Who were the greatest Italians in history ?

Maciamo

Maciamo

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This thread is intended to complement the greatest Italian contributions of the world. Instead of contributions, we will now be voting for individuals, regardless of whether their achievements had an impact on the rest of the world or just in their country or region. They can be national heroes, great athletes, artists, scientists, or politicians that shaped the country's identity and history. I will not restrict the meaning of Italian to the modern Italian state, born in the 1860's, but to anybody born and raised (or with dominant ancestry) in the Italian peninsula, even in ancient times. The greatest Italians ever can therefore include ancient Romans too, as long as they were from Italy itself.

Few countries have produced more renowned historical figures than Italy, and perhaps none can surpass it for individual artistic achievements. It will be a real challenge to choose the greatest Italian ever. Let's start by trying to short-list 20 people for the poll.

Here are a few suggestions on top of my head :

- Julius Caesar
- Emperor Octavianus Augustus
- Dante Alighieri
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Michelangelo
- Caravaggio
- Christopher Columbus
- Galileo Galilei
- Antonio Vivaldi
- Giuseppe Garibaldi
- Giovanni Agnelli
 
Hi Maciamo and hi all, I'm new here.


This is my list of the greatest italians in history to consider.

Rulers/Militars/Politicians:

- Camillo Benso Count of Cavour
- Giuseppe Mazzini
- Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus
- Julius Caesar
- Emperor Octavianus Augustus
- Giuseppe Garibaldi
- Gaius Marius
- Lorenzo de Medici
- Andrea Doria
- Cicero

Artists (Music, paints, sculptures etc.):

- Leonardo da Vinci
- Michelangelo
- Caravaggio
- Antonio Vivaldi
- Giuseppe Verdi
- Sandro Botticelli
- Giorgio De Chirico
- Sergio Pininfarina
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini
- Antonio Canova
- Donato Bramante
- Filippo Brunelleschi
- Andrea Palladio
- Giacomo Puccini
- Gioachino Rossini
- Ennio Morricone
- Federico Fellini

Writers (poets, historians etc.) :

- Dante Alighieri
- Giacomo Leopardi
- Virgil
- Catullus
- Horace
- Sallust
- Ludovico Ariosto
- Niccolò Machiavelli
- Petrarca
- Torquato Tasso
- Cesare Beccaria
- Gabriele D'Annunzio
- Giosuè Carducci
- Ugo Foscolo
- Alessandro Manzoni
- Giovanni Pascoli
- Giovanni Verga
- Primo Levi
- Italo Calvino
- Giuseppe Ungaretti
- Eugenio Montale

Inventors and scientists:

- Galileo Galilei
- Archimedes
- Joseph-Louis Lagrange
- Antonio Meucci
- Alessandro Volta
- Enrico Fermi
- Evangelista Torricelli
- Guglielmo Marconi

Others:

- Giovanni Agnelli
- Saint Benedetto Of Norcia
- Marco Polo
- Reinhold Messner
- Cristoforo Colombo
- Saint Francesco of Assisi
- Enzo Ferrari


I could have forgotten someone.


Highlighted the 20 greatest.
 
Hello,
this is my list of the greatest Italians.

ARTISTS/COMPONISTS
Michelangelo
Vivaldi
Verdi
Tiziano

EXPLORERS
Colombo (discovery of America)
John Cabot (born Giovanni Caboto)
Marco Polo (first western man to reach China, and the first to hear about the existence of Japan)
Amerigo Vespucci

MILITARS/POLITICIANS
Julius Caesar
Marcus Aurelius
Octavian


WRITERS
Dante Alighieri
Niccolò Machiavelli
Boccaccio

SCIENTISTS AND MATHEMATICIANS
Majorana (important progresses of the quantistic physic)
Rita Levi Montalcini (she collaborated in the knowledge and studies of parkinson, alzheimer and cancer)
Enrico Fermi (inventor of the nuclear reactor)
Giovanni Agnelli (inventor of Ferrari)
 
Giovanni Agnelli did not invent Ferrrai. Enzo Ferrari did.

