Baccio D'Agnolo (1462–1543), was a "wood-carver, sculptor, and architect who exerted an important influence on the Renaissance architecture of Florence."[1]
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (1484–1546), was "one of the most distinguished architects... in the second quarter of 16th century."[2]
Giulio Romano (c. 1499 – 1546), architect, painter and decorator, whose real name was Giulio Pippi. "He was one of the major figures of the late
Renaissance."[3]
Galeazzo Alessi (1512–1572), was an important High Renaissance architect, best known for his work in
Genoa and
Milan.
Bernardo Buontalenti (c. 1531 – 1608), architect, engineer, designer, painter, and inventor. He was one of the great Renaissance
polymaths.
Nicola Sabbatini (1574–1654), was an architect and engineer "who pioneered in theatrical perspective techniques."[4]
Alberto Sordi (1920–2003), was an actor who depicted Italy's virtues and vices in more than 160 movies and contributed to making Italian comedy famous worldwide.
Mauro Bolognini (June 1922 – 2001), was a prolific director admired, above all, for his elegant adaptations of literary works, made mostly in the 1960s and 1970s.
Lucio Fulci (1927–1996), also known as The Godfather of Gore, was a film director, screenwriter, and actor.
Sergio Leone (3 January 1929 – 1989), was one of the most important directors of his generation. He is mostly associated with the
Spaghetti Western genre.
Maso Finiguerra (1426–1464), was a goldsmith, engraver, and draftsman, known for his work in
niello, and as "one of the first major Italian printmakers."[11]
Bartolomeo Pinelli (1771–1835), was a painter and engraver who illustrated the works of
Virgil, amongst others and published albums of numerous classical subjects.
Explorers
Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512), was an explorer for whom the Americas were named.
Niccolò Piccinino (1386–1444), condottiero, was a cavalryman who spent the most important years of his career in the service of Milan.
Federico da Montefeltro (1422–1482), learned Renaissance prince who was an outstanding military leader and a great patron of the arts.
Vitellozzo Vitelli (c. 1458 – 1502), was a famous military leader or condottiero from Città di Castello,
Umbria.
Cesare Borgia (1475/76 – 1507), was a Cardinal, military leader, and Machiavellian politician. He was the son of
Pope Alexander VI.
Francesco Ferruccio (1489–1530), was a military commander. He served in the Bande Nere in various parts of Italy, earning a reputation as a daring fighter.
Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), was a Jesuit missionary and
polymath who opened China to Roman Catholic evangelization.
Anthony Baldinucci (1665–1717), was a Jesuit missionary, popularized the image as he preached and created missions throughout Italy.
Teodorico Pedrini (1671–1746), was a priest, missionary, musician and composer in China.
Ippolito Desideri (1684–1733), was a Jesuit missionary, who visited
Tibet in the early 18th century.
Musicians
Guido of Arezzo (c. 990 – 1050), was a "medieval music theorist whose principles served as a foundation for modern Western
musical notation."[13]
Antonio Squarcialupi (1416–1480), was an organist and composer. He was "the most famous Italian organist of his time."[14]
Giovanni Animuccia (c. 1520 – 1571), was a composer. "Predecessor of Palestrina as maestro of the Vatican and regarded as extraordinarily fertile innovator."[15]
Gioseffo Guami (1542–1611), was an organist and composer of motets, madrigals and canzonas representative of the
Venetian school.
Emilio de' Cavalieri (c. 1550 – 1602), was a composer and
polymath. He lived mainly at the Florentine court of the
Medici, where he was Inspector General of Arts.
Giulio Caccini (1551–1618), a tenor, composer, and teacher was the most important member of the
Camerata.
Jacopo Peri (1561–1633), was a composer and singer. He is "often known as the 'inventor' of opera."[16]
Pietro Della Valle (1586–1652), composer, librettist, and theorist. Della Valle was also "a soldier, world traveler, and a passionate and articulate orientalist."[17]
Stefano Landi (February 1587 – 1639), was an early Baroque composer whose large output includes operas, madrigals, arias, masses, and other sacred compositions.
Francesca Caccini (September 1587 – after 1641), known as La Cecchina, was a skilled composer, singer, and instrumentalist who served the
Medici court in Florence.
Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687), was a composer and founder of the French operatic tradition. His name originally was Giovanni Battista Lulli.
Alessandro Stradella (1639–1682), was one of the major composers of his era,[19] writing some 30 stage works and 200 cantatas.[19]
Benedetto Pamphili (1653–1730), was a cardinal, a patron of music in Rome and a librettist, especially important during
Handel's first year there.
Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni (1657–1743), composer and writer on music. He was "one of the best and most prolific composers of sacred music of his time."[20]
Francesco Manfredini (1684–1762), was an important composer of the Baroque Era. He worked mainly in the cultural orbit of
Bologna.
Francesco Geminiani (1687–1762), was a violinist and composer noted for his concertos and sonatas.
Domenico Zipoli (1688–1726), was a composer. He is best known for his Sonate d'intavolatura per organo e cimbalo (1716), his only published work.
Francesco Maria Veracini (1690–1768), was lauded as one of the great violin virtuosi of the late Baroque and is also known as a composer of operas.
Antonio Sacchini (1730–1786), was a composer active in London from 1772 to 1781. "He was one of the leading 18th-century composers of opera seria."[21]
Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805), was "one of the great musicians of the classical era – so great that his contemporaries put him on an equal footing with
Haydn."[22]
Giuseppe Cambini (1746–1825), was certainly one of the most prolific composers of the late 18th century, with well over 700 compositions to his name.
