Edwin Cerio

Italian writer, engineer, architect, historian, and botanist. He was born to an English artist mother and a well-known local physician, Ignazio Cerio. With doctorates in both Shipbuilding and Mechanical Engineering, Cerio initially found employment in Germany at Kiel, and from 1902 to 1915 designed shipyards and ships throughout Italy, Germany and Argentina. At the outbreak of the First World War he resigned his post to return to his native island, where he would remain for the rest of his life. Cerio turned to dealing in both horses and property on his native island, where he had founded and edited a literary magazine (published in three languages). In 1920, as a self-proclaimed Liberal at a time when the Fascists were gaining ground in the rest of Italy, he was elected as Mayor of Capri. he catalogued the local flora and fauna, and he published a series of books on the history and wildlife of Capri. In 1950, Cerio invited Chilean author Pablo Neruda to stay at one of his villas - a sojourn that was later part-fictionalised in the film Il Postino (1994). Cerio died on January 24, 1960, aged 89. Link to Wikipedia biography