FABBRI, ODOARDO. - Scholar and patriot, b. at Cesena on 13 Oct. 1778, d. there on 7 Oct. 1853.
He entered public life with the Cisalpine Republic and then under the Italian Republic and the Kingdom of Italy; he supported Murat in the unfortunate attempt of 1815 and was appointed vice-prefect of Cesena. Accused of conspiracy against the papal government, he was involved in the Rivarola trial and sentenced to life imprisonment. The sentence was later commuted to ten years of confinement, and F. was transferred to Civitacantilana, from where he was freed by the insurgents of '51. Having returned to Cesena, he served there as vice-prefect until the Austrian intervention; he then took refuge in Ancona and later in San Marino.
Amnestied after two years, he returned to his studies, until Pius IX appointed him in 1848 prolegate of Pesaro and Urbino and on 2 Aug. charged him with forming a ministry, which lasted forty days: on 16 Sept. F. was replaced by Pellegrino Rossi. Sincerely devoted to Pius IX, he sought, during the brief period of his government, to reconcile the rights of the Apostolic See with the new liberal ideas, and the Pope accepted his resignation most reluctantly, when F. realized the futility of his efforts. During the Roman Republic of '49 he was a municipal councillor of his native city, where he then spent the last years of his life as a private citizen.
He left some mediocre tragedies and an interesting diary, of which the period from 15 Dec. 1824, the date of his arrest, to Feb. 1831 was published, under the title Sei omni e due mesi della mia vita (Rome 1915).