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Italophilia is the admiration, general appreciation or love ofItaly, itspeople,culture, and its significant contributions toWestern civilization.[2][3][4] Italophilia includes Romanophilia, the appreciation of the Italian capital ofRome and itsancient andCatholic history and culture. Its opposite isItalophobia.[5]
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If the origins of the Western intellectual heritage go back to theGreeks and, less directly, to the peoples ofEgypt and theNear East, Rome contributed to spreading it. In fields such as language, law, politics, religion, and art Roman culture continues to affect our lives.[6] Rome was the centre of an empire that stretched across a large segment of the then-known world and later became the centre of theChristian faith. Ancient Italy is identified with Rome and the so-calledRomanophilia.
Despite the fall of the Roman Empire, its legacy continued to have a significant impact on the cultural and political life in Europe. For the medieval mind, Rome came to constitute a central dimension of the European traditionalist sensibility. The idealisation of this Empire as the symbol of universal order led to the construction of theHoly Roman Empire. Writing before the outbreak of the First World War, the historian Alexander Carlyle noted that "we can without difficulty recognize" not only "the survival of the tradition of the ancient empire" but also a "form of the perpetual aspiration to make real the dream of the universal commonwealth of humanity".[7]
During much of the Middle Ages (about the 5th century through the 15th century), the Roman Catholic Church had great political power in Western Europe. Throughout its history, the Catholic faith has inspired many great works of architecture, art, literature, and music. These works include French medieval Gothic cathedrals, the Italian artist Michelangelo's frescoes in the Vatican, the Italian writer Dante's epic poemDivine Comedy, and the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart'sRequiem.
As for Italian artists they were in demand almost all over Europe.Torrigiano andZuccari worked in England,Masolino in Hungary,Luca Cambiasi andPellegrino Tibaldi in Spain,Jacopo Sansovino in Portugal,Morando and others in Poland. The demand seems to have been greatest in France, more especially at the French court, which employed (among others)Leonardo da Vinci,Rosso,Primaticcio,Niccolò dell'Abbate andSebastiano Serlio. Italian craftsmen were engaged to work on building sites from Munich to Zamość. Italian actors performed at the courts of France, Spain, Poland and elsewhere.
The Italian language was fashionable, at court for example, as well as Italian literature and art. The famous lexicographerJohn Florio of Italian origin was the most important humanist in Renaissance England.[8] and contributed to the English language with over 1,969 words.[9]William Shakespeare's works show an important level of Italophilia, a deep knowledge of Italy and the Italian culture, like inRomeo and Juliet andThe Merchant of Venice. According to Robin Kirkpatrick, Professor of Italian and English Literatures at Cambridge University, Shakespeare shared "with his contemporaries and immediate forebears a fascination with Italy."[10] In16th century Spain, cultural Italophilia was also widespread (while the Spanish influence in Southern Italy was also great) and the kingPhilip IV himself considered Italian as his favourite foreign language.
The movement of "international Italophilia" around 1600 certainly held the German territories in its sway, with one statistic suggesting that up to a third of all books available in Germany in the early 17th century were in Italian.[11] Themes and styles fromil pastor fido were adapted endlessly by German artists, includingOpitz, who wrote several poems based onGuarini's text, andSchütz himself, whose settings of a handful of passages appeared in his 1611 book of Italian madrigals. EmperorsFerdinand III andLeopold I were great admirers of Italian culture and made Italian (which they themselves spoke perfectly) a prestigious language at their court. German baroque composers or architects were also very much influenced by their Italian counterparts.
During the 18th century, Italy was in the spotlight of the Europeangrand tour, a period in which learned and wealthy foreign, usually British or German, aristocrats visited the country due to its artistic, cultural and archaeological richness. Since then, throughout the centuries, many writers and poets have sung of Italy's beauty; fromGoethe toStendhal toByron, Italy's natural beauty and her people's creativity inspired their works.Percy Bysshe Shelley famously said that Italy is "the paradise of exiles."[12]
Italiophilia was not uncommon in the United States.Thomas Jefferson was a great admirer of Italy and ancient Rome. Jefferson is largely responsible for theneo-classicalbuildings in Washington, D.C. that echo Roman and Italian architectural styles.