Giovanni Sgambati (1841–1914), was a pianist, composer, and
child prodigy.[25] "He was a leading figure in the late 19th-century resurgence of non-operatic music in Italy."[26]
Alfredo Catalani (1854–1893), composer whose only well known work – La Wally was brought to non-operatic prominence through the hugely successful French thriller Diva.
Alessandro Moreschi (November 1858 – 1922), was a castrato singer. Known as "the angel of Rome" because of vocal purity.
Giacomo Puccini (December 1858 – 1924), was an opera composer. He ranks as one of the greatest opera composers of all time.
Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924), was a pianist, composer, and
polymath who attained fame as a pianist of brilliance and intellectual power.
Luisa Tetrazzini (1871–1940), was "the most famous
coloraturasoprano of her day."[27] She made many concert tours, appearing in London for the last time in 1934.
Giuseppe De Luca (1876–1950), was an operatic baritone. His debut was at
Piacenza in 1897, singing Valentin in Gounod's Faust.
Vittorio Gui (1885–1975), was a conductor and composer. He founded the Orchestra Stabile (1928), which led to the creation of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Ezio Pinza (1892–1957), was a singer. "In many respects the finest lyric
bass of the twentieth century, and one of the most popular singers in history."[28]
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895–1968), "was one of the most prolific Italian composers of the first half of the twentieth century."[29]
Mario Del Monaco (1915–1982), was a leading dramatic tenor for Italian operas in the 1940s and 1950s, most famous for Otello.
Franco Corelli (1921–2003), was a celebrated tenor. His strong, dark voice has made him a favourite in such roles as Don José, Radamès and Calaf.
Riz Ortolani (1926–2014), was a film composer. His best known piece is probably More, the theme tune from Mondo cane, which was Oscar nominated for Best Song.
Ennio Morricone (1928–2020), was a composer, one of the most prolific film composers of all time. In 2007 Morricone won an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement after five previous nominations.
Sylvano Bussotti (born 1931), is a
polymath of his age: composer, successful painter, set designer, stage, film, and opera director.
Francesco De Gregori (born 1951), commonly known in his native country as Il principe poeta (The Poet Prince),[31] is a famous singer-songwriter.
Ryan Paris (born 1953), original name Fabio Roscioli, is a singer. His biggest success was the world-famous song Dolce Vita.
Dario Marianelli (June 1963), is a composer of piano, orchestral, and film music. He won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Atonement in 2008.
Eros Ramazzotti (October 1963), is a singer-songwriter. "An international superstar whose appeal spans not only Western Europe but also Latin America."[32]
Jovanotti (born 1966), original name Lorenzo Cherubini, is a singer-songwriter and rapper.
Tiziano Ferro (born 1980), is a famous pop singer. He remains best known for his European hit Perdono and his Latin American hit Sere nere.
Painters
Pietro Cavallini (1259 – c. 1330), painter and mosaicist. He was a member of the ancient Roman family of the Cerroni.
Francesco Traini (fl. 1321 – 1345), painter and illuminator. "He was the most accomplished
Pisan artist in the second quarter of the 14th century."[33]
Filippo Lippi (c. 1406 – 1469), was a leading painter of the Renaissance. He painted religious subjects on altarpieces and in frescoes in various towns in Italy.
Antonio del Pollaiuolo (1429/33 – 1498), was a painter, sculptor, goldsmith, and engraver. Representative of the Florentine school of the late quattrocento.
Niccolò Alunno (1430–1502), was a painter of the Umbrian School, who was also active in The Marches.
Antoniazzo Romano (c. 1430 – c. 1510), was the most important local painter in Rome during the period when the city reemerged as a major power in Italy.[34]
Luca Signorelli (c. 1445 – 1523), was one of the great painters during the Renaissance. His masterpiece is the fresco cycle in
Orvieto Cathedral.
Pinturicchio (1454–1513), original name Bernardino di Betto, was a painter of the Umbrian school known for his frescoes in the Collegiate Church at
Spello.
Filippino Lippi (c. 1457 – 1504), Renaissance painter of the Florentine school, who was the son of Filippo Lippi and the pupil of Botticelli.
Giovanni Baglione (1566–1643), was a painter, draughtsman and writer. He executed canvases and frescoes of religious and mythological subjects, and portraits.
Giuseppe Cesari (1568–1640), was a celebrated historical painter, sometimes called il Cavaliere d'Arpino.
Domenico Fetti (c. 1589 – 1623), was a painter. "His most characteristic works are of religious themes turned into scenes of everyday contemporary life."[37]
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – c. 1656), was a painter. She specialized in paintings of strong heroines, especially from the Bible.
Pietro da Cortona (1596/7 – 1669), painter and architect, was one of the leading protagonists of the exuberant, high Baroque style.
Giovanna Garzoni (1600–1670), was a painter, best known for her studies of flowers, plants, and animals.
Marozia (c. 890 – 982), was a noblewoman famous for her family's influence on the papacy. She is presumably the basis for the legend of a female
Pope Joan.
Giulio Andreotti (1919–2013), also known as Divine Julius, was the ultimate insider of Italian political life. For half a century he was at the heart of power.
Vidus Vidius (1509–1569), was a surgeon and anatomist. Vidus' name is associated with several anatomical structures: the
Vidian nerve and
Vidian artery.
Hippolito Salviani (1514–1572), was a physician, scholar, and naturalist. His magnificent Aquatilium animalium historiae was first printed in 1554.
