NATIONAL REVIEW. - A cultural periodical, founded in Florence on 1 July 1879, with a precise stance, as the expression of the conservative element, held to be better suited to combating the godlessness of part of the press and to guiding consciences toward the serious benefit of the homeland.
Monthly at first, it soon became bimonthly, then returned to monthly in its last years. An important organ of Italian culture in every field: literature, philosophy and religion, it distinguished itself through essays and historical, artistic and critical studies; but above all in seeking to promote and reinvigorate the Catholic and at the same time liberal tendencies and forces of Italy. Augusto Conti set out its program, and among its contributors were some of the most authoritative figures, such as E. Pistelli, F. Tocco, G. Lasinio, F. Scerbo, G. Mazzoni, F. Ramorino, F. Crispolti, S. Rumor, S. Giovannozzi, etc. In the political sphere it concerned itself especially with supporting the participation of Catholics in the political life of the nation and with advocating the solution of the Roman Question (by paths not always correct, as in the case of Msgr. Bonomelli [v.]), and in the religious sphere it sought to promote a certain accord between science and faith, which, however, required a mobile and progressive Catholicism, such as, for example, that expressed by A. Fogazzaro in his novels.
In 1922 the R. moved to Rome and began to detach itself gradually from its original program in order to embrace new paths, which little by little made it a publication quite different from what it had been before. It ceased to appear in 1944.