Spain provided an equally telling example of Italian cultural admiration in the 18th century. The installation of a team of Italian architects and artists, headed byFilippo Juvarra, has been interpreted as part of QueenElisabeth Farnese's conscious policy to mould the visual culture of the Spanish court along Italian lines. The engagement ofCorrado Giaquinto fromMolfetta and eventually the VenetianJacopo Amigoni as the creators of the painted decorative space for the new seat of the Spanish court was a clear indication of this aesthetic orientation, while the later employment ofGiovanni Battista Tiepolo and his sonGiovanni Domenico confirmed the Italophile tendency.
TheVictorian era in Great Britain saw Italophilic tendencies. Britain supported its own version of the imperialPax Romana, calledPax Britannica.John Ruskin was a Victorian Italophile who respected the concepts of morality held in Italy.[13] Also the great writerHenry James has exhibited Italophilia in several of his novels. However,Ellen Moers writes that "In the history of Victorian Italophilia no name is more prominent than that ofElizabeth Barrett Browning....[She places] Italy asthe place for the woman of genius ..."[14]
Italian patriotGiuseppe Garibaldi, along withGiuseppe Mazzini andCamillo Benso, Count of Cavour, led the struggle forItalian unification in the 19th century. For his battles on behalf of freedom in Europe and Latin America, Garibaldi has been dubbed the "Hero of Two Worlds." Many of the greatest intellectuals of his time, such asVictor Hugo,Alexandre Dumas, andGeorge Sand showered him with admiration. He was so appreciated in the United States thatAbraham Lincoln offered him a command during theCivil War, (Garibaldi turned it down).[15]
In 1940Walt Disney Productions producedPinocchio based on the Italian children's novelThe Adventures of Pinocchio byCarlo Collodi, themost translated non-religious book in the world and one of thebest-selling books ever published, as well as a canonical piece of children's literature. The film was the second animated feature film produced by Disney.
After World War II, such brands asFerrari,Maserati andAlfa Romeo became well known for racing and sports cars. Since then Italy has experienced strong economic growth, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, which lifted the country to the position of being one of the most industrialized nations in the world.[16] Italian product design, fashion, film, and cuisine and the notion of Italy as the embodiment ofla dolce vita for German tourism — all left an imprint on contemporary Italophilia.
Rome was the centre of theRoman Empire that stretched across a large segment of the then-known world, and later became the centre of the Roman Catholic faith.Roman civilization was transplanted to many parts of Europe, the Mediterranean basin, North Africa and the Near East in the form of law, architecture, engineering, roads, aqueducts, public baths, sanitation, trade, literature, art, libraries, hospitals and agriculture.[18] It was possible for the people in the provinces to attain Roman citizenship, rise to the Senate, and even to become Roman emperor. The Roman provinces, having received much of the benefit of Roman civilization, became Romanized to a large degree.Winston Churchill states:
For nearly 300 years Britain, reconciled to the Roman system, enjoyed in many respects the happiest, most comfortable, and most enlightened times its inhabitants have ever had.[19]
The Christian faith was viewed in Rome as contrary to prevailing religious and political beliefs and, consequently, was suppressed. Many Christians in Rome and elsewhere were persecuted. After the conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity in 312 AD, Christianity flourished and became an integral part of Roman life. Roman Catholicism, which combined Christianity and Roman administration, emerged in a form easily recognizable today and took root in Rome and much of the Roman Empire.[20] The Church adopted many religious customs and forms common in pre-Christian Rome, such as the stole and other vestments, the use of incense and holy water in purifications, burning candles before the altar, the veneration of saints, the architecture of the basilica, the law of Rome as a basis for canon law, the title Pontifex Maximus for the Pope, and Latin as the language of Catholic ritual.[21]
The cultural patrimony of Roman literature, architecture and sculpture inspired many of the achievements of theMiddle Ages andRenaissance in Italy and the rest of Europe. Works by poets, authors and historians, such asOvid,Horace,Catullus,Lucretius,Cicero,Virgil,Livy, andTacitus had a far-reaching impact on the Western world.
