RUGGERO BONGHI. – Writer, critic, and political figure, born in Naples on 21 March 1826, died in Torre del Greco on 22 October 1895. A vivid and versatile intellect, he remained in a Piarist school until the age of fifteen, then devoted himself to literary and philosophical studies. At twenty, he published a translation of Plato’s *Philebus* and sent it to Manzoni and Rosmini, who greatly appreciated II. At the same time, with the accession of Pius IX, he collaborated with Troya on *Il Tempo*, following moderate liberal directives. As secretary of the legation advocating the cause of the Italian league and diet, he was stationed in Rome, Florence, and Turin. The crisis in Pius IX’s policy led him to move to Florence and then to Turin, to the home of the Arconati family; from there, traveling to Stresa, he met Rosmini, who gave him protection and friendship.
Such was Bonghi’s veneration for Rosmini that in 1852 he went to live in Stresa, remaining close to him and attending his death. From his conversations with Rosmini, as well as with Manzoni, Pestalozzi, and Cavour, Bonghi drew the dialogues that he titled *Le stesiane* (1854). He had already published *Lettere sul concetto dell’anima* (1852) and begun a translation of Aristotle’s *Metaphysics*, but he did not persevere in philosophical studies, overwhelmed by the restless nature of his intellect and by political activity, which fully claimed him from 1860 onward, when he returned to Naples and founded *Il Nazionale*, a unitary and monarchist newspaper. From then until 1892 he served as a deputy and held university chairs in Florence, Milan, and Rome, teaching Latin literature, ancient and modern history. From 1866 he was political editor and contributor to *Nuova Antologia*, and in 1880 he founded the journal *Coltura*.
His capacity for work, quick intuition, and eloquence made him the most brilliant polygraph of the century; yet he was more successful in essays, monographs, lectures, and journalism than in long-form works (e.g., *Storia di Roma*, Turin 1883). His early religious formation was strengthened by a profound devotion to Manzoni and Rosmini; yet his liberalism, stirred by a critical temperament, and the polemical circumstances that pitted him against the Holy See’s policy toward Italy, often drove him beyond the bounds of prudence and orthodoxy. His intemperance created difficult situations for him. As rapporteur for the Law of Guarantees (1871), he displayed the rich talents of an intellect more political than juridical: the law, which satisfied neither the absolute principles of liberalism nor those of jurisdictionalism, must in fact be viewed in light of the reformist ideas in Rosmini’s pamphlet *Le cinque piaghe*, and as a temporary expedient toward a reconciliation between Church and State.
As a deputy of the Right and Minister of Education (1874–76), he opposed both anticlericals and Freemasons and those Catholics whom he deemed tied to “temporalism.” He fought for freedom of instruction; he was first a supporter and then an opponent of the abolition of theological faculties in state universities; and in 1876 he ordered—illegally—the closure of the Pontifical University of Rome. In his dealings with the Church, the most deplorable episode was the publication of *Vita di Gesù* (1892), which he had written with good divulgatory intentions but which was riddled with serious errors and consequently placed on the Index (decree of 16 March 1892). On that occasion he wrote a *Lettera a Leone XIII* (1893) in which, deploring the condemnation, he professed himself a Catholic and reaffirmed the view that Church and State must unite in the struggle against subversion and materialism, which he saw as threatening. For this reason he applauded *Rerum novarum*. He opposed the apotheosis of Giordano Bruno in Rome, defying anticlerical students.
In the prefaces to his much-debated translation of Plato’s dialogues, as in countless other publications, one finds vigorous pages on God, immortality, evangelical morality, Christian peace, the indissolubility of marriage, and the splendor of charity. A study of St Francis (1884) marked an interesting anticipation in Franciscan studies. The *Sentenze* (1896), dictated to the pupils of the institute in Anagni, vigorously summarize the principles of Christian and patriotic pedagogy. He founded that institute for the orphans of schoolteachers, and another in Assisi for orphans of soldiers. In his later years, to benefit these colleges, he sold his library. Leo XIII, receiving the pilgrims of Torre del Greco a few days later,