The Italian 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Cultural, Scientific, and Political Figures, Past and Present

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Citadel Press, 2003 - 367 pages
An invaluable addition to the Citadel 100 series that ranks the most prominent Italian figures in history--from the Chairman of the Board to the Mayor of New York City Now more than ever, Americans have entered into a passionate love affair with all things Italian, from the world-changing adventures of Christopher Columbus to the drama of opera to Italian cinema to the epic family saga of The Sopranos. The Italian 100 chronicles the rich legacy of Italians and Italian-Americans in a ranking of the most influential 100 and the enduring nature of their contributions. The giants who immeasurably changed the size and shape of our world--Galileo (ranked #1), Christopher Columbus (#2), and Marconi (#3)--grace the top of the list, while artistic and literary giants such as Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Petrarch, and Dante feature prominently. Also profiled are the brilliant (and sometimes despotic) political leaders such as Niccolo Machiavelli, Lorenzo de' Medici, Garibaldi, Rudolph Giuliani, and Benito Mussolini, and geniuses of music, theater, and film such as Vivaldi, Puccini, Pavarotti, Fellini, Scorcese, and Sinatra. The Italian 100 also highlights less-familiar figures who have left legacies of equal magnitude, such as Guido of Arezzo, who invented the musical staff: Leonardo Fibonacci, who introduced Arabic numerals to the Western world, Saint Fabiola, the Roman matron credited with cofounding the first public hospital in Western Europe; and Bartolommeo Cristofori, inventor of the modern piano. Part cultural companion, part historical reference, and part celebration, The Italian 100 is a fresh and sometimes controversial look at a people who, throughout more than fifteencenturies, have had an enormous and profound effect on every aspect of the modern world.

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Contents

Galileo Galilei
3
Christopher Columbus
7
Guglielmo Marconi
11
Enrico Fermi
14
Alessandro Volta
18
Leonardo Fibonacci
21
Evangelista Torricelli
24
Filippo Mazzei
27
Boethius
190
Petrarch
194
Giulio Caccini
197
Claudio Monteverdi
200
Gioacchino Rossini
203
Cimabue
206
The Bellinis
210
Giorgione
213

Michelangelo
30
Leonardo da Vinci
34
Giovanni Battista Morgagni
38
Gabriel Fallopius
41
Girolamo Fabrizio
44
Marcello Malpighi
47
Girolamo Fracastoro
51
Lazzaro Spallanzani
54
Camillo Golgi
57
Luigi Porta
60
Salvador Edward Luria
63
Rita LeviMontalcini
66
Renato Dulbecco
69
Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini 72 2243
73
Gasparo Tagliacozzi
75
Ascanio Sobrero
78
Francesco Redi
81
Girolamo Cardano
85
Francesco Bonaventura Cavalieri
88
Amedeo Avogadro and Stanislao Cannizzaro
91
St Fabiola
94
Luigi Galvani
96
Francesco Maria Grimaldi
100
Niccolò Tartaglia
103
Andrea Cesalpino
106
The Medicis
109
Guido of Arezzo
113
Aldo Manuzio the Elder and Aldo Manuzio the Younger
117
St Thomas Aquinas
121
Dante Alighieri
125
Niccolò Machiavelli
130
St Francis of Assisi
135
Giuseppe Mazzini
139
Benito Mussolini
143
Amerigo Vespucci
147
Marco Polo
151
John Cabot
155
Giovanni da Verrazano
158
Bartolommeo Cristofori
161
Alessandro Manzoni
164
Giuseppe Verdi
168
Giovanni Boccaccio
173
Filippo Brunelleschi
178
Leon Battista Alberti
182
Maria Montessori
186
Giorgio Vasari
216
Raphael
219
Sandro Botticelli
223
Donatello
226
Masaccio
229
Benvenuto Cellini
232
Giotto
236
Alessandro Scarlatti and Domenico Scarlatti
239
Antonio Vivaldi
242
Titian
245
Antonio Stradivari
248
Giacomo Puccini
252
Federico Fellini
255
A P Giannini
258
Giuseppe Garibaldi
261
Charles Lucky Luciano
265
Lee Iacocca
268
Arturo Toscanini
271
Gaetano Donizetti
274
Enrico Caruso
277
Niccolò Paganini
280
Al Scarface Capone
284
Frank Sinatra
287
Martin Scorsese
290
Francis Ford Coppola
295
Italo Calvino
298
Luciano Pavarotti
302
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino
309
Joe DiMaggio
310
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
314
Bernardo Bertolucci
318
Vittorio De Sica
321
Luchino Visconti
325
Marcello Mastroianni
329
Sophia Loren
332
Camille Paglia
335
Franco Zeffirelli
339
Frank Capra
342
Rudolph Giuliani
346
PICTURE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
350
BIBLIOGRAPHY
351
INDEX
357
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 367
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About the author (2003)

Spignesi is a New York Times best-selling author and third generation jeweler.

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