The legacy of Rome is apparent in the Western world, and elsewhere, in numerous ways, such as:
After the fall of the Roman Empire, its vast governmental network provided a structure for the Roman Catholic Church's ecclesiastic rule. The bishops, rather than the Roman prefects became the source of order and the seat of power.[21] In many important ways, theRoman Catholic Church became the successor of the Roman Empire. The Church and its Pope were major stabilizing influences in Europe in the centuries that followed. In the words of historianWill Durant (inThe Story of Civilization: Caesar and Christ):
Rome died in giving birth to the Church; the Church matured by inheriting and accepting the responsibilities of Rome.
The civilization of Italy continued to be a cultural force that helped preserve Greco-Roman civilization and ideals during this period. Latin, the indigenous language of the Italic people, became the universal language of the Catholic Church and, generally, of culture and learning in Europe.
WesternMonasticism, as first practised by the followers ofSaint Benedict, born in Nursia in 480 AD, spread from Italy to all parts of Europe. The Benedictine monks were a very important factor in preserving Greco-Roman culture and learning for later centuries.
The earliest known letter notation in the Western musical tradition appears in a book on music by the 6th-century philosopherBoethius ("De Institutione Musica").Gregorian Chant, an outgrowth of Roman plainchant, strongly influenced both liturgical and secular music during the Middle Ages. An Italian monk,Guido of Arezzo (born in 991), developed the form of musical notation that became the basis of Western music and, subsequently, of music worldwide.
Saint Francis of Assisi (born Giovanni di Bernardone in Assisi in 1181) was a friar who founded the men's Order of Friars Minor and the women's Order of St. Clare, both of which attracted many followers from all over Europe. He became one of the most venerated religious figures in Catholic Church history.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican priest born in Aquino in 1225, was a philosopher and theologian. He was one of the greatest minds of the Middle Ages, and he had a widespread influence on Western thought. He was considered then, as he is now, to be the greatest theologian and philosopher of the Catholic Church. He is best known for his major work, theSumma Theologica.
Educated people in Europe were familiar with the works ofDante andBoccaccio, which dominated the literature of the Middle Ages, and with their contemporaryPetrarch, who had established the most important lyric poetry tradition in Europe. These works had a significant influence onShakespeare,Chaucer and many other writers of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Students and scholars came from all over Europe to study at institutions of higher learning in Italy. TheMedical School at Salerno, founded in the ninth century, was the world's first medical school, and unrivalled in the Middle Ages. TheUniversity of Bologna, the first modern university, was founded in Bologna in 1088. The University of Padua, the second oldest university in Italy, was founded in 1222 as a school of law. TheUniversity of Naples, founded in 1224, was the world's first state-supported university.
During theMiddle Ages, the vitality of Italian merchants was evident throughout Europe, and the resultant trade prompted their invention of financial and business practices which provided the foundation for modern banking, commerce and capitalism.[23] The original banks were "merchant banks" that Italian grain merchants first invented in the Middle Ages. Merchants and bankers grew in stature based on the strength of the Lombard plains cereal crops, andcapitalism evolved based on these banks.
Indeed,banking (from the Italian word for "bench") can be traced to medieval and earlyRenaissanceItaly, to the rich cities in the north such asFlorence,Venice andGenoa. TheBardi andPeruzzi families dominated banking in 14th-century Florence, establishing branches in many other parts ofEurope.[24] Perhaps the most famous Italian bank was theMedici bank, established by Giovanni Medici in 1397.[25] The development of banking spread from northern Italy through Europe during the early Renaissance and helped create modern capitalism.Luca Pacioli is referred to as the "Father of Accounting"
TheBank of Saint George (Casa delle compere e dei banchi di San Giorgio) was a bank of theRepublic of Genoa, which was the main financer of the voyages of Columbus to the New World bySpain, founded in the 14th century.[26] It is the oldest charteredbank inEurope and the world. TheBanca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, founded in 1472, is the world'soldest or second oldest bank in continuous operation, depending on the definition, and the fourth-largest Italian commercial and retail bank.[27]
TheItalian Renaissance was to a large extent an expression of humanism, that led to one of the most productive and significant periods in human history in the arts, literature, medicine and science.Greeks fleeing the Turkish invasion of the Byzantine Empire flocked to Italy, and helped spur the Renaissance and interest in ancient Greek texts. The Italian Renaissance also transformed art and humanism across Europe, and set the stage for the Enlightenment.[28]
In the words of historian Will Durant (inThe Story of Civilization: The Renaissance):
From 1500 to 1600 all Western Europe acknowledged her as the mother and nurse of the new civilization of science and art and the humanities ... So the sixteenth century, when the Renaissance declined in Italy, was an age of exuberant germination in France, England, Germany, Flanders, and Spain.[29]
Giotto, born in 1267, is recognized as the first great artistic genius of the Italian Renaissance. His ability to portray human emotions distinguished him from the artists of the Middle Ages, and he established a style of painting that would be widely emulated in Italy and, later, elsewhere in Europe. Italian Renaissance painters and sculptors, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti, and scores of others of the first rank, were greatly admired and acclaimed, and had a widespread influence on artistic concepts and esthetic standards throughout Europe.
