BARATTA, CARLO. - Educator, Salesian sociologist, b. at Druogno (Novara) on 10 Oct. 1861, d. at Salsomaggiore on 23 Apr. 1909. Welcomed into the Society by Don Bosco, a teacher at the House of Alassio and ordained a priest there (1884), he moved to Parma, where he undertook a vast apostolate in the oratory, in the college, in the School of Religion for students founded by him (1889), the first in Italy, and in the agricultural school. In this he carried out the program of agricultural renewal proclaimed by Stanislao Solari (v.), with whom he had a friendship and collaboration. B. was an apostle and theoretician of the "new physiocracy": in a pamphlet of 1895 (Di una nuova missione del Clero) he advocated the action of priests for the increase of national agricultural production; in the Principi di sociologia he sets forth rational agriculture as the premise of a Christian solution to the social question. In 1904 he moved to Turin as inspector, continuing in his fervent apostolate. Founder of the Rivista di Agricoltura, author of many religious, sociological and musical publications.
Works: La libertà dell'operaio, Parma 1901; Principi di sociologia cristiana, ibid. 1902; Il pensiero e la vita di S. Solari, ibid. 1907.
Bibliography
Egifberto Martire