RICASOLI, BETTINO, BARON (1809-1880)

This article appears in Volume V23, Page 288 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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RICASOLI, BETTINO, BARON (1809-1880) , Italian statesman, was born at Broglio on the 19th of March 'Soo. Left an orphan at eighteen, with an estate heavily encumbered, he ' was by

special

SPECIAL

decree of the grand duke of Tuscany declared of age. and
entrusted with the guardianship of his younger brothers. Interrupting his studies, he withdrew to Broglio, and by careful management disencumbered the family possessions. In 1847 he founded the journal La Patria, and addressed to the grand duke a memorial suggesting remedies for the difficulties of the state. In 1848 he was elected Gonfaloniere of Florence, but resigned on account of the

anti

ANTI, or CAMPA

-Liberal tendencies of the grand duke. As Tuscan minister of the interior in 1859 he promoted the union of Tuscany with Piedmont, which took place on the 12th of March 186o. Elected Italian deputy in 1861, he succeeded Cavour in the premiership. As premier he admitted the Garibaldian volunteers to the regular army, revoked the decree of

exile

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

against Mazzini, and attempted reconciliation with the Vatican; but his efforts were rendered ineffectual by the non possumus of the

pope

. Disdainful of the intrigues of his rival Rattazzi, he found himself obliged in 1862 to resign office, but returned to power in 1866. On this occasion he refused

Napoleon

NAPOLEON

III.'s offer to cede Venetia to Italy, on

condition

CONDITION (Lat. condicio, from condicere, to agree upon, arrange; not connected with conditio, from condere, conditum, to put together)

that Italy should abandon the Prussian alliance, and also refused the Prussian decoration of the Black Eagle because Lamarmora, author of the alliance, was not to receive it. Upon the departure of the French troops from Rome at the end of 1866 he again attempted to conciliate the Vatican with a convention, in virtue of which Italy would have restored to the Church the property of the suppressed religious orders in return for the

gradual

GRADUAL (Med. Lat. gradualis, of or belonging to steps or degrees; gradus, step)

payment of 24,000,000. - In order to mollify the Vatican he conceded the exequatur to

forty

FORTY

-five bishops inimical to the Italian regime. The Vatican accepted his proposal, but the Italian Chamber proved refractory, and, though dissolved by Ricasoli, returned more hostile than before. Without waiting for a vote, Ricasoli resigned office and thenceforward practically disappeared from political life, speaking in the Chamber only upon rare occasions. He died at Broglio on the 23rd of October 1880. His private life and public career were marked by the utmost integrity, and by a rigid austerity which earned him the,name of the "iron baron." In spite of the failure of his ecclesiastical

scheme

SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)

, he remains one of the most noteworthy figures of the Italian
Risorgimento.
See Tabarrini and Gotti, Lettere e documenti del barone Bettino
Ricasoli, Yo vols. (Florence, 18861894) ; Passerini, Genealogia
e storia della famiglia Ricasoli (ibid. 1861); Gotti, Vita del barone
Bettino Ricasoli (ibid. 1894). (H. W. S.)

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