Italian artists, beginning with Giotto, mastered the use ofperspective andchiaroscuro (light and shadow), which had a widespread influence on Western art.Brunelleschi, an architect, was the first to explain perspective in terms of a well-defined set of geometric rules. Some science historians credit the mastery of chiaroscuro, together with the discovery of the rules of perspective, as of fundamental importance in the development of modern science.[30][31][32]
Aldus Manutius (Aldo Manuzio) (1449 – 1515) was one of the foremost intellectuals and humanists of the Renaissance but is most renowned as an early entrepreneur and innovator in the new printing media. In over 20 years in which his Aldine Press (established 1494) was in operation, he published many classic works from antiquity. He was the first to publish pocket-size volumes, achieving this by using standardized typefaces. He was the innovator of the firstitalic type, along with other typefaces and typographical characters.
Leonardo da Vinci, born in 1452 in Vinci, was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any of his contemporaries, epitomized the creative energy of the Renaissance. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time, and hisMona Lisa is regarded by many to be the most famous painting in the world. His anatomical drawings have never been surpassed in detail and accuracy, and are still in use today.[33]
Michelangelo was born in Florence in 1475 and, like Leonardo, was a true Renaissance man. He was a sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art He was considered the greatest living artist of his lifetime and, since then, one of the greatest artists of all time. His two best-known sculptures, the Pietà and David, are famous throughout the world. Michelangelo also created two of the most famous and influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis covering the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the chapel.
Renaissance architecture of the 15th and 16th centuries was a revival of elements of ancient Greek and Roman architecture.[34] It first developed in Florence, withBrunelleschi,Alberti andPalladio being among its innovators, and soon spread to other Italian cities, and later to France, Germany, England, Russia and other parts of Europe. The Renaissance style placed emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as exemplified in the architecture of classical antiquity and in particular in the architecture of ancient Rome, of which many examples remained. It was succeeded byBaroque architecture.
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Italian singers, composers, dancers and actors had a great impact on music and the performing arts.Palestrina,Monteverdi andFrescobaldi were responsible for musical innovations that were seminal in the development of Western music. ItalianCommedia dell'arte was an art form that had a great influence in the performing arts, not only in Italy but in many other parts of Europe as well.
Ballet began in 15th-century Renaissance Italy. The foot positions and steps that make up classic ballet were created by Renaissance dance masters in the 1400s. Wealthy Italian nobles staged elaborate court dances to celebrate events such as weddings or the birth of an heir. The choreographers of these Renaissance spectacles became known as ballet masters. One of the earliest ballet masters,Domenico da Piacenza, wrote dance manuals describing the steps, with diagrams of the figures and patterns created by the movements, which allowed the dances to be recreated in other courts throughout Europe. He used the word "ballo", the Italian word for dance, to describe his choreography. WhenCatherine de Medici marriedKing Henry II of France, she brought the Italian dance tradition with her to France.[35]
The flourishing of arts inTudor England during theEnglish Renaissance attracted many Italian artists and musicians to the country.[36]William Shakespeare is said to have exhibited Italophilia in his many works with an Italian setting, such asRomeo and Juliet andThe Merchant of Venice.[37]Spenser's epic poemThe Faerie Queene was greatly influenced by Italian epic poems, particularlyLudovico Ariosto'sOrlando furioso (1532), andTorquato Tasso'sGerusalemme liberata (1581).Francis I, king of France, initiated the French Renaissance by attracting many Italian artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, to his court. French theatre of the 17th century was rooted in the theatre of 16th-century Italy.Poland was strongly influenced by Italian artisans, painters, sculptors and architects, such as the sculptor, Giammaria Mosca,[38] whose many commissions included the tomb of the king of Poland. The Spanish writer,Cervantes, was greatly influenced by Italian literature, which is readily discernible in his own works.[39] Spanish theatre of the 17th century was strongly influenced by Italian models.
