Region: Calabria. Province: Reggio di Calabria.
Elevation: 210 m. Area: 8.35 km². Population: 673 (2001). Population Density: /km² ().
Location & Setting: 117 km from Reggio di Calabria.
Tel. Prefix: 0964. Postal Code: 89040.
Population Designation: Agnanesi.
Historic Population Figures: 1,144(1861); 1,113(1901); 1,297(1921); 1,532(1951); 833(1981); 673(2001).
Agnano, Lago di: See Agnano Caledra.
Agnano Caldera (Lago di Agnano): A volcanic crater (6.5 km in circumference) in the Phlegraean Fields, located to the NW of Naples. The Greeks and the Romans enjoyed visiting the local hot springs and believed that witches inhabited the region. By medieval times the crater had filled with water to become a malarial lake, remaining so until finally being drained in 1870 through a tunnel at its SW edge. The recovered land was used for a time for cultivation of crops and is now the site of the Agnano hippodrome and some hotels. At the S rim of the crater is Agnano Terme, a health spa.
The crater is the site of the Grotta del Cane (Cave of the Dog). In times past local guides would demonstrate the existence of the deadly carbonic acid gas in this cave by exposing a dog to them.
To the E of Agnano caldera is the Parco degli Astroni, another extinct volcano.
Agnelli, Giuseppe>: (b. 1621, Naples; d. Oct. 17, 1706, Rome). Jesuit Scholar and Consultor of the Inquisition. Have entered the Jesuit order in 1637 he served as rector at the Jesuit colleges at Montepulciano, Macerata, and Ancona. Settling in Rome in 1671, authored several sermons, treatises on the “Spiritual Exercises” and a commentary on the Sunday gospels. He also served as Consultor, or advisor, of the Inquisition of the Rome.
Agnelli (or Agnello), Salvatore>: (b. 1817, Palermo; d. 1874, Paris or Marseilles). Operatic Composer. Having received his musical education at Palermo and Naples (where he studied under Giovanni Furno, Niccolo Antonio Zingarelli, and Gaetano Donizetti), he produced several works in the style of Rossini and Donizetti. He lived at Naples from 1834 to 1842 and at Marseilles, in southern France, from 1849 to 1860. In 1856, he visited Paris where he wrote a cantata entitled L’apoteosi di Napoleone I. His works include: I due pedanti (1837 Napoli Fo); La jacquerie (1849 Marseilles); Léonore de Médicis (1855 Marseilles); and Cromwell. His works of church music include a Stabat Mater.
Agnellus, St.>: (d. ?AD 596). Having lived as a hermit for many years he eventually became abbot of the Benedictine monastery of San Gaudioso, near Naples. He is one of the traditional patron saints of Naples who was invoked for protection from invaders. (Feast Day: Dec. 14.
Agnesi (or Agnese), Astorgio degli>: (b. 1391, in Naples; d. 1451, in Rome). Ecclesiastic. He became bishop of Melito in 1411, bishop of Ravello in 1413, and bishop of Melfi in 1418. He served as bishop of Ancona and Numana from 1418 to 1436. He was Pontifical commissioner and Inquisitor General for Marca d’Ancona in 1426, governor of Romagna in 1435, and archbishop of Benevento in 1436. In 1448 he was elevated to cardinal.
Agni da Lentini, Tommaso>: (b. Sicily; d. 1277). Ecclesiastic. Having entered the Dominican order, he founded the convent of S. Domenico Maggiore in Naples in 1231. It was here, in 1243, that he received St. Thomas Aquinus into the Dominican order. He later became bishop of Bethleham, of Cosenza (1267), and, in 1272, became Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. He supported the crusades and union with the Greek church at the Council of Lyon in 1274.
Agnifilo della Rocca, Amico: (b. 1393 in Roccadimezzo, Abruzzo; d. 1476 in L’Aquila). Ecclesiastic. He became bishop of L’Aquila in 1431 and was elevated to cardinal in 1464. He served as a counselor to King Alfonso V “the Magnanimous” of Naples and Aragon and, later, to King Ferdinand “the Catholic” of Spain.