Of course there can be different opinions, but I think that you can't not consider Leonardo da Vinci, Leopardi, Caravaggio, Marconi and also others, that made so far more than Tiziano, Caboto, Majorana, Agnelli, Rita Levi Montalcini and Boccaccio..
 
Sybilla said:
Hello,
this is my list of the greatest Italians.

ARTISTS/COMPONISTS
Michelangelo
Vivaldi
Verdi
Tiziano

EXPLORERS
Colombo (discovery of America)
John Cabot (born Giovanni Caboto)
Marco Polo (first western man to reach China, and the first to hear about the existence of Japan)
Amerigo Vespucci

MILITARS/POLITICIANS
Julius Caesar
Marcus Aurelius
Octavian


WRITERS
Dante Alighieri
Niccolò Machiavelli
Boccaccio

SCIENTISTS AND MATHEMATICIANS
Majorana (important progresses of the quantistic physic)
Rita Levi Montalcini (she collaborated in the knowledge and studies of parkinson, alzheimer and cancer)
Enrico Fermi (inventor of the nuclear reactor)
Giovanni Agnelli (inventor of Ferrari)
Click to expand...


Colombo is not certain if he was Italian,
There is a family name and an old naval tradition in the island of Chios in Greece,
may I remind you that Greeks knew about the new continent before the West Europe,
since the tomb of the last Byzantine emperor is in Bermuda,

we know that last Byzantines moved with vessels to Bermuda in order to move west to the the new land much before Colombo, as also the the tomb of Byzantine Mιχαηλ Παλαιολογος is an evidence that 20 years before Colombo another Colombo from island of Chios travel West, according myth he was the uncle of the known Colombo.
 
Maciamo said:
This thread is intended to complement the greatest Italian contributions of the world. Instead of contributions, we will now be voting for individuals, regardless of whether their achievements had an impact on the rest of the world or just in their country or region. They can be national heroes, great athletes, artists, scientists, or politicians that shaped the country's identity and history. I will not restrict the meaning of Italian to the modern Italian state, born in the 1860's, but to anybody born and raised (or with dominant ancestry) in the Italian peninsula, even in ancient times. The greatest Italians ever can therefore include ancient Romans too, as long as they were from Italy itself.

Few countries have produced more renowned historical figures than Italy, and perhaps none can surpass it for individual artistic achievements. It will be a real challenge to choose the greatest Italian ever. Let's start by trying to short-list 20 people for the poll.

Here are a few suggestions on top of my head :

- Julius Caesar
- Emperor Octavianus Augustus
- Dante Alighieri
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Michelangelo
- Caravaggio
- Christopher Columbus
- Galileo Galilei
- Antonio Vivaldi
- Giuseppe Garibaldi
- Giovanni Agnelli
Click to expand...

I have never seen any Roman person as referred to as an Italian - The first 2 named

Columbus was a catalan from barcelona who moved his family to Genoa because catalans ( as well as basques) where not permitted to go to the new world at this time. He could not even speak genoese.

Garibaldi was born in Nice which was Italian but was given to france before his death - does it make him a citizen of both ?

Should the list comprise of only people from the creation of Italy after 1860 and not before. ?

The system can make people born of nations which do not exist wrongly referenced.
 
Sybilla said:
Hello,
this is my list of the greatest Italians.

ARTISTS/COMPONISTS
Michelangelo
Vivaldi
Verdi
Tiziano

EXPLORERS
Colombo (discovery of America)
John Cabot (born Giovanni Caboto)
Marco Polo (first western man to reach China, and the first to hear about the existence of Japan)
Amerigo Vespucci

MILITARS/POLITICIANS
Julius Caesar
Marcus Aurelius
Octavian


WRITERS
Dante Alighieri
Niccolò Machiavelli
Boccaccio

SCIENTISTS AND MATHEMATICIANS
Majorana (important progresses of the quantistic physic)
Rita Levi Montalcini (she collaborated in the knowledge and studies of parkinson, alzheimer and cancer)
Enrico Fermi (inventor of the nuclear reactor)
Giovanni Agnelli (inventor of Ferrari)
Click to expand...

