Media Resources

Italian

Famous People

• Dante Alighieri:
  Durante degli Alighieri, better known as Dante Alighieri or simply Dante, (c. June 1, 1265 – September 13/14, 1321) was an Italian Florentine poet. His greatest work, la Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy), is considered the greatest literary statement produced in Europe during the Middle Ages.
• Giovanni Boccaccio: http://www.italialibri.net/autori/boccacciog.html
  Giovanni Boccaccio (June 16, 1313 – December 21, 1375) was an Italian author and poet, a friend and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist in his own right and author of a number of notable works including On Famous Women, the Decameron and his poems in the vernacular.
• Giulio Cesare: http://utenti.lycos.it/latino_versioni/gcesare.htm
  Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) is an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel. The libretto was written by Nicola Frecesco Haym. It was first performed in London on February 20, 1724.
• Cristoforo Colombo: http://www.alleanzacattolica.org/indici/editoriali/aaa203.htm
  Christopher Columbus (c. 1451 – May 20, 1506) was an explorer and trader who crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the Americas on October 12, 1492, under the flag of Castile. History places great significance on his discovery of America in 1492, when in fact he did not reach the mainland until his third voyage in 1498.
• Vittoria Colonna: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittoria_Colonna
  Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547), marchioness of Pescara, was an Italian noblewoman and poet. Fabrizio Colonna, grand constable of the kingdom of Naples, and of Agnese da Montefeltro, Vittoria Colonna was born at Marino, a fief of the Colonna family in the Alban Hills near Rome.
• Leonardo Da Vinci:
  Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an immensely multi-talented Italian Renaissance Roman Catholic polymath: architect, anatomist, sculptor, engineer, inventor, geometer, musician and painter. He has been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man" and as a universal genius, a man infinitely curious and infinitely inventive.
• Vittorio De Sica: http://www.ilportoritrovato.net/html/desica1.html
  Vittorio de Sica (July 7, 1901 – November 13, 1974) was an Italian neorealist director and actor.
• Donizetti: http://www.karadar.com/Dizionario/donizetti.html
  Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (November 29, 1797, Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy – April 8, 1848, Bergamo) was an Italian opera composer. His most famous work is Lucia di Lammermoor (1835).
• Federico Fellini: http://www.alkemik.com/fellini/
  Federico Fellini (January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993) was one of the most influential and widely revered Italian film-makers of the 20th century and is considered to be one of the finest film directors of all time. Fellini's films typically combine memory, dreams, fantasy, and desire.
• Enrico Fermi:http://www.bormio.net/
  Enrico Fermi (September 29, 1901–November 28, 1954) was an Italian physicist most noted for his work on beta decay, the development of the first nuclear reactor, and for the development of quantum theory. Fermi won the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity.
• Galileo Galilei: http://www.pd.astro.it/MOSTRA/NEW/A1001MAN.HTM
  Galileo Galilei (February 15, 1564 – January 8, 1642) was an Italian physicist, astronomer, astrologer, and philosopher who is closely associated with the scientific revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope, a variety of astronomical observations, the first and second laws of motion, and effective support for Copernicanism.
• Giuseppe Garibaldi: http://web.tiscali.it/augustozedda/giuseppe%20garibaldi%20e%20la%20sua%20vita%20a%20caprera.htm
  Giuseppe Garibaldi (July 4, 1807 – June 2, 1882) was an Italian patriot and soldier of the Risorgimento. He personally led many of the military campaigns that brought about the formation of a unified Italy.
• Artemisia Gentileschi: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_Gentileschi
  Artemisia Gentileschi (July 8, 1593 - 1653) was an Italian Early Baroque painter, today considered one of the most accomplished painters in the generation influenced by Caravaggio (Caravaggisti). In an era when women painters were not easily accepted by the artistic community, she was the first female painter to become a member of the Accademia dell' Arte del Disegno in Florence.
• Giotto: http://www.bottega2000.it/maestri/giotto/biografi.htm
  Giotto di Bondone (Colle di Vespignano, near Florence 1267 – January 8, Florence 1337), better known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect. He is generally considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to and developed the Italian Renaissance.
• Carlo Goldoni: http://www.italialibri.net/autori/goldonic.html
  Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni (February 25, 1707 - February 6, 1793) was an Italian playwright and one of the most famous Italian writers of the period. Along with Pirandello, Goldoni is probably the most famous name in Italian theatre, in his country and abroad. His work is most admired for its ingenious mix of wit and honesty.
• Anna Magnani: http://www.learnitaly.com/magnani.htm, altre informazioni: http://utenti.lycos.it/annamagnani/
