ZUCCHINI, GAETANO. - Politician, born in Bologna on 6 Aug. 1806, died there on 1 March 1882.
Having distinguished himself through numerous publications on agricultural, economic, and social subjects, and through the impetus he gave to agriculture and industry in Emilia, he obtained in 1848 the office of senator (that is, mayor) of Bologna. He exercised his functions with profound tact during the difficult period through which the city passed (Austrian occupation, the insurrection of 8 Aug., etc.), and was called to serve on the Extraordinary Commissariat for the four Legations established at that time. He resigned from the Commissariat itself and from the Supreme Council of State, to which he had likewise been appointed, on the day after the assassination of Pellegrino Rossi and the departure of the Pontiff for Gaeta, so as not to fail in the oath of loyalty sworn to the Sovereign. Restored to his dominions, Pio IX expressed his gratitude to him by conferring upon him the title of count, and by frequently availing himself of his profound expertise for the development of industries in the Papal States. Among other things, he represented the papal government at the International Railway Congress in Vienna. A man of deep piety, generously munificent, and devoted to the civic concerns of his Bologna, he spent the last years of his life in blindness, which he faced with Christian resignation.