Its not giovanni caboto its Zuan Caboto, thats how he signed his name ( also in England)
 
Zanipolo
Columbus was a catalan from barcelona who moved his family to Genoa because catalans ( as well as basques) where not permitted to go to the new world at this time. He could not even speak genoese.
Click to expand...

The literature on the origin of Columbus is varied, and data is very curious that hold different opinions. In this case it is the Catalan nationalism which instructs foreign historians research the origin of Columbus and who pays charge, know what I mean!
 
maybe in 100 years people will refer to steve angello like this?
If had 10 posts already id post a song and show a SAng. song
 
zanipolo said:
Columbus was a catalan from barcelona who moved his family to Genoa because catalans ( as well as basques) where not permitted to go to the new world at this time. He could not even speak genoese.

Garibaldi was born in Nice which was Italian but was given to france before his death - does it make him a citizen of both ?

Should the list comprise of only people from the creation of Italy after 1860 and not before. ?

The system can make people born of nations which do not exist wrongly referenced.
Click to expand...

Where have you studied history? On uncyclopedia.org?

Cristoforo Colombo was Italian. And Garibaldi was also Italian. No French would never dream of saying that Garibaldi is French.

I'm really surprised about your assumptions, but are you really of Italian origin?
 
zanipolo said:
Its not giovanni caboto its Zuan Caboto, thats how he signed his name ( also in England)
Click to expand...

Again. Giovanni Caboto was Venetian, and his family came from Gaeta. Zuan is the Venetian language form.
 
@ Zanipolo

From Encyclopædia Britannica

Christopher Columbus (Italian explorer)

Christopher Columbus, Italian Cristoforo Colombo, Spanish Cristóbal Colón (born between Aug. 26 and Oct. 31?, 1451, Genoa [Italy]—died May 20, 1506, Valladolid, Spain), master navigator and admiral whose four transatlantic voyages (1492–93, 1493–96, 1498–1500, and 1502–04) opened the way for European exploration, exploitation, and colonization of the Americas.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/127070/Christopher-Columbus
 
binx said:
Again. Giovanni Caboto was Venetian, and his family came from Gaeta.
Click to expand...

Genoese, Cabot and Columbus were Genoese
http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/History/Maritime/Sources/1498ayala.htm

Pedro de Ayala - 1498
I think Your Highnesses have already heard how the king of England has equipped a fleet to explore certain islands or mainland which he has been assured certain persons who set out last year from Bristol in search of the same have discovered. I have seen the map made by the discoverer, who is another Genoese like Columbus,.... For the last seven years the people of Bristol have equipped two, three [and] four caravels to go in search of the island of Brazil and the Seven Cities according to the fancy of this Genoese.

not to be forgotten the Vivaldi brothers, in many ways the Genoese were far superior than the Venetians;

Victorious in Battle (Ponza 1435) but defeated in Politics, what a tragedy;
 
Nobody1 said:
Genoese, Cabot and Columbus were Genoese
http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/History/Maritime/Sources/1498ayala.htm

Pedro de Ayala - 1498
I think Your Highnesses have already heard how the king of England has equipped a fleet to explore certain islands or mainland which he has been assured certain persons who set out last year from Bristol in search of the same have discovered. I have seen the map made by the discoverer, who is another Genoese like Columbus,.... For the last seven years the people of Bristol have equipped two, three [and] four caravels to go in search of the island of Brazil and the Seven Cities according to the fancy of this Genoese.

not to be forgotten the Vivaldi brothers, in many ways the Genoese were far superior than the Venetians;

Victorious in Battle (Ponza 1435) but defeated in Politics, what a tragedy;
Click to expand...

Zanipolo, this time, was right. Caboto signed himself Zuan Caboto, and Zuan is the Venetian language form for Giovanni (Spanish Juan).

I knew that Pedro de Ayala stated that Caboto was from Genoa like Colombo, but seems to be more proves that Caboto had a Venetian citizenship. However, Genoese or Venetian Caboto was Italian.
 
I saw an Italian tv show where a similar poll was put to vote and the majority of Italians answered that the greatest Italian (in the broad sense) of all times was Leonardo.
I guess I personally agree on that one.
 
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