LUIGI CARLO FARINI. — Physician and statistician, b. at Russi on 22 Oct. 1812, d. at Quarto on 1 Aug. 1866.
A medical student in Bologna, he took part in the “3x” uprisings; then for several years he devoted himself chiefly to medicine. His works on pellagra, malarial fevers and rice fields won European renown.
In 1845 he played a part in the events at Rimini (it was probably he who raised the celebrated protest demanding reform of the papal government’s administration), 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 sanitary legislation. In ’48 he was in Piedmont, at Charles Albert’s headquarters, on an official mission; then deputy for Russi and Ravenna and subsequently director-general of Public Health under the ministry of Rossi. F. did not adhere to the Roman Republic and went to settle in Turin, where he wrote a History of the Roman State from 1815 to 1850 in a liberal-moderate sense, though not without inaccuracies and anticlerical touches. Having assumed Sardinian citizenship, he was deputy to the Subalpine Chamber and a follower of Cavour, who, on becoming minister, entrusted him with the direction of the Risorgimento; to enter the d’Azeglio ministry in turn, with the portfolio of Education. From 1852 to ’59 he took little part in public affairs, returning to his historical studies; but Cavour, during the second war of independence, sent him as royal commissioner to Modena after the flight of the Este sovereign. Following the armistice of Villafranca, in agreement with Cavour he did not leave Modena but had himself proclaimed dictator, thereby extending his powers over the whole of Emilia. He thus prepared the plebiscites and the annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia. Minister of the Interior in 1860, he undertook a vast legislative plan based on regional autonomy, which he interrupted to go to Napoleon III to secure his consent to the occupation of the Marches and Umbria and then to follow Victor Emmanuel II in the brief Aurunian campaign. As lieutenant of the king in Naples, failing to achieve the results of his Emilian dictatorship, he preferred to retire. After Aspromonte he was entrusted with forming the new government, but took little part in it owing to his failing health: in March 1869 he handed over power to Minghetti, and after more than three years of suffering he died at barely fifty-four. His correspondence was published by L. Rava.