BALBO, CESARE. — Italian historian and statesman, b. Turin 21 Nov. 1789, d. there 3 June 1853. Of noble birth, he was first educated by his father, Prospero, Sardinian minister to Paris, and from 1798 to 1802 lived in exile in Spain and Tuscany. From the domestic school where C. and his brother Ferdinando were companions of Luigi Provana, Luigi Ornato and other contemporaries, there arose the Accademia dei Concordi, in which, besides embracing “all human knowledge,” much thought was given to Italy, under Alfieri’s inspiration, and political opinions and attitudes were clarified. Balbo then dreamed of becoming a Christian Voltaire and drew from the idea of a civilizing religion the elements of his future doctrine of “Christian progress.”
Appointed by Napoleon I auditor to the Council of State (1807) and secretary of the Tuscan Junta (1808), the reproaches of his “concorde” Carlo Vidua led him to deep meditation, and his transfer from Florence to Rome as secretary of the Consulta (1809) disturbed him. “Crushed, grieved, desperate” at having a hand in the usurpations against Pius VII, he was struck by the “reproachful spectacle of the fortitude of those priests.” His inner crisis matured, watched over by Vidua’s ancient faith, whose letters followed him to Paris, to Ljubljana, wherever his duties took him. The death of his brother Ferdinando in Russia, the catastrophe of Leipzig, which he witnessed, and conversations with Giffengia and other Italian officers impressed a more liberal and patriotic meaning on his thought. At the fall of the Empire he took part in the Grenoble campaign, felt the discomfort of the closed environment of the Restoration, and with Provana foretold in Piedmont “the hinge of Italy’s future salvation,” linking himself with a new friend, Santorre di Santarosa. It was then that he undertook new studies and new meditations, especially in history, and an unfinished attempt at a novel on the Lombard League. From 1816 to 1819 he accompanied his father, Sardinian ambassador, to Madrid and there carried out research on the independence wars of Spain and Portugal, which he would publish in ’47, insisting on the priority of the idea of independence over that of liberty. Back in Piedmont, he returned to arms: absent from the drama of ’21, but suspected, he was punished with exile and then confinement.
By now wholly absorbed in historical studies, in ’30 he published the two volumes of the *Storia d’Italia* from 476 to 774. In Christian medievalism he recognized the origin of modern civilization, in the action of the Popes the defense of liberty: the neo-Guelph ideal was already present in this inseparability of Christianity and civilization. Disillusioned in his aspirations for public life even by Charles Albert, anguished by the death of his wife (1833), his studies became ever more his solace and the reason for his life. From ’33 to ’38 he was among the promoters of Piedmontese historiographical revival; in ’39 he published the *Vita di Dante*, though with a distorted portrayal of the protagonist (“the most Italian Italian who ever lived”), yet so warm and effective; between ’40 and ’41 he sketched the *Pensieri sulla storia d’Italia*; in ’42 he drafted the *Meditazioni storiche*, an attempt at a philosophy of history inspired by the concept of *historia magistra*. As an exponent of the Catholic-liberal school, Balbo took part in the great debate on the Pope’s role in the hoped-for Italian revival. *Le Speranze d’Italia* (1844), in which independence is felt as the *porro unum* and the mission of the warrior Piedmont is passionately expounded, made Balbo one of the leading representatives of moderate liberalism. The admirable *Sommario della storia d’Italia* (1846) aimed, not without effort, to demonstrate through the centuries the necessity of independence and union against the foreigner. In the hour of action he became a political journalist and collaborated in Cavour’s *Risorgimento*, for which he wrote the program (15 Dec. 1847).
As president of the first constitutional ministry (16 March 1848), he was called upon to declare the first war of independence. But events proved stronger than he, and after Custozza he resigned. As Valeri has noted, the contradiction between the moralistic exigency of the conservative and the free mind of the son of the century could not be resolved in him. With the recent grief of losing a son at Novara, he was sent by his cousin M. d’Azeglio to negotiate with the Pope and Antonelli at Gaeta (May–July 1849), but the hope of winning Pius IX back to the constitutional cause failed. Reporting on the peace treaty with Austria (1850) and on measures in ecclesiastical and cultural matters (he favored absolute freedom of teaching), he resolutely opposed the Siccardi laws, arguing for new negotiations with Rome and the necessity of its consent. After vainly attempting to form a right-wing ministry following d’Azeglio’s resignation (Nov. 1852), he withdrew until his death into the field of his beloved studies. His son Prospero supervised the publication of new works and the reprinting of older ones.
BALBACCHINO — Detail of the Procession in St. Mark’s Square, painting by Gentile Bellini (15th c.). Venice, Accademia Gallery.
Baldacchino — Detail of the Procession in St. Mark’s Square. Painting by Gentile Bellini (15th c.). Venice, Accademia Gallery.
hanging ones are also fixed to the wall behind the altar, of which there are interesting painted wooden examples from the 12th–13th centuries, of Catalan school, in the museums of Barcelona and Vich.
The patron of a church cannot raise a baldacchino in it (can. 1455); the same applies to the capitular vicar, even if a bishop, in the cathedral (can. 435). In the Sistine Chapel, during the conclave each cardinal sits under a baldacchino; once the election has taken place the baldacchini are lowered, except for that of the newly elected.
On the baldacchino placed over the altar to shelter its mensa, Durandus and various diocesan statutes from the 13th century, cited by Fr. Braun, speak; on the portable baldacchino, the Ordo of Canon Bernardo (c. 1143), the Ordo of Cencio (c. 1200) and Innocent III treat, the latter at length on its symbolism. The use of carrying it in procession with the Blessed Sacrament dates from the 14th century.
The baldacchino is recommended above the altar where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, and is obligatory in oratories when, by indult of the Holy See, they are situated beneath a space used as a dormitory. — V. Tav. XLVI.
Guglielmo Federico Volbach — Silverio Mattei