FERRETTI, PIETRO. - Economist and politician, b. in Ancona on 15 July 1790, d. in Florence on 1 Apr. 1858. Brother of Card. Gabriele and cousin of Pio IX, he held various political offices in his youth. In 1831 he took part in the provisional government of Ancona, after which he went into exile in Marseilles and then in Geneva, in severe poverty.
Having subsequently moved to Naples, to join his brother, who headed that nunciature, he followed him to Rome in 1847, when Gabriele became Secretary of State, and at that time rendered valuable services to the papal government. In 1848 he was recalled to Naples as deputy and Minister of Finance, for which he underwent criminal proceedings upon the Bourbon absolutist restoration; although acquitted, he was nevertheless denied residence in the kingdom, and therefore had to settle in Florence, where he devoted himself, with little success, to commercial enterprises.
Bound in friendship with Mazzini, Pellegrino Rossi, and Capponi, he died on the eve of taking up residence in London, where he had been offered a brilliant position.