The University of Bologna, the first modern university, was a leading centre of mathematical studies in the 16th century, and it was there thatNiccolò Fontana Tartaglia developed the method of solving cubic equations, an achievement previously considered impossible. Extending Tartaglia's work,Lodovico Ferrari devised a similar method to solve quartic equations, and both solutions were published byGerolamo Cardano. The solutions to the cubic and quartic equations used, for the first time, what are now known ascomplex numbers, although it was another Bologna mathematician,Rafael Bombelli, who first explained what complex numbers are, and how they could be used. Complex numbers have since found practical applications in many fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, economics, electrical engineering, and statistics. Later, Cardano published the first systematic treatment ofprobability.
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Italy was a centre of commerce and Italian explorers and merchants, such as the VenetianMarco Polo, and theItalian maritime republics moved all around the known world. The Genoese explorerChristopher Columbus (Italian:Cristoforo Colombo) was the first European to reach the land which is now called North America in 1492, and the subsequent colonization of the continent changed world history forever. Another Italian navigator,Amerigo Vespucci, was the source of the name given to the New World. They were followed by other New World navigators from the Italian peninsula, notably the VenetiansJohn Cabot ((Italian:Giovanni Caboto)) andSebastian Cabot ((Italian:Sebastiano Caboto)), and the FlorentineGiovanni da Verrazzano.
Beginning in the 16th century, Italian states came under the political control of more powerful European monarchies; however, Italy continued to be a source of creative energy in art, science, music and medicine.Enlightenment thinkers, like Renaissance thinkers, were interested in pre-Christian Greek and Roman thought.
Aloysius Lilius (1510 – 1576), also variously referred to as Luigi Lilio or Luigi Giglio, was an Italian doctor, astronomer, philosopher and chronologist, who is recognized as the primary developer of theGregorian Calendar reform of 1582 which, since then, has been used worldwide.
Galileo, born in 1564 inPisa, was the most famous scientist of his age, and played a major role in theScientific Revolution. He is often referred to as the "Father of Modern Science". His achievements include a greatly improved telescope, which he employed in making astronomical observations supporting the heliocentric theory ofCopernicus; and also the experiments he carried out leading to his law of falling bodies, which was of key importance inNewton's synthesis of his own famous three laws of motion.
Bonaventura Cavalieri, a Jesuit priest and mathematician, born in 1598, is known for his work on indivisibles, a precursor ofinfinitesimal calculus, and forCavalieri's principle in geometry, which partially anticipatedintegral calculus.Joseph-Louis Lagrange, born Giuseppe Luigi Lagrangia (1736–1813), was a mathematician and astronomer. He originated theCalculus of Variations and made significant contributions to the fields of analysis, number theory, and both classical and celestial mechanics. Lagrange was also a member of the committee of the Académie des Sciences that developed theMetric System.
Alessandro Volta, born in Como in 1745, invented the first true electrical battery, known as the voltaic pile. It provided a continuous source of electric current, which greatly benefittedAmpere,Ohm and other electrical experimenters in their development of basic electrical theory. A unit of electricity (volt) is named in his honour.
Italians such asFallopio,Eustachi,Malpighi,Morgagni andValsalva were important pioneers of modern anatomy at theUniversity of Bologna andUniversity of Padua, which drew students from all over Europe. Padua's famous anatomical theatre was renowned in Europe at the time, and the great English medical scientistWilliam Harvey received his education there.[44]
Cesare Beccaria, a philosopher, jurist and marquis wroteOn Crimes and Punishments (1754), dealing with the abolition oftorture andcapital punishment, which had a great impact throughout Europe and in the United States. It strongly influenced intellectuals and politicians in the Age of Enlightenment and led to a revolution and reform of judiciary systems to the prevailing modern concept. In 1786,Grand Duchy of Tuscany was the first to abolish capital punishment.
