Pope Pius VI is seized by a French army in Rome and is taken off to captivity in France

By the Treaty of Campo Formio the free republic of Venice, created by Napoleon, is handed over to Austrian rule

Italian physicist Alessandro Volta describes to the Royal Society in London how his 'pile' of discs can produce electric current

Napoleon takes a French army through the Alps before the snows have cleared, and defeats the Austrians at Marengo

Napoleon mends France's fences with Roman Catholicism by agreeing a Concordat with Pope Pius VII

Napoleon has himself crowned king of Italy in the cathedral in Milan

The Carbonari, an Italian group of revolutionaries, make their first appearance in Naples in opposition to French rule

French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres moves to Rome and lives there for 18 years

Napoleon gives the throne of Naples, vacated by his brother Joseph, to Joachim Murat

Napoleon annexes the Papal States and is excommunicated by the pope, Pius VII

Napoleon, in response to his excommunication, has pope Pius VII arrested and kept in captivity in northern Italy and then France

Italian chemist Amedeo Avogadro publishes a hypothesis, about the number of molecules in gases, that becomes known as Avogadro's Law

Napoleon goes into exile on the island of Elba, which he immediately treats as a miniature state in need of improvement

The Jesuit Order is restored by Pius VII on his return to Rome

Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville has its premiere in Rome

J.M.W. Turner makes the first of several visits to Venice, and discovers a rich seam of inspiration

English poet John Keats dies in Rome at the age of twenty-five

Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns when sailing in the gulf of Spezia, in northwest Italy, at the age of 29

Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini moves to Paris, where he becomes director of the Théatre Italien

Italian author Alessandro Manzoni begins publication (completed 1827) of his novel I Promessi Sposi ('The Betrothed')

Gioacchino Rossini's opera William Tell has its premiere in Paris

Italian nationalist Giuseppe Mazzini founds Young Italy, an organization to promote insurrection

Gaetano Donizetti's opera L'elisir d'amore has its premiere in Milan

Gaetano Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor has its premiere in Naples

The success of the opera Nabucco, premiered in Milan, is a turning point in the fortunes of Giuseppe Verdi