and important leaders of the Renaissance period.
Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492) – Lord of Florence from 1469-1492. Nicknamed “Lorenzo the Magnificent”, he is considered the most brilliant member of the House of Medici and the best statesman of the Italian Renaissance. He was a magnate, diplomat, politician, artist, poet, and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Best known for his sponsorship of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. His reign marked the Golden Age of Florence. He played an important role in bringing about the Peace of Lodi and the Italic League, which brought peace and stability to Italy for 40 years.
Cesare Borgia (1475-1507) – Italian condottiero, nobleman, politician, bishop and cardinal. One of the most famous and controversial figures of the Italian Renaissance. He held numerous titles, including Prince of Andria, Prince of Venafri, Duke of Valentino, Duke of Romagna, Duke of Urbino, Count of Diois and Duke of Camerino. Despite his controversial reputation, he is recognized as a brilliant military commander and a skillful statesman. His rise to power was a major inspiration for Machiavelli's “The Prince”.
Ercole I d'Este (1431-1505) – Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio from 1471-1505. One of the main patrons and figures of Renaissance culture. His long rule marked one of the most important periods in the history of Ferrara and the House of Este. His court was among the most refined in Europe. He patronized theatre and musical arts, establishing Ferrara as one of the leading centres of music. He also sponsored the first major urban renewal project of the Renaissance, nearly doubling the city's size. For this reason Ferrara was defined as the first modern city in Europe. Many of Ferrara's most famous buildings date from his reign.
Ludovico Sforza (1452-1508) – Duke of Milan from 1480-1499. He presided over the most productive stage of the Milanese Renaissance. As a patron of Leonardo da Vinci and other artists, he is best known for commissioning The Last Supper. He was a good administrator: he invested in agriculture, increased employment, sponsored extensive work in civil and military engineering, continued work on the Milan Cathedral, and had the streets of Milan enlarged and adorned with gardens. However, he was also responsible for starting the Italian Wars, which ultimately caused much of Italy—including the Duchy of Milan—to fall under foreign domination.
Caterina Sforza (1463-1509) – Lady of Imola and Countess of Forlì. Nicknamed “The Tigress of Forlì” and “Lioness of Romagna”. Known as a ruthless ruler. Considered the most famous virago of the Renaissance. She distinguished herself through her bold and impetuous actions taken to safeguard her possessions and defend her dominions from attack.
Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) – Italian friar, preacher, politician and de facto ruler of Florence from 1494-1498. Remembered as the most pious, eloquent and moralistic ruler of the Renaissance. He briefly established a theocratic republic based on popular support. He condemned cultural degeneration, denounced corruption, despotism, exploitation of the poor, and called for Christian renewal. His moral reforms famously included bonfires of the vanities—public burnings of immoral literature, degenerate art and objects of vanity.
Isabella d'Este (1474-1539) – Marchesa of Mantua from 1490-1519 and Regent from 1519-1521. One of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance. Known as the “First Lady of the Renaissance” and the “First Lady of the World”. She was a patron of the arts, hiring many of the most famous Renaissance artists, as well as a leader of fashion. Her innovative style of dressing was copied by women throughout Italy and France. She was regarded as generous, magnanimous, wise and supreme among women. When her husband was captured and held hostage in Venice, she took control of Mantua's military forces and held off the invaders. She famously converted her house into an asylum for civilians fleeing the Imperial soldiers during the Sack of Rome. She also protected Mantua from French attacks and was instrumental in elevating Mantua to a Duchy.
Pope Julius II (1443-1513) – 216th Pope of the Catholic Church from 1503-1513. Known as “The Warrior Pope”. One of the most celebrated popes of the Renaissance. His pontificate was marked by an active foreign policy, ambitious building projects and patronage of the arts. He commissioned the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, Michelangelo's painting of the Sistine Chapel, and hired Raphael. Although initially an ally of foreign powers, he was later dedicated to the principle of Italian independence, and his military and diplomatic interventions prevented a take-over of the Italian States by France, earning him the title “Liberator of Italy”.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) – Italian diplomat, politician, historian, philosopher, writer, playwright and poet. Second Chancellor of the Republic of Florence from 1498-1512. One of the most famous figures of the Italian Renaissance. He is regarded as the father and founder of modern political science.
Bona Sforza (1494-1557) – A member of the powerful House of Sforza, which ruled the Duchy of Milan since 1447. Through marriage she became Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania from 1518-1548. Ambitious and energetic, she became heavily involved in the political life of Poland-Lithuania, implementing various economic and agricultural reforms. Through diplomacy she saved Poland from Ottoman invasion. She introduced Italian Renaissance culture to Poland-Lithuania by bringing Italian writers, painters, architects, musicians, chefs, gardeners and horticulturalists to her court. She had a lasting impact on Polish cuisine by introducing foods such as tomatoes, cauliflower, artichokes, green beans, cabbage, lettuce, celery, carrots, parsley, leeks, broccoli and spinach. She is also credited with introducing some of Poland's prized dishes, including lazanki and pierogi.
Pope Pius V (1504-1572) – 225th Pope of the Catholic Church from 1566-1572. Known for his virtue, piety and austerity. He banished luxury from his court, raised the standard of morality and condemned nepotism. His distributed alms to the poor, visited hospitals and consoled the sick. He worked incessantly to unite Christendom against the Ottoman Turks. For this reason he is best remembered for his role in forming the Holy League, a Christian alliance between Spain and the Italian States, which famously defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto.
Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-1574) – Duke of Florence from 1537-1569 and first Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1569-1574. He successfully restored the power of the Medici dynasty, which would rule Tuscany until 1737. He worked to increase Tuscany's independence and free it from the influence of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. He was an active builder of military structures, designed to prevent the passage of foreign armies. He built roads, drainage works, ports, fortresses and instituted a new criminal code. He founded the Uffizi, which today houses one of the world's most important collections of art. He also founded the Knights of St. Stephen, strengthened the army and developed the Tuscan fleet, which participated in the Battle of Lepanto.
Caterina or Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589) – Queen of France from 1547-1559 and Regent from 1560-1563. The single most powerful scion of the House of Medici and the most powerful woman of the 16th century. She had an extensive influence on the political life of France. She supported religious tolerance and attempted to reconcile Catholics and Protestants. Although she gained an unfair reputation as a ruthless ruler, particularly due to her reign coinciding with the outbreak of the French Wars of Religion, she had an enormous impact on French culture and left an enduring legacy. From Italy she brought with her an army of Italian craftsmen, architects, artists, musicians, cooks, confectioners, stylists and dancers. Her patronage of the arts, architecture, literature, theatre and court festivals made a significant contribution to the Renaissance in France. She is credited with introducing many Italian customs and refinements to France, such as handkerchiefs, forks, table etiquette and manners, the folding fan, the side saddle, the violin, opera, ballet, perfume and underwear. A large portion of modern French cuisine derives its origin from the Italian-style cuisine introduced during her reign.
Alessandro Farnese (1545-1592) – Italian general and nobleman. Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Castro from 1586-1592 and Governor-General of the Spanish Netherlands from 1578-1592. Best known for his successful campaign against the Dutch Revolt and for his relief in the Siege of Paris. He also fought in the Battle of Lepanto and was a commander of the Spanish Armada. His talents as a field commander, strategist and organizer earned him the regard of his contemporaries and military historians as the greatest general of his age. An expert politician, he was primarily responsible for maintaining Spanish control of the Netherlands and for preserving Roman Catholicism in the southern provinces. His construction of a solid line of defense against the United Provinces consolidated the union of the Catholic Netherlands and laid the foundations for the creation of Belgium.
Seicento and Settecento
Cardinal Mazzarino or Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661) – Italian cardinal, politician and diplomat. He served as the Chief Minister to kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV of France from 1642-1661. Remembered as an outstanding diplomat. As the de facto ruler of France, he played a crucial role in establishing the Westphalian principles that would guide European states' foreign policy and the prevailing world order. Some of these principles remain the basis of international law to this day. He was also an important patron of the arts. He introduced Italian Opera on a grand scale to Paris, assembled a remarkable art collection, and founded the Mazarin Library—the first true public library in France.
Elisabetta Farnese (1692-1766) – Queen of Spain and de facto ruler of Spain from 1714-1746. The last member of the illustrious House of Farnese. She exerted great influence over Spain's foreign policy. Her ambitions to secure Italian possessions embroiled Spain in wars for three decades, however her capability in choosing able and devoted ministers brought about beneficial internal reforms, military improvements and succeeded in improving Spain's economy.
Pasquale Paoli (1725-1807) – Italian revolutionary, patriot, statesman, general and founder of the Corsican Republic. President of Corsica from 1755-1769 and 1794-1796. Called the “Father of the Fatherland”. He led the Corsican resistance against the French occupation of Corsica. He founded the first University of Corsica and created the Corsican Constitution, which was the first constitution in the world written according to Enlightenment principles.
Napoleonic Era
Napoleone Bonaparte (1769-1821) – Italian general, statesman and founder of the First French Empire. Emperor of the French from 1804-1814, King of Italy from 1805-1814 and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine from 1806-1813. Universally regarded as one of the most important figures of world history. He is also considered one of the greatest military commanders in history, having fought 60 battles and losing only seven of them. His wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. He came closer to conquering Europe than any other person in modern history, conquering the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburg Empire, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Poland and Prussia. His influence on the modern world brought many reforms to the territories he conquered. His Napoleonic Code has influenced the legal systems of more than 70 nations around the world and is considered the greatest codification of laws since the fall of the Roman Empire.
Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi (1777-1820) – Princess of Lucca and Piombino from 1805-1814, Duchess of Massa and Princess of Carrara from 1806-1814, and Grand Duchess of Tuscany from 1809-1814. She was Napoleon's only sister to possess political power. Highly interested in the arts, particularly the theatre and sculpting, she encouraged them in the territories in which she ruled. She founded schools, set up a public charity composed of clergy and laymen, instituted free medical consultations for the poor, and established a committee to encourage and finance the invention of new machines and techniques for agricultural production.
Giuseppe di Buonaparte (1768-1844) – King of Naples and Sicily from 1806-1808 and King of Spain from 1808-1813. Older brother of Napoleone Bonaparte. He was well liked by his subjects and acquainted himself with the local nobles, clergy and people. He embarked on an ambitious program of reform and public works aimed at raising Naples to the level of a modern state.
Luigi Buonaparte (1778-25 July 1846) – King of Holland from 1806-1810. Younger brother of Napoleone Bonaparte. He was popular among his subjects and sought to make Holland as independent as possible from the French Empire. Although he could not speak Dutch, his sincere effort earned him the respect of his subjects.
Girolamo Buonaparte (1784-1860) – King of Westphalia from 1807-1813 and Prince of Montfort from 1816-1860. Youngest brother of Napoleone Bonaparte. He instituted the first constitution and parliament in German history. He later served as Marshal of France and President of the Senate.
Risorgimento
Napoleon III (1808-1873) – Emperor of the French from 1852-1870 and founder of the Second French Empire. One of the most important men in the history of France. He modernized the French banking system, greatly expanded and consolidated the French railway system and made the French merchant marine the second largest in the world. He promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, which made France an agricultural exporter. He doubled the area of the French overseas empire in Asia, the Pacific and Africa, and remains the longest-serving French head of state since the French Revolution.
Camillo Benso, Conte di Cavour (1810-1861) – Italian statesman and leading figure of Italian Unification. He was the leading government figure of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1850-1861 and became the first Prime Minister of Italy in 1861. He successfully negotiated Sardinia's way through the Crimean War, the Second Italian War of Independence, and Garibaldi's expeditions. Through a combination of war and diplomacy he turned the Kingdom of Sardinia into a new great power in Europe which then led Italian Unification and became the Kingdom of Italy. Regarded as the most successful parliamentarian in Italian history and one of the greatest statesmen of the 19th century.
Modern
Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863-1938) – Italian writer, poet, playwright, soldier, politician, journalist and patriot. A famous poet and a distinguished soldier, he organized and led the conquest of Fiume in the aftermath of World War I with the intention of annexing it to the Kingdom of Italy. He founded the short-lived Italian Regency of Carnaro, a city-state based around the Italian city of Fiume, and proclaimed himself ruler. He was a modern Renaissance man, the likes of which the world had not seen in many centuries. His enterprise and brief reign from 1919-1920—undertaken in defiance of all governments—had an enormous impact on Italian and world politics. His revolutionary constitution, combination of thought and action, blend of authoritarian and democratic ideas, and overall style is considered a precursor of Fascism.
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) – Italian journalist, soldier and ruler of Italy from 1922-1945. Best remembered as the founder of Fascism. He became the youngest Prime Minister of Italy and remains the longest-reigning Prime Minister in Italian history. He sought to modernize and transform Italy into a self-sustaining world power capable of challenging the hegemony of Great Britain and France. He founded the Italian Empire and brought Italy to the height of its political and military power, elevating Italy to its most powerful position in the world since the fall of the Roman Empire. He ruled based on popular consensus and gained enormous popularity. He reconciled Church and State (thereby solving the Roman Question), recognized the independence of Vatican City, launched massive public works and social programs, instituted welfare for mothers and children, reduced unemployment, raised the standards of health and education, increased the literacy rate, improved the living conditions, drained marshes, rebuilt ruined towns, founded new cities, established several Italian colonies in Africa, abolished slavery, reformed the Penal Code (which still remains in force today in a modified form), decreased crime and defeated the Mafia. In his lifetime he was regarded as the man who saved Italy from Communism and was admired around the world for his success in avoiding the Great Depression. The pope defined him as “the Man sent by Providence” and he was widely praised and hailed as the greatest statesman of the 20th century. Despite the stigma now attached to his name, he remains one of the most important figures in world history.