Andrea Cesalpino (1519–1603), an anatomist and botanist, was the first to develop a model of blood circulation (of the inner circle) and a classification of plants and minerals.
Castore Durante (1529–1590), was a physician, botanist, and poet. In his Herbario Nuovo (1585) he combined his talents and wrote the plant descriptions in verse.
Michele Mercati (1541–1593), physician to
Pope Clement VII in Rome and supervisor of the Vatican botanic gardens, was also interested in geography, geology, and
chorology.
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), a physicist and polymathic
genius, has been called the "father of modern science."[41]
Pietro Rossi (1738–1804), was an academic, naturalist, and author. First Professor of
Entomology (University of Pisa, 1801–1804).
Paolo Mascagni (1755–1815), was a famous anatomist and professor at the universities of Pisa and Florence.
Vincenzo Chiarugi (1759–1820), was a physician, author of the first Italian treatise on
psychiatry, Della pazzia in genere e in specie (1793).[42]
Giuseppe Raddi (1770–1829), was a cryptogamist, traveler, explorer, plant collector (Brazil, Madeira, and Egypt), mycologist. He wrote Synopsis filicum brasiliensium (1819).
Paolo Savi (1798–1871), was a geologist, ornithologist, and professor of natural history at the
University of Pisa.
Antonio Meucci (1808–1889), was a scientist and inventor. In almost every major reference publication in Italy, Meucci is recognized as the inventor of the telephone.
Filippo Pacini (1812–1883), a physician who was "particularly skilled in microscopy, observed the comma-shaped bacillus that causes
cholera. He called it a vibrio."[44]
Antonio Pacinotti (1841–1912), was a physicist and electrical engineer. In 1858 Pacinotti built the first
dynamo and in 1860 the first direct current electric engine.
Odoardo Beccari (1843–1920), was an eminent botanist. Beccari discovered one of the most amazing plants, which the evolution brought out: Amorphophallus titanum.
Leonardo Gigli (1863–1908), was a surgeon and gynecologist who, in 1894, invented the flexible wire saw named for him for the performance of
pubiotomy.
Ruggero Oddi (1864–1913), was a physiologist and anatomist. The
sphincter of Oddi in the major duodenal papilla is named after him.
Adelchi Negri (1876–1912), professor at Pavia, discovered in 1903 the
Negri bodies in the brain of rabid animals, a discovery of great value in the diagnosis of
rabies.
Bruno Pontecorvo (1913–1993), scientist and university professor. He was formed as a physicist in the famous school of
Enrico Fermi at the University of Rome.
Margherita Hack (1922–2013), also known as Lady of the Stars,[46] was an astrophysicist and popular science writer.
Vito Volterra (1860–1940), was a mathematician whose most important work was in the area of integral (whole–number) equations.
Federigo Enriques (1871–1946), is known among mathematicians for his contributions to the theory of algebraic surfaces and, in particular, to their classification.
Vincenzo Danti (1530–1576), "sculptor, architect, and writer, active for most of his short career in Florence, where he was based from 1557 to 1573."[51]
Giuseppe Ceracchi (1751–1801), was an influential sculptor. According to
Thomas Jefferson, he was "unquestionably an artist of the first class."[54]
Clemente Susini (1754–1814), was a sculptor who became famous for his anatomical wax models of the human body.
Marino Marini (1901–1980), was a sculptor. He is best known for his many vigorous sculptures of horses and horsemen.
Writers and philosophers
Brunetto Latini (c. 1220 – 1294), was a writer, author of a prose encyclopedia in French, Li Livres dou Trésor and of Tesoretto, a didactic poem in a popular style in Italian.
Giles of Rome (c. 1243 – 1316), philosopher, theologian, and Augustinian Hermit. He was a member of the influential
Colonna family.
Dino Compagni (c. 1255 – 1324), was a public official and historian, author of a valuable history of Florence Cronica delle cose occorrenti ne' tempi suoi (published 1726).
Petrarch (1304–1374), was a great lyric poet and scholar. He wrote more than 400 poems in Italian. Of these, 366 form his Canzoniere, on which his reputation rests.
Franco Sacchetti (c. 1335 – c. 1400), was a writer and statesman who is best known for his collection of stories, the Trecentonovelle.
Leonardo Bruni (c. 1370 – 1444), was a humanist, historian and philosopher, known for his work Historiarum Florentini populi libri XII (1415).
Giannozzo Manetti (1396–1459), scholar, statesman, writer, and translator. He was "one of the more considerable personalities of the age."[55]
Matteo Palmieri (1406–1475), was a humanist and historian who is best known for his work Della vita civile ("On Civic Life").
Luigi Pulci (1432–1484), was a poet, author of the burlesque epic in Tuscan dialect Morgante or Morgante Maggiore.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), was a writer and polymathic
genius whom many people consider the father of modern political science.[56]
Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540), was a statesman, diplomat and historian, author of History of Italy (completed in 1540, published 1561–1564).
Pietro Aretino (1492–1556), was a poet, prose writer, and dramatist. His masterpiece Orazia (1546) was perhaps the best Italian
tragedy of the 16th century.[57]
Agnolo Firenzuola (1493–1543), was a writer and poet, known for his work I ragionamenti d'amore (Tales of Firenzuola, 1548).
Luigi Alamanni (1495–1556), was a poet and statesman. He wrote plays and lively letters to his friends and introduced the
epigram into modern Italian poetry.
Piero Vettori (1499–1585), also known as Pietro Vittorio, was a writer, philologist, and scholar.
Benedetto Varchi (1502/3 – 1565), was a scholar and critic, best known for his 16-volume history of Florence.
