SELLA, QUINTINO. - Italian Minister of Finance, b. at Sella di Mosso (Vercelli) on 7 July 1827, d. at Biella on 14 March 1884. The son of a wool manufacturer, he graduated in engineering at Turin in 1847 and then specialized in mineralogy in Paris.
In 1862 he became Minister of Finance and confronted unpopularity with strict economies and heavy taxes; those on movable wealth and on grain milling provoked particular reactions. A theist in religion, a jurisdictionalist in ecclesiastical policy, he was one of the most representative and at the same time most hostile-to-the-Church members of the last ministries of the Right. In 1870, convinced of a Prussian victory, he opposed an armed intervention, already decided by the Council of Ministers, in favor of France. He was therefore, in the face of Lanza's hesitations and Visconti Venosta's opposition, a decided supporter of the occupation of Rome and of the immediate transfer of the capital. He wished to promote in Rome the cultivation of the sciences. This was to be, in his judgment, the new universal mission of Rome.
SELLA, QUINTINO - Portrait.(by courtesy of Dr. P. Sella)
After the fall of the Right (1876), he promoted the moderate Constitutional Associations and attempted in vain, in June-July 1879 and in Apr. 1881, the formation of a ministry composed of men of the Right and of the Left.
Of him there remain the Discorsi Parlamentari (5 vols., Rome 1887-88), and the Epistolario inedito (Turin 1930). Also important are some of his works on chemical crystallography and mineralogy. He was one of the founders of the Società Geologica Italiana (1881). He founded the Club Alpino Italiano in 1863. He reconstituted the Accademia dei Lincei in 1875.
Bibliography12 worksD. Chiaves, O. S., Turin 1884; A. Guiccioli, O. S., 2 vols., Rovigo 1887-88; C. Negroni, Della vita e dei fatti di O. S., Pinerolo 1888; Nuo
BIBL.: D. Chiaves, O. S., Turin 1884; A. Guiccioli, O. S., 2 vols., Rovigo 1887-88; C. Negroni, Della vita e dei fatti di O. S., Pinerolo 1888; Nuova Antologia, 16 Sept. 1927 (articles by P. Boselli, A. De Stefani, B. Minolotti); F. O. Palermo, O. S. il finanziere, Biella 1927; P. Sella, O. S. nell'apr. 1870, Milan 1928; O. S., pubbl. commem., Turin 1928; F. Grimalci, O. S., Milan 1939; A. Baccelli, Inediti, Lanciano 1940, pp. 289-296; R. Michieli, Le vicende del 1848 in alcune lettere inedite di O. S., in Arcum, 22 (1948), pp. 169-78; A. C. Jemolo, Chiesa e Stato in Italia negli ultimi cento anni, 2nd ed., Turin 1949, pp. 317-22; F. Chabod, Storia della politica estera italiana dal 1870 al 1896, I, Bari 1951, see index.
Fonzi, Fausto. “Sella, quintino.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, coll. 271–272. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953. https://azioneromana.com/article/sella-quintino.
MLA
Fonzi, Fausto. “Sella, quintino.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953, coll. 271–272. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/sella-quintino.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec11_sella_quintino,
author = {Fonzi, Fausto},
title = {Sella, quintino},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {XI},
pages = {271--272},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1953},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/sella-quintino}
}
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