Italian Poets
A complete list of all Italian poets would be too exhaustive. Below are some of the more important Italian poets throughout history, from ancient Rome to the modern period.
Italian Poets of Antiquity
Gnaeus Naevius (c. 275 BC - 201 BC) – The oldest Roman dramatist and the first author of an epic poem: Bellum Punicum.
Ennius (239 BC - 169 BC) – Called the “Father of Roman Poetry”. His most important work is Annales, an epic poem on the early history of the Ancient Rome.
Lucilius (c. 180 - 102 BC) – Founder of the Roman satire genre. Only fragments of his works survive.
Lucretius (c. 94 BC - c. 55 BC) – Poet and philosopher. His only surviving work is the philosophical poem De rerum natura.
Virgil (70 BC - 19 AD) – One of the three greatest Roman poets with Horace and Ovid. Best known for writing the epic poem the Aeneid. His two other major works are the Eclogues and the Georgics.
Horace (65 BC - 8 AD) – One of the three greatest Roman poets with Virgil and Ovid. His poetical works includes his Odes, Satires, Epodes and Ars Poetica.
Propertius (c. 47 BC - 15 BC) – His surviving work comprises four books of Elegies.
Ovid (43 BC - c. 17/18 AD) – One of the three greatest Roman poets with Virgil and Horace. Best known for the Metamorphoses, the Ars Amatoria and the Fasti.
Silius Italicus (c. 25-101 AD) – Consul, orator and poet. His only surviving work is the Punica, an epic poem about the Second Punic War and the longest surviving poem in Latin.
Persius (34-62 AD) – One of the four great Roman satirists with Lucilius, Horace and Juvenal.
Lucan (39-65 AD) – Regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Silver Age of Latin literature.
Statius (c. 45-96 AD) – One of the main exponents of the epic poetry in the Flavian period. His surviving works includes the epic poem the Thebaid, the Silvae, and the unfinished epic the Achilleid.
Juvenal (c. 50-127 AD) – Considered the greatest Roman satirist. Best known as the author of a collection of satirical poems known as the Satires.
Italian Poets of Late Antiquity
Faltonia Betitia Proba (c. 306 - c. 353) – The earliest female Christian poet and the first writer to compose a Christian cento. Her greatest poem is the Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi.
Prudentius (348 - c. 405) – One of the earliest Christian poets. His Psychomachia was the first and most influential completely allegorical poem in European literature.
Paulinus of Nola (355-431) – Poet, writer, senator, consul, governor and bishop. His poems were used as educational models. He is also credited with the invention of bells.
Sidonius Apollinaris (c. 430-489) – Poet, senator, prefect and bishop. One of the most important Roman and Christian poets of the 5th century. Considered the last representative of classical Roman culture in Gaul.
Magnus Felix Ennodius (c. 474-521) – Poet and bishop. One of the last representatives of the ancient school of rhetoric. Although best known for his biography of St. Epiphanius, he also composed several poems, including two Itineraria.
Venantius Fortunatus (530-607) – The last major Latin poet of late antiquity. Best known for two poems which became part of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church: the Pange lingua gloriosi proelium certaminis and the Vexilla Regis prodeunt.
Italian Poets of the Middle Ages
Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) – His Canticle of the Sun was the first poem written in the vernacular Italian language.
Giacomo da Lentini (c. 1210-1260) – One of the main representatives of the Sicilian School of poetry. Inventor of the sonnet.
Guido Guinizzelli (1235-1276) – Founder of the Dolce Stil Novo movement together with Guido Cavalcanti.
Guido Cavalcanti (c. 1258-1300) – Poet and troubadour. Founder of the Dolce Stil Novo movement together with Guido Guinizzelli.
Jacopone da Todi (c. 1236-1306) – Poet and Franciscan friar. Considered one of the most important Italian poets of the Middle Ages and one of the most famous authors of religious lauds in all Italian literature. He was also an early pioneer in Italian theatre, being one of the earliest scholars to dramatize Gospel subjects.
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) – Called the “Father of the Italian Language”. Regarded as the greatest Italian poet and one of the greatest poets of all time. His Divine Comedy is widely considered the most important poem of the Middle Ages, the greatest literary work in the Italian language and one of the pinnacles of Western literature. Together with Petrarch and Boccaccio, he one of the “Three Crowns” of Italian literature.
Italian Poets of the Renaissance
Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch (1304-1374) – Called the “Father of the Renaissance”. Famous for developing the Petrarchan sonnet, which became a model for lyrical poetry. Together with Dante and Boccaccio, he one of the “Three Crowns” of Italian literature. His most celebrated poem is Italia mia, the 128th canzone of his Il Canzoniere.
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) – Although best remembered for his novellas and biographies, he was also an important poet. His most famous poetic works are Teseida, Il Filocolo, Il Filostrato and Amorosa visione. Together with Dante and Petrarch, he one of the “Three Crowns” of Italian literature.
Luigi Pulci (1432-1484) – Best known for his epic poem Morgante, one of the outstanding epics of the Renaissance.
Matteo Maria Boiardo (1441-1494) – Best remembered for his epic poem Orlando Innamorato.
Agnolo Poliziano (1454-1494) – Generally considered the greatest Italian poet of the 15th century.
Jacopo Sannazaro (1457-1530) – Best remembered for his pastoral poem Arcadia, a masterwork which instituted the theme of Arcadia in European literature.
Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) – Scholar, poet and cardinal. Celebrated for his contribution to the development and standardization of the Italian language. His ideas were also decisive in the formation of the most important secular musical form of the 16th century, the madrigal. The typeface Bembo is named after him.
Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) – Best known as the author of the epic poem Orlando Furioso, a continuation of Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) – A Renaissance polymath best remembered as a sculptor, architect and painter, he was also one of Renaissance Italy's greatest poets.
Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478-1550) – His L'Italia liberata dai Goti was the first heroic poem and historical epic written in the classical manner. He is also credited as the inventor of blank verse.
Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538-1612) – With Torquato Tasso, he is credited with establishing the form of a new literary genre: the pastoral drama. He was also the most important poet to contribute to the flowering of the madrigal in the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras.
Torquato Tasso (1544-1595) – Best known for his epic poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered). With Guarini, he is also credited with establishing the form of a new literary genre: the pastoral drama.
Italian Poets of the Baroque Period
Alessandro Tassoni (1565-1635) – Credited with inventing the model of the heroi-comic genre with his La secchia rapita (The Rape of the Bucket).
Giambattista Marino (1569-1625) – Founder of the school of Marinism, later called Secentismo. He is most famous for his long epic L'Adone.
Emanuele Tesauro (1592-1675) – His Il Cannocchiale Aristotelico is considered one of the most important statements of poetics in 17th century Europe.
Fulvio Testi (1593-1646) – One of the leading exponents of Italian Baroque literature.
Italian Poets of the Settecento
Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782) – Regarded as the greatest librettist of all time and one of the greatest poets of the 18th century.
Giuseppe Parini (1729-1799) – Poet and abbot. One of the greatest Italian Neoclassical poets.
Italian Poets of the Risorgimento
Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873) – Although best known as a novelist and playwright, he was also regarded as one of the greatest poets of his age. His most notable poetic works are the Inni sacri, Marzo 1821 and Il cinque maggio.
Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) – One of the principal figures of literary romanticism. Considered the greatest Italian poet of the 19th century and one of the greatest poets in history.
Goffredo Mameli (1827-1849) – Best known for his poem Il Canto degli Italiani, which became the lyrics of the national anthem of Italy.
Italian Poets of the Modern Period
Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863-1938) – Writer, poet, playwright, soldier, politician, journalist and patriot. Regarded as one of Italy's greatest poets.
Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970) – Poet, journalist, essayist, critic and academic. Considered one of the greatest Italian poets of the 20th century.
Italian Poets of Antiquity
Gnaeus Naevius (c. 275 BC - 201 BC) – The oldest Roman dramatist and the first author of an epic poem: Bellum Punicum.
Ennius (239 BC - 169 BC) – Called the “Father of Roman Poetry”. His most important work is Annales, an epic poem on the early history of the Ancient Rome.
Lucilius (c. 180 - 102 BC) – Founder of the Roman satire genre. Only fragments of his works survive.
Lucretius (c. 94 BC - c. 55 BC) – Poet and philosopher. His only surviving work is the philosophical poem De rerum natura.
Virgil (70 BC - 19 AD) – One of the three greatest Roman poets with Horace and Ovid. Best known for writing the epic poem the Aeneid. His two other major works are the Eclogues and the Georgics.
Horace (65 BC - 8 AD) – One of the three greatest Roman poets with Virgil and Ovid. His poetical works includes his Odes, Satires, Epodes and Ars Poetica.
Propertius (c. 47 BC - 15 BC) – His surviving work comprises four books of Elegies.
Ovid (43 BC - c. 17/18 AD) – One of the three greatest Roman poets with Virgil and Horace. Best known for the Metamorphoses, the Ars Amatoria and the Fasti.
Silius Italicus (c. 25-101 AD) – Consul, orator and poet. His only surviving work is the Punica, an epic poem about the Second Punic War and the longest surviving poem in Latin.
Persius (34-62 AD) – One of the four great Roman satirists with Lucilius, Horace and Juvenal.
Lucan (39-65 AD) – Regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Silver Age of Latin literature.
Statius (c. 45-96 AD) – One of the main exponents of the epic poetry in the Flavian period. His surviving works includes the epic poem the Thebaid, the Silvae, and the unfinished epic the Achilleid.
Juvenal (c. 50-127 AD) – Considered the greatest Roman satirist. Best known as the author of a collection of satirical poems known as the Satires.
Italian Poets of Late Antiquity
Faltonia Betitia Proba (c. 306 - c. 353) – The earliest female Christian poet and the first writer to compose a Christian cento. Her greatest poem is the Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi.
Prudentius (348 - c. 405) – One of the earliest Christian poets. His Psychomachia was the first and most influential completely allegorical poem in European literature.
Paulinus of Nola (355-431) – Poet, writer, senator, consul, governor and bishop. His poems were used as educational models. He is also credited with the invention of bells.
Sidonius Apollinaris (c. 430-489) – Poet, senator, prefect and bishop. One of the most important Roman and Christian poets of the 5th century. Considered the last representative of classical Roman culture in Gaul.
Magnus Felix Ennodius (c. 474-521) – Poet and bishop. One of the last representatives of the ancient school of rhetoric. Although best known for his biography of St. Epiphanius, he also composed several poems, including two Itineraria.
Venantius Fortunatus (530-607) – The last major Latin poet of late antiquity. Best known for two poems which became part of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church: the Pange lingua gloriosi proelium certaminis and the Vexilla Regis prodeunt.
Italian Poets of the Middle Ages
Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) – His Canticle of the Sun was the first poem written in the vernacular Italian language.
Giacomo da Lentini (c. 1210-1260) – One of the main representatives of the Sicilian School of poetry. Inventor of the sonnet.
Guido Guinizzelli (1235-1276) – Founder of the Dolce Stil Novo movement together with Guido Cavalcanti.
Guido Cavalcanti (c. 1258-1300) – Poet and troubadour. Founder of the Dolce Stil Novo movement together with Guido Guinizzelli.
Jacopone da Todi (c. 1236-1306) – Poet and Franciscan friar. Considered one of the most important Italian poets of the Middle Ages and one of the most famous authors of religious lauds in all Italian literature. He was also an early pioneer in Italian theatre, being one of the earliest scholars to dramatize Gospel subjects.
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) – Called the “Father of the Italian Language”. Regarded as the greatest Italian poet and one of the greatest poets of all time. His Divine Comedy is widely considered the most important poem of the Middle Ages, the greatest literary work in the Italian language and one of the pinnacles of Western literature. Together with Petrarch and Boccaccio, he one of the “Three Crowns” of Italian literature.
Italian Poets of the Renaissance
Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch (1304-1374) – Called the “Father of the Renaissance”. Famous for developing the Petrarchan sonnet, which became a model for lyrical poetry. Together with Dante and Boccaccio, he one of the “Three Crowns” of Italian literature. His most celebrated poem is Italia mia, the 128th canzone of his Il Canzoniere.
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) – Although best remembered for his novellas and biographies, he was also an important poet. His most famous poetic works are Teseida, Il Filocolo, Il Filostrato and Amorosa visione. Together with Dante and Petrarch, he one of the “Three Crowns” of Italian literature.
Luigi Pulci (1432-1484) – Best known for his epic poem Morgante, one of the outstanding epics of the Renaissance.
Matteo Maria Boiardo (1441-1494) – Best remembered for his epic poem Orlando Innamorato.
Agnolo Poliziano (1454-1494) – Generally considered the greatest Italian poet of the 15th century.
