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His greatest accomplishment came after his greatest disappointment. One of the founding fathers of the Renaissance, Filippo Brunelleschi was more than an Italian designer. Brunelleschi made his mark in architecture and construction.  In his early years, sculpting was Brunelleschi’s passion. But after being passed over for a major commission, he set his sights on architecture, and changed the landscape of Italy as it is known today.  Brunelleschi’s most prominent contribution, the dome of Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, was the first of its kind, paving the way for bigger and more elaborate domes to come. His invention of machines to facilitate the construction of the dome, allowed future structures to not only be imagined, but to be erected as well.   With his imagination, understanding of linear perspective, focus on geometric principles, and intellect for mathematics, Brunelleschi influenced the rise of modern science and architecture worldwide.

It was too big a secret to keep and too great a price to pay.Though few details are known of 11th-century Benedictine monk Guido d'Arezzo, he is widely recognized for inventing the language of music. Music's Guiding Hand offers a fictional account as to how an unlikely friendship between two medieval monks might have inspired one of the most important and enduring innovations of the Western world.When a fellow monk continually struggles to learn the sacred songs by rote, Brother Guido devises the musical staff as a way of precisely notating pitch. But in an institution that thrives on tradition and routine, his challenge to the status quo is met with skepticism, resistance, and even punishment. Torn between obedience and his convictions, Brother Guido must decide to submit or rebel-with immediate and enduring consequences.

His neighbors thought he was spoiled and lazy. His teachers found him incorrigible. His own father believed he was crazy. His mother never doubted that he was a true son of God.Arrogant and grandiose, young Francis di Bernardone was an embarrassment to his family and a source of amusement to his community. He led a lavish, undisciplined life, squandering his father's fortune on the finest food, wine, and late-night parties with his coterie of friends.Convinced that he was destined for greatness, Francis joined the fight for Assisi's independence, fully expecting to find glory in battle. Those dreams were crushed when he was captured by the enemy and held in a medieval dungeon for a year. After his release, Francis resumed his search for glory-but this time he sought the Glory of God.In his determination to follow Christ's example of humility and poverty, Francis was beset by ill health, family strife, abuse, derision, war, Vatican politics, and his own shortcomings. Yet many were inspired by the authenticity of his message and his obvious conviction. A brotherhood formed around him that grew from twelve to many thousands within his lifetime. The Friars Minor, now called Franciscans after their founder, has spread worldwide and continued through the centuries to carry forward Francis' legacy of bringing Christ to the world.

"My experience in childhood and adolescence of the subordinate role played by the female in a society run entirely by men had convinced me that I was not cut out to be a wife."-Rita Levi-Montalcini Self-assured from an early age, Rita knew that she was cut out for a number of other roles and the difference she could make in the lives of others. Prevailing over her father''s traditional values, Rita attended medical school and continued to study the development of the nervous system after graduating. But as a Jew in fascist Italy, her work came to a halt with discriminatory race laws and again later, when she was forced into hiding from the Nazis. In a makeshift lab built from black-market items, Rita continued her research in a small space she shared with her family. Rita''s courage to accept a fellowship in the United States when she didn''t speak the language was repaid when her six-month stay stretched into thirty-three years. When, at seventy-seven years old, she and Stanley Cohen won the Nobel Prize for their discovery of nerve growth factor-now used in search of cures for Alzheimer''s and Parkinson''s diseases-Rita felt like her life was just beginning. Over the next two decades, she spoke around the globe as an ambassador for science and humanitarianism and accomplished more than most do during an entire lifetime.

From ancient ruins he carved a staircase to his dreams and a style that continues to instill beauty and harmony across the world.In a time when birth and class determined one''s destiny, Andrea Palladio''s father recognized there was nothing common about his son and vowed to nurture his gifts. Impressed by the boy''s sketches, quick mind, and ease with numbers, influential mentors took an interest in young Palladio and he didn''t disappoint. Palladio''s life experiences, talents, and apprenticeships with stone carvers led him to an unexpected career-architecture.Commissioned by nobles who had no design experience, but plenty of opinions, each new project came with a unique set of problems that were further complicated by the Italian peninsula''s ongoing wars as well as his own financial worries and family tragedies. With the Alps as a background and Italy for his canvas, Palladio reinterpreted ancient Roman architecture to build breathtaking palazzos, villas, and churches that continue to awe and inspire.Palladio''s perfection of proportion and symmetry and his use of porticos, columns, and rotundas have become architectural standards, making him the most imitated architect of all time.