Giordano Bruno had a great influence on 17th-century scientific and philosophical thought and, ever since, his ideals have been absorbed by many philosophers. Bruno's freedom of thought inspired European liberal movements of the 19th century. The significance of Bruno's work lies in his cosmological theories, which anticipated some fundamental aspects of the modern concept of the universe; his ethical ideas, in contrast with religious ascetical ethics, which appealed to modern humanistic activism; and his ideals of religious and philosophical tolerance.
Giambattista Vico was apolitical philosopher,rhetorician,historian, andjurist, who is recognized as one of the greatEnlightenment thinkers. He criticized the expansion and development of modern rationalism and was an apologist of classical antiquity. His major work,Scienza Nuova, published in 1725, has been highly influential in the philosophy of history, into the 20th century.
Opera originated in Italy at the end of the 16th century (with the operaDafne, which was composed byJacopo Peri, and produced in Florence in 1598), and soon spread to the rest of Europe. Italian opera was adapted by French, German and Russian composers, who developed their own national schools of opera.
Italian instrumental music was studied and emulated all over Europe. Thesonata,concerto,sinfonia,oratorio and other musical forms all originated in Italy. Italian terminology defining the tempo and mood of a musical passage was universally adopted in Western music. The music of Italian composers, such asCorelli,Scarlatti, andVivaldi, was studied or transcribed by many other composers of the day, most notablyBach. In addition, many composers, such asHandel,Gluck andMozart studied or worked in Italy, and subsequently became famous for their instrumental music and operas.
Thefortepiano, the fore-runner of the modernpiano, was invented byBartolomeo Cristofori in Florence around 1725, and soon replaced the harpsichord as a solo and ensemble keyboard instrument.
The family of stringed instruments, consisting of the violin, viola, cello and contrabass evolved in Italy in the mid-16th century.Antonio Stradivari,Andrea Guarneri,Nicolo Amati and othermaster instrument makers crafted stringed instruments that were highly prized, widely imitated, but never equalled.
The education of upper-class young men was expected to be completed by a "grand tour" of Italy to be exposed to the visible legacies of its classical culture, as well as to its contemporary culture of music, literature, art and architecture. Famous examples includedGoethe,Keats,Lord Byron andShelley. Many of the nobility and royalty of the time visited Italy as a part of their education. Keats said that the country was a "paradise of exiles".[45]John Ruskin was a Victorian Italophile who respected the concepts of morality held in Italy.[46]
Romanticism coincided with some ideas of theRisorgimento, the patriotic movement that brought Italy political unity and freedom from foreign domination. Italian writers embraced Romanticism in the early 19th century. The time of Italy's rebirth was heralded by the poetsVittorio Alfieri,Ugo Foscolo, andGiacomo Leopardi. The works byAlessandro Manzoni, the leading Italian Romantic, are a symbol of the Italian unification for their patriotic message and because of his efforts in the development of the modern, unified Italian language; his novelThe Betrothed was the first Italian historical novel to glorify Christian values of justice and Providence, and it is generally ranked among the masterpieces ofworld literature.[47] This novel is a fundamental milestone in the development of the modern, unifiedItalian language.[49]
Italian universities and medical schools attracted students and scholars from across Europe. Some historical figures who made a large impact on science, includingCopernicus andHarvey, were educated in Italy.
At the end of the eighteenth century, Italiophilia was not uncommon among the founders of the United States, and some of the creators of the U.S. Constitution, such asThomas Jefferson andBenjamin Franklin, looked to Roman models upon which to base the American systems of government and law.[50] The founding fathers were also interested in Renaissance political thinkers and humanists like Machiavelli, and how Italian republics functioned. Jefferson was among the most conspicuous of the early American Italophiles.[51] He was especially impressed with Italian architecture, and based the design of his Virginia residence, Monticello, on prints byPalladio, the 16th-century Italian architect.[52] TheJefferson Memorial in Washington DC, erected in honour of Jefferson, is a neo-Palladian imitation of thePantheon in Rome. The Palladian style of architecture appears elsewhere in the U.S. Capital, and the White House itself was inspired by it. (Congressional Resolution n. 259 of 6 December 2010 recognized Palladio as the Father of American Architecture.)