Jacopo Sannazaro (1457-1530) – Best remembered for his pastoral poem Arcadia, a masterwork which instituted the theme of Arcadia in European literature.
Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) – Scholar, poet and cardinal. Celebrated for his contribution to the development and standardization of the Italian language. His ideas were also decisive in the formation of the most important secular musical form of the 16th century, the madrigal. The typeface Bembo is named after him.
Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) – Best known as the author of the epic poem Orlando Furioso, a continuation of Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) – A Renaissance polymath best remembered as a sculptor, architect and painter, he was also one of Renaissance Italy's greatest poets.
Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478-1550) – His L'Italia liberata dai Goti was the first heroic poem and historical epic written in the classical manner. He is also credited as the inventor of blank verse.
Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538-1612) – With Torquato Tasso, he is credited with establishing the form of a new literary genre: the pastoral drama. He was also the most important poet to contribute to the flowering of the madrigal in the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras.
Torquato Tasso (1544-1595) – Best known for his epic poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered). With Guarini, he is also credited with establishing the form of a new literary genre: the pastoral drama.
Italian Poets of the Baroque Period
Alessandro Tassoni (1565-1635) – Credited with inventing the model of the heroi-comic genre with his La secchia rapita (The Rape of the Bucket).
Giambattista Marino (1569-1625) – Founder of the school of Marinism, later called Secentismo. He is most famous for his long epic L'Adone.
Emanuele Tesauro (1592-1675) – His Il Cannocchiale Aristotelico is considered one of the most important statements of poetics in 17th century Europe.
Fulvio Testi (1593-1646) – One of the leading exponents of Italian Baroque literature.
Italian Poets of the Settecento
Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782) – Regarded as the greatest librettist of all time and one of the greatest poets of the 18th century.
Giuseppe Parini (1729-1799) – Poet and abbot. One of the greatest Italian Neoclassical poets.
Italian Poets of the Risorgimento
Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873) – Although best known as a novelist and playwright, he was also regarded as one of the greatest poets of his age. His most notable poetic works are the Inni sacri, Marzo 1821 and Il cinque maggio.
Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) – One of the principal figures of literary romanticism. Considered the greatest Italian poet of the 19th century and one of the greatest poets in history.
Goffredo Mameli (1827-1849) – Best known for his poem Il Canto degli Italiani, which became the lyrics of the national anthem of Italy.
Italian Poets of the Modern Period
Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970) – Poet, journalist, essayist, critic and academic. Considered one of the greatest Italian poets of the 20th century.
25 Saints You Never Knew Were Italian
Many Italian saints are very popular and revered around the world, from early martyrs like St. Agnes and St. Cecilia, to medieval monks like St. Benedict, preachers like St. Francis of Assisi, religious women like St. Catherine of Siena and St. Rita, great popes like St. Gregory and St. Leo, renown theologians like Thomas Aquinas, and modern favorites like Maria Goretti and Padre Pio.
Arranged in no particular order, here are some famous saints who you probably never knew were Italian, either because they were born outside of Italy, or because they were of mixed parentage, or because of common hagiographical confusion or mistakes, or because they made their name as missionaries, bishops or saints in foreign lands.
In Christian hagiography St. Longinus is identified with the Roman soldier who pierced Jesus' side with a lance during the crucifixion, as related in the Gospel of John. He is also identified with the Roman centurion who acknowledged Jesus as ‘the Son of God’ in Matthew 27:54. He is said to have served in the Legio X Fretensis, a Roman legion which was stationed in Roman Judea and Syria. An old tradition places his birthplace in the village of Anxanum (today Lanciano), in Abruzzo, Italy.
Celebrated as the first gentile convert to Christianity. St. Cornelius was a Roman centurion of the Cohors II Italica Civium Romanorum—called the ‘Italian Band’ in the Book of Acts—a Roman cohort from Italy which was stationed in Caesarea, the capital of Roman Judea. His name indicates that he was a member of the distinguished gens Cornelia, one of the greatest patrician houses of Rome.
St. Justin, remembered as a great apologist and martyr, was born as Flavius Iustinus in Flavia Neapolis, in the Roman province of Judea. The city of Flavia Neapolis was founded in 72 AD by Emperor Vespasian, just a few decades before Justin's birth. His family, who bore Latin names, was one of a large number of Roman colonists—Italian war veterans and their families—sent by the emperor to settle in the new city.
Pope Victor I is commonly but erroneously cited as the first African pope. According to the Liber Pontificalis, Pope Victor was born in North Africa, and some historians place his specific birthplace in Leptis Magna (modern Tripolitania). This, however, does not mean he was a native African. In the Roman period, the North African coast was littered with dozens of Roman colonies, and Leptis Magna in particular was a major Roman colony, settled by many Italian colonists and traders. Both Victor and his father Felix bore Latin names. Moreover, at the time of Victor's birth, Roman citizenship was still exclusive to Italians and to the families of Latin colonists. All of this points to a Roman colonial origin.
St. Denis is best known as the patron saint of Paris, where there is a Gothic cathedral dedicated to him. However, he was not a native Parisian as most may assume. St. Denis was an Italian by birth, most likely born in Rome, and was named Dionysius. In the year 250 he was sent into Gaul by Pope Fabian with six other Italian missionary bishops, who all became “Apostles to the Gauls”. These six others were: St. Gatianus of Tours, St. Trophimus of Arles, St. Paulus of Narbonne, St. Saturninus of Toulouse, St. Stremonius of Clermont and St. Martialis of Limoges.
St. Ambrose was born Aurelius Ambrosius in Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier), which was then the capital of the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. His parents belonged to an important Roman family. His father, also named Aurelius Ambrosius, was a member of the illustrious Aurelii family, of Sabine origin, and briefly served as the Praetorian Prefect of Gaul. His mother belonged to the Aurelii Symmachi branch of the family, making St. Ambrose a cousin of the Roman orator Quintus Aurelius Symmachus. After his father's death, Ambrose moved to Rome where he studied literature, law, and rhetoric. He later became Governor of Aemilia-Liguria in Italy before being named Bishop of Milan.
One of the great Latin Fathers of the Church, St. Jerome was a Roman of Italian origin. He was born into a wealthy landowning family, in the city of Stridon, whose members all bore Latin names: his father was Eusebius, his brother was Paulinianus, while Jerome's own full name was Sofronius Eusebius Hieronymus. The exact location of Stridon has been disputed for centuries. However, it is known to have been situated between Dalmatia and Pannonia, near the cities of Aquileia and Emona (modern Ljubljana), which in Roman times was the easternmost city of Italy. It is most commonly accepted that Stridon was located on the site of the current village of Stridone in Istria, which at that time was a region of Italy known as Venetia et Histria.
Although born in Hippo Regius, an ancient city located in modern Algeria, St. Augustine was not a North African in the modern sense: he was born to an Italian father and a Punic mother. Originally settled by Phoenicians, Hippo Regius later became a Roman colony under Julius Ceasar and Emperor Augustus, who sent Italian war veterans and their families to colonize the city. St. Augustine's father Patricius was a Roman landowner and decurio, descended from those Italian colonists. Augustine's family name, Aurelius, indicates that his father's ancestors belonged to the gens Aurelia, a plebeian family originally from Sabinum in Italy. His mother Monica, often described as a Berber, was in fact Punic according to St. Augustine. The Punics were a people from Ancient Carthage who traced their origins to the Phoenicians.
Remembered as one of the four Greek Fathers of the Church, St. John Chrysostom was in fact only half Greek: he was also half Latin. He was born in Antioch to a Greek mother Anthusa and to a father named Secundus, a high-ranking Roman military officer of Latin parentage stationed in Roman Syria, who was described as magister militum Orientis.
Fiercely disputed over today by the Irish and the British, St. Patrick was neither Irish nor British; he was a Roman of Italian origin. He was born Patricius in the province of Britannia, the son of Calpurnius, a Roman decurio and member of the gens Calpurnia, a Roman plebeian family which claimed descent from Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome. His mother Concessa was also a Roman and said to have been a close relative of St. Martin of Tours.
Born into a Roman family in Savaria, in the Roman province of Pannonia Prima, St. Martin grew up in Pavia, Italy, where his father—a Roman tribune—was stationed. His family is said to have been closely related to Concessa, the mother of St. Patrick. After joining the Roman military, St. Martin was stationed in Gaul, where he later became a missionary and eventually bishop of Tours.
Today St. Martin is often described as French or even as Hungarian, which is historically erroneous. France would not exist until the creation of the Kingdom of France in 987 AD (or, according to proponents of an earlier origin, France would be born after the Frankish conquest of Gaul and the establishment of the Frankish Kingdom by Clovis in 481 AD). Modern French identity is quite varied and complicated, being most commonly based upon citizenship, but also sometimes based upon historical birthplace, cultural considerations or an ethnic relationship to Gauls or Franks. In any case, this is in no way relevant to St. Martin, who was neither born in that country, nor related to its peoples.
St. Martin's parents were not Gauls or Franks: they were Romans of Italian descent. He was born in Savaria, a city founded in 43 AD by Emperor Claudius, located in what is now Szombathely, Hungary. In this city there were neither Gauls, nor Franks, nor Hungarians. At that time it was a flourishing Roman colony, originally settled by Italian veterans of the Legio XV Apollinaris and their families. During the Early Middle Ages, following the barbarian invasions, most of the Latin population left Savaria and returned to Italy. The Hungarians did not begin to occupy Pannonia until 894 AD and did not come to populate Savaria until the 10th century, some six centuries after St. Martin's birth.
Famous for his History of the Franks and for being Bishop of Tours, St. Gregory was born Georgius Florentius (he later added the name Gregorius in honor of his great-grandfather) in the old Roman city of Augustonemetum (now Clermont, France), which had recently come under Frankish rule. St. Gregory was neither a Gaul nor a Frank however: he was a Roman aristocrat, born into the upper stratum of Roman society in Gaul, a fact which he took great pride in. His parents belonged to illustrious Roman senatorial families with strong ecclesiastical traditions.
His father Florentius was senator of Clermont. His mother Armentaria was the niece of Nicetius, bishop of Lyons, and was the granddaughter of Florentinus, senator of Geneva, and St. Gregorius, bishop of Langres. He had several other noted Roman bishops and saints as close relatives: his paternal uncle was St. Gallus, bishop of Clermont, and his paternal grandmother, Leocadia, descended from Vettius Epagatus, the martyr of Lyons, who belonged to the gens Vettia, a noble family originally from Marsica, in Abruzzo, Italy.
Nicknamed “the last scholar of the ancient world”, St. Isidore was born Isidorus in the former Roman colony of Carthago Nova in Hispania (today Cartagena, Spain). His parents Severianus and Theodora (or Turtura) were both of noble Roman origin, belonging to ancient Roman families of high social rank which had managed to survive the Visigothic conquest of Hispania. Isidore's three siblings were also saints: St. Leander, St. Fulgentius and St. Florentina. Little else is known of the family lineage, other than that they were of Roman origin.
Augustine was born and raised in Rome, Italy. In 595 AD he was chosen by Pope Gregory the Great to lead a group of some forty Italian missionaries to preach Christianity in Britain. He became the first Archbishop of Canterbury and converted thousands of Anglo-Saxons, earning him the title “Apostle to the English”.
St. Paulinus was a monk from Rome. He was sent to the Kingdom of Kent by Pope Gregory I in 601 AD, along with St. Mellitius and others, to join the first group of missionaries led by St. Augustine of Canterbury. Paulinus would later become the first bishop of York.
St. Laurence of Canterbury, born Laurentius, was the second Archbishop of Canterbury. A member of the Gregorian mission sent to England, he was an Italian like the other missionaries.
St. Mellitus, the third Archbishop of Canterbury, was an Italian of noble birth. He was a member of the second group of Italian missionaries sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great.
St. Justus, the fourth Archbishop of Canterbury, was sent from Italy to England by Pope Gregory the Great. He was part of either the first group or second group of Italian missionaries.
St. Honorius, the fifth Archbishop of Canterbury, was born in Rome. He was part of either the first group or second group of Italian missionaries sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great.
St. Peter of Canterbury, born Petrus, was a native of Italy. He was a companion of St. Augustine of Canterbury and became the first abbot of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury.
St. James the Deacon, born Iacomus in Italy, was a Roman deacon and companion of St. Paulinus of York in Northumbria. After Paulinus left Northumbria, James stayed near Lincoln and continued his missionary efforts.
St. Severinus was born in southern Italy to a noble Roman family. In 453 AD he moved to Noricum (modern Austria and southern Bavaria, which at that time was a region of Italy), where he preached Christianity, redeemed captives and tended to the Roman population in the frontier territories ravaged by the barbarian invasions. This earned him the title “Apostle of Noricum”. After his death, his body was brought to Naples, Italy.
St. Marinus, better known by his Italian name San Marino, was a Christian hermit and stonemason, born in the Roman colony of Arba, a small island located between Istria and Dalmatia. He is best remembered today as the founder of the Republic of San Marino, the world's oldest republic and one of the last surviving Italian city-states.
Often incorrectly presumed to be of Berber origin based on the Liber Pontificalis placing his birth in North Africa, Pope Gelasius was in fact a Roman. Besides his own Latin name and the Latin name of his father Valerius, which points toward a Roman origin, in a letter to the Roman Emperor Anastasius, Gelasius described himself as Romanus natus (“born a Roman”), clearly indicating that he was either born in Rome or at least was of Roman parentage.
