TANUCCI, BERNARDO. — Statesman, b. at Stia (Arezzo) on 20 February 1698, d. near Naples on 29 April 1783. Professor of law at Pisa, he followed Carlo di Borbone to the Kingdom of Naples, where he became Secretary of State for Grace and Justice and, subsequently, for Foreign Affairs and the Royal Household.
He devoted considerable attention to the administration of justice through the Giunta dei Tribunali and also attempted to improve the functioning of the baronial courts (1738). He proposed providing the Kingdom with an organic code of laws, but the initiative failed because of court intrigues. He promoted the reform of the university, abolishing chairs in disciplines by then considered useless and establishing seven new ones.
Although T., contrary to the prevailing principles and tendencies, proved rather sceptical regarding the effects of reforms, his efforts, aimed at preventing abuses and strengthening royal power, nevertheless represented an undeniable and considerable advance for the Kingdom. He was particularly concerned with limiting ecclesiastical power, but his action was guided not by irreligiousness, but by his political conceptions, which at times made relations between Church and State extremely difficult. Although a Concordat had been concluded with Rome in 1741, to which T. himself had contributed greatly, the first disagreements arose in 1746, provoked by the attempt to introduce the Inquisition into the country.
But the full-scale struggle began after Carlo di Borbone’s departure, when he was called to the throne of Spain: his younger son Ferdinando remained in the Kingdom of Naples. T. then (1759) extended his power and was placed over the secretariat of ecclesiastical affairs, held by Carlo De Marco, his protégé, who shared his views. Carlo III, however, although he continued to take an interest in the affairs of the Kingdom during the regency, was always reluctant to display excessive hostility toward the Curia, as he had been during his stay in Naples, and limited himself to adopting a platonically favourable attitude. In 1759 the question was raised of the churches under royal patronage, one of the most important disputes with the pontifical government. The two powers, secular and ecclesiastical, disputed the right to judge questions concerning the entitlement to benefices of such churches. By two laws, in 1759 and 1762, T. decided that in these cases judgment belonged to the secular courts. Another law (1762) established that ecclesiastical beneficiaries were obliged to distribute one third of their revenues to the needy, and that the treasury should supervise the execution of the law through laymen.
In 1763 T. assumed direction of the Kingdom’s entire policy. He stood alongside the other Bourbon states in the struggle against the Jesuits, which culminated in their expulsion from the country. He retained his authority even after the Sovereign had reached adulthood; he was forced to leave the government in 1776 because of the different political orientation of Ferdinando’s wife, the Austrian archduchess Maria Carolina. T. was responsible for initiating the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum; he headed the Accademia Ercolanense, established in 1758.
GIUSEPPE CONIGLIO