Girolamo Mei (1519–1594), was a humanist, editor of Greek texts, and historian of Greek music.
Cesare Ripa (c. 1560 – c. 1645), was a writer and illustrator. Author of Iconologia (1593), an influential and often reprinted
handbook of emblems for artists.
Lorenzo Magalotti (1637–1712), was a "philosopher, scientist, author, diplomat, and poet."[58]
Metastasio (1698–1782), writer and musical
genius. He was probably the single most influential figure in the history of eighteenth-century opera.[59]
Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (1791–1863), was a great poet and profound thinker. His poetic production "consists of about 2,000 sonnets written in the
Roman dialect."[60]
Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837), was a poet. This tormented
genius is revealed in his work to have been a precursor of modern
existentialist thought.
Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi (1804–1873), was a writer – storyteller, essayist, dramatist, and polemicist – as well as a patriot.
Giovanni Papini (1881–1956), was a well-known writer, poet, critic, and a pioneer of the modern literary form of fiction as "fact."
Aldo Palazzeschi (1885–1974), original name Aldo Giurlani, was a poet and novelist from
Florence.
Sandro Penna (1906–1977), was a poet of great charm, whose main theme is his homosexuality, which he makes no attempt to disguise.
Alberto Moravia (1907–1990), was one of the greatest novelists and short-story writers of the 1900s. Moravia wrote more than 30 books.
Eugenio Garin (1909–2004), a leading historian of Italian philosophy, had a powerful imprint on the many scholars who studied with him.
Fosco Maraini (1912–2004), was a writer and
polymath whose book Secret Tibet was the first modern account of the remote Himalayan kingdom on "the roof of the world."
Vasco Pratolini (1913–1991), was a neorealist writer whose novels had a strong local setting.
Carlo Cassola (1917–1987), was a novelist and short-story writer. In 1960 Cassola won the
Strega Prize for La ragazza di Bube (Bebo's Girl; film, 1964).
Luciano Bianciardi (1922–1971), was a writer. During his lifetime, he distinguished himself as a novelist, journalist, prolific translator, and pamphleteer.
Oriana Fallaci (1929–2006), was a journalist, writer, and former war correspondent best known for her abrasive interviews and provocative stances.
Dacia Maraini (born 1936), is a famous novelist, dramatist, poet, children's writer, and leading feminist commentator.
Tiziano Terzani (1938–2004), was a journalist and writer who mourned the corruption of Asia by the materialistic west.
Ignazio Danti (1536–1586), a versatile Dominican friar who was a mathematician, astronomer, mapmaker, artist, and university professor.
Giacomo Torelli (1608–1678), was a "stage designer and engineer whose innovative theatre machinery provided the basis for many modern stage devices."[62]
^Baccio d'Agnolo. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2014. Web. 11 March 2014.
^Curl, James Stevens.
Antonio da Sangallo, the Younger. In A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, 2006. Oxford Index – Oxford University Press. Web. 16 March 2014.
^Sunnucks, Anne.
The encyclopaedia of chess. Hale, 1976. p. 114. Web. 29 March 2014. "During the middle of the last century Dubois was the strongest player in Italy."
^
abAlessandro Stradella.Archived 1 June 2013 at the
Wayback Machine Grove Music, Oxford University Press. Web. 3 April 2014. "Stradella was one of the leading composers in Italy in his day and one of the most versatile. His music was widely admired, even as far afield as England. Most of it is clearly tonal, and counterpoint features prominently. His vocal output includes c 30 stage works, several oratorios and Latin church works and some 200 cantatas (most for solo voice)."
^Markevitch, Dimitry.
Cello Story. Alfred Music Publishing, 1984. p. 75. Web. 18 March 2014.
^
abAcademic American Encyclopedia. Aretê Publishing Company, 1980. p. 50. Web. 28 March 2014. "The Italian composer and pianist Muzio Clementi, b. Jan. 23, 1752, d. Mar. 10, 1832, was a famous musical figure of his time. Clementi, who has been called the father of the piano, was a child prodigy."
^Opera News. Metropolitan Opera Guild, 1953. p. 223. Web. 19 March 2014.
^Reel, James. Giovanni Sgambati. (Biography). All Music Guide to Classical Music. Web. 3 April 2014. "A child prodigy, Giovanni Sgambati was playing piano in public at age 6, and composing shortly thereafter."
^Giovanni Sgambati. Grove Music, Oxford University Press. Web. 3 April 2014.
^Birchmeier, Jason. Eros Ramazzotti. (Genres: Rock). All Music Guide, The Definitive Guide to Popular Music. Web. 2 April 2014.
^Francesco Traini. Grove Art, Oxford University Press. Web. 21 March 2014.
^Antoniazzo Romano. Grove Art, Oxford University Press. Web. 3 April 2014. "Italian painter. He was the leading painter of the Roman school during the 15th century."
^Fra Bartolommeo. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2014. Web. 22 March 2014.
^Kennedy, Hubert Collings.
Peano: Life and Works of Giuseppe Peano. Springer, 1980. p. 186. Web. 26 March 2014. "Siacci is said to have been an excellent teacher, both at the university and at the Military Academy. He left some hundred publications, the most important being those concerned with analytic mechanics. In the application of mechanics to artillery – ballistics – he was a master. His treatise on this subject, especially the second edition of 1888, which had a French translation in 1891, was considered masterly. He received many honours during his lifetime, including election to most of the important scientific academies of Italy."
^Giovanni Pisano. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2014. Web. 21 March 2014.