Despite their name, the Five Polish Brothers were not Polish and were not brothers—at least not in the sense of being related to each other. Instead, they were five Italian Benedictine monks who worked with St. Adalbert of Prague as missionaries to the Slavs, and were martyred together by thieves at the Benedictine monastery near Gnesen, Poland. Their names were Benedictus, Ioannes, Matthaeus, Isaac and Christinus.
Arranged in no particular order, here are some famous saints who you probably never knew were Italian, either because they were born outside of Italy, or because they were of mixed parentage, or because of common hagiographical confusion or mistakes, or because they made their name as missionaries, bishops or saints in foreign lands.
1. St. Longinus (d. 37 AD)
In Christian hagiography St. Longinus is identified with the Roman soldier who pierced Jesus' side with a lance during the crucifixion, as related in the Gospel of John. He is also identified with the Roman centurion who acknowledged Jesus as ‘the Son of God’ in Matthew 27:54. He is said to have served in the Legio X Fretensis, a Roman legion which was stationed in Roman Judea and Syria. An old tradition places his birthplace in the village of Anxanum (today Lanciano), in Abruzzo, Italy.
2. St. Cornelius (c. 50 AD)
Celebrated as the first gentile convert to Christianity. St. Cornelius was a Roman centurion of the Cohors II Italica Civium Romanorum—called the ‘Italian Band’ in the Book of Acts—a Roman cohort from Italy which was stationed in Caesarea, the capital of Roman Judea. His name indicates that he was a member of the distinguished gens Cornelia, one of the greatest patrician houses of Rome.
3. St. Justin Martyr (100 - c. 165 AD)
St. Justin, remembered as a great apologist and martyr, was born as Flavius Iustinus in Flavia Neapolis, in the Roman province of Judea. The city of Flavia Neapolis was founded in 72 AD by Emperor Vespasian, just a few decades before Justin's birth. His family, who bore Latin names, was one of a large number of Roman colonists—Italian war veterans and their families—sent by the emperor to settle in the new city.
4. Pope Victor I (c. 100's - 199 AD)
Pope Victor I is commonly but erroneously cited as the first African pope. According to the Liber Pontificalis, Pope Victor was born in North Africa, and some historians place his specific birthplace in Leptis Magna (modern Tripolitania). This, however, does not mean he was a native African. In the Roman period, the North African coast was littered with dozens of Roman colonies, and Leptis Magna in particular was a major Roman colony, settled by many Italian colonists and traders. Both Victor and his father Felix bore Latin names. Moreover, at the time of Victor's birth, Roman citizenship was still exclusive to Italians and to the families of Latin colonists. All of this points to a Roman colonial origin.
5. St. Denis (c. 200's - c. 285 AD)
St. Denis is best known as the patron saint of Paris, where there is a Gothic cathedral dedicated to him. However, he was not a native Parisian as most may assume. St. Denis was an Italian by birth, most likely born in Rome, and was named Dionysius. In the year 250 he was sent into Gaul by Pope Fabian with six other Italian missionary bishops, who all became “Apostles to the Gauls”. These six others were: St. Gatianus of Tours, St. Trophimus of Arles, St. Paulus of Narbonne, St. Saturninus of Toulouse, St. Stremonius of Clermont and St. Martialis of Limoges.
6. St. Ambrose (c. 340-397 AD)
St. Ambrose was born Aurelius Ambrosius in Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier), which was then the capital of the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. His parents belonged to an important Roman family. His father, also named Aurelius Ambrosius, was a member of the illustrious Aurelii family, of Sabine origin, and briefly served as the Praetorian Prefect of Gaul. His mother belonged to the Aurelii Symmachi branch of the family, making St. Ambrose a cousin of the Roman orator Quintus Aurelius Symmachus. After his father's death, Ambrose moved to Rome where he studied literature, law, and rhetoric. He later became Governor of Aemilia-Liguria in Italy before being named Bishop of Milan.
7. St. Jerome (347-420 AD)
One of the great Latin Fathers of the Church, St. Jerome was a Roman of Italian origin. He was born into a wealthy landowning family, in the city of Stridon, whose members all bore Latin names: his father was Eusebius, his brother was Paulinianus, while Jerome's own full name was Sofronius Eusebius Hieronymus. The exact location of Stridon has been disputed for centuries. However, it is known to have been situated between Dalmatia and Pannonia, near the cities of Aquileia and Emona (modern Ljubljana), which in Roman times was the easternmost city of Italy. It is most commonly accepted that Stridon was located on the site of the current village of Stridone in Istria, which at that time was a region of Italy known as Venetia et Histria.
8. St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD)
Although born in Hippo Regius, an ancient city located in modern Algeria, St. Augustine was not a North African in the modern sense: he was born to an Italian father and a Punic mother. Originally settled by Phoenicians, Hippo Regius later became a Roman colony under Julius Ceasar and Emperor Augustus, who sent Italian war veterans and their families to colonize the city. St. Augustine's father Patricius was a Roman landowner and decurio, descended from those Italian colonists. Augustine's family name, Aurelius, indicates that his father's ancestors belonged to the gens Aurelia, a plebeian family originally from Sabinum in Italy. His mother Monica, often described as a Berber, was in fact Punic according to St. Augustine. The Punics were a people from Ancient Carthage who traced their origins to the Phoenicians.
9. St. John Chrysostom (c. 344-407 AD)
Remembered as one of the four Greek Fathers of the Church, St. John Chrysostom was in fact only half Greek: he was also half Latin. He was born in Antioch to a Greek mother Anthusa and to a father named Secundus, a high-ranking Roman military officer of Latin parentage stationed in Roman Syria, who was described as magister militum Orientis.
10. St. Patrick (385-461 AD)
Fiercely disputed over today by the Irish and the British, St. Patrick was neither Irish nor British; he was a Roman of Italian origin. He was born Patricius in the province of Britannia, the son of Calpurnius, a Roman decurio and member of the gens Calpurnia, a Roman plebeian family which claimed descent from Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome. His mother Concessa was also a Roman and said to have been a close relative of St. Martin of Tours.
11. St. Martin of Tours (c. 316-397 AD)
Born into a Roman family in Savaria, in the Roman province of Pannonia Prima, St. Martin grew up in Pavia, Italy, where his father—a Roman tribune—was stationed. His family is said to have been closely related to Concessa, the mother of St. Patrick. After joining the Roman military, St. Martin was stationed in Gaul, where he later became a missionary and eventually bishop of Tours.
Today St. Martin is often described as French or even as Hungarian, which is historically erroneous. France would not exist until the creation of the Kingdom of France in 987 AD (or, according to proponents of an earlier origin, France would be born after the Frankish conquest of Gaul and the establishment of the Frankish Kingdom by Clovis in 481 AD). Modern French identity is quite varied and complicated, being most commonly based upon citizenship, but also sometimes based upon historical birthplace, cultural considerations or an ethnic relationship to Gauls or Franks. In any case, this is in no way relevant to St. Martin, who was neither born in that country, nor related to its peoples.
St. Martin's parents were not Gauls or Franks: they were Romans of Italian descent. He was born in Savaria, a city founded in 43 AD by Emperor Claudius, located in what is now Szombathely, Hungary. In this city there were neither Gauls, nor Franks, nor Hungarians. At that time it was a flourishing Roman colony, originally settled by Italian veterans of the Legio XV Apollinaris and their families. During the Early Middle Ages, following the barbarian invasions, most of the Latin population left Savaria and returned to Italy. The Hungarians did not begin to occupy Pannonia until 894 AD and did not come to populate Savaria until the 10th century, some six centuries after St. Martin's birth.
12. St. Gregory of Tours (c. 538-594 AD)
Famous for his History of the Franks and for being Bishop of Tours, St. Gregory was born Georgius Florentius (he later added the name Gregorius in honor of his great-grandfather) in the old Roman city of Augustonemetum (now Clermont, France), which had recently come under Frankish rule. St. Gregory was neither a Gaul nor a Frank however: he was a Roman aristocrat, born into the upper stratum of Roman society in Gaul, a fact which he took great pride in. His parents belonged to illustrious Roman senatorial families with strong ecclesiastical traditions.
His father Florentius was senator of Clermont. His mother Armentaria was the niece of Nicetius, bishop of Lyons, and was the granddaughter of Florentinus, senator of Geneva, and St. Gregorius, bishop of Langres. He had several other noted Roman bishops and saints as close relatives: his paternal uncle was St. Gallus, bishop of Clermont, and his paternal grandmother, Leocadia, descended from Vettius Epagatus, the martyr of Lyons, who belonged to the gens Vettia, a noble family originally from Marsica, in Abruzzo, Italy.
13. St. Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636 AD)
Nicknamed “the last scholar of the ancient world”, St. Isidore was born Isidorus in the former Roman colony of Carthago Nova in Hispania (today Cartagena, Spain). His parents Severianus and Theodora (or Turtura) were both of noble Roman origin, belonging to ancient Roman families of high social rank which had managed to survive the Visigothic conquest of Hispania. Isidore's three siblings were also saints: St. Leander, St. Fulgentius and St. Florentina. Little else is known of the family lineage, other than that they were of Roman origin.
14. St. Augustine of Canterbury (534-604 AD)
Augustine was born and raised in Rome, Italy. In 595 AD he was chosen by Pope Gregory the Great to lead a group of some forty Italian missionaries to preach Christianity in Britain. He became the first Archbishop of Canterbury and converted thousands of Anglo-Saxons, earning him the title “Apostle to the English”.
15. St. Paulinus of York (c. 500's - 644 AD)
St. Paulinus was a monk from Rome. He was sent to the Kingdom of Kent by Pope Gregory I in 601 AD, along with St. Mellitius and others, to join the first group of missionaries led by St. Augustine of Canterbury. Paulinus would later become the first bishop of York.
16. St. Laurence of Canterbury (c. 500's - 619 AD)
St. Laurence of Canterbury, born Laurentius, was the second Archbishop of Canterbury. A member of the Gregorian mission sent to England, he was an Italian like the other missionaries.
17. St. Mellitus of Canterbury (c. 500's - 624 AD)
St. Mellitus, the third Archbishop of Canterbury, was an Italian of noble birth. He was a member of the second group of Italian missionaries sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great.
18. St. Justus of Canterbury (c. 500's - c. 627 AD)
St. Justus, the fourth Archbishop of Canterbury, was sent from Italy to England by Pope Gregory the Great. He was part of either the first group or second group of Italian missionaries.
19. St. Honorius of Canterbury (c. 500's - 653 AD)
St. Honorius, the fifth Archbishop of Canterbury, was born in Rome. He was part of either the first group or second group of Italian missionaries sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great.
20. St. Peter of Canterbury (c. 500's - c. 607 AD)
St. Peter of Canterbury, born Petrus, was a native of Italy. He was a companion of St. Augustine of Canterbury and became the first abbot of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury.
21. St. James the Deacon (c. 600's - c. 671 AD)
St. James the Deacon, born Iacomus in Italy, was a Roman deacon and companion of St. Paulinus of York in Northumbria. After Paulinus left Northumbria, James stayed near Lincoln and continued his missionary efforts.
22. St. Severinus of Noricum (c. 410-482 AD)
St. Severinus was born in southern Italy to a noble Roman family. In 453 AD he moved to Noricum (modern Austria and southern Bavaria, which at that time was a region of Italy), where he preached Christianity, redeemed captives and tended to the Roman population in the frontier territories ravaged by the barbarian invasions. This earned him the title “Apostle of Noricum”. After his death, his body was brought to Naples, Italy.
23. St. Marinus (c. 275-366)
St. Marinus, better known by his Italian name San Marino, was a Christian hermit and stonemason, born in the Roman colony of Arba, a small island located between Istria and Dalmatia. He is best remembered today as the founder of the Republic of San Marino, the world's oldest republic and one of the last surviving Italian city-states.
24. Pope Gelasius I (c. 400's - 496 AD)
Often incorrectly presumed to be of Berber origin based on the Liber Pontificalis placing his birth in North Africa, Pope Gelasius was in fact a Roman. Besides his own Latin name and the Latin name of his father Valerius, which points toward a Roman origin, in a letter to the Roman Emperor Anastasius, Gelasius described himself as Romanus natus (“born a Roman”), clearly indicating that he was either born in Rome or at least was of Roman parentage.
25. Five Polish Brothers (c. 900's - 1005 AD)
Despite their name, the Five Polish Brothers were not Polish and were not brothers—at least not in the sense of being related to each other. Instead, they were five Italian Benedictine monks who worked with St. Adalbert of Prague as missionaries to the Slavs, and were martyred together by thieves at the Benedictine monastery near Gnesen, Poland. Their names were Benedictus, Ioannes, Matthaeus, Isaac and Christinus.
Italian Condottieri
The Condottieri (singular condottiero), also known as Captains of Adventure, were leaders of professional military free companies—i.e. mercenary armies—contracted by the Italian city-states and signories from the late Middle Ages throughout the Renaissance until the mid-17th century. The word 'condottiero' later became a broad term for all military leaders and generals, including those in command of regular armies. A distinction must be made between the later commanders of regular standing armies and the earlier contracted military commanders. This list concerns the latter.
