Torelli, Giuseppe

TORELLI, GIUSEPPE. - Journalist and politician, b. at Recetto Novarese on 13 Dec. 1816, d. at Turin on 25 Apr. 1866.

He began his literary career by polemicizing with Felice Romani, who then dominated the literary world of Turin. Together with Giacomo Durando, he took part in the founding of the Opinione and directed in Milan, in 1848, the Gazzetta ufficiale 22 Marzo. He then published, under the pseudonym of Ciro d'Arco, the Lettere politiche, aimed at combating the democratic party. They appeared in the Risorgimento, of which T. then assumed the direction; in 1852 he went on to direct the Gazzetta ufficiale. A declared opponent of the Cavourian connubio with the center-left, he left the Gazzetta when Rattazzi became Minister of the Interior. He then gave life to a new weekly, Il Cronista, to which d'Azeglio, Collegno and Galeotti contributed. Elected three times as deputy in the constituencies of Intra and Correggio, he sat in Parliament among the moderates and there defended, in 1861, against Cavour, the ideas expressed in the Azeglian pamphlet Questioni urgenti. He began the reorganization of d'Azeglio's Miei ricordi, of whom he was a collaborator and friend.

Among his writings should be remembered: Ruperto d'Isola, Soliloquio d'una mosca, Lettere politiche, Paesaggi e profili, Ricordi politici, and the novel Ettore Santo.