Baccio D'Agnolo (1462–1543), was a "wood-carver, sculptor, and architect who exerted an important influence on the Renaissance architecture of Florence."[1]
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (1484–1546), was "one of the most distinguished architects... in the second quarter of 16th century."[2]
Giulio Romano (c. 1499 – 1546), architect, painter and decorator, whose real name was Giulio Pippi. "He was one of the major figures of the late
Renaissance."[3]
Galeazzo Alessi (1512–1572), was an important High Renaissance architect, best known for his work in
Genoa and
Milan.
Bernardo Buontalenti (c. 1531 – 1608), architect, engineer, designer, painter, and inventor. He was one of the great Renaissance
polymaths.
Nicola Sabbatini (1574–1654), was an architect and engineer "who pioneered in theatrical perspective techniques."[4]
Alberto Sordi (1920–2003), was an actor who depicted Italy's virtues and vices in more than 160 movies and contributed to making Italian comedy famous worldwide.
Mauro Bolognini (June 1922 – 2001), was a prolific director admired, above all, for his elegant adaptations of literary works, made mostly in the 1960s and 1970s.
Lucio Fulci (1927–1996), also known as The Godfather of Gore, was a film director, screenwriter, and actor.
Sergio Leone (3 January 1929 – 1989), was one of the most important directors of his generation. He is mostly associated with the
Spaghetti Western genre.
Maso Finiguerra (1426–1464), was a goldsmith, engraver, and draftsman, known for his work in
niello, and as "one of the first major Italian printmakers."[11]
Bartolomeo Pinelli (1771–1835), was a painter and engraver who illustrated the works of
Virgil, amongst others and published albums of numerous classical subjects.
Explorers
Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512), was an explorer for whom the Americas were named.
Niccolò Piccinino (1386–1444), condottiero, was a cavalryman who spent the most important years of his career in the service of Milan.
Federico da Montefeltro (1422–1482), learned Renaissance prince who was an outstanding military leader and a great patron of the arts.
Vitellozzo Vitelli (c. 1458 – 1502), was a famous military leader or condottiero from Città di Castello,
Umbria.
Cesare Borgia (1475/76 – 1507), was a Cardinal, military leader, and Machiavellian politician. He was the son of
Pope Alexander VI.
Francesco Ferruccio (1489–1530), was a military commander. He served in the Bande Nere in various parts of Italy, earning a reputation as a daring fighter.
Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), was a Jesuit missionary and
polymath who opened China to Roman Catholic evangelization.
Anthony Baldinucci (1665–1717), was a Jesuit missionary, popularized the image as he preached and created missions throughout Italy.
Teodorico Pedrini (1671–1746), was a priest, missionary, musician and composer in China.
Ippolito Desideri (1684–1733), was a Jesuit missionary, who visited
Tibet in the early 18th century.
Musicians
Guido of Arezzo (c. 990 – 1050), was a "medieval music theorist whose principles served as a foundation for modern Western
musical notation."[13]
Antonio Squarcialupi (1416–1480), was an organist and composer. He was "the most famous Italian organist of his time."[14]
Giovanni Animuccia (c. 1520 – 1571), was a composer. "Predecessor of Palestrina as maestro of the Vatican and regarded as extraordinarily fertile innovator."[15]
Gioseffo Guami (1542–1611), was an organist and composer of motets, madrigals and canzonas representative of the
Venetian school.
Emilio de' Cavalieri (c. 1550 – 1602), was a composer and
polymath. He lived mainly at the Florentine court of the
Medici, where he was Inspector General of Arts.
Giulio Caccini (1551–1618), a tenor, composer, and teacher was the most important member of the
Camerata.
Jacopo Peri (1561–1633), was a composer and singer. He is "often known as the 'inventor' of opera."[16]
Pietro Della Valle (1586–1652), composer, librettist, and theorist. Della Valle was also "a soldier, world traveler, and a passionate and articulate orientalist."[17]
Stefano Landi (February 1587 – 1639), was an early Baroque composer whose large output includes operas, madrigals, arias, masses, and other sacred compositions.
Francesca Caccini (September 1587 – after 1641), known as La Cecchina, was a skilled composer, singer, and instrumentalist who served the
Medici court in Florence.
Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687), was a composer and founder of the French operatic tradition. His name originally was Giovanni Battista Lulli.
Alessandro Stradella (1639–1682), was one of the major composers of his era,[19] writing some 30 stage works and 200 cantatas.[19]
Benedetto Pamphili (1653–1730), was a cardinal, a patron of music in Rome and a librettist, especially important during
Handel's first year there.
Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni (1657–1743), composer and writer on music. He was "one of the best and most prolific composers of sacred music of his time."[20]
Francesco Manfredini (1684–1762), was an important composer of the Baroque Era. He worked mainly in the cultural orbit of
Bologna.
Francesco Geminiani (1687–1762), was a violinist and composer noted for his concertos and sonatas.
Domenico Zipoli (1688–1726), was a composer. He is best known for his Sonate d'intavolatura per organo e cimbalo (1716), his only published work.
Francesco Maria Veracini (1690–1768), was lauded as one of the great violin virtuosi of the late Baroque and is also known as a composer of operas.
Antonio Sacchini (1730–1786), was a composer active in London from 1772 to 1781. "He was one of the leading 18th-century composers of opera seria."[21]
Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805), was "one of the great musicians of the classical era – so great that his contemporaries put him on an equal footing with
Haydn."[22]
Giuseppe Cambini (1746–1825), was certainly one of the most prolific composers of the late 18th century, with well over 700 compositions to his name.