Major Italian Condottieri
Ruggero da Fiore or Roger de Flor (1267-1305) – Vice-Admiral of Sicily, Count of Malta, Sergeant of the Knights Templar, Commander of the Catalan Company and Grand Duke of Byzantium. He served the Crown of Aragon and the Byzantine Empire. Fought in the War of the Sicilian Vespers, the Byzantine-Ottoman Wars and the Siege of Acre during the Crusades.
Castruccio Castracani (1281-1328) – Lord of Lucca. He served the Kingdom of France, the Visconti of Milan, the Company of Uguccione della Faggiuola and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in Flanders and in the battles of Montecatini and Altopascio.
Alberico da Barbiano (1344-1409) – Count of Cunio, Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples and Founder of the third Company of St. George, the first purely Italian free military company. He served the Papal States, the Visconti of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples. Fought in the War of the Eight Saints and the Battle of Casalecchio.
Facino Cane (1360-1412) – Lord of Borgo San Martino. He served the Principality of Grubenhagen, the Scaligeri of Verona, the Carraresi of Padua and the Margraviate of Monferrato.
Braccio da Montone (1368-1384) – Governor of Bologna, Rector of Rome, Lord of Perugia, Prince of Capua, Count of Montone, Count of Foggia and Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples. He served the Republic of Florence, the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples. Fought and died in the War of L'Aquila.
Carlo I Malatesta (1368-1429) – Lord of Rimini, Fano, Cesena and Fossombrone, Rector of Romagna, Gonfalonier of the Church and Captain General of the Venetian Army. He served the Papal States, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Florence, the Duchy of Milan, the Marquisate of Mantua and the Lordship of Perugia. Fought in the battles of Motta and Sant'Egidio.
Muzio Attendolo (1369-1424) – Count of Cotignola and Founder of the Sforza dynasty. He served the Republic of Florence, the Papal States, the Kingdom of Naples, the Visconti of Milan, the Este of Ferrara and the Lordship of Perugia. Fought in the Battle of Casalecchio.
Pippo Spano (1369-1426) – Count of Temesvar-Timisoara, Ban of Severin and Member of the Order of the Dragon. He served King Sigismund of Hungary. Fought in the Battle of Motta, the Battle of Nicopolis, the Battle of Vítkov Hill and the Battle of Deutschbrod during the Hussite Wars. Fought against the Ottoman Turks in Wallachia, Bosnia and Belgrade.
Erasmo da Narni or Gattamelata (1370-1443) – Lord of Valmareno, Captain General of the Venetian Army and Captain General of the Papal Army. He served the Republic of Florence, the Republic of Venice and the Papal States.
Micheletto Attendolo (c. 1370-1463) – Count of Cotignola, Lord of Acquapendente, Potenza, Alianello, Castelfranco Veneto and Pozzolo Formigaro, Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples and Captain General of the Venetian Army. He served the Este of Ferrara, the Papal States, the Republic of Florence, the Angevines of Naples and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the War of L'Aquila, the Battle of San Romano, the Battle of Anghiari and the Battle of Caravaggio.
Bartolomeo Colleoni (1395-1475) – Captain General of the Venetian Army. The foremost tactician and disciplinarian of the 15th century. He served the Angevines of Naples, the Duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the Battle of Riccardina.
Francesco Sforza (1401-1466) – Duke of Milan. He served the Visconti of Milan, the Republic of Florence, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Lucca, the Angevines of Naples and the Papal States. Fought in the War of L'Aquila, the Battle of Maclodio, the Battle of Soncino, the Battle of Caravaggio and the Battle of Ghedi.
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417-1468) – Lord of Rimini. He served the Republic of Florence, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Siena, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States. Fought in the First Ottoman-Venetian War.
Federico da Montefeltro (1422-1482) – Duke of Urbino. One of the most successful condottieri of the Renaissance. Renown for martial skill and honor. He served the Kingdom of Naples, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence and the Papal States. Fought in the Battle of Riccardina.
Gian Giacomo Trivulzio (1440-1518) – Governor of Milan and Marshal of France. He served the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of France. Fought in the First Italian War and the War of the League of Cambrai
Prospero Colonna (1452-1523) – Duke of Traetto and Count of Fondi. He served the Colonna family of Rome, the Papal States, the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of France, the Crown of Aragon, the Spanish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in the War of Ferrara, the Second Italian War, the War of the League of Cambrai and the Italian War of 1521-1526.
Bartolomeo d'Alviano (1455-1515) – Count of Alviano and Lord of Pordenone. He served the Papal States, the Crown of Aragon and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the Second Italian War and the War of the League of Cambrai.
Francesco II Gonzaga (1466-1519) – Marchese of Mantua, Governor General of the Venetian Army, Captain General of the Milanese Army, Captain General of the Italic League, Lieutenant General of the French Army, Captain General of the Papal Army and Gonfalonier of the Church. He served the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Venice, the Kingdom of France, the Holy Roman Empire and the Papal States. Fought in the Battle of Fornovo during the First Italian War and in the War of the League of Cambrai.
Cesare Borgia (1475-1507) – Duke of Valentino, Duke of Romagna, Archbishop of Valencia, Cardinal, Captain General of the Papal Army and Gonfalonier of the Church. He served the Papal States. Fought in the Second Italian War.
Francesco Maria I della Rovere (1490-1538) – Duke of Urbino, Captain General of the Papal Army, Captain General of the Venetian Army and Gonfalonier of the Church. He served the Duchy of Urbino, the Papal States, the Kingdom of France, the Republic of Florence and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the War of the League of Cambrai, the War of Urbino, the Italian War of 1521-1526 and the War of the League of Cognac.
Giovanni dalle Bande Nere (1498-1526) – Founder of the Black Bands. Called “the last of the great condottieri”. He served the Papal States, the Republic of Florence, the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in the Italian War of 1521-1526 and the War of the League of Cognac.
Gian Giacomo de' Medici (1498-1555) – Duke of Marignano and Marchese of Musso and Lecco. He served the Sforza of Milan, the Duchy of Savoy, the Duchy of Florence, the Spanish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in the the Italian War of 1521-1526, the Musso War, the Italian War of 1542-1546, the Italian War of 1551-1559, the sieges of Esztergom and Pest during the Ottoman-Habsburg Wars in Hungary, and the Battle of Mühlberg during the Schmalkaldic War.
Federico II Gonzaga (1500-1540) – Duke of Mantua, Marchese of Monferrato and Captain General of the Papal Army. He served the Papal States, the Republic of Florence, the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in the Italian War of 1521-1526.
Ferrante I Gonzaga (1507-1557) – Prince of Molfetta, Count of Guastalla, Viceroy of Sicily, Governor of Milan, Governor of Benevento and Founder of the Guastalla branch of the Gonzaga dynasty. He served the Duchy of Mantua, the County of Guastalla, the Spanish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in the War of the League of Cognac, the Algiers Expedition, the Little War in Hungary and the Italian War of 1551-1559.
Gabrio Serbelloni (1508-1580) – Governor of Saluzzo, Captain General of the Papal Guard, Knight of Malta and Grand Prior of Hungary. He served the Duchy of Savoy, the Holy Roman Empire, the Duchy of Florence, the Papal States and the Spanish Empire. Fought in the Italian War of 1542-1546, the Italian War of 1551-1559, the Dutch Revolt, the Siege of Esztergom during the Ottoman-Habsburg Wars in Hungary, the Great Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, the Conquest of Tunis and the Siege of Maastricht during the Eighty Years' War.
Guidobaldo II della Rovere (1514-1574) – Duke of Urbino and Captain General of the Papal Army. He served the Republic of Venice, the Papal States and the Spanish Empire.
Minor Italian Condottieri
Malatesta da Verucchio (1212-1312) – Lord of Rimini and Founder of the Malatesta dynasty. He served the Papal States.
Uguccione della Faggiola (1250-1319) – Lord of Arezzo, Pisa, Lucca and Lugo. He served the Holy Roman Empire and the Scaligeri of Verona. Fought in the Battle of Montecatini.
Pier Saccone Tarlati (1261-1356) – Lord of Arezzo, Bibbiena, Castiglion Fiorentino, Chiusi, Castello, Pietramala and Sansepolcro. He served the Republic of Florence and the Republic of Siena.
Lodrisio Visconti (c. 1280-1364) – Founder of the first Company of St. George. He served the Visconti of Milan and the Scaligeri of Verona.
Galeotto I Malatesta (1299-1385) – Lord of Rimini, Fano, Ascoli Piceno, Cesena and Fossombrone, Commander of the Papal Army and Gonfalonier of the Church. He served the Kingdom of Sicily, the Kingdom of Naples, the Republic of Florence and the Papal States.
Rodolfo II da Varano (c. 1300's-1384) – Governor of Abruzzo, Commander of the Papal Army and Gonfalonier of the Church. He served the Angevines of Naples, the Papal States and the Republic of Florence. Fought in the Smyrniote Crusades.
Giovanni da Buscareto (c. 1300's - c. 1410) – Co-Founder of the Company of the Rose. He served the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, the People's Government of Bologna and the Angevines of Naples.
Luchino dal Verme (c. 1320-1372) – Governor of Genoa. He served the Scaligeri of Verona, the Visconti of Milan and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the Alexandrian Crusade and in the Reconquest of Gallipoli during the Savoyard Crusade. Suppressed the Revolt of St. Titus in Crete.
Ambrogio Visconti (1343-1373) – Governor of Parma and Founder of the second Company of St. George. He served the Lordship of Milan.
Jacopo dal Verme (1350-1409) – Lord of Nogarole Rocca, Sanguinetto, Bobbio, etc. He served the Scaligeri of Verona, the Visconti of Milan, the Marquisate of Saluzzo and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the battles of Alessandria and Casalecchio.
Angelo Tartaglia (1370-1421) – Lord of Lavello and Toscanella and Captain of the Papal Army. He served the Republic of Florence, the Republic of Siena, the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States. Fought in the Battle of Casalecchio.
Bartolomeo Gonzaga (1380-1425) – Co-Founder of the Company of the Rose. He served the Este of Ferrara, the Lordship of Mantua, the People's Government of Bologna, the Visconti of Milan and the Medici of Florence. Fought in the Battle of Casalecchio.
Niccolò Piccinino (1380–1444) – He served the Republic of Florence and the Visconti of Milan. Fought in the Wars in Lombardy.
Francesco Bussone (1390-1432) – Count of Carmagnola. He served the Visconti of Milan, the Republic of Florence and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the Battle of Maclodio.
Gianfrancesco Gonzaga (1395-1444) – Marchese of Mantua, Captain General of the Venetian Army, Captain General of the Milanese Army and Gonfalonier of the Church. He served the Malatesta of Rimini, the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan and the Papal States. Fought in the Battle of Maclodio.
Niccolò Orsini or Niccolò di Pitigliano (1442-1510) – Count of Pitigliano, Captain General of the Venetian Army, Captain General of the Florentine Army and Captain General of the Papal Army. He served the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Florence, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Papal states. Fought in the Battle of Fornovo during the First Italian War and the Battle of Agnadello during the War of the League of Cambrai.
Ettore Fieramosca (1476-1515) – Count of Miglionico and Lord of Aquara. He served the Kingdom of Naples, the Crown of Aragon and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the First Italian War, the Second Italian War, the Challenge of Barletta and the War of the League of Cambrai.
Giambattista Castaldo (c. 1493-1563) – Marchese of Cassano and Count of Piadena. He served the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Empire. Fought in the Italian War of 1521-1526, the War of the League of Cognac, the Little War in Hungary, the War of the League of Cambrai, the Schmalkaldic War, the Salt War, the Italian War of 1551-1559 and the French Wars of Religion.
Sampiero Corso (1498-1567) – Governor of Aix-en-Provence and Colonel General of the Corsican Infantry. He served the Papal States and the Kingdom of France. Fought in the Italian War of 1551-1559.
Alessandro Vitelli (1500-1554) – Count of Montone and Citerna and Lord of Amatrice. He served the Republic of Florence, the Papal States and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in the War of the League of Cognac, the Italian War of 1536-1538, the sieges of Buda and Pest during the Ottoman-Habsburg Wars in Hungary, the Schmalkaldic War, the Italian War of 1551-1559 and the the Salt War.
Major Italian Condottieri
Ruggero da Fiore or Roger de Flor (1267-1305) – Vice-Admiral of Sicily, Count of Malta, Sergeant of the Knights Templar, Commander of the Catalan Company and Grand Duke of Byzantium. He served the Crown of Aragon and the Byzantine Empire. Fought in the War of the Sicilian Vespers, the Byzantine-Ottoman Wars and the Siege of Acre during the Crusades.
Castruccio Castracani (1281-1328) – Lord of Lucca. He served the Kingdom of France, the Visconti of Milan, the Company of Uguccione della Faggiuola and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in Flanders and in the battles of Montecatini and Altopascio.
Alberico da Barbiano (1344-1409) – Count of Cunio, Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples and Founder of the third Company of St. George, the first purely Italian free military company. He served the Papal States, the Visconti of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples. Fought in the War of the Eight Saints and the Battle of Casalecchio.
