|
The territory currently comprised within the province of Frosinone is a medley of cultures and civilizations. Among its many resources, most of which unknown, there is a wealth of great people, who were born in this land. They are so great that the definition ‘illustrious’ hardly su×its them, as they excel among the excellent.
Thus, in this outline list of great people born in the province many will unfortunately be missing for lack of space, since it can only allocate the most famous and important. Among those who contributed to the history of ancient Rome, we cite four notable which lead a numerous group of soldiers, politicians, philosophers and writers: Caius Marius, one of the most controversial and successful Roman consuls, expert of warfare, was born in 156 BC to a humble family of the Roman countryside, the gens Maria belonging to the equestrian order. Marcus Tullius Cicero was born also at Arpino on January, 3rd 106 BC.
The history of the Roman thinking and politics converges in the life of this excellent mind as in that of few other thinkers of the past. Decimus Junius Juvenal, born in 55 BC at Arpino, is one of the major writers of ancient Rome. Marcus Vipsanio Agrippa, born in 63 BC in Arpino’s countryside, was a very famous commander and Octavianus‘ adviser; its feature are impressed on many coins and a range of statues devoted to him was erected in the most prestigious places in Rome. To him goes the credit for the building of the Pantheon.Many are the illustrious Ciociarian people in the history of the church: the first Ciociarian Pope who was to become saint is Ormisda. He was born in Frosinone at the end of 4th cent. AD.
It was elected Pope on July 20th, 514. He is credited with the reconciliation between the Greek and the Latin church. His son Silverio, elected Pope on June 8th, 536, was born at Ceccano. Innocence III was born at Anagni in 1160 and became pope on January 8th, 1198. Gregorius IX, a relative of Innocence III, became pope on March 19th, 1227; he was born at Anagni on September 1st, 1230. Boniface VIII, the most famous of the Anagni’s popes, was born in the Ciociarian town in 1235. He was chosen as a pope on December 24th, 1294, and proclaimed the first Jubilee. He has been made immortal by Dante in its work Divine Commedy. Leon XIII was born on March 2nd, 1810 at Carpineto, a Ciociarian land in every sense, though not part of the province of Frosinone. His Latin poems are famous. Ciociaria had been also the birthland of one of most important men of the church: St. Thomas Aquinas, the Doctor Angelicus, son of Landolfo,a local lord, was born at Roccasecca in 1225. Leon XIII in the encyclical ‘Aeterni Patris’ proclaimed him patron saint of all Catholic schools.
The 1918 Canon Law Code and the apostolic Constitution ‘Deus scientiarum dominus’ impose its principles and methods in the formation of priests. A mention, though brief, must be made for Cesare Baronio, the cardinal of Sora who was the favourite pupil of St Filippo Neri. Its ‘Annals’, extremely important, are kept in a original amanuensis copy in the Vatican Library. The cultural movements of the end of the 16th century see among its great a Ciociarian humanist, born at Veroli, who was an eminent scholar: his name is Antonio della Valle , better known as Aonio Paleario. Among scholars and patriots we recall the most acclaimed of a long list: Luigi Angeloni, born at Frosinone on November 9th, 1759 was a magistrate during the Roman Republic.
He was the first Italian scholar to promote the federalism; in his work ‘Over the order’ he advocated a federal Italian unification on the Swiss model. Nicola Ricciotti, was born at Frosinone on June 11th, 1797, became famous as a patriot in the whole of Italy. As final act of his fight, he took part to the expedition of the Bandiera brothers. The eminent philosopher Antonio Labriola was born at Cassino on July 2nd ,1843. One of the first Italian marxists, his thinking has been celebrated in the universities of the whole world. A brief mention for some of the most important Ciociarian musicians: Severino Gazzelloni, born at Roccasecca, is one of the most famous flautists of the 20th century. Licio Refice, born at Patrica on February 12th, 1885, is the author of such an acclaimed work as ‘Margherita da Cortona’. Daniele Paris, born at Frosinone, is one of the major directors of contemporary music and one of the most renowned composers of music tracks in the 70s. He is also the founder of Frosinone Academy of Music. Among the artists we cite only two names as representatives of a range of eminent people: Giuseppe Cesari, known as the Cavalier d’Arpino, was born at Arpino where many of its works are to be found; he was also called in Rome to fresco, among other things, also some of the Basilicas. Umberto Mastroianni, a native of Fontana Liri, is one of the major sculptors at worldwide level of the 20th century. Remarkably important and a great innovator of the architecture design and the stage designing is Antonio Valente from Sora. In Rome his figure is still acclaimed and expositions of his sketches are organized.
As many as eleven university thesis have been made on hisw work. The cinema world owes much to the Ciociaria. Numerous are the personalities who deserve to be named. Let us go stright to point without adding any presentation in recalling the figures of Marcello Mastroianni, from Fontana Liri; Vittorio De Sica, born at Sora and Nino Manfredi, a native of Castro dei Volsci. The Bragaglia brothers from Frosinone must also be revoked here: Anton Giulio, one of the first film directors, as well as a futurist and a literate; Carlo Ludovico, a film director, who died recently at the age of 103, is the author of a wealth of works gone into the history of the seven art, and among which there are many of the masterpieces acted by Totò; Arturo, a photographer who experimented innovative techniques, is often discussed within the photography textbook and is very famous for his realization of ‘fotodynamics’; finally, Alberto, an important painter of the 20th century.
Tina Lattanzi, a native of Alatri died also recently, is one of the most famous dubbing voices of the Italian film industry; she lent her voice to all Hollywood stars. Tommaso Landolfi, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century and native of Pico, is also Ciociarian (though he would not have liked to be called in this way). Although he is not born in Frosinone, Giuseppe Bonaviri has been living there for forty years; he has been shortlisted many times for the Nobel Price for literature. We might say that even Antony Minghella, the multititled film director of the ‘English Patient’ (nine Oscar) is the son to two inhabitants of Cervaro. Finally, we would like to pay homage to contemporary times mentioning Lord Charles Forte (Casalattico), the owner of one of the major hotel groups and Antonio Fazio, currently the governor of the Bank of Italy, who was born and lives at Alvito. Ennio Morricone (Arpino) and the famous top model Linda Evangelista ( Pignataro Interamna )also boast Ciociaria’ s origin.
|