From hero to heretic, would he live to see honor again?Enchanted by the labyrinth of stars above, Italian professor Galileo Galilei was determined to unearth the mysteries held within. It was 1609 and inspired by the newly invented "perspective glass," which magnified objects on land up to three times their size, Galileo designed prototype after prototype until he achieved an unheard of 20x magnification. He pointed his invention to the heavens and the world would never be the same.He was the first to see the moon''s craters, Jupiter''s moons, and Saturn''s rings, but when Galileo dared challenge the commonly held belief that the earth was the center of the solar system, the darling of the Medicis and Italy''s elite salon scene was assailed by the most dangerous men and powerful institution of all time. Swift and ruthless, the Inquisition had Galileo in its sights. His crime? Questioning authority and defending a truth he-the rebel later known as the Father of the Scientific Method-had proven.

If asked to list important inventors, few remember to include Alessandro Volta. Yet, his is a household name more spoken than that of Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright Brothers, or even Thomas Edison. That's because the terms "volt" and "voltage" can be attributed to Volta, the inventor of the "Voltaic pile," which is recognized as the first electric battery.A product of the Age of Enlightenment-a time when ideas about reason, science, literature and liberty took center stage-Volta employed a very modern, hands-on approach to his work. Though he had no formal education, he was the first person to identify the gas known as methane, and created the first authoritative list of conducting metals.Alessandro Volta saw things not just as they were, but as what they could be. He was a disrupter, an innovator and a visionary. Above all, he was relentless. Without Volta's hunger to create and his drive to invent and discover, we might not have electric cars, laptops, cellphones, and hearing aids today.

Luca Pacioli stood beside the great Leonardo da Vinci and gazed at The Last Supper. He saw immediately that something was terribly wrong.An orphan from a small town in Italy, Pacioli came of age during the Renaissance seemingly destined for a life of struggle and obscurity. But Pacioli had the good fortune of meeting mentors who recognized his uncanny ability with numbers and introduced him to renowned artists and philosophers, royalty, and popes.At a time when many still used Roman numerals and colleges didn’t even teach mathematics, Pacioli was determined to share his passion and make it accessible and understandable. Apprentice to an artist, but a terrible artist himself, he became a master at calculating mathematical perspective in paintings. Tasked with teaching mathematics with no textbook, he wrote his own—followed by books on double-entry bookkeeping, chess, and the divine proportionIn this way, Luca Pacioli, “the father of accounting,” still has something to teach us—not just about mathematics—but about how we account for setbacks in our lives and how we determine what our legacy will be. 

Women marched for equal pay, the President of the United States advocated an anti-immigration policy, and the income gap between the rich and poor continued to grow. And it was just the beginning of the 20th century.As a girl growing up in Italian Harlem, Angela Bambace needed answers. How could it be acceptable for women not to earn equal pay for equal work? Why were immigrants relegated to the factory jobs no one else would take and working under such dangerous and inhumane conditions? And why were the businessmen at the top getting richer and richer while the poor who worked for them struggled to provide for their own families? How could any of this be okay?But perhaps Angela's most consequential question was If not me, then who?Born to a father and married to a man who both believed a woman's place was in the home, Angela Bambace defied her family and social expectations to lead a labor union-organizing women's marches, strikes, and protests "to build a better world, a better place for everybody." Today, Angela's story might be more significant than ever as others continue her fight and call to action.

Born into a modest family in fifteenth century Florence, Niccolò Machiavelli became ambassador of the Florentine Republic at the early age of twenty-nine. After fourteen years of service, he was falsely accused of conspiracy, thrown into prison, tortured, and subsequently forced to abandon his beloved city. For the remainder of his years he wrote novellas, histories, plays, and highly celebrated political treatises such as the Discourses on Livy, The Art of War, and his irreverent masterpiece, The Prince.