Giovanni Sgambati (1841–1914), was a pianist, composer, and
child prodigy.[25] "He was a leading figure in the late 19th-century resurgence of non-operatic music in Italy."[26]
Alfredo Catalani (1854–1893), composer whose only well known work – La Wally was brought to non-operatic prominence through the hugely successful French thriller Diva.
Alessandro Moreschi (November 1858 – 1922), was a castrato singer. Known as "the angel of Rome" because of vocal purity.
Giacomo Puccini (December 1858 – 1924), was an opera composer. He ranks as one of the greatest opera composers of all time.
Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924), was a pianist, composer, and
polymath who attained fame as a pianist of brilliance and intellectual power.
Luisa Tetrazzini (1871–1940), was "the most famous
coloraturasoprano of her day."[27] She made many concert tours, appearing in London for the last time in 1934.
Giuseppe De Luca (1876–1950), was an operatic baritone. His debut was at
Piacenza in 1897, singing Valentin in Gounod's Faust.
Vittorio Gui (1885–1975), was a conductor and composer. He founded the Orchestra Stabile (1928), which led to the creation of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Ezio Pinza (1892–1957), was a singer. "In many respects the finest lyric
bass of the twentieth century, and one of the most popular singers in history."[28]
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895–1968), "was one of the most prolific Italian composers of the first half of the twentieth century."[29]
Mario Del Monaco (1915–1982), was a leading dramatic tenor for Italian operas in the 1940s and 1950s, most famous for Otello.
Franco Corelli (1921–2003), was a celebrated tenor. His strong, dark voice has made him a favourite in such roles as Don José, Radamès and Calaf.
Riz Ortolani (1926–2014), was a film composer. His best known piece is probably More, the theme tune from Mondo cane, which was Oscar nominated for Best Song.
Ennio Morricone (1928–2020), was a composer, one of the most prolific film composers of all time. In 2007 Morricone won an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement after five previous nominations.
Sylvano Bussotti (born 1931), is a
polymath of his age: composer, successful painter, set designer, stage, film, and opera director.
Francesco De Gregori (born 1951), commonly known in his native country as Il principe poeta (The Poet Prince),[31] is a famous singer-songwriter.
Ryan Paris (born 1953), original name Fabio Roscioli, is a singer. His biggest success was the world-famous song Dolce Vita.
Dario Marianelli (June 1963), is a composer of piano, orchestral, and film music. He won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Atonement in 2008.
Eros Ramazzotti (October 1963), is a singer-songwriter. "An international superstar whose appeal spans not only Western Europe but also Latin America."[32]
Jovanotti (born 1966), original name Lorenzo Cherubini, is a singer-songwriter and rapper.
Tiziano Ferro (born 1980), is a famous pop singer. He remains best known for his European hit Perdono and his Latin American hit Sere nere.
Painters
Pietro Cavallini (1259 – c. 1330), painter and mosaicist. He was a member of the ancient Roman family of the Cerroni.
Francesco Traini (fl. 1321 – 1345), painter and illuminator. "He was the most accomplished
Pisan artist in the second quarter of the 14th century."[33]
Filippo Lippi (c. 1406 – 1469), was a leading painter of the Renaissance. He painted religious subjects on altarpieces and in frescoes in various towns in Italy.
Antonio del Pollaiuolo (1429/33 – 1498), was a painter, sculptor, goldsmith, and engraver. Representative of the Florentine school of the late quattrocento.
Niccolò Alunno (1430–1502), was a painter of the Umbrian School, who was also active in The Marches.
Antoniazzo Romano (c. 1430 – c. 1510), was the most important local painter in Rome during the period when the city reemerged as a major power in Italy.[34]
Luca Signorelli (c. 1445 – 1523), was one of the great painters during the Renaissance. His masterpiece is the fresco cycle in
Orvieto Cathedral.
Pinturicchio (1454–1513), original name Bernardino di Betto, was a painter of the Umbrian school known for his frescoes in the Collegiate Church at
Spello.
Filippino Lippi (c. 1457 – 1504), Renaissance painter of the Florentine school, who was the son of Filippo Lippi and the pupil of Botticelli.
Giovanni Baglione (1566–1643), was a painter, draughtsman and writer. He executed canvases and frescoes of religious and mythological subjects, and portraits.
Giuseppe Cesari (1568–1640), was a celebrated historical painter, sometimes called il Cavaliere d'Arpino.
Domenico Fetti (c. 1589 – 1623), was a painter. "His most characteristic works are of religious themes turned into scenes of everyday contemporary life."[37]
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – c. 1656), was a painter. She specialized in paintings of strong heroines, especially from the Bible.
Pietro da Cortona (1596/7 – 1669), painter and architect, was one of the leading protagonists of the exuberant, high Baroque style.
Giovanna Garzoni (1600–1670), was a painter, best known for her studies of flowers, plants, and animals.
Marozia (c. 890 – 982), was a noblewoman famous for her family's influence on the papacy. She is presumably the basis for the legend of a female
Pope Joan.
Giulio Andreotti (1919–2013), also known as Divine Julius, was the ultimate insider of Italian political life. For half a century he was at the heart of power.
Vidus Vidius (1509–1569), was a surgeon and anatomist. Vidus' name is associated with several anatomical structures: the
Vidian nerve and
Vidian artery.
Hippolito Salviani (1514–1572), was a physician, scholar, and naturalist. His magnificent Aquatilium animalium historiae was first printed in 1554.
