
1848
The most celebrated and widespread of the 19th-c. European revolutions proved also a crucial turning point in the Italian Risorgimento. Beginning with an insurrection in Palermo in January, ...

900
(Novecento)(1926–9).Literary journal founded in Rome by Curzio Malaparte and Massimo Bontempelli, though Malaparte quickly lost interest. It initially appeared as a quarterly in French (it had an ...

Acacian schism
A temporary schism (482–519) between Rome and the East which began while Acacius was Patr. of Constantinople (471–89). It arose out of the Henoticon.

Accademia d'Italia, Reale
Founded in 1926, the Accademia d'Italia (as it was usually termed) was one of the principal initiatives taken by Fascism in the field of culture. Located in Rome, its purpose ...

Accademia Romana
Under the leadership of Giulio Pomponio Leto, a group of humanists living in Rome and mostly connected to the papal curia held informal discussions of classical literature, went on archaeological ...

Achille Campanile
(1900–77).Roman playwright, novelist, and journalist. His Futurist theatrical works, such as Centocinquanta la gallina canta (1925), won critical acclaim. But he had more popular success with novels ...

acolyte
The first in rank of the two Lesser Ministries in the RC Church. Until 1972 acolytes formed one of the four Minor Orders. First mentioned c.251, they were specially dedicated to the service of the ...

ad limina
Gregory the Great ordered that the bishops dependent on him should come on 29 June to the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul (limina apostolorum). The annual obligation, which ...

ad limina Apostolorum
(Lat., ‘to the thresholds of the Apostles’). Pilgrimages ‘ad limina Apostolorum’, sc. to the tombs of St Peter and St Paul, were popular in the Middle Ages. In modern times the term ordinarily ...

Adramyttium
Port on the NW coast of modern Turkey. Paul was put on board a ship from Adramyttium at Caesarea on his way to Rome (Acts 27: 2).

Adrian
1 A Volscian who hears from the Roman Nicanor that Coriolanus has been banished from Rome, Coriolanus 4.3.2 A lord shipwrecked with Alonso on Prospero's island in The Tempest.[...]

Adrian I, pope
(died 795)A Roman, Adrian I was consecrated on 9 Feb 772 and died on Christmas day 795. His was certainly one of the most important pontificates, from a politico-religious ...

Adrian IV
(born Nicholas Breakspear) (c. 1100–59) Pope (1154–59). The only Englishman to have held this office, he opposed Frederick I's (Barbarossa's) claims to power.

Aemilius Scaurus, Marcus
(RE 141)son of M. Aemilius Scaurus (1) and Caecilia Metella (1), hence stepson of L. Cornelius Sulla. Quaestor under Pompey c.65 bc, he intervened in Judaea and Nabataea, chiefly ...

Afredo Oriani
(1852–1909).Novelist and essayist. Born in Faenza, he was educated in Bologna, where after further studies in Rome and Naples he worked briefly in the legal profession before withdrawing to ...

Agapitus II
(10 May 946–Dec. 955)The successor of Marinus II, he owed his promotion to Alberic II (c. 905–54), prince of Rome and from 932 to 954 its all-powerful ruler. Except that he was a Roman by birth, ...

Agnolo Firenzuola
(1493–1543),Italian author, a native of Florence who studied law, became a Vallombrosan monk (1517), and was released from his monastic vows by papal dispensation in 1526. In 1534 he ...

Agostino Mascardi
(1590–1640).From Sarzana in Liguria, Mascardi studied in Rome and joined the Jesuits for a time. A client of Urban VIII, a member of the Accademia degli Umoristi, a professor ...

Agostino Nifo
(c.1469–c.1546),Italian Aristotelian philosopher, born in Sessa Aurunca (Calabria) and educated at the University of Padua; he embarked on an academic career during which he taught at Padua (1492–9), ...

Agrippa
1. Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great; the name ‘Agrippa’ was assumed on account of a friendship with Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, son-in-law of the emperor Augustus. In 37 ce he was given the ...