GALECOTTI, LEOPOLDO. — Writer and political figure, born in Pescia on 13 Aug. 1813, died in Florence on 28 Aug. 1884. He is among the most balanced Neo-Guelphs in his pamphlet, published in Paris in 1846, *Della sovranità e del governo temporale dei papi*.
G. opposed the application of French constitutionalism to the Papal States, since legislative power emanating from the people would bring about “a complete transformation of sovereignty, which, while it might be attempted successfully in any other kind of principality, could not, under present conditions, be reconciled with the papacy” (3rd ed. [1849], p. 197); moreover, the Sacred College, transformed into a Senate or Chamber of the Popes, would lose its intrinsic religious sovereignty. The crisis of the Papal States would not derive from the papacy, nor from the Church, nor even from temporal power itself, but solely from clerical government. He proposed the following remedies: the introduction of lay elements into administration, extensive municipal autonomy (drawing on the thought of Teocu-vile, G. emphasized how administrative centralism “serves” the people), the establishment of a consultative principality with the right of petition by citizens, and with rights of promulgation, notification, and accountability.
G. was a member in 1848 of the Tuscan Constituent Assembly; in 1859 he favoured the transfer of Tuscany to the House of Savoy; and in 1874 he was appointed senator of the Kingdom of Italy.