Italian Renaissance: Did you mean...?

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was an Italian poet and politician most famous for his Divine Comedy (c. 1319) where he descends through Hell, climbs Purgatory, and arrives at the illumination of Paradise. Dante meets many historical characters...

A map showing the territorial gains of Italy in Libya from 1919 to 1935.

Petrarch (1304-1374 CE), full name Francesco Petrarca, was an Italian scholar and poet who is credited as one of the founders of the Renaissance movement in art, thought, and literature. Petrarch actively searched for 'lost' ancient manuscripts...

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) was the founder of fascism and dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943. He led the country into a highly authoritarian regime and then dragged it into the Second World War (1939-45) on the side of Nazi Germany. Mussolini...

The Renaissance was a cultural revitalization that spread across Europe, and had repercussions across the globe, but one smallish city-state in Italy was in many ways the epicenter of the thing. Florence, or as Italians might say, Firenze...

Frontpage of the Italian newspaper 'Corriere Illustrato della Domenica', depicting a group of Askaris, Italian colonial troops, in a battle against the Sultan of Raheita. ('The Rebellion of the Sultan of Raheita. The Victory of Our Ascari'...

Taking prisoners in Napoleon's Italian Campaign, 1797, oil on canvas by Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, c. 1801-1824. Palace of Versailles.

Italian prisoners of war at Harar, capital of the Ethiopian province of the same name. The soldiers, made prisoners during the First Italo-Ethiopian War, are awaiting repatriation to Italy. The picture was taken in March 1897 by the second...

Italian Askaris (colonial troops) in Libya. Photograph taken between 1922 and 1932.

A photograph of Italian prisoners after the Battle of Caporetto (Oct-Nov 1917) in modern-day Slovenia. The battle was won by combined Austro-Hungarian and German forces and was a major defeat for Italy during the First World War (1914-18...