Facino Cane (1360-1412) – Lord of Borgo San Martino. He served the Principality of Grubenhagen, the Scaligeri of Verona, the Carraresi of Padua and the Margraviate of Monferrato.
Braccio da Montone (1368-1384) – Governor of Bologna, Rector of Rome, Lord of Perugia, Prince of Capua, Count of Montone, Count of Foggia and Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples. He served the Republic of Florence, the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples. Fought and died in the War of L'Aquila.
Carlo I Malatesta (1368-1429) – Lord of Rimini, Fano, Cesena and Fossombrone, Rector of Romagna, Gonfalonier of the Church and Captain General of the Venetian Army. He served the Papal States, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Florence, the Duchy of Milan, the Marquisate of Mantua and the Lordship of Perugia. Fought in the battles of Motta and Sant'Egidio.
Muzio Attendolo (1369-1424) – Count of Cotignola and Founder of the Sforza dynasty. He served the Republic of Florence, the Papal States, the Kingdom of Naples, the Visconti of Milan, the Este of Ferrara and the Lordship of Perugia. Fought in the Battle of Casalecchio.
Pippo Spano (1369-1426) – Count of Temesvar-Timisoara, Ban of Severin and Member of the Order of the Dragon. He served King Sigismund of Hungary. Fought in the Battle of Motta, the Battle of Nicopolis, the Battle of Vítkov Hill and the Battle of Deutschbrod during the Hussite Wars. Fought against the Ottoman Turks in Wallachia, Bosnia and Belgrade.
Erasmo da Narni or Gattamelata (1370-1443) – Lord of Valmareno, Captain General of the Venetian Army and Captain General of the Papal Army. He served the Republic of Florence, the Republic of Venice and the Papal States.
Micheletto Attendolo (c. 1370-1463) – Count of Cotignola, Lord of Acquapendente, Potenza, Alianello, Castelfranco Veneto and Pozzolo Formigaro, Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples and Captain General of the Venetian Army. He served the Este of Ferrara, the Papal States, the Republic of Florence, the Angevines of Naples and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the War of L'Aquila, the Battle of San Romano, the Battle of Anghiari and the Battle of Caravaggio.
Bartolomeo Colleoni (1395-1475) – Captain General of the Venetian Army. The foremost tactician and disciplinarian of the 15th century. He served the Angevines of Naples, the Duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the Battle of Riccardina.
Francesco Sforza (1401-1466) – Duke of Milan. He served the Visconti of Milan, the Republic of Florence, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Lucca, the Angevines of Naples and the Papal States. Fought in the War of L'Aquila, the Battle of Maclodio, the Battle of Soncino, the Battle of Caravaggio and the Battle of Ghedi.
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417-1468) – Lord of Rimini. He served the Republic of Florence, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Siena, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States. Fought in the First Ottoman-Venetian War.
Federico da Montefeltro (1422-1482) – Duke of Urbino. One of the most successful condottieri of the Renaissance. Renown for martial skill and honor. He served the Kingdom of Naples, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence and the Papal States. Fought in the Battle of Riccardina.
Gian Giacomo Trivulzio (1440-1518) – Governor of Milan and Marshal of France. He served the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of France. Fought in the First Italian War and the War of the League of Cambrai
Prospero Colonna (1452-1523) – Duke of Traetto and Count of Fondi. He served the Colonna family of Rome, the Papal States, the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of France, the Crown of Aragon, the Spanish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in the War of Ferrara, the Second Italian War, the War of the League of Cambrai and the Italian War of 1521-1526.
Bartolomeo d'Alviano (1455-1515) – Count of Alviano and Lord of Pordenone. He served the Papal States, the Crown of Aragon and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the Second Italian War and the War of the League of Cambrai.
Francesco II Gonzaga (1466-1519) – Marchese of Mantua, Governor General of the Venetian Army, Captain General of the Milanese Army, Captain General of the Italic League, Lieutenant General of the French Army, Captain General of the Papal Army and Gonfalonier of the Church. He served the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Venice, the Kingdom of France, the Holy Roman Empire and the Papal States. Fought in the Battle of Fornovo during the First Italian War and in the War of the League of Cambrai.
Cesare Borgia (1475-1507) – Duke of Valentino, Duke of Romagna, Archbishop of Valencia, Cardinal, Captain General of the Papal Army and Gonfalonier of the Church. He served the Papal States. Fought in the Second Italian War.
Francesco Maria I della Rovere (1490-1538) – Duke of Urbino, Captain General of the Papal Army, Captain General of the Venetian Army and Gonfalonier of the Church. He served the Duchy of Urbino, the Papal States, the Kingdom of France, the Republic of Florence and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the War of the League of Cambrai, the War of Urbino, the Italian War of 1521-1526 and the War of the League of Cognac.
Giovanni dalle Bande Nere (1498-1526) – Founder of the Black Bands. Called “the last of the great condottieri”. He served the Papal States, the Republic of Florence, the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in the Italian War of 1521-1526 and the War of the League of Cognac.
Gian Giacomo de' Medici (1498-1555) – Duke of Marignano and Marchese of Musso and Lecco. He served the Sforza of Milan, the Duchy of Savoy, the Duchy of Florence, the Spanish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in the the Italian War of 1521-1526, the Musso War, the Italian War of 1542-1546, the Italian War of 1551-1559, the sieges of Esztergom and Pest during the Ottoman-Habsburg Wars in Hungary, and the Battle of Mühlberg during the Schmalkaldic War.
Federico II Gonzaga (1500-1540) – Duke of Mantua, Marchese of Monferrato and Captain General of the Papal Army. He served the Papal States, the Republic of Florence, the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in the Italian War of 1521-1526.
Ferrante I Gonzaga (1507-1557) – Prince of Molfetta, Count of Guastalla, Viceroy of Sicily, Governor of Milan, Governor of Benevento and Founder of the Guastalla branch of the Gonzaga dynasty. He served the Duchy of Mantua, the County of Guastalla, the Spanish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in the War of the League of Cognac, the Algiers Expedition, the Little War in Hungary and the Italian War of 1551-1559.
Gabrio Serbelloni (1508-1580) – Governor of Saluzzo, Captain General of the Papal Guard, Knight of Malta and Grand Prior of Hungary. He served the Duchy of Savoy, the Holy Roman Empire, the Duchy of Florence, the Papal States and the Spanish Empire. Fought in the Italian War of 1542-1546, the Italian War of 1551-1559, the Dutch Revolt, the Siege of Esztergom during the Ottoman-Habsburg Wars in Hungary, the Great Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, the Conquest of Tunis and the Siege of Maastricht during the Eighty Years' War.
Guidobaldo II della Rovere (1514-1574) – Duke of Urbino and Captain General of the Papal Army. He served the Republic of Venice, the Papal States and the Spanish Empire.
Minor Italian Condottieri
Malatesta da Verucchio (1212-1312) – Lord of Rimini and Founder of the Malatesta dynasty. He served the Papal States.
Uguccione della Faggiola (1250-1319) – Lord of Arezzo, Pisa, Lucca and Lugo. He served the Holy Roman Empire and the Scaligeri of Verona. Fought in the Battle of Montecatini.
Pier Saccone Tarlati (1261-1356) – Lord of Arezzo, Bibbiena, Castiglion Fiorentino, Chiusi, Castello, Pietramala and Sansepolcro. He served the Republic of Florence and the Republic of Siena.
Lodrisio Visconti (c. 1280-1364) – Founder of the first Company of St. George. He served the Visconti of Milan and the Scaligeri of Verona.
Galeotto I Malatesta (1299-1385) – Lord of Rimini, Fano, Ascoli Piceno, Cesena and Fossombrone, Commander of the Papal Army and Gonfalonier of the Church. He served the Kingdom of Sicily, the Kingdom of Naples, the Republic of Florence and the Papal States.
Rodolfo II da Varano (c. 1300's-1384) – Governor of Abruzzo, Commander of the Papal Army and Gonfalonier of the Church. He served the Angevines of Naples, the Papal States and the Republic of Florence. Fought in the Smyrniote Crusades.
Giovanni da Buscareto (c. 1300's - c. 1410) – Co-Founder of the Company of the Rose. He served the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, the People's Government of Bologna and the Angevines of Naples.
Luchino dal Verme (c. 1320-1372) – Governor of Genoa. He served the Scaligeri of Verona, the Visconti of Milan and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the Alexandrian Crusade and in the Reconquest of Gallipoli during the Savoyard Crusade. Suppressed the Revolt of St. Titus in Crete.
Ambrogio Visconti (1343-1373) – Governor of Parma and Founder of the second Company of St. George. He served the Lordship of Milan.
Jacopo dal Verme (1350-1409) – Lord of Nogarole Rocca, Sanguinetto, Bobbio, etc. He served the Scaligeri of Verona, the Visconti of Milan, the Marquisate of Saluzzo and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the battles of Alessandria and Casalecchio.
Angelo Tartaglia (1370-1421) – Lord of Lavello and Toscanella and Captain of the Papal Army. He served the Republic of Florence, the Republic of Siena, the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States. Fought in the Battle of Casalecchio.
Bartolomeo Gonzaga (1380-1425) – Co-Founder of the Company of the Rose. He served the Este of Ferrara, the Lordship of Mantua, the People's Government of Bologna, the Visconti of Milan and the Medici of Florence. Fought in the Battle of Casalecchio.
Niccolò Piccinino (1380–1444) – He served the Republic of Florence and the Visconti of Milan. Fought in the Wars in Lombardy.
Francesco Bussone (1390-1432) – Count of Carmagnola. He served the Visconti of Milan, the Republic of Florence and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the Battle of Maclodio.
Gianfrancesco Gonzaga (1395-1444) – Marchese of Mantua, Captain General of the Venetian Army, Captain General of the Milanese Army and Gonfalonier of the Church. He served the Malatesta of Rimini, the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan and the Papal States. Fought in the Battle of Maclodio.
Niccolò Orsini or Niccolò di Pitigliano (1442-1510) – Count of Pitigliano, Captain General of the Venetian Army, Captain General of the Florentine Army and Captain General of the Papal Army. He served the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Florence, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Papal states. Fought in the Battle of Fornovo during the First Italian War and the Battle of Agnadello during the War of the League of Cambrai.
Ettore Fieramosca (1476-1515) – Count of Miglionico and Lord of Aquara. He served the Kingdom of Naples, the Crown of Aragon and the Republic of Venice. Fought in the First Italian War, the Second Italian War, the Challenge of Barletta and the War of the League of Cambrai.
Giambattista Castaldo (c. 1493-1563) – Marchese of Cassano and Count of Piadena. He served the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Empire. Fought in the Italian War of 1521-1526, the War of the League of Cognac, the Little War in Hungary, the War of the League of Cambrai, the Schmalkaldic War, the Salt War, the Italian War of 1551-1559 and the French Wars of Religion.
Sampiero Corso (1498-1567) – Governor of Aix-en-Provence and Colonel General of the Corsican Infantry. He served the Papal States and the Kingdom of France. Fought in the Italian War of 1551-1559.
Alessandro Vitelli (1500-1554) – Count of Montone and Citerna and Lord of Amatrice. He served the Republic of Florence, the Papal States and the Holy Roman Empire. Fought in the War of the League of Cognac, the Italian War of 1536-1538, the sieges of Buda and Pest during the Ottoman-Habsburg Wars in Hungary, the Schmalkaldic War, the Italian War of 1551-1559 and the the Salt War.
Italian Guitarists
Giovanni Paolo Foscarini (c. 1600-1647) – Italian guitarist, lutenist, music theorist and composer. His “Il primo, secondo e terzo libro della chitarra spagnola”, published around 1630, is the earliest known engraved Italian guitar tablature and some of the earliest guitar sheet music ever published in history.
Angelo Michele Bartolotti (c. 1615 - c. 1681) – Italian guitarist, theorbist and composer. Part of a group of Italian musicians invited to the Court of Queen Christina of Sweden. His two volumes of guitar works were significant in the development of the guitar.
Francesco Corbetta (c. 1615-1681) – Italian guitarist, teacher and composer. Sometimes credited with teaching the guitar to King Louis XIV of France. His other pupils include Giovanni Battista Granata, Robert de Visée, Rémy Médard and Queen Anne of Great Britain.
Giovanni Battista Granata (c. 1620-1687) – Italian guitarist and composer. The most prolific guitarist of the 17th century. Music commentators have accused Led Zeppelin of plagiarizing the opening progression of their song “Stairway to Heaven” from Granata's “Sonata for Guitar, Violin and Basso Continuo”.
Ferdinando Carulli (1770–1841) – Italian composer and guitarist. Considered one of the greatest classical guitarists of all time. Invented the 10-string guitar (called the Décacorde) with Pierre Rene Lacote. Wrote more than 400 works for the guitar. His most influential work, the “Method, op. 70”, published in 1810, includes music that is still used today by student training to be guitarists.
Bartolomeo Bortolazzi (1773-1820) – Italian composer, guitarist and mandolinist. Composed many works for guitar and mandolin. Published a method for guitar which became a standard work in Austria in the 19th century.
Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) – Italian guitarist, cellist, singer and composer. The most important guitarist and composer of guitar music of the early 19th century. Considered one of the greatest classical guitarists of all time. He is credited as being responsible for the acceptance of the guitar as a solo instrument. He also invented a notation system for guitar that is still used today.
Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) – Italian violinist, violist, guitarist and composer. Although best known as the greatest violinist of all time, he was also an accomplished guitarist. His compositions for solo guitar include 43 caprices and 37 sonatas. His most famous guitar work is his “Grand Sonata for Violin and Guitar”.
Matteo Carcassi (1792–1853) – Italian guitarist and composer. His most famous work is “25 Studies, op. 60”. His music is still played by many classical guitarists today.
Italian Composers
Major Italian Composers
Francesco Landini (c. 1325/1335-1397)
Late Medieval or early Renaissance composer, organist, singer, poet and instrument maker. Landini was the foremost exponent of the Italian Trecento style, called sometimes the Italian Ars Nova, earning him a reputation as the most famous and revered composer of the 14th century. He lent his name to the Landini cadence, also known as the Landino sixth.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1526-1594)
Renaissance composer. The best-known 16th century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. He had a lasting influence on the development of church music, and his work is regarded as the culmination of Renaissance polyphony. Today he is considered one of the greatest composers of all time.
Giulio Caccini (1551-1618)
Late Renaissance and early Baroque composer, teacher and singer. One of the founders of opera and one of the most influential creators of the Baroque style. Often credited as being the inventor of monody, together with Jacopo Peri, Emilio de' Cavalieri and Vincenzo Galilei. His “Le nuove musiche”, a collection of monodies and songs published in 1602, was the second collection of monodies ever published (preceded only by Domenico Melli three months earlier). His most famous composition is Ave Maria, which many today ascribe to Vladimir Vavilov, but which Vavilov himself attributed to Caccini.
Giovanni Gabrieli (1557-1612)
Late Renaissance and early Baroque composer. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque.
Jacopo Peri (1561-1633)
Late Renaissance and early Baroque composer. Credited by historians as the inventor of opera. Also often credited as being the inventor of monody, together with Giulio Caccini, Emilio de' Cavalieri and Vincenzo Galilei. His most significant composition, Dafne (1597),—now lost—was the first opera ever composed. His other major work, Euridice (1600), is the oldest surviving opera.
Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613)
Late Renaissance and early Baroque composer and nobleman. Widely recognized today as being ahead of his time. As a composer he is best known for writing intensely expressive madrigals and pieces of sacred music that use a chromatic language not heard again until the late 19th century.
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Late Renaissance and early Baroque composer. He was a pioneer in the development of opera and a crucial transitional figure between the Renaissance and the Baroque periods of music. He is widely considered one of the greatest composers of all time and the greatest composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque. His opera L'Orfeo (1607) is the oldest opera still widely performed.
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)
Late Renaissance and early Baroque composer. One of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. His work influenced Johann Jakob Froberger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell, and countless other major composers. Pieces from his celebrated collection of liturgical organ music, Fiori musicali (1635), were used as models of strict counterpoint as late as the 19th century.
Giovanni Battista Lulli or Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)
Baroque composer. Credited with adapting Italian opera to the French language. Recognized as the chief master and developer of the French baroque style. He was the founder of French opera and the founder of the French modern orchestra. He is also credited with the invention of the French overture. His unique style of composition was imitated throughout Europe and influenced major composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel.
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Baroque composer and violinist. His music was key in the development of the modern genres of sonata and concerto, in establishing the preeminence of the violin, and as the first coalescing of modern tonality and functional harmony. He is remembered for inventing the sonata, for transforming the violin from an ensemble instrument to a solo instrument, and for popularizing and developing the concerto grosso. Widely regarded as the greatest violinist prior to Vivaldi. His pupils included Francesco Geminiani, Pietro Locatelli, Pietro Castrucci, Francesco Gasparini, Giovanni Battista Somis, Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Michele Mascitti and Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli.
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Baroque composer. Considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. Scarlatti's music forms an important link between the early Baroque Italian vocal styles of the 17th century and the classical school of the 18th century. Noted for his thematic development and chromatic harmony, which anticipated the work of later composers such as Mozart and Franz Schubert. He contributed to the development of the opera orchestra and is credited as the first to introduce horns into the orchestra. He also established the form of the Italian overture—a forerunner of the classical symphony.
Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751)
Baroque composer and violinist. His Adagio in G minor (partially reconstructed by Remo Giazotto) is one of the most frequently recorded pieces of Baroque music. He is also credited with being the first Italian to compose oboe concerti. The oboe concerti in his Op. 7 were the first of their kind to be published. Much of his work was lost during the latter years of World War II with the Allied bombing of the Saxon State Library in Dresden, where his manuscripts were stored.
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Baroque composer, violinist and Catholic priest. Recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers. He also has the distinction of being one of the greatest violinist of all time—second only to Niccolò Paganini. He composed many instrumental concerti for the violin and other instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more than forty operas. His best-known work is a series of violin concerti known as the Four Seasons. His sonata “La Follia” and his concerto “La Stravaganza” also remain extremely popular.
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Baroque composer. His music was influential in the development of the Classical style and he was one of the few Baroque composers who transitioned into the Classical period of classical music. His best-known compositions are his 555 keyboard sonatas.
Baroque composer. His music was influential in the development of the Classical style and he was one of the few Baroque composers who transitioned into the Classical period of classical music. His best-known compositions are his 555 keyboard sonatas.
Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770)
Baroque composer, violinist and music theorist. His violin school, established in 1726, attracted students from all over Europe. He is credited with the discovery of sum and difference tones (combination tone). His most famous work is the “Devil's Trill Sonata”, which remains one of the most difficult pieces to play on the violin.
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736)Baroque composer, violinist and music theorist. His violin school, established in 1726, attracted students from all over Europe. He is credited with the discovery of sum and difference tones (combination tone). His most famous work is the “Devil's Trill Sonata”, which remains one of the most difficult pieces to play on the violin.
Italian composer, violinist and organist. One of the most celebrated and influential composers of the 18th century. His works have appeared in several films. His best-known works include his Stabat Mater and the opera La serva padrona (1773), which was one of the most popular stage works of the 18th century. His career was cut short by his death of tuberculosis at the age of 26.
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)
Italian composer and cellist. Boccherini is credited with popularizing the cello and with inventing the string quintet. The minuet from his String Quintet in E major—his most famous work—is one of the most recognizable and iconic pieces associated with courtly classical music.
Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801)
Italian composer. One of the last great representatives of the Neapolitan school of music and one of the most important composers of opera in the late 17th century. He wrote more than eighty operas. His masterpiece is Il matrimonio segreto (1792), which was praised by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Stendhal, Gioachino Rossini and Giuseppe Verdi.
Antonio Salieri (1750-1825)
Italian composer, conductor and teacher. Salieri was a pivotal figure in the development of late 18th century opera. He developed and shaped many of the features of operatic compositional vocabulary. His music was a powerful influence on contemporary composers. His most famous pupils were Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven. His alleged feud with Mozart—for which there is no evidence—has been the object of many fictionalized depictions, speculations and rumours.
Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)
Italian composer, pianist and teacher. Considered one of the greatest composers of all time. One of the first men to compose music for the piano and also the first virtuoso on the piano, earning him the titles “Father of the Piano”, “Father of modern piano technique” and “Father of Romantic pianistic virtuosity”. He developed a unique style which he passed on to a generation of pianists. His pupils included John Field (who became a major influence on Frédéric Chopin), Johann Baptist Cramer, Ignaz Moscheles, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Carl Czerny, Therese Jansen Bartolozzi, Venanzio Rauzzini, August Alexander Klengel and Ludwig Berger (who went on to teach Felix Mendelssohn). He was also a notable influence on Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart and Joseph Haydn. He was regarded by Beethoven as the greatest piano master.
Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842)
Classical and pre-Romantic composer. One of the most important composers of the early 19th century. Contributed to the development of French opera during the period of transition from Classicism to Romanticism. He was regarded as the greatest living composer by Beethoven. His works are considered a precursor to grand opera. His most popular compositions are Requiem in C minor and the opera Médée (1797).
Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829)
Italian guitarist, cellist, singer and composer. The most important guitarist and composer of guitar music of the early 19th century. Considered one of the greatest classical guitarists of all time. He is credited as being responsible for the acceptance of the guitar as a solo instrument. He also invented a notation system for guitar that is still used today.
Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840)
Italian violinist, violist, guitarist and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. Universally recognized as the greatest violinist of all time. His 24 caprices for violin, especially his Caprice No. 24, are among the best known of his compositions and have served as an inspiration for many prominent composers.
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
Italian composer. One of the leading composers of the bel canto opera style together with Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini. Recognized as one of the greatest composers of all time. By the time he retired in 1829, he had become the most popular opera composer in history, surpassing all who came before him. His overtures from The Barber of Seville (1775) and William Tell (1829) and his aria “Largo al factotum” are three of the most iconic and most recognizable pieces of classical music. The finale of the William Tell Overture is one of the most popular pieces in the history of music. His other major compositions include The Marriage Contract (1810), The Italian Girl in Algiers (1813), Tancredi (1813), Cinderella (1817), The Thieving Magpie (1817) and the tarantella “La Danza”.
Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
Italian composer. One of the leading composers of the bel canto opera style together with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini. Recognized as one of the greatest opera composers of all time. He had a significant influence on other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. He composed 75 operas, 16 symphonies, 19 string quartets, 193 songs, 45 duets, 3 oratorios, 28 cantatas, instrumental concertos, sonatas, and other chamber pieces. His most famous work is Lucia di Lammermoor (1835).
Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)
Italian composer. One of the leading composers of the bel canto opera style together with Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti. Known for his long-flowing melodic lines which earned him the nickname “the Swan of Catania”. Admired and praised by numerous other major composers, including Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin, who were all influenced by his music. His most popular composition is “Casta diva” from the opera Norma (1831).
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Italian composer. Recognized as one of the greatest composers of all time and often regarded as the greatest Italian composer. By his 30's he had already become one of the preeminent opera composers in history. His most popular composition is “Dies Irae” from Requiem (1874), which is the most frequently performed large choral work in all of Western music. His operas remain extremely popular today, especially Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853) and La traviata (1853). His canzone “La donna è mobile”, the “Anvil Chorus” and the brindisi “Libiamo ne' lieti calici” (called “The Drinking Song”) are among the most recognized pieces of classical music. His other major compositions include “Va, pensiero” from his opera Nabucco (1842) and the “Triumphal March” from Aida (1871).
Francesco Suppé Demelli or Franz von Suppé (1819-1895)
Italian composer. Greatly influenced the development of Austrian and German light music up to the middle of the 20th century. Composed about 30 operettas and 180 farces, ballets, and other stage works. Best known for his overtures from the operettas Poet and Peasant (1846) and Light Cavalry (1866), which have been frequently used in soundtracks for films, cartoons and advertisements. His march “O Du mein Österreich” became Austria's second national anthem. Some of his operettas are still regularly performed, including The Beautiful Galatea (1865), Fatinitza (1876) and Boccaccio (1879).
Amilcare Ponchielli (1834-1886)
Italian composer and teacher. Best known for his opera La Gioconda (1876), especially the universally renowned ballet “Dance of the Hours”, which was featured in Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940), the novelty song “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh”, and numerous other popular works. His music exerted great influence on the composers of the rising generation, including Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni and Umberto Giordano.
Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919)
Italian composer and librettist. Considered the greatest Italian librettist of his time after Arrigo Boito. His lasting contribution to music is his opera Pagliacci (1892), which is one of the most-performed operas in the world. “Vesti la giubba”, the most famous aria from that opera, is regarded as one of the most moving operatic arias ever written and is often used in popular culture. His other well-known works include the song “Mattinata” and the symphonic poem “La nuit de mai”.
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Italian composer. One of the leading exponents of verismo. Considered the greatest Italian composer of operas after Giuseppe Verdi, and recognized as one of the greatest opera composers of all time. Puccini ranks third (behind Verdi and Mozart) in the number of performances of his operas over all, making him the third most performed opera composer in the world. His most renowned works are La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904) and Turandot (1924), especially the aria “Nessun dorma”. His opera La bohème is third most-performed opera in the world, with Tosca and Madama Butterfly also being in the top ten.
Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
Italian composer and conductor. His masterpiece Cavalleria Rusticana (1890) caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the verismo movement in Italian dramatic music. He wrote fifteen operas, an operetta, several orchestral and vocal works, and also songs and piano music. His most famous work is the “Intermezzo” from Cavalleria Rusticana. His other major works, L'amico Fritz (1891) and Iris (1898) have remained in the operatic repertoire in Europe ever since their premieres.
Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Italian composer, musicologist, pianist, violist and violinist. Widely considered one of the greatest orchestrators of all time. Best known for his trilogy of orchestral tone poems: Fountains of Rome (1916), Pines of Rome (1924) and Roman Festivals (1928). He also wrote several operas, the most famous being La fiamma (1934).
Nino Rota (1911-1979)
Italian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. One of the most prolific cinematic composers of the 20th century. Best remembered for his 171 film scores. He also composed ten operas, five ballets and dozens of other orchestral, choral and chamber works.
