LIVERANI, FRANCESCO. — Writer and polemicist, born at Castel Bolognese on 22 February 1823, died at Cortona on 28 February 1894. The author of works of sacred and profane erudition, published in five volumes in 1858–59, L. had pursued a brilliant career in the Roman prelature when he published a vigorously polemical book: Il Papato, l'Impero e il Regno d'Italia (Firenze 1861), arguing that the Pope ought to renounce temporal power and reach an agreement with the Italian State.
This volume appeared at the same time as the well-known mission of Fr. C. Passaglia, whom Conte di Cavour had sent to Rome in the hope of resolving the Roman question peacefully. When the attempt failed and Passaglia incurred ecclesiastical censures for his anti-temporal-power writings, L. took up his defense in another volume, La dottrina cattolica e la rivoluzione italiana (ibid. 1862), boldly asserting that the Pontiff had no right to impose canonical sanctions in political matters. Having initially refused to retract his views, though he subsequently did so at length, he was deprived of all his offices and dignities and withdrew into private life, devoting himself to historical studies. Among these, an Spicilegium Liberianum (ibid. 1863) and, above all, a learned volume on Il ducato e le antichità longobarde e zaliche di Chiusi (Siena 1872) deserve mention. He also left a substantial collection of Reminescenze inedite, of great historical value, preserved in the Municipal Library of Imola.