Andrea Cesalpino (1519–1603), an anatomist and botanist, was the first to develop a model of blood circulation (of the inner circle) and a classification of plants and minerals.
Castore Durante (1529–1590), was a physician, botanist, and poet. In his Herbario Nuovo (1585) he combined his talents and wrote the plant descriptions in verse.
Michele Mercati (1541–1593), physician to
Pope Clement VII in Rome and supervisor of the Vatican botanic gardens, was also interested in geography, geology, and
chorology.
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), a physicist and polymathic
genius, has been called the "father of modern science."[41]
Pietro Rossi (1738–1804), was an academic, naturalist, and author. First Professor of
Entomology (University of Pisa, 1801–1804).
Paolo Mascagni (1755–1815), was a famous anatomist and professor at the universities of Pisa and Florence.
Vincenzo Chiarugi (1759–1820), was a physician, author of the first Italian treatise on
psychiatry, Della pazzia in genere e in specie (1793).[42]
Giuseppe Raddi (1770–1829), was a cryptogamist, traveler, explorer, plant collector (Brazil, Madeira, and Egypt), mycologist. He wrote Synopsis filicum brasiliensium (1819).
Paolo Savi (1798–1871), was a geologist, ornithologist, and professor of natural history at the
University of Pisa.
Antonio Meucci (1808–1889), was a scientist and inventor. In almost every major reference publication in Italy, Meucci is recognized as the inventor of the telephone.
Filippo Pacini (1812–1883), a physician who was "particularly skilled in microscopy, observed the comma-shaped bacillus that causes
cholera. He called it a vibrio."[44]
Antonio Pacinotti (1841–1912), was a physicist and electrical engineer. In 1858 Pacinotti built the first
dynamo and in 1860 the first direct current electric engine.
Odoardo Beccari (1843–1920), was an eminent botanist. Beccari discovered one of the most amazing plants, which the evolution brought out: Amorphophallus titanum.
Leonardo Gigli (1863–1908), was a surgeon and gynecologist who, in 1894, invented the flexible wire saw named for him for the performance of
pubiotomy.
Ruggero Oddi (1864–1913), was a physiologist and anatomist. The
sphincter of Oddi in the major duodenal papilla is named after him.
Adelchi Negri (1876–1912), professor at Pavia, discovered in 1903 the
Negri bodies in the brain of rabid animals, a discovery of great value in the diagnosis of
rabies.
Bruno Pontecorvo (1913–1993), scientist and university professor. He was formed as a physicist in the famous school of
Enrico Fermi at the University of Rome.
Margherita Hack (1922–2013), also known as Lady of the Stars,[46] was an astrophysicist and popular science writer.
Vito Volterra (1860–1940), was a mathematician whose most important work was in the area of integral (whole–number) equations.
Federigo Enriques (1871–1946), is known among mathematicians for his contributions to the theory of algebraic surfaces and, in particular, to their classification.
Vincenzo Danti (1530–1576), "sculptor, architect, and writer, active for most of his short career in Florence, where he was based from 1557 to 1573."[51]
Giuseppe Ceracchi (1751–1801), was an influential sculptor. According to
Thomas Jefferson, he was "unquestionably an artist of the first class."[54]
Clemente Susini (1754–1814), was a sculptor who became famous for his anatomical wax models of the human body.
Marino Marini (1901–1980), was a sculptor. He is best known for his many vigorous sculptures of horses and horsemen.
Writers and philosophers
Brunetto Latini (c. 1220 – 1294), was a writer, author of a prose encyclopedia in French, Li Livres dou Trésor and of Tesoretto, a didactic poem in a popular style in Italian.
Giles of Rome (c. 1243 – 1316), philosopher, theologian, and Augustinian Hermit. He was a member of the influential
Colonna family.
Dino Compagni (c. 1255 – 1324), was a public official and historian, author of a valuable history of Florence Cronica delle cose occorrenti ne' tempi suoi (published 1726).
Petrarch (1304–1374), was a great lyric poet and scholar. He wrote more than 400 poems in Italian. Of these, 366 form his Canzoniere, on which his reputation rests.
Franco Sacchetti (c. 1335 – c. 1400), was a writer and statesman who is best known for his collection of stories, the Trecentonovelle.
Leonardo Bruni (c. 1370 – 1444), was a humanist, historian and philosopher, known for his work Historiarum Florentini populi libri XII (1415).
Giannozzo Manetti (1396–1459), scholar, statesman, writer, and translator. He was "one of the more considerable personalities of the age."[55]
Matteo Palmieri (1406–1475), was a humanist and historian who is best known for his work Della vita civile ("On Civic Life").
Luigi Pulci (1432–1484), was a poet, author of the burlesque epic in Tuscan dialect Morgante or Morgante Maggiore.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), was a writer and polymathic
genius whom many people consider the father of modern political science.[56]
Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540), was a statesman, diplomat and historian, author of History of Italy (completed in 1540, published 1561–1564).
Pietro Aretino (1492–1556), was a poet, prose writer, and dramatist. His masterpiece Orazia (1546) was perhaps the best Italian
tragedy of the 16th century.[57]
Agnolo Firenzuola (1493–1543), was a writer and poet, known for his work I ragionamenti d'amore (Tales of Firenzuola, 1548).
Luigi Alamanni (1495–1556), was a poet and statesman. He wrote plays and lively letters to his friends and introduced the
epigram into modern Italian poetry.
Piero Vettori (1499–1585), also known as Pietro Vittorio, was a writer, philologist, and scholar.
Benedetto Varchi (1502/3 – 1565), was a scholar and critic, best known for his 16-volume history of Florence.