  Anna Magnani (March 7, 1908 - September 26, 1973) was an Academy Award-winning Italian actress, with stage experience. Born in Rome, she was brought up in poverty by her maternal grandmother in a slum district of the city. After some education at a convent school, she enrolled at Rome's Academy of Dramatic Art and sang in nightclubs and cabarets to support herself. Due to her work in nightclubs, Magnani was dubbed the Italian Édith Piaf.
• Lorenzo il Magnifico: http://web.tiscali.it/lorenzo_il_magnifico/biografia.htm
  Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (Florence, January 1, 1449 – 9 April 1492) was an Italian statesman and ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. Known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (Lorenzo il Magnifico) by contemporary Florentines, he was the most remarkable public figure of his time - accomplished in the manly arts of jousting and the hunt, as well as a wily diplomat, and the head of a brilliant group of scholars and poets.
• Alessandro Manzoni: http://www.italialibri.net/autori/manzonia.html
  Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Manzoni (March 7, 1785–May 22, 1873) was an Italian poet and novelist. He was born in Milan. Don Pietro, his father, aged about fifty, belonged to an old family of Lecco, originally feudal lords of Barzio, in the Valsassina, where the memory of their violence is perpetuated in a local proverb, comparing it to the mountain torrent.
• Guglielmo Marconi: http://digilander.libero.it/i2mov/page34.htm
  Guglielmo Marchese Marconi, GCVO (25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was an Italian electrical engineer and Nobel laureate known for the development of a practical wireless telegraphy system commonly known as the "radio". Marconi was President of the Accademia d'Italia and a member of the Fascist Grand Council of Italy.
• Michelangelo: http://www.libricom.it/michelangelo/
  Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet. His artistic versatility was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and fellow Florentine Leonardo da Vinci.
• Maria Montessori: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori
  Maria Montessori (August 31, 1870 – May 6, 1952) was an Italian educator, scientist, physician, philosopher, feminist, humanitarian, and a devout Catholic. She was born in Chiaravalle (Ancona), Italy. Montessori was the first female Italian physician in the modern era. As such, she was given a "menial" task: to try to educate the "mentally retarded" and the "uneducable" in Rome.
• Paganini: http://www.karadar.com/Dizionario/paganini.html
  Niccolò (or Nicolò) Paganini, (October 27, 1782 – May 27, 1840) was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist and composer. He is one of the most famous violin virtuosi, and is considered one of the greatest violinists who ever lived, with perfect intonation and innovative techniques. He is also widely regarded as the first ever virtuoso violinist.
• Marco Polo: http://www.italialibri.net/autori/polom.html
  Marco Polo (September 15, 1254, Venice; January 8, 1324, Venice) was a Venetian trader and explorer who, together with his father Niccolò and his uncle Maffeo, was one of the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road to China (which he called Cathay) and visited the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, Kublai Khan (grandson of Genghis Khan). His travels are written down in Il Milione ("The Million" or The Travels of Marco Polo).
• Raffaello: http://www.sapere.it/tca/minisite/arte/artgallery/raf_index.html
  Raphael or Raffaello (April 6, 1483 – April 6, 1520) was a master painter and architect of the Florentine school in the Italian High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and softness of his paintings. He was also called Raffaello Sanzio, Raffaello Santi, Raffaello da Urbino or Rafael Sanzio da Urbino.
• Isabella Rossellini:
  Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (born June 18, 1952) is an Italian-Swedish fashion model and an actress, daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini. She has a twin sister, who is a professor of Italian literature, Isotta Rossellini, and a brother, Roberto Ingmar Rossellini.
• Totò: http://www.teatro.org/grandi/antonio_de_curtis/biografia_antonio_de_curtis.asp
  Totò was the stage name of Antonio de Curtis (born Antonio Clemente, February 15, 1898, Naples - April 15, 1967, Rome), a Neapolitan actor, writer, and songwriter.
• Giuseppe Verdi: http://biografie.leonardo.it/biografia.htm?BioID=302&biografia=Giuseppe+Verdi
  Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (Le Roncole, Busseto, 10 October 1813 – Milan, 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer, mainly of opera. He was the most influential member of the 19th century's Italian School of Opera. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture - such as "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto and "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" from La traviata.
• Amerigo Vespucci :
  Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454 - February 22, 1512) was an Italian merchant and cartographer who voyaged to and wrote about the Americas. His exploratory journeys along the eastern coastline of South America convinced him that a new continent had been discovered, a bold contention in his day when everyone (except the Portuguese), including Christopher Columbus, thought the seafaring trailblazers setting out from European docks were travelling to East Asia and South Asia.