LIVERANI, FRANCESCO. — Writer and polemicist, born at Castel Bolognese on 22 Feb. 1823, died at Cortona on 28 Feb. 1894. Author of works of sacred and profane erudition, published in 5 vols. 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 (Florence 1861), in which he argued that the Pope should renounce temporal power and come to an agreement with the Italian State.
This volume appeared at the same time as the noted mission of Fr. C. Passaglia, whom the Count of 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-papal writings, L. defended him in another volume, La dottrina cattolica e la rivoluzione italiana (ibid. 1862), boldly asserting that the Pope had no right to impose canonical sanctions in political matters. Having at first refused to retract, though he later did so extensively, he was stripped of all his offices and dignities and retired into private life, devoting himself to historical studies, among which deserve mention a Spicilegium Liberianum (ibid. 1863) and especially an erudite volume on Il ducato e le antichità longobarde e saliche di Chiusi (Siena 1872). He also compiled a substantial collection of unpublished Reminiscenze of great historical value, preserved in the municipal library of Imola.