Famous Italian people

Giovanni Boccaccio 

Giovanni Boccaccio was born in Certaldo or in Florence in 1313 (often in critical essays addresses him as "the Certaldese"), is the illegitimate son of a merchant and, to follow his father, already at the age of fourteen he moved to Naples. Refusing to follow the craft paterno attends the lively Angevin court whose doors open easily thanks to the prestige of its name: dedicated to worldly amusements to first loves (Laura, Petrarch and Boccaccio, Dante and Beatrice had his wife Fiammetta), and knows French Provençal poetry, novels with enthusiasm and fiorentina.  It is in these years growing in him the desire to bring the Florentine vernacular matter taken from French and Latin novels, to talk about his youthful loves creating a literature of aristocratic entertainment for an audience and especially women.  Writes, following this basic design, Philostratus, the Teseida, Filocolo, but in 1340, with the failure of the compagnia dei Bardi and the worsening of relations between Naples and Florence, is forced to return to Tuscany.       You open a difficult period for Boccaccio: intolerant to the changed environment and economic hardship, looks for a new corteintorno that orbit but will all be vain efforts, and soon, in addition to this discomfort, also lost his father during the plague of 1348. In recent years, however, takes place in him a gradual detachment from literature works of popular fiction, realistic and friendly approach to one that will reach its climax in the drafting of the Decameron by Boccaccio, composed between 1349 and 1353. The opera was an instant success, and this guaranteed to author public offices and embassies for the municipality of Florence, yet not sufficient, however, to give him financial independence and peace that required to devote himself exclusively to studies.  Boccaccio is one of the earliest commentators of the comedy of Dante, activities that engage a large number of intellectuals to this day). Now old, retires early in Certaldo, where he died in 1375.  

Dante Alighieri  

 Dante Alighieri  ,    was born in Florence  in 1265 and he comes  from a Guelfi  family (guelfi are the supporters of the pope).

Dante lived in medieval  Tuscany  where the stilnovo , a very important school of poetry,  was born and where  he knew friends such as Guido Cavalcanti and  Lapo Gianni .

He studied in the most important Florentine schools.

During Dante’s  youth , he  met a beautiful girl named Beatrice , and  he  fell in love with her so much so that after his death he  had a moment of crisis.

During his  life he  has  written several works  , such as Vita nova ,   De vulgari Eloquentia   ,   Convivio ,De Monarchia , The Rime and The Divine Comedy. I died in Ravenna in 1321.

The Divine Comedy is Dante’s  best work , this  is a  poem which tell  about a story of a journey that he   makes unearthly worlds to regain faith and peace lost in his  life. It is divided in three part :  Hell  , Purgatory and Paradise.

The hell  is a bottomless pit where the angel of evil “LUCIFERO” is stucked.  He explain to Virgilio and me that he was there for a discussion with the God of the whole universe.

The Purgatory  is where who committed sins during his/ her life , has the chance to purify and ascend to heaven.

The Paradise is where Dante met God.

Giacomo Puccini

Born in Lucca on 22 December 1858, James was the sixth of the nine children of Michele Puccini and Albina Magi. For many generations the Puccini were masters of the chapel of the Cathedral of Lucca and Giacomo, lost his father at the age of five, he was sent to study at her maternal uncle. Anecdotes he describes however as a daredevil. Left Lucca, from 1880 to 1883 Puccini studied at the Conservatory of Milan, thanks to a scholarship of one hundred lire a month, for one year, alway have by Queen Margaret on mother's entreaty. During these years of misery, divided a room with friend Mascagni. In 1891 Puccini moved to Torre del Lago (now Torre del Lago Puccini, Viareggio): she loved the rustic world and regarded him as the ideal place to cultivate his passion for hunting and for revelry among artists. In Torre del Lago the master made his refuge, first in an old rented house, then building the villa himself who went to live in 1900. Here were his most successful works.. Illica and Giacosa would write the libretti of the next three works, the most famous and representative of all Theatre Puccini. The first, La bohème (based on the novel in serial form Scènes de la vie de Bohème by Henri Murger), is perhaps his most famous work. Among the masterpieces of the late romantic Opera, La bohème panorama is an example of dramatic synthesis, structured in 4 frames (it is indicative the use of this term in place of the traditional "acts") of lightning-fast speed. The subsequent, Tosca, Puccini's RAID represents the historical melodrama in brilliant colors. The subject, taken from Victorien Sardou, can recall some stereotypes of the opera verista, but musical solutions anticipate somewhat, especially in the second Act, the nascent musical expressionism. Madama Butterfly (is the first exotic opera by Puccini. His debut at La Scala in 1904 was a solemn fiasco, probably at least partly orchestrated by the competition. After some remodelling, work was presented at the Teatro Grande in Brescia, where he collected a full success, lasting until today. The partnership with Illica and Giacosa was certainly the most productive Puccini's career. The opera was left unfinished because Puccini died in Brussels in 1924, from complications occurred during treatment of a throat tumor. The last two scenes, of which there was a musical sketch discontinuous, were completed by Franco Alfano, under the supervision of Arturo Toscanini; but in the evening of the first performance the same Toscanini stopped running on the last note of Puccini's score, that is to say, after the funeral procession that follows the death of Liu. In 2001 saw the light a new ending composed by Luciano Berio, based on the same libretto and same sketches. The master's tomb is in the chapel of villa at Torre del Lago.

Leonardo Da vinci

Leonardo was born in Vinci on 15 April 1452.  In 1469 he moved with his family to Florence, here he joined the workshop of Verrocchio, where he remained for eight years and where he learned the art of drawing, the use of perspective and anatomy.  This can be seen in his painting "the Annunciation", between 1475 and 1478, in which we have an amazing color quality, and careful study to the particulars above all natural.  Skilled in design, this dowry is evident in two works begun in 1482 and uncompleted: Saint Jerome and the adoration of the Magi.  In the latter, remained unfinished for his departure for Milan, plays in a new way the subject: around the figure of the Virgin and child gathers a crowd gesticolante that suggests the excitement of the sacred event.  Yet the Florentine period are the portrait of Ginevra Benci whose face is outlined by delicate chiaroscuro effects while in the background stands out in a landscape of water and plants.  We still have the Madonna of the Carnation and the Benois Madonna.  Leonardo arrived in Milan in 1482 and stayed there for sixteen years in the service of Ludovico il Moro and where he worked for different fields of science and arts, but devoted himself mainly to activity as a painter, in fact, here he executed very important works such as the Virgin of the rocks.  He executed many other works, including the Lady with an ermine in Krakow, the portrait of a Lady of the Louvre, but the masterpiece of the activity carried out in Milan is considered the last supper that produces around 1495-1497 in the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie.  In 1499 Ludovico Sforza fled from Milan, after the invasion of the Duchy by the French, and Leonardo undertook a series of journeys, he went to Mantua, Venice, and then returned to Florence. Here he was commissioned a fresco for the Palazzo Vecchio Salon representing the battle of Anghiari, in competition with Michelangelo that was to paint the opposite wall, the battle of Cascina. The painting unfortunately has been lost.  In these years he also began the famous portrait of Mona Lisa, a painting dear to him that brought with it even in France where it remains today, the Louvre Museum.  In 1506 he went back to Milan, in the last years of his life the artist alternated his stay in this city with short trips to Florence. His latest works are Saint Anne with the Madonna and child, which it had already prepared a cardboard in 1501 and Saint John the Baptist.  In 1516 he accepted the invitation of the King of France and came to Amboise, where he spent the last years of his life.