Vittorio Ricci

Vittorio Ricci was born in Vallecorsa (Frosinone), in Lower Lazio, on the ancient border between the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples. Graduated in Statistics at the University "La Sapienza" of Rome, he has completed several advanced and specialization courses in the teaching of Mathematics. He is a professor of Mathematics at the State Professional Institute "Alessandro Filosi" of Terracina (Lt). Publications. A passionate history researcher, Vittorio Ricci has published several essays for the publisher Francesco Ciolfi of Cassino: The Catholic Monarchy in the Government of the Italian States. The role of the brothers Luis de Requesens and Juan de Zúñiga knights of Santiago (May 2011); Battles and Prodigies of the Papal Resistance in 1867. From Vallecorsa to Mentana (July 2011); Father Geremia Subiaco the builder friar. With a contribution by Stefano Stefanini (June 2012); A Cajetan Sanctuary. History of the Chapel of Maria SS.ma della Sanità in Vallecorsa. From the Western Schism to the consecration of the Gaetani Bishops - 14th-20th centuries (July 2012). Together with Salvatore La Monica of Palermo, for the Società di Storia Patria of Caltanissetta, he wrote a book on the events of the 16th-17th centuries in Spain: Grandees of Spain at the court of Philip II of Habsburg. Juan de Zúñiga y Requesens and his wife Dorotea Barresi and Santapau (August 2013); the second edition was published in February 2018. Regarding the connections between the history of the Spanish crown and that of the Italian territories subject to it, in May 2015 he held a conference entitled: The Feud of Sonnino from the Caetani to the Colonna: the parenthesis of the Spanish Royal Deposit (1549-1591); the video of the conference can be found on the web with the text prepared for the occasion. In February 2016 he published a book on the Great War entitled: Infantry Soldiers in the First World War. Fragments of Memory: Fallen and Decorated Soldiers of Vallecorsa. On October 1, 2017 he participated in Nicosia (Enna) at the conference Noble Families of the Sword between Europe and Sicily with the essay A Royal Couple in 17th-Century Palermo: Constable Federico Colonna and his Wife Margherita of Austria and Branciforte, published together with the proceedings edited by the Società Nissena di Storia Patria (in Archivio Nisseno). For the publisher D’Amico of Naples he collaborated on the drafting of the book Condottieri e battaglia della Napoli Spagnola (November 2017), dealing with Federico Colonna Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples who died in the defense of Tarragona.

In September 2018, the Province of Frosinone awarded him the Vallecorsa “La Via del Cinema” Prize – 1st edition, in the Memories of the Territory section (in the same edition, Michele Placido was awarded in the Cinema section).

In October 2018 he published with Agata Garofali The Virgin of the River. The Sanctuary of Santa Maria del Fiume in Ceccano between history, art and popular worship. Previously, in October 2014, Ricci had held a conference together with Salvatore La Monica in Valladolid at the rectorate of the University (Palace of Santa Cruz), developing a speech on the role of the city as the ancient capital of Castile; on March 15, 2021, the contribution of the conference was published in a book under the title Valladolid and the first imperial court of Charles V, published and distributed by Amazon. Also in Valladolid, in October 2017 he participated with a communication at the international congress on the figure of Emperor Charles V at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy. It is being published in the magazine Galleria - biannual review of culture, national history and literary, artistic and Sicilian antiquity sciences, vol. January 2-June 2021 – the essay Giovanna and Margherita, princesses of the house of Austria, between Naples and Sicily, report of the participation in the conference The role of the Sicilian aristocracy in the government and development of the Island, held in Palermo in May 2018 and promoted by the Association Settimana delle Culture. In January 2022 he published "The enigma of a lady. The viceregina of Raphael's portrait", a cross-section of Naples in the first decades of the sixteenth century, within a broader discourse that concerned the analysis of the Italian Campaigns, the long conflict that saw the Aragonese/Spanish opposed to the French and the restoration of the Medici in Florence. In May 2023 he published The Sacred in History. Facts and wonders of 1867 in Garibaldi's invasion of Lazio, a revisitation in the light of new sources and insights of the book Battles and Prodigies (July 2011, Ciolfi publisher Cassino). In November 2023, he published, under the patronage of the "Monti Ausoni and Lago di Fondi" Park Authority, an essay on the extraordinary existence of the most famous countess of Fondi, entitled: Giulia Gonzaga, the chaste diva. In February 2025 he published a study on the events that led to the definition of the border between the Papal States and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies: "History runs along the border. From Terracina to the 38th parallel" (with the Municipal Administration of Vallecorsa, Frosinone, which can be obtained subject to availability; page 208).

On October 4, 2025, in the evocative setting of Palazzo Nicolaci in Noto (Syracuse), as a crowning achievement of a life devoted to study and civic engagement, Vittorio Ricci was awarded the National HONOS Prize, themed In the Sign of Ethics and Beauty, Section Constantia, curated by the Ethno-Anthropological Gallery of Solarino (Syracuse), with the following citation: “To Vittorio Ricci. For his tireless dedication to historical research, carried out with rigor, depth, and extraordinary perseverance. A narrator of memory and guardian of the sacred, he has given voice to forgotten places, events, and figures, weaving science and humanism into a body of work that stands as both testimony and civic act.”

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