Born at Letojanni in the province of Messina on 29 June 1844. He studied medicine at Naples under Ciaccio and Schrön, but graduated from Florence, where he had worked under Pacini and at the S Maria Nuova Hospital. He devoted himself at first to anatomy and pathological histology, working under Claude Bernard and Ranvier in Paris, Langenbeck and Virchow in Berlin, at Vienna under Stricker and Billroth, at Würzburg under Recklinghausen and Kölliker, and under Burdon Sanderson, William Fergusson and Spencer Wells in London. During the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 and whilst he was in Berlin he served with a Red Cross ambulance and his attention was thus directed to operative surgery. On his return to Italy he attracted the attention of Costanzo Mazzoni, professor of clinical surgery at Rome, and in 1885 was called to fill the chair on the death of his master. This post he held until 1919, when he resigned on reaching the age limit. During this period he had formed a great school of Italian surgery, and could reckon as his pupils Tricomi, Alessandri, Dalla Vidova, Roncali, Biagi, and Perez. With the help of Bacelli he established the Policlinic at Rome and saw it grow into a great hospital. He did much good work as a surgical pathologist on the inflammation of blood vessels and the organization of thrombi. He dealt with the cellular origin of tumours, a subject which was afterwards developed by Cohnheim along similar lines. As a surgeon he was amongst the first to suture wounded arteries, and in 1887 he operated for the removal of a cerebral tumour, using an osteoplastic flap to expose the brain. He also removed the pituitary body by the pharyngeal route. He introduced cuneiform resection of the knee, arthrodesis of the elbow, and partial removal of the artragalus for congenital clubfoot; and was an advocate for resection of cancer of the stomach when that operation was rare. He was made a Senator of the Kingdom of Italy in 1889 and often took part in the debates. During the war of 1914-18 he used his influence to induce Italy to join with the Allies. He died on 2 October 1934 at Letojanni, his native town, in his ninetieth year. Publications:- *Indirizzo alla diagnosi chirurgica dei tumori*. Rome, 1876. *Trattato di patologia e terapia chirurgica,* 3 vols, with W Leotta. Rome, 1895-98. *Trattato di medicina operatoria, generale e speciale*, 2 vols., Turin, 1907-11; 2nd edition, 1917-25. Festschrift: *Per it 25 anno dell' insegnamento chirurgico di F Durante nell' Università di Roma*. Portrait, plates, and bibliography, 3 vols, Rome, 1898.