FARINI, LUIGI CARLO. – Physician and statesman, born at Russi on 22 October 1812, died at Quarto on 1 August 1866.
A medical student at Bologna, he took part in the uprisings of 1831; thereafter, for several years, he devoted himself chiefly to medicine. His works on pellagra, malarial fevers, and rice fields attracted European attention.
In 1845 he played a part in the events at Rimini (the well-known proclamation calling on the pontifical government to reform the state administration was probably his), and the following year the new pope, Pius IX, appointed him secretary-general of the Ministry of the Interior, entrusting him with the preparation of health legislation. In 1848 he was in Piedmont, at Carlo Alberto’s headquarters, on an official mission; then he became deputy for Russi and Ravenna and subsequently director-general of Public Health under the Rossi ministry. F. did not join the Roman Republic and went to settle in Turin, where he wrote a Storia dello Stato romano dal 1815 al 1850 from a liberal-moderate standpoint, though not without inaccuracies and anticlerical elements. Having taken Sardinian citizenship, he was elected to the Subalpine Chamber and became a follower of Cavour, who, on becoming minister, entrusted him with the direction of the Risorgimento; he in turn entered the d’Azeglio ministry, with the portfolio of Education. From 1852 to 1859 he took little part in public affairs, returning to his historical studies; but during the Second War of Independence Cavour sent him as the king’s commissioner to Modena after the flight of the Este sovereign. Following the Armistice of Villafranca, and in agreement with Cavour, he did not leave Modena but had himself proclaimed dictator there, subsequently extending his powers over all Emilia. He thus prepared the plebiscites and the annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia. Minister of the Interior in 1860, he embarked on a broad legislative plan based on regional autonomy, which he interrupted in order to go to Napoleon III and secure his consent to the occupation of the Marches and Umbria, and then to follow Victor Emmanuel II in the brief autumn campaign. As the king’s lieutenant in Naples, he did not achieve the results of his Emilian dictatorship and preferred to withdraw. After Aspromonte he was charged with forming the new government, but remained in office only briefly, his health by then seriously weakened: in March 1863 he handed power over to Minghetti, and after more than three years of suffering he died at barely fifty-four. His correspondence was published under the editorship of L. Rava.
BIBLI. V. Bersezio. L. C. F., Turin 1861; G. Badiali, L. C. F., Ravenna 1878; G. Silingardi, L. C. F. a Modena, Modena 1881; L. Messedaglia, L. C. F. medico, Verona 1912; id. a L. Rava, La giovinezza di un dittatore: L. C. F., Rome 1914. For the more recent bibliography, G. Prezzolini, Repertorio bibliografico... dal 1923 di 1942, I, New York 1946, p. 211; II, ibid. 1948, p. 320. Renzo U. Montini