GALLETTI, GIUSEPPE. - Statesman, b. in Bologna on 11 Aug. 1798, d. there on 26 July 1873.
A conspirator in 1821, he became known through the events of 1831, and was thereafter one of the most influential leaders of Emilian liberalism. Arrested and tried in 1844, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The amnesty of '46 restored him to liberty, and two years later Pius IX called him into the Recchi-Antonelli ministry.
Having won wide popularity, he took part almost uninterruptedly in the successive cabinets, maintaining an uncertain and wavering stance between the contending parties, so that he even appeared devious in the events that preceded and followed Pius IX's departure for Gaeta. He presided over the Constituent Assembly of '49 and was for a short time chief of the general staff of the Roman Republic with the rank of general. Nevertheless Oudinot intended to make use of him, but G. refused and left as an exile for Sardinia, where he occupied himself with mining problems. Viewed with disfavour by moderates and radicals alike, he was ostentatiously left aside until 1866, when the electors of Poggio Mirteto sent him to the Italian Chamber for the very brief duration of the IX legislature. Having fallen in the subsequent elections, he lived his last years in Bologna, holding administrative offices of secondary importance.
Bibliography
Renzo U. Montini