RADICATI, ALBERTO. – Count of Passerano and Cocconato, born in Turin in 1698, died at The Hague on 24 October 1734. For several years he was an adviser to Vittorio Amedeo II on all questions concerning ecclesiastical policy, which he approached according to the principles of a rigorous jurisdictionalism. This attitude, when an agreement was reached between the papal government and that of Turin, forced him to leave his homeland, taking refuge first in London and subsequently in Holland, where he spent the final years of his life.
In his works, especially in the Recueil des pièces curieuses sur les matières les plus intéressantes (Rotterdam 1736), he reasserts the ideal of the ancient Christian Church as the sole model capable of inspiring a genuine reform of ecclesiastical institutions, and develops a democratic conception understood as the demand for the absolute equality of all human beings (abolition of the family, communal ownership of property, etc.). Among R.’s other works are: History of abdication of Victor Amédée II (London 1732); A philosophical dissertation upon death (ibid. 1732); Twelve discourses concerning religion and government inscribed to all lovers of truth and liberty (ibid. 1734).