TORELLI, GIUSEPPE. - Journalist and politician, born at Recetto Novarese on 13 Dec. 1816, died at Torino on 25 Apr. 1866.
He began his literary career by engaging in controversy with Felice Romani, who then dominated the Turin literary world. Together with Giacomo Durando, he took part in founding the Opinione and, in 1848, edited the Gazzetta ufficiale 22 Marzo in Milano. He subsequently published, under the pseudonym Ciro d'Arco, the Lettere politiche, intended to combat the democratic party. They appeared in the Risorgimento, of which T. later assumed the editorship; in 1852 he became editor of the Gazzetta ufficiale. An avowed opponent of Cavour’s alliance with the centre-left, he left the Gazzetta when Rattazzi became Minister of the Interior. He then founded a new weekly, Il Cronista, to which d'Azeglio, Collegno, and Galeotti contributed. Elected deputy three times for the constituencies of Intra and Correggio, he sat in Parliament among the moderates and, in 1861, defended there, against Cavour, the ideas expressed in d'Azeglio’s pamphlet Questioni urgenti. He began the reorganization of d'Azeglio’s Miei ricordi, of which he had been collaborator and friend.
Among his writings should be noted: Ruperto d'Isola, Soliloquio d'una mosca, Lettere politiche, Paesaggi e profili, Ricordi politici, and the novel Ettore Santo.