Alfa Romeo is an Italian motor-car manufacturer. The company was founded in 1906 as 'Societa Italiana Automobili Darracq' with the aim of manufacturing low cost Darracq motor cars. That company quickly ran into difficulties when the once booming car market began to falter. In 1910 the Darracq factory that had been built in the Portello district of Milan was sold to a group of Italian car enthusiasts who called themselves 'Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili' (ALFA). Success was to be short lived, because the company went into liquidation in 1915, and was then taken over by an engineer and entrepreneur called Nicola Romeo. After the Great War the company changed its name to 'Societa Anonima Ing. NicolaRomeo & Co.' having taken over several smaller firms: Officine Meccaniche di Saronno, Officine Meccaniche Tabanelli of Rome and Officine Ferroviarie Meridionali of Naples. Formally constituted by the notary, Federico Guasti, in Milan on February the 3rd 1918, the new company proclaimed its purpose to be 'the
construction and management of engineering, steel, agricultural, mining, chemical and quarrying companies, with particular emphasis on military, aviation, marine and agricultural equipment, internal combustion engines for all possible applications: aeroplanes, automobiles, locomotive and other wheeled transport.' Today Alfa Romeo is known for its range of sporty motor-cars. Research Alfa Romeo
Carnival is traditionally the feast or season of rejoicing before Lent, observed in Catholic countries with much revelry and merriment. The name comes from Low Latin carnelevamen for carnis levamen, solace of the flesh or body, feasting permitted in anticipation of any fast. Carnival observances declined greatly by 1900, but in some of the cities of Italy, especially Rome, Milan, and Naples, were still a great popular festival, as well as in some parts of Germany and by the later part of the 20th century the greatest carnivals were held in Brazil and the West Indian islands. Some have thought the carnival mainly a survival of the pagan Saturnalia of the Romans, which it much resembles in many of the usages, and in the tricks and mummeries with which it abounds. Research Carnival
Catgut is a cord made from the intestines of sheep, and sometimes from those of the horse, ass, and mule, but not from those of cats. The manufacture is chiefly carried on in Italy and France by a tedious process. Catgut for stringed instruments, as violins and harps, is made principally in Milan and Naples, the latter having a high reputation for treble strings. Research Catgut
Conservatory is a name given on the European continent to a systematic school of musical instruction. In Britain the term is usually applied to foreign schools of music. Conservatories were originally benevolent establishments attached to hospitals, or other charitable or religious institutions. In Naples there were formerly three conservatories for boys; in Venice four for girls; the Neapolitan group being reduced in 1818 to a single establishment under the name Royal College of Music. In Milan a conservatory was established in 1808. In France the musical school established in connection with the Opera received its final organization in 1795 under the name of Conservatoire de Musique. Among its teachers have been Mehul, Cherubini, Gretry, Boieldieu, etc. The Conservatorium, founded at Leipzig in 1842 under the auspices of Mendelssohn has been one of the most highly renowned. Research Conservatory
Fascism is a political movement which originated in Italy, deriving its name from fasces, and which holds that the individual exists for the State, to whose good all his work and interests should be directed. Fascism originated in Milan in 1919, as a movement started by Benito Mussolini. Research Fascism
The Iron Crown is a crown of gold set with jewels, made originally for the kings of Lombardy, and deriving its name from the fact that it enclosed within its round a circlet of iron, said to have been forged from one of the nails used in the crucifixion of Christ. It was supposed to confer upon the holder sovereignty over all Italy. Napoleon I was crowned with the Iron Crown at Milan on May the 26th, 1805. Research Iron Crown
The Macon Bill No 2 was an American bill so called from its author, Nathaniel Macon, which was passed by Congress on May the 1st, 1810, as a means of extricating the United States from the difficulties caused by the aggressions of England and France. It provided that commerce should be free, but that if either England should withdraw her Orders in Council or France her Berlin and Milan Decrees, intercourse should be prohibited with the nation which retained them. Research Macon Bill No 2
The Milan Decree was a decree issued by Napoleon on December the 7th, 1807, in which he declared to be 'denationalized', whether found in Continental ports or on the high seas, any vessel which should submit to search by a British vessel, or should touch or set sail for or from Great Britain or her colonies. This was in retort to the British Orders in Council of November 11th, 1807, which declared, among their provisions, any vessel and cargo good prize if it carried a French consular certificate of the origin of the cargo. Research Milan Decree
A nation is a body of people, organised into a single state. One of the most characteristic of the ideas of the Age of the Renaissance was that of the Nation and its sovereign independence - an idea still very active in our own days. The Middle Ages had been dominated by the Catholic ideal of world unity. The great institutions of those ages were international - for example, the Feudal System, and above all the Church and the Papacy. Latin, too, was an international language; and though the various peoples had their own languages, the continual use of Latin in both Church and State affairs helped educated men to regard themselves as members of one society, the society of Christendom. Above all, these peoples - English, French, Spanish, Italian, German - were all members of one Church. All belonged in some measure to the Christendom of which the heads were the Pope and the Emperor. Then, gradually, from the early days of the Renaissance, the newer idea of the 'Nation' took root, and this in time changed the unity of 'Christendom' into the disunion of 'Europe'.
Modern Europe is dominated by national feeling and is divided into independent national states; and these have no longer even the common bond of one Church. Europe has lost as well as gained by the disappearance of medieval Christendom. She has gained, because the old feudal divisions in most countries meant internal disunion, civil warfare, and baronial tyranny. But Europe has also lost, because the old ideal of a united Christendom has disappeared in the jealous rivalries of warring nations. From time to time attempts have been made to check these dangerous rivalries. But the problem of international peace and co-operation - of a 'society of nations' - is one which mankind is still trying to solve in a satisfactory manner. The nations which took the lead in Europe in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries were those that first achieved national unity, and the chief of these were France, Spain, and England. Italy, which had given so much to the world in art and letters, did not share in this political change. Great men lived in Italy - in Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, and Milan - but all these cities were the capitals of small states. In short, Italy was not a nation; hence she became from 1494 the prey of powerful neighbours. As with Italy, so with Germany.
The Holy Roman Empire was an empire only in name; in practice, Germany contained three or four hundred separate States. Both Germany and Italy retained, until even the nineteenth century, their internal divisions and discords. France, Spain, and England had achieved national unity in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, whereas Germany and Italy had to wait another three centuries - and some of our problems to-day are due to the fact that they are still comparatively new nations. The means by which national unity was brought about in France, Spain, and England was the monarchy. It was their kings who saved and made these countries - saved them from feudal anarchy and made them into nations. It was monarchs like Henry VII and Henry VIII of England, Louis XI and Francis I of France, and Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain who united their countries under a strong rule, and led them to a great destiny. A Holy Roman Emperor (Maximilian) contrasted the new monarchs with himself as follows: 'The Emperor is indeed a king of kings, for no one feels bound to obey him; and the King of Spain is a king of men, for, though resisted, he is still obeyed; but the King of France is a king of beasts, for him none dare gainsay.' Research Nation
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Alfa Romeo