Girolamo Mei (1519–1594), was a humanist, editor of Greek texts, and historian of Greek music.
Cesare Ripa (c. 1560 – c. 1645), was a writer and illustrator. Author of Iconologia (1593), an influential and often reprinted
handbook of emblems for artists.
Lorenzo Magalotti (1637–1712), was a "philosopher, scientist, author, diplomat, and poet."[58]
Metastasio (1698–1782), writer and musical
genius. He was probably the single most influential figure in the history of eighteenth-century opera.[59]
Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (1791–1863), was a great poet and profound thinker. His poetic production "consists of about 2,000 sonnets written in the
Roman dialect."[60]
Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837), was a poet. This tormented
genius is revealed in his work to have been a precursor of modern
existentialist thought.
Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi (1804–1873), was a writer – storyteller, essayist, dramatist, and polemicist – as well as a patriot.
Giovanni Papini (1881–1956), was a well-known writer, poet, critic, and a pioneer of the modern literary form of fiction as "fact."
Aldo Palazzeschi (1885–1974), original name Aldo Giurlani, was a poet and novelist from
Florence.
Sandro Penna (1906–1977), was a poet of great charm, whose main theme is his homosexuality, which he makes no attempt to disguise.
Alberto Moravia (1907–1990), was one of the greatest novelists and short-story writers of the 1900s. Moravia wrote more than 30 books.
Eugenio Garin (1909–2004), a leading historian of Italian philosophy, had a powerful imprint on the many scholars who studied with him.
Fosco Maraini (1912–2004), was a writer and
polymath whose book Secret Tibet was the first modern account of the remote Himalayan kingdom on "the roof of the world."
Vasco Pratolini (1913–1991), was a neorealist writer whose novels had a strong local setting.
Carlo Cassola (1917–1987), was a novelist and short-story writer. In 1960 Cassola won the
Strega Prize for La ragazza di Bube (Bebo's Girl; film, 1964).
Luciano Bianciardi (1922–1971), was a writer. During his lifetime, he distinguished himself as a novelist, journalist, prolific translator, and pamphleteer.
Oriana Fallaci (1929–2006), was a journalist, writer, and former war correspondent best known for her abrasive interviews and provocative stances.
Dacia Maraini (born 1936), is a famous novelist, dramatist, poet, children's writer, and leading feminist commentator.
Tiziano Terzani (1938–2004), was a journalist and writer who mourned the corruption of Asia by the materialistic west.
Ignazio Danti (1536–1586), a versatile Dominican friar who was a mathematician, astronomer, mapmaker, artist, and university professor.
Giacomo Torelli (1608–1678), was a "stage designer and engineer whose innovative theatre machinery provided the basis for many modern stage devices."[62]
^Baccio d'Agnolo. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2014. Web. 11 March 2014.
^Curl, James Stevens.
Antonio da Sangallo, the Younger. In A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, 2006. Oxford Index – Oxford University Press. Web. 16 March 2014.
^Sunnucks, Anne.
The encyclopaedia of chess. Hale, 1976. p. 114. Web. 29 March 2014. "During the middle of the last century Dubois was the strongest player in Italy."
^
abAlessandro Stradella.Archived 1 June 2013 at the
Wayback Machine Grove Music, Oxford University Press. Web. 3 April 2014. "Stradella was one of the leading composers in Italy in his day and one of the most versatile. His music was widely admired, even as far afield as England. Most of it is clearly tonal, and counterpoint features prominently. His vocal output includes c 30 stage works, several oratorios and Latin church works and some 200 cantatas (most for solo voice)."
^Markevitch, Dimitry.
Cello Story. Alfred Music Publishing, 1984. p. 75. Web. 18 March 2014.
^
abAcademic American Encyclopedia. Aretê Publishing Company, 1980. p. 50. Web. 28 March 2014. "The Italian composer and pianist Muzio Clementi, b. Jan. 23, 1752, d. Mar. 10, 1832, was a famous musical figure of his time. Clementi, who has been called the father of the piano, was a child prodigy."
^Opera News. Metropolitan Opera Guild, 1953. p. 223. Web. 19 March 2014.
^Reel, James. Giovanni Sgambati. (Biography). All Music Guide to Classical Music. Web. 3 April 2014. "A child prodigy, Giovanni Sgambati was playing piano in public at age 6, and composing shortly thereafter."
^Giovanni Sgambati. Grove Music, Oxford University Press. Web. 3 April 2014.
^Birchmeier, Jason. Eros Ramazzotti. (Genres: Rock). All Music Guide, The Definitive Guide to Popular Music. Web. 2 April 2014.
^Francesco Traini. Grove Art, Oxford University Press. Web. 21 March 2014.
^Antoniazzo Romano. Grove Art, Oxford University Press. Web. 3 April 2014. "Italian painter. He was the leading painter of the Roman school during the 15th century."
^Fra Bartolommeo. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2014. Web. 22 March 2014.
^Kennedy, Hubert Collings.
Peano: Life and Works of Giuseppe Peano. Springer, 1980. p. 186. Web. 26 March 2014. "Siacci is said to have been an excellent teacher, both at the university and at the Military Academy. He left some hundred publications, the most important being those concerned with analytic mechanics. In the application of mechanics to artillery – ballistics – he was a master. His treatise on this subject, especially the second edition of 1888, which had a French translation in 1891, was considered masterly. He received many honours during his lifetime, including election to most of the important scientific academies of Italy."
^Giovanni Pisano. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2014. Web. 21 March 2014.