The influence of Italian culture and artistry during this era is expressed by Luigi Barzini:
Italian architects and masons built part of the Kremlin in Moscow, and the Winter Palace in Leningrad. Italian artists embellished the Capital in Washington. They have strewn churches, princely palaces and stately villas all over Catholic Europe, especially in Vienna, Madrid, Prague and Warsaw. Their influence on architecture was felt almost everywhere. They taught poetry, statesmanship and trade to the English; military art to the Germans; cuisine to the French; acting and ballet to the Russians; and music to everyone.[53]
In addition to thePhilhellene movement, the young EnglishRomantic poets of the early 19th century were also deeply drawn to Italy and its rich culture and history.John Keats' poemIsabella, or the Pot of Basil was directly inspired by a story inGiovanni Bocaccio'sDecameron.Percy Bysshe Shelley'sThe Cenci is a retelling of the life of the 16th-century Italian noblewomanBeatrice Cenci, who murdered her abusive father. Part ofLord Byron's epic poemChilde Harold's Pilgrimage is set in Italy and was inspired by hisGrand Tour journeys to Italy and the Near East.
All three poets spent a substantial part of their careers in Italy. Keats moved to Rome for health reasons in late 1820 and would die there six months later. Shelley wandered around the cities of Italy in self-imposed exile from 1818 onwards, during which he wrote some of his most acclaimed works. He drowned in a boating accident offLa Spezia in 1822. Both men are buried in theProtestant Cemetery in Rome. Keats' apartment on theSpanish Steps is now known as theKeats–Shelley Memorial House, a museum dedicated to the life and works of Keats and Shelley as well as some of their near-contemporaries.
In 1861 Italy was united for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire and became amodern industrialized country, where the tradition of creativity, scientific achievement and excellence in manufacturing continued.
Giuseppe Garibaldi, a central figure in achieving Italian independence, was called the "Hero of Two Worlds" because of his military enterprises to achieve independence for countries in South America as well. Garibaldi was admired by many of the greatest intellectuals of his time, such asVictor Hugo,Alexandre Dumas, andGeorge Sand.
Maria Montessori, born in 1870, was a physician and educator who became known around the world for the educational method that bears her name, and for her writings on pedagogy. Her methods are in use today in schools throughout the world.
Toward the end of the 19th century, mathematiciansGregorio Ricci-Curbastro andTullio Levi-Civita developedtensor calculus, which provided the mathematical framework for Einstein'sGeneral Theory of Relativity in the early 20th century.
In the early 20th centuryPirandello, aNobel Laureate, was the first European playwright to radically question the structures of traditional theatre. Since then, film directors and writers such asFellini,Antonioni,Pasolini,Calvino,Eco andFo have been recognized around the world.Italian neorealism in films, beginning after the Second World War, had a great impact on audiences around the world, and established a new philosophy of filmmaking adopted worldwide.
The legacy of Italian scientistsFermi (nuclear power),Meucci (telephone), andMarconi (radio), whose discoveries and inventions transformed the world, is widely recognized.Galileo Ferraris (1847 to 1897) was one of the pioneers of AC power and an inventor of the AC induction motor. His work on the induction motor and power transmission systems are widely regarded as technological achievements of the highest rank. At the same time that German scientists were making major advancements in physics, beginning withMax Planck, Italian scientists like Fermi'sVia Panisperna group in Rome were making important fundamental discoveries in physics as well.
The first public flight of a jet-engined aircraft was that of the Italian Caproni Campini N.1 prototype on August 27, 1940. Italy was the fourth country in the world to build nuclear power plants, starting in 1955 (now decommissioned due to a popular referendum in 1987), and the third, after The United States and The Soviet Union, to launch a scientific earth satellite in the 1964San Marco programme, using an AmericanScout missile as the launch vehicle. TheBroglio Space Centre, located on asea platform offshore theKenya coast is the only example of a spacecraft launch centre built on a floating sea platform.
