LA CIVILTÀ CATTOLICA
Quarterly journal of culture, published by the Italian Jesuits. The Jesuits had already envisaged a periodical publication aimed at imparting a healthy orthodox direction to modern civilization before 1848; however, the suppression of the Society of Jesus in Italy and the political events of the time thwarted the project. Father Carlo Curci, a Neapolitan (1810–91) and a combative opponent of Gioberti, returned to Italy at the end of 1849 with a concrete and well-considered plan in all its details. Through Cardinal Antonelli, at Portici, he presented it to Pius IX, who received it enthusiastically and insisted on its prompt implementation, also providing the initial financial means. Curci gathered around him a select group of collaborators, including Father Luigi Taparelli d’Azeglio, already renowned for his *Saggio teoretico*; the man of letters Antonio Bresciani; Matteo Liberatore, philosopher; Giovan Battista Pianciani, scientist; and others.
The first issue of *La Civiltà Cattolica* appeared in Naples on 6 April 1850, featuring a programmatic article by Curci, others by Taparelli and Liberatore, and the first installment of Bresciani’s novel *L’Ebreo di Verona*. By intertwining romantic plot with the great events of the day, the novel aroused immense interest and was the principal factor in the rapid and widespread success of the new journal. The success was such that the first volume had to be reprinted up to eight times; subscribers at the end of the first quarter already numbered 6,307 and soon rose to 11,800. The external format and arrangement of material (articles, review of the press, and contemporary news; bibliographies were introduced in 1856; the novel appeared intermittently) have remained more or less unchanged. Until 1933, authors wrote anonymously; from that year onward, articles have been signed.
Curci remained, at least nominally, editor until 1864; however, as early as 1861 he began to lean toward new political orientations and gradually distanced himself from the journal he had founded. After leaving the Society in 1877, he even began to attack it in virulent writings. *La Civiltà Cattolica* presented itself as an organ destined to restore civilization—since the 15th century tainted by heterodox influences—to its original and legitimate Christian and Catholic sources; hence the title. Politically, it professed respect for every form of legitimate government, including representative ones. In practice, however, it soon subjected constitutional governments and modern democratic forms to relentless criticism as infected by heterodoxy. Thus, while it incurred the wrath of Ferdinand II of Naples, who banned the journal from his kingdom, it also became exceedingly unpopular with the liberal governments of the time, especially in Piedmont. Farini launched the Turin-based journal *Il Cimento* (1852–1856) as an antidote to *La Civiltà Cattolica*: Bertrando Spaventa refuted its doctrines in articles later collected by G. Gentile in a volume (*La politica dei Gesuiti*, Rome 1908); and Francesco de Sanctis published a famous demolition of Bresciani’s novel in its pages.
In October 1850, *La Civiltà Cattolica* moved to Rome and, after other temporary locations, settled in the Palazzo dei Convertendi at Scossacavalli (now the Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Church on Via della Conciliazione). After the occupation of Rome in 1870, it had to emigrate but reappeared shortly thereafter in Florence; it returned to Rome in 1877 to Via Ripetta, where it still resides. It possesses a richly stocked library, a valuable archive, its own printing press, and a publishing house. Today the work is supported by a society of friends spread throughout the peninsula, linked by a special organ titled *Gli Amici della Civiltà Cattolica*. At present, the journal has about 20,000 subscribers, the highest number reached to date.
The history of *La Civiltà Cattolica* is closely tied to the religious, moral, and political life of the past century: it has not remained aloof from any of the major events that have unfolded. Just as one seeking information on great religious developments (the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, papal infallibility, the Syllabus, the Vatican Council, Americanism, Modernism, the condemnation of *Action Française*, the Lateran Concordat, etc.) would find valuable sources of information within its pages, so too the historian of the Risorgimento or of Italian national life cannot dispense with consulting its political articles and its richly detailed chronicles, which serve as a kind of continuous documentation and critical commentary. The restoration of the doctrines of St. Thomas Aquinas and of sacred music owe much to the persistent and tenacious efforts of members of *La Civiltà Cattolica*: the first to Taparelli and Liberatore, the second to A. De Santi.
The Holy See has honored the journal with repeated public expressions of trust and esteem. Pius IX in 1866 constituted its editorial staff as a special college; Leo XIII in 1890 gave it a more defined character and assigned it among its proper tasks the defense and propagation of the Angelic Doctor’s teachings. Its faithful adherence to the directives of the Holy See and the inspired nature of some of its publications confer upon *La Civiltà Cattolica* high authority not only in Italy but throughout the entire Catholic world.
Among those who have always contributed to its editorial staff are eminent figures in various branches of learning, including, for juridical and moral sciences: Taparelli d’Azeglio (1793–1862) and Salvatore Brandi (1852–1915); for theoretical philosophy: Matteo Liberatore (1810–92), Giovanni Cornoldi (1822–92), and Giovanni Busnelli (1866–1944); for historical sciences: Raffaele Garrucci (1812–81), Giuseppe Brunengo (1821–91), Hartmann Griser (1845–1932), Ilario Rinieri (1833–1941); for Christian art: Carlo Bricarelli (1857–1931); for the history of ancient peoples: Antonio De Cara (1835–1905); among Dante scholars: Francesco Berardinelli (1816–93), Cornoldi, and Busnelli; among apologists, polemicists, and polygraphs: Gaetano Zocchi (1846–1912), Angelo De Santi (1847–1922), Enrico Rosa (1870–1938), Mario Barbera (1877–1947); in narrative art: Antonio Bresciani (1798–1862), Raffaele Ballerini (1830–1907), Giovanni Giuseppe Franco (1824–1908), De Santi, Barbera; in social and economic sciences: Matteo Liberatore and Antonio Pavissich (1851–1913).
Printed analytical and synthetic indices exist for series or periods of years up to 1940; there is also a general index for the years 1850–1903. A general index for the first 100 years (1850–1949) is in preparation, in which authors’ names are indicated by initials. For individual editors, see obituary notices in *La Civiltà Cattolica* and in Sommervogel (under individual names). A complete and exhaustive monograph is still lacking.