BORTOLUCCI, GIOVANNI

BORTOLUCCI, GIOVANNI. - Politician, b. 6 Aug. 1819 at Pavullo nel Frignano, d. 6 March 1900 at Bologna. After completing his early schooling at the seminary of Fiumalbo, he graduated in civil and canon law at Reggio Emilia. In 1848 he was director of police for the provisional government of the Modenese provinces. In 1859 he was a deputy to the Modenese Constituent Assembly, and in 1865 he was sent to the Italian Parliament, where he represented the constituency of Frignano for six legislatures, until 1882. Convinced that there could be no liberty without morality, and that religion was the firmest foundation of the latter, he was in the Chamber one of the so-called liberal Catholics, together with D'Ondes Reggio, Cantù, and others. In 1870 he spoke in opposition to the enterprise that led to the breach of Porta Pia. In 1879 he opposed the bill introduced by the Minister of Justice Toiani requiring civil marriage to precede religious marriage. He was prosecuted because, as a magistrate, he had presumed to attack, in Modena’s Diritto Cattolico, the bill introduced by Mancini against abuses by the clergy. In the judiciary he attained the rank of counsellor of the court of appeal, an office he held at Bologna until his retirement.

Silvio Furlani