Bernardo Caprotti at the Milan Exhibition of 1881
Between 1871 and 1895, the Manufacture won four medals at fairs and exhibitions, including international ones
Guido Venosta – childhood, education and football
My grandfather Guido Venosta was born in 1911 in Milan, to Giuseppe, an engineer and future general manager of the Pirelli factory in Milan, and Argia Neri. Guido played football passionately, and he often met players, some of whom worked at Pirelli and played for the still young AC Milan, founded in 1899.
Guido Venosta – his father and Pirelli
My great-grandfather Giuseppe Venosta (1880 – 1939), an engineer, spent his entire working life at Pirelli until he was appointed General Manager in 1938, a few months before his death. Grandfather Guido was very close to him, and his death deeply upset him.
Guido Venosta – father’s death: turning point in life
Within 10 years, between 1939 and 1949, my grandfather Guido Venosta’s father and mother died of what was then considered an invincible disease, cancer. This had a tremendous impact on Guido, laying the foundations for the feeling that, more than 20 years later, would lead him to become involved in AIRC.
Giuseppe Caprotti at a distance: Giuseppe, explorer in San’a (Yemen), c. 1880.
Giuseppe Caprotti: a distant relative, born a few kilometres from Albiate, lives in San’a’. In what is now the capital of Yemen, the explorer Caprotti would spend thirty years, contributing to the spread of coffee in Italy – the Arabica variety, which is the most prized, came from the Yemeni city of Mokha
Giorgina Venosta and Aldo Bassetti, 1960s to 2021
It was for Aldo Bassetti that my mother Giorgina ended the suffocating marriage with my father Bernardo. Then they broke up for a long time, until 1983, when they met again, never to leave each other again until her death in 2021. Aldo, who came from a historic Lombard textile company, was a typical case of an ‘enlightened entrepreneur’.
The Caprotti family: Aunt Silvia, grandfather Peppino’s sister (1896 – 1994)
Silvia is the middle sister. From the letters that have remained to us, she is seen to be very attached to the family. In 1922 she became engaged to Ernesto Thomas, who in that very year founded the wool mill in Brusimpiano on Lake Lugano that still bears his name, and married him in 1923. Aunt Silvia, who is also present in the lives and affection of her grandchildren, grandfather Peppino’s children, and whom I knew as a boy in the 1980s, spent her entire life in Brusimpiano, where she died very old in 1994.
The Caprotti comparison: Ercole Marelli and technological innovation
marelli not only follows but also creates the market, through the company’s continuous innovations. Caprotti behaves similarly, starting with technological innovation and factory development, albeit in an entirely different sphere and with a product that is much more sensitive to the immediate demands of the market.
Manifattura Caprotti and continuity: fabrics from the 19th century to the 1980s
As in the past, the factory has continued to produce its fabrics in the present, updating to the fashions of the times some of its classics such as the checked or fancy fabrics, produced at least since the 1840s in the bright colours that were so popular and kept in production, updated in fabric and colour preferences, for more than a century more.
Bruna Colombo on Manifattura and the Caprotti family
I am just finishing reading ‘Le Ossa dei Caprotti’, which a friend gave me as a gift. I thank her for what she recounts, even with personal details
Esselunga, Giuseppe Caprotti recounts the company’s history in Naples and Pompeii: the book “Le Ossa dei Caprotti”
Esselunga, Giuseppe Caprotti tells the story of the company in Naples and Pompeii: the book Le Ossa dei Caprotti Tuesday…
The Caprotti family, the birth of Esselunga and US counter-espionage: James Hugh and James Angleton
Film buffs who have seen Robert De Niro’s 2006 film The Good Shepherd – The Shadow of Power may know that the main character, played by Matt Damon, is inspired by James James Angleton, one of the most legendary and controversial figures in American intelligence. However, the figure of James Hugh [Angleton], the father, is also of extreme interest …