To train the greatest, he had to be the greatest.On the streets of South Philly, Angelo Dundee learned what it took to survive-a sense of purpose, a clear head, and sometimes . . . a powerful right uppercut. Boxing was the family business and the ring was his home.A skilled trainer and cut man, Dundee intuitively adapted to whatever his fighter needed, be it doctor, therapist, drillmaster, or friend. With gauze and liniment or a well-timed joke, Dundee knew how to keep his guy in the fight and instill confidence in the bleakest of final rounds. For the boxing legends of our time, including Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, there was no one else they wanted in their corner.

Wealth isn't about money. All my adult life, people have asked me, "Robert, how did you make money? How did you become wealthy?" And while I want to share that with them-and with you-I also want you to understand that those are two different questions. Yes, of course, money can help you to create wealth. But wealth is far more than a number on your bank statement. So if wealth isn't about money, what exactly is it? Wealth is independence. Real wealth is the ability to live your life on your own terms. It's the freedom to switch careers, spend time with your family, improve your community, and make a difference in the world. Building Wealth will help you not only to reach your own financial goals, but also to attain this level of wealth.

La storia di un sognatore…Amadeo Pietro Giannini, con la sua capacità di immaginare un'utopia socio-economica, non è stato un tipico magnate della finanza. Grazie a una coscienza illuminata, attenta alle questioni sociali, ha saputo trasformare in realtà il sogno americano non solo per se stesso, ma per l'intera società. Nonostante drammatici ostacoli di ordine personale - non ultima la morte del padre - Giannini divenne, su scala mondiale, il banchiere guida del ventesimo secolo. Cresciuto in una famiglia di contadini, grandi lavoratori, immigrati in un'area particolarmente arretrata della California, Giannini ricevette un'educazione economica tutt'altro che convenzionale, spianandosi così la strada verso il successo e la ricchezza.Con la fondazione della Bank of Italy, particolarmente attenta alle famiglie bisognose degli immigrati, Giannini intendeva superare le barriere create a quel tempo dall'élite bancaria conservatrice, per realizzare i sogni della gente comune. Ben presto, la Bank of Italy sarebbe divenuta la Bank of America e il "povero italiano" si sarebbe trovato in condizione di sostenere la realizzazione dei sogni di visionari del calibro di Walt Disney. Giannini contribuì inoltre a dar forma allo skyline di San Francisco, finanziando l'audace costruzione del Golden Gate Bridge. Questo e molti altri frutti della sua influenza e del suo duro lavoro sono ancora oggi visibili in tutti gli Stati Uniti, per il semplice fatto che egli credeva "in una distribuzione più equa del benessere e della felicità".

The country faced a Constitutional crisis during Watergate. He stood firm for the rule of law.As the chief judge of the federal court in Washington D.C. in 1972, John J. Sirica took on the trial of burglars arrested while planting electronic bugs in the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate complex. Who had sent them? The defendants weren’t saying and President Nixon disavowed any knowledge of the matter.  Sirica came to the law as the son of an Italian immigrant who lived a hardscrabble life. From these roots, he fought as a boxer while simultaneously going to law school. Practicing law in D.C., he defended criminals and prosecuted them, too.  No Person Above the Law describes how he was determined to see the truth come out during the Watergate scandal, even going toe-to-toe with the president to order the release of secret tapes. Named Time Man of the Year, he held high the central promise of the U.S. Constitution:  no person is above the law.

The heroic story of a teenager who took on one of the world's greatest generals.For his entire life, the Roman Empire had been at war. And now the shrewd African general Hannibal had implausibly navigated his herd of elephants over the Alps, leaving thousands dead in his wake. For historians, it would become one of the most important wars of all time. For Scipio Africanus, it was personal.But before Scipio could fight for his beloved Republic, he had to battle his cynical and duplicitous enemies at home. Consistently underfunded and undermanned, Scipio accepted the posts no other soldier would dare take. Guided by ingenuity, prudence, charisma, and a thirst for revenge, he traversed sea and land to unite warring princes, indigenous chiefs, tribal horsemen, and his enemy's closest allies into an unpredictable and dangerous coalition. To defeat the greatest general of his time, the boy needed to become the greatest he could be.