Italian companies have developed products that are of fundamental importance in contemporary society, such as theOlivetti-developed transistorizedmainframe computer systems (Olivetti Elea) and, in 1964, one of the world's first commercial desktop electronicprogrammable calculators, theProgramma 101, invented byPier Giorgio Perotto.[58][59][60]
Today, Italy is admired throughout the world forits design, particularly in the areas of fashion and manufactured goods. Italian fashions byGucci,Benetton,Armani,Valentino,Prada,Dolce & Gabbana,Ferragamo andVersace are known worldwide. In automobile design, the brand namesFerrari,Lamborghini andMaserati are known and admired throughout the world.[61] In Britain in the 1960s the emergingmod subculture championed Italian and French design, with mods adopting theVespa GS and theLambretta LI 150 motor scooters as their preferred means of transport as well as wearing Italian-designed clothes and shoes, and had a lasting effect - Britain remains Vespa's largest market outside of Italy.[62][63] Italian design and manufacturing in furniture, architecture and interior design is appreciated worldwide. Architects likeRenzo Piano have designed important modern buildings such asCentre Pompidou inParis andKansai International Airport inOsaka. Architect and designerGiò Ponti was a pioneer in industrial design and inspired many other Italian designers who have established the Italian image of design excellence in the world. Designers such asEttore Sottsass, and hisMemphis Group of designers, are famous for creatingpostmodern furniture, fabrics, ceramics, glass and metal objects; and lighting manufacturerArtemide is famous for lamps which transcend their common use as objects, and are nowadays considered cult manufacturing artworks, collected inMuseums of Modern Art.
Italy ranks among the world's most popular tourist destinations, with about 45 million tourists visiting the country every year. Italy has fifty-eightUNESCO World Heritage Sites, more than any other country. It is also home to a large number of religious sites that draw people from all parts of the world. According to UNESCO, the cultural and educational agency for the United Nations, over half of the world's most important works of art are to be found in Italy,[66] which draws tourists, scholars, artists and art historians from everywhere in the world. Many are drawn toRome, still known as the "Eternal City", for its history, culture and the fact thatVatican City, the centre of worldwide Catholicism, is located there. Other places in Italy that attract many tourists areVenice,Florence, and sites associated withPadre Pio andFrancis of Assisi.
The descendants of Italian immigrants to the countries of North and South America, in many cases, still retain an appreciation of their Italian roots, culture and traditions. Italophilia is actively fostered by organizations such as theOrder Sons of Italy in America, theNational Italian American Foundation, theDante Alighieri Society and the Italic Institute of America.[67]
Giorgio Silvestri (director of the "Assemblea legislativa della Liguria") has conjectured that there are nearly 250 million Italophiles in the world.[68]
Italian cuisine is aMediterranean cuisine[69] consisting of theingredients,recipes andcooking techniques developed inItaly sinceRoman times, and later spread around the world together with waves ofItalian diaspora.[70][71][72] Italian cuisine includes deeply rooted traditions common to the whole country, as well as all theregional gastronomies, different from each other, especially betweenthe north,the centre andthe south of Italy, which are in continuous exchange.[73][74][75] Many dishes that were once regional have proliferated with variations throughout the country.[76][77] The cuisine has influenced several other cuisines around the world, chieflythat of the United States in the form ofItalian-American cuisine.[78]
One of the main characteristics of Italian cuisine is its simplicity, with many dishes made up of few ingredients, and therefore Italian cooks often rely on the quality of the ingredients, rather than the complexity of preparation.[79][80] The most popular dishes and recipes, over the centuries, have often been created by ordinary people more so than bychefs, which is why many Italian recipes are suitable for home and dailycooking, respecting regional specificities, privileging only raw materials and ingredients from the region of origin of the dish and preserving its seasonality.[81][82][83]
Italian cuisine is one of the most popular and copied around the world.[84] The lack or total unavailability of some of its most characteristic ingredients outside of Italy, also and above all to falsifications (or food fraud), leads to the complete denaturalization of Italian ingredients.[85] This phenomenon, widespread in all continents, is better known asItalian Sounding, consisting in the use of words as well as images, colour combinations (theItalian tricolour), geographical references, brands evocative of Italy to promote and market agri-food products which in reality have nothing to do with Italian cuisine.[86]
Declared the patron saint of Europe in 1964 by Pope Paul VI, Benedict is also the patron of farmers, peasants, and Italian architects.
technically, the machine was a programmable calculator, not a computer.
It appears that the Mathatronics Mathatron calculator preceeded [sic] the Programma 101 to market.