Ennio Morricone (b. 1928)
Italian composer, orchestrator and conductor. One of the most prolific composers of all time. Widely regarded as the greatest film composer of all time. Composed soundtracks for more than 500 films and television series, including over 70 award-winning films, such as A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). His best-known compositions include “The Ecstasy of Gold”, “The Trio”, “Man with a Harmonica”, “Deborah's Theme”, “Gabriel's Oboe” and “Chi Mai”. His score for Once Upon a Time in the West is one of the top 5 best-selling original instrumental scores in the world today, with about 10 million copies sold.Minor Italian Composers
Costanzo Festa (c. 1485/1490-1545)
Renaissance composer. The first Italian polyphonist of international renown and one of the first composers to write madrigals.
Vincenzo Galilei (c. 1520-1591)
Italian composer, lutenist and music theorist. He was a seminal figure in the musical life of the late Renaissance and contributed significantly to the musical revolution which demarcates the beginning of the Baroque era. Often credited as being the inventor of monody, together with Giulio Caccini, Jacopo Peri and Emilio de' Cavalieri. His study of pitch and string tension produced the first non-linear mathematical description of a natural phenomenon known to history.
Andrea Gabrieli (c. 1533-1585)
Italian composer and organist. Gabrieli composed the world's first violin composition, published after his death by his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli in 1587.
Alessandro Striggio (1540-1592)
Italian composer, instrumentalist and diplomat. He composed numerous madrigals as well as dramatic music. By combining the two, he became the inventor of madrigal comedy, which was a forerunner of opera.
Emilio de' Cavalieri (1550-1602)
Italian composer, producer, organist, diplomat, choreographer and dancer. Credited with writing the first oratorio. Also often credited as being the inventor of monody, together with Giulio Caccini, Jacopo Peri and Vincenzo Galilei. His work was critical in defining the beginning of the Baroque era of music.
Luca Marenzio (1554-1599)
Italian composer and singer. One of the most renowned composers of madrigals. Hugely influential on composers in Italy, as well as in the rest of Europe, particularly in England. His madrigals influenced the English composers Thomas Morley, John Wilbye and Thomas Weelkes, the German composer Hans Leo Hassler and the Dutch composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. Marenzio is one of the few Renaissance composers whose music has continued to be sung almost without interruption to the present day by madrigal groups.
Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652)
Italian composer, singer and Catholic priest. Credited with developing the first known string quartet, a century before Joseph Haydn. His best-known and most highly-regarded piece of music is the “Miserere”. It is one of the most often-recorded examples of late Renaissance music and one of the most recorded works of the sacred a cappella repertoire.
Stefano Landi (1587-1639)
Italian composer and teacher. He was an influential early composer of opera. His opera Sant'Alessio (1632) was the first opera to be written on a historical subject and was one of the most significant operas of the early Baroque.
Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676)
Early Baroque composer. The most influential composer in the rising genre of public opera in mid-17th century Venice. His operas provide the only example of a continuous musical development of a single composer in a single genre from the early to the late 17th century in Venice. He was the most performed opera composer of the generation after Monteverdi. He wrote forty-one operas, twenty-seven of which are still extant.
Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674)
Italian composer and music teacher. One of the most celebrated composers of the early Baroque period. The first significant composer of oratorios. Credited with further developing the recitative introduced by Monteverdi, with further developing the chamber cantata, and with developing the oratorio. He established the characteristic features of the Latin oratorio and was highly influential in the musical development of Germany and France through his numerous pupils and the wide dissemination of his music. His pupils included Alessandro Scarlatti, Johann Caspar Kerll, Johann Philipp Krieger, Christoph Bernhard and Marc-Antoine Charpentier.
Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1709)
Baroque composer, violinist and violist. He is most remembered for contributing to the development of the instrumental concerto, especially the concerto grosso and the solo concerto, as well as for being the most prolific Baroque composer for trumpets. His brother Felice Torelli was a noted painter.
Lodovico Giustini (1685-1743)
Italian composer and keyboard player. Remembered for being the first known composer ever to write music for the piano. His best known works are his twelve sonatas.
Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762)
Italian composer, violinist and music theorist. Geminiani was a violinist of the highest order, known for his harmony and expressive rhythms. His significance today is largely due to his 1751 treatise “The Art of Playing on the Violin”, which is the best known summation of the 18th century Italian method of violin playing and is an invaluable source for the study of late Baroque performance practice.
Pietro Antonio Locatelli (1695-1764)
Italian composer and violinist. Locatelli was a master of violin technique. It is said that he never played a wrong note, except once when his finger accidentally slipped. He was the first great violinist who practiced virtuosity, earning him the title “Father of modern instrumental virtuosity”. He is best known for his “L'arte del violino”, a collection of 12 violin concerti and 24 caprices. This work had an immense influence on the development of violin technique, especially in France, and strongly influenced Paganini.
Giovanni Battista Sammartini (c. 1700-1775)
Italian composer, oboist, organist, choirmaster and teacher. Greatly contributed to the development of the Classical style of music. Widely regarded as the inventor of symphony or at least the most important and earliest developer of symphony, competing with Joseph Haydn for rights over the title “Father of the symphony”. He strongly influenced German composers such as Johann Christian Bach, Haydn and Mozart. His most famous pupil was Christoph Willibald Gluck. His compositions include four operas, 70 symphonies, ten concertos and some of the earliest chamber music known in the history of Western music.
Baldassare Galuppi (1706-1785)
Italian composer. Called the “Father of comic opera”. One of the main composers whose works are emblematic of the prevailing galant style that developed in Europe throughout the 18th century. He became famous throughout Europe for his comic operas in the new dramma giocoso style. Napoleon's invasion of Venice in 1797 caused many of Galuppi's manuscripts to be destroyed or lost, resulting in his music being largely forgotten outside of Italy in the 19th century. His works were revived in the late 20th century.
Ignazio Gerusalemme (1707-1769)
Italian composer and violinist. Born in Italy, he moved to Cadiz and later to Mexico City where he developed a distinct style of music that spread throughout New Spain. Remembered as one of the most important Baroque composers in Mexico.
Francesco Araja (1709-1770)
Italian composer. He spent 25 years in Russia where he wrote at least 14 operas for the Russian Imperial Court, including Tsefal i Prokris, the first ever Russian opera.
Niccolò Jommelli (1714-1774)
Italian composer. Noted as an innovator in his use of the orchestra. Responsible also for other operatic reforms, such as reducing ornateness of style. In Stuttgart he established one of the finest orchestras in Europe. He wrote operas, cantatas, oratorios and other sacred works. The style of his overtures influenced the early symphonies of Johann Stamitz, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and Georg Christoph Wagenseil.
Niccolò Piccinni (1728-1800)
Italian composer. One of the most popular composers of opera in his day and one of the outstanding opera composers of the Neapolitan school. He produced over eighty operas, his most successful being La buona figliuola (1760).
Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816)
Italian composer. The most popular composer of the late 18th century. His operas are admired for their robust realism and dramatic power. Strongly influenced Mozart. Composed more than one hundred operas, about forty masses, and an immense number of cantatas, oratorios, concerti, string quartets, symphonies, psalms, hymns, and other musical works. Mozart's Italian opera The Marriage of Figaro (1786) is a sequel to Paisiello's opera The Barber of Seville (1782).
Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755-1824)
Italian composer and violinist. Famed for his virtuosity and lyrical tunefulness. Considered the greatest violinist of his time. His most notable compositions are his 29 violin concerti, which were an influence on Ludwig van Beethoven. His Concerto No. 22 in A minor is still performed very frequently. The incipit of his “Tema e variazioni”, composed in 1781, was later plagiarized by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, who included the incipit in “La Marseillaise”—the national anthem of France since 1795—without crediting Viotti.
Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841)
Italian composer and guitarist. Considered one of the greatest classical guitarists of all time. Invented the 10-string guitar (called the Décacorde) with Pierre Rene Lacote. Wrote more than 400 works for the guitar. His most influential work, the “Method, op. 70”, published in 1810, includes music that is still used today by student training to be guitarists.
Gaspare Spontini (1774-1851)
Italian composer and conductor. His operas, especially his masterpiece La vestale (1807), represent the spirit of the Napoleonic era and form an operatic bridge between the works of Christoph Willibald Gluck and Richard Wagner. His works were also one of the precursors of grand opera.
Antonio Diabelli (1781-1858)
Italian composer, music publisher and editor. Best known as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his “Diabelli Variations”. Produced a number of well-known works, including an operetta, several masses, songs and numerous piano and classical guitar pieces.
Saverio Mercadante (1795–1870)
Italian composer and teacher. Considered an important reformer of Italian opera. His development of operatic structures, melodic styles and orchestration contributed significantly to the foundations upon which Giuseppe Verdi built his dramatic technique.
Giovanni Pacini (1796-1867)
Italian composer. Wrote 74 operas, making him one of the most prolific composers in the history of opera. His most successful opera was Saffo (1840). The role that Pacini played in instituting dramatic changes into Italian opera is only now beginning to be recognized.
Cesare Pugni (1802-1870)
Italian composer, pianist and violinist. The most prolific composer of ballet music in history. Composed nearly one hundred known original scores for ballet and a myriad of incidental dances. His best-known ballets are Ondine, ou La Naïade (1843), La Esmeralda (1844), Catarina, ou La Fille du Bandit (1846), The Pharaoh's Daughter (1862) and The Little Humpbacked Horse (1864). His other major works include the music for La Vivandière (1844), Pas de Quatre (1845), Le Diable amoureux (1859) and Le Roi Candaule (1868), and his additional music for Le Corsaire (1863 & 1868).
Arrigo Boito (1842-1918)
Italian poet, journalist, novelist, librettist and composer. One of the most prominent representatives of the Scapigliatura artistic movement. Best known today for his libretti, especially those for Giuseppe Verdi's operas Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893), Amilcare Ponchielli's opera La Gioconda (1876), and his own opera Mefistofele (1868).
Luigi Denza (1846-1922)
Italian composer. Best remembered for composing the music for the song “Funiculì, Funiculà”, one of the most popular Italian songs in the world. Richard Strauss later incorporated it into his tone poem Aus Italien (1886); Denza filed a lawsuit against him for plagiarism and won, and Strauss was forced to pay royalty fees. Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov also used the song.
Riccardo Drigo (1846-1930)
Italian composer, conductor and pianist. Noted for his long career as kapellmeister and Director of Music of the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg, Russia. He conducted the premieres and regular performances of nearly every ballet and Italian opera performed on the Tsarist stage. Many pieces set to Drigo's music are still performed today and are considered cornerstones of the classical ballet repertory. His most important compositions include the music for Le Talisman (1889), The Magic Flute (1893), Le Réveil de Flore (1894), his revision of Swan Lake (1895), La Perle (1896) and Les Millions d'Arléquin (1900).
Alfredo Catalani (1854-1893)
Italian composer. Best remembered for his operas Loreley (1890) and La Wally (1892). His most famous aria, “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana”, has been featured on the soundtracks of a number of popular films.
Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)
Italian Composer, pianist and conductor. Considered one of the greatest pianists of all time. He wrote 303 original compositions, of which more than 200 were produced before the age of 20. He also produced a large number of adaptations, transcriptions, and editions of works by other composers. His “Piano Concerto” is one of the largest works ever written in the genre.
Francesco Cilea (1866-1950)
Italian composer. Known for his operas L'arlesiana (1897) and Adriana Lecouvreur (1902), which are distinguished for their melodic charm.
Vittorio Monti (1868-1922)
Italian composer, violinist, mandolinist and conductor. His most famous work is his “Csárdás”, which has appeared numerous times in popular culture and which is still played by almost every gypsy orchestra.
Lorenzo Perosi (1872-1956)
Italian composer and Catholic priest. The most prolific composer of sacred music of the 20th century. Composed between 3,000-4,000 works. Prominent member of the Giovane Scuola, a group of Italian composers who succeeded Giuseppe Verdi and flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was Director of the Sistine Chapel Choir from 1898-1956, serving five popes: Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI and Pius XII.
Franco Alfano (1875-1954)
Italian composer and pianist. Considered one of the last representatives of verismo. Best known for his opera Risurrezione (1904) and for completing Puccini's opera Turandot (1926).
Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880-1968)
Italian composer, musicologist and music critic. Part of the Generation of 1880, a generation of composers inspired by Italian Renaissance and Baroque music who sought to revive non-operatic instrumental music in Italy. His most notable works include a trilogy of religious-themed operas: Dèbora e Jaéle (1922), Fra Gherardo (1927) and Lo straniero (1930).
Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007)
Italian composer and librettist. Wrote over two dozen operas, including the classic Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951), the first opera ever written for television in the United States. His other major works include The Consul (1950) and The Saint of Bleecker Street (1955), for which he won two prizes. He also founded the Festival of the Two Worlds, an annual summer music and opera festival held every year in Spoleto since 1958.
Alessandro Alessandroni (1925-2017)
Italian composer, conductor and musician. Composed more than 40 film scores. Best known as the whistler on the soundtracks for A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), and for his guitar riff for the main theme of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).
Ludovico Einaudi (b. 1955)
Pianist and composer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest living composers of piano music. Composed scores for a number of films and trailers. His most popular compositions include “Fly”, “Nuvole Bianche”, “Oltremare”, “Una Mattina”, “Divenire”, “I Giorni” and “Love is a Mystery”.
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