Born into privilege at the end of the 1300s in an age of turmoil, Cosimo de’ Medici, heir to the Medici banking fortune, grew up surrounded by poverty, corruption, and war. Reserved and soft-spoken yet charismatic and determined, Cosimo vowed to use his wealth for the greater good, manipulating his enemies, courting popes and artists, and becoming the de facto leader of the Florentine Republic, inflaming the oligarchs who schemed to seize the power he almost reluctantly held.  A devotee of ancient literature and patron of education and the arts, Cosimo brought peace, reforms, and prosperity to the Republic, defining Florence as the cradle of the Renaissance.  The Medici dynasty would last for centuries and without its support and keen eye for greatness, many artists and scientists—including Da Vinci, Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, and Galileo—may have never been given their own opportunities to change the world.

A determined man with a dream whose mentors and friendships supported him through his difficult life's journey.John Cabot was born Giovanni Caboto in Genoa, Italy. As a child, he dreamed of captaining a ship across a mysterious, uncharted ocean, from Europe to the riches of China. There was another boy in Genoa at the same time, with the same dream: Christopher Columbus.The Turks, in the fifteenth century, had a stranglehold on the trade routes to the Far East. Europe's race to find an alternative passage was heating up. But an explorer needed patrons, funds, ships-and a vision. Whereas Columbus had taken a south and west route from Spain, Cabot was convinced a more northern route from England would lead directly to China.Cabot remained convinced, even on his deathbed, that he'd reached China-not realizing he'd claimed much of North America for his patron, the King of England, and made an amazing contribution to the fabric of America.

The Soul of a Child places brilliant educator and reformer Maria Montessori in the context of her time. It examines the relationships, inner struggles and inspirations of Montessori, a woman with heart, empathy and resilience. As a strong woman who lived through two world wars, the rise of Fascism in Spain and Italy and the dawn of the nuclear age, she remained undeterred in her faith in the possibility of positive change through education. Her life spanned both the joys of innovation and the horrors of destruction of the twentieth century. Her influence on education and humanism remains resonant and enduring. This is her story.

The rule of power in Europe is changing...  Born in Italy at the tumultuous end of France’s influence in Europe, Giuseppe Verdi would go on to become the world’s most recognizable name in opera.  Set against the rise of the Italian states in the middle of the 19th Century, The Faithful depicts an artist bedeviled by his role not just as a composer, but as an unassuming icon of the Italian Unification and the birth of modern Italy.  Through chance encounters in gilded Milanese salons and the hushed politics of the Italian opera, we experience the struggles of a man conflicted by his role as an artist and his commitment to a country yearning for independence.

Entering the world with a burning desire for knowledge, Thomas Aquinas set out on a quest for truth that forced him into captivity. But his thirst for truth never wavered. Known today among many as the most brilliant light of the church, Aquinas was a Catholic priest and a Doctor of the Church. His influence on Western thought as he attempted to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity is considerable. Aquinas is distinguished for his Eucharistic hymns, which form a part of the Church's liturgy. The Catholic Church honors him as the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood. Coupled with his theological insight and natural reason, Aquinas was deemed one of the greatest philosophers of the Western world. Today, Saint Thomas is often depicted with a writing quill or an open book, proving that the search for knowledge and truth forever lives within his name.

Celebrating a giant of American popular music...  With a legacy that resonates today in the work of contemporary film composers, the magnanimous Henry Mancini left an indelible mark on the culture.Over the course of a life cut short, Mancini helped liberate a concentration camp at the end of WWII, created some of the most iconic film and television themes ever written, and unseated the Beatles from the number one spot at the apex of rock and roll.  Resurrected through dialogue portraying pivotal scenes from his life, readers will get to know Mancini like never before—and come to appreciate this national treasure who fought for equality while bringing out the beauty of the world through his artistry.

More than a painter…Renowned artist Leonardo da Vinci was the greatest genius to ever conquer the worlds of art, science, and philosophy. Writing backwards to protect his knowledge, da Vinci epitomized creativity and eccentricity.Despite being plagued with frustrations and failures, da Vinci was spurred to create, invent, research, and write no matter the cost. By exploring his sorrows and joys, da Vinci's world is uncovered. And with it a five-hundred-year-old secret is released: the hidden truth of Leonardo da Vinci.