BAROLO, CARLO TANCREDI FALLETTI, marchese di. - Philanthropist and educationist, b. in Turin on 26 Oct. 1782 and d. there on 4 Sept. 1838. At the age of 22, a page at the Napoleonic court, he met Giulia of the marquises Colbert, his bride in 1807, with whom, having returned to Turin, he collaborated actively in the pious foundations of the marchioness of Barolo (v.). Elected decurion of the municipality of Turin and in 1825 mayor, he carried out a vast program for the hygiene and beautification of the city, for the education and well-being of the popular classes. His numerous initiatives all respond to a social and pedagogical intent, which makes him a precursor of the contemporary school. He is the deviser and founder of the first infant asylum (1829) and must therefore be remembered together with Abbot Aporti (v.), who founded his charity schools two years later and spread them throughout Italy, whereas B. limited his action to Turin and conceived the asylum more as a social than as a scholastic institution. B. also initiated the technical school, later adopted in the state system, and the teaching methods aimed at realizing vocational guidance. In 1832, in his capacity as secretary of the deputation of the General Council of Public Instruction, he had all the primary schools entrusted to the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
He also made himself a promoter of the study of geography by means of illustrative readings, with the book Cenni diretti alla gioventù intorno a fatti storici, monumenti notevoli e particolarità naturali del Piemonte ecc. (Turin 1838). This volume is anonymous, like the pamphlet Sull'educazione della prima infanzia della classe indigente (ibid. 1832), which was erroneously attributed to Cesare Balbo by Ercole Ricotti in his biography of Balbo (1856). This helped to cast into the shade the figure and work of B., especially in relation to the exceptional activity of his distinguished consort.
Bibliography3 works
Egilberto Martire