Giuseppe Zanardelli

Early life

Giuseppe Zanardelli was born in Brescia (Lombardy) on 29 October 1826. He was a combatant in the volunteer corps during the First Italian War of Independence of 1848 between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia, within the era of Italian unification (Risorgimento). After the lost battle of Novara he went to Pisa to study law, and he returned to Brescia to become a barrister. For a time earned a livelihood by teaching law, but was molested by the Austrian police and forbidden to teach in consequence of his refusal to contribute pro-Austrian articles to the press.

In 1859 he was forced to flee to Switzerland. He moved to Lugano, but returned in time to organize the insurrection of Brescia in the Second Italian War of Independence and welcomed Giuseppe Garibaldi in the city. Enlisted in the Cacciatori delle Alpi (Hunters of the Alps), he remained in the area until the armistice of Villafranca. With the annexation of Lombardy to Piedmont, he was elected to Parliament in Turin.

Elected deputy in 1859, he received various administrative appointments, but only attained a political office in 1876 when the Left, of which he had been a prominent and influential member, came into power.

In government

In 1876 he became Minister of Public Works in the first government of Agostino Depretis, and Minister of the Interior in the government of Benedetto Cairoli in 1878.

Overthrown with Cairoli in December 1878, he returned to power as Minister of Justice in 1881 with the Depretis government, and succeeded in completing the commercial code. He also was the architect of the electoral reform in 1892 which lowered the voting age from 25 to 21, and reduced the minimum tax threshold for voting or allowed an elementary school certificate.

Abandoned awhile by Depretis in 1883, he remained in opposition until 1887, when he again joined Depretis as Minister of Justice, retaining his portfolio throughout the ensuing government of Francesco Crispi, until 31 January 1891. During this period he began the reform of the magistracy and promulgated a new penal code, which unified penal legislation in Italy, abolished capital punishment and recognised the workers right to strike. The code was regarded as a great work by contemporary European jurists.

After the fall of the government of Giovanni Giolitti in 1893, Zanardelli made a strenuous but unsuccessful attempt to form an administration. Elected president of the chamber in 1894 and 1896, he exercised that office with ability until, in December 1897, he accepted the Ministry of Justice in the government of Antonio di Rudinì, only to resign in the following spring on account of dissensions with his colleague, Emilio, marquis Visconti-Venosta, over the measures necessary to prevent a recurrence of the Bava-Beccaris massacre of May 1898.

Prime minister

Returning to the presidency of the chamber, he again abandoned his post in order to associate himself with the obstructionist campaign against the Public Safety Bill (1899–1900) restricting political activity and free speech, which was introduced by the government of general Luigi Pelloux. Giolitti became Minister of the Interior in the administration of Zanardelli, and became its real head.

Zanardelli focused his attention on the issue of the South: in September 1902 he undertook a journey through Basilicata, as one of the poorest regions in Italy, to see for himself the problems in the Mezzogiorno. Zanardelli tenure was handicapped by his declining health, but some social reforms were passed, such as a law for reducing the tax on flour, and laws regulating workmen’s compensation and the labour of women and children, and provisions were made for the treatment of poor people affected by malaria.

In 1902, a law was passed that set the minimum working age at 12, while also limiting the working day for female workers to 11 hours. That same year, a Supreme Council of Labour was set up as an advisory body "to examine labour issues and to give its opinion on proposed legislation." A law introduced on 21 June 1902 authorized the establishment of an agricultural credit institution in Lazio with the power to grant short- and long-term agricultural credit in that province. During his tenure, law no. 254 was passed on 31 May 1903, aimed at improving living conditions for workers and to control housing speculation, with the establishment of a Public Housing Institute (Istituto per la Case Popolari). The law was also known as the Luzzatti law, since it was introduced by the deputy Luigi Luzzatti, a member of the opposition at that time.

However, his proposed divorce bill, although voted in the chamber, had to be withdrawn on account of the strong opposition of the country. He retired from the administration on 21 October 1903 due to his declining health, and Giolitti succeeded him as Prime Minister. Tired and ill, he died in Maderno on 26 December 1903.

In popular culture

On 15 September 1902, Zanardelli stayed at the Imperial Hotel Tramontano, owned by the Commendator Guglielmo Baron Tramontano of Sorrento, who was also the mayor of the city Sorrento. Baron Guglielmo Tramontano asked the musician brothers Giambattista and Ernesto De Curtis to compose and write a song in honour of Zanardelli, and the result became the famous Neapolitan song "Torna a Surriento" (Come Back to Sorrento).

Honours

• Kingdom of Prussia: Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle – August 1902 – during the visit to Germany of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.
• Ottoman Empire: Grand Cordon of the Order of Osmanieh – September 1902 – during the visit to Constantinople of an Italian Regia Marina squadron.
• France: Grand Cross of the Légion d'Honneur – November 1902 – ″in testimony of the good relations between France and Italy″.

References

Sources

• Clark, Martin (2008). Modern Italy: 1871 to the present, Third Edition, London/New York: Routledge,
• De Grand, Alexander J. (2001). The hunchback's tailor: Giovanni Giolitti and liberal Italy from the challenge of mass politics to the rise of fascism, 1882–1922, Greenwood.
• Giolitti, Giovanni (1923). Memoirs of My Life (translated by Edward Storer). London: Chapman and Dodd Ltd.
• Mazzola, Ettore Maria (2016). The sustainable city is possible: A possible strategy for recovering urban quality and local economies. Rome: Gangemi Editore
• Sarti, Roland (2004). Italy: a reference guide from the Renaissance to the present, New York: Facts on File Inc.,
• Seton-Watson, Christopher (1967). Italy from liberalism to fascism, 1870–1925, New York: Taylor & Francis,
• Vecchi, Giovanni (2017). Measuring Wellbeing: A History of Italian Living Standards, New York, NY: Oxford University Press

References

1. De Grand, ''The hunchback's tailor'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=21-X5