ZUCCHINI, GAETANO. - Politician, born in Bologna on 6 August 1860, died there on 1 March 1882.
Noted for his numerous publications on agricultural, economic, and social topics and for the impetus he gave to agriculture and industry in Emilia, in 1848 he assumed the office of senator (i.e., mayor) of Bologna. He exercised his functions with deep tact during the difficult period faced by the city (Austrian occupation, the insurrection of 8 August, etc.) and was called to serve on the extraordinary commission for the four Legations established at that time. He resigned from the commission itself and from the Supreme State Council, in which he had likewise been included, the day after the assassination of Pellegrino Rossi and the Pope’s departure for Gaeta, in order not to fail in the oath of loyalty he had sworn to the Sovereign. After the restoration of papal authority, Pius IX expressed his gratitude by conferring on him the comital title and frequently availed himself of his deep expertise for the development of industry in the Papal States. Among other things, he represented the papal government at the international railway congress in Vienna. A man of profound piety, widely generous, and deeply devoted to the civic issues of his Bologna, he spent the last years of his life in blindness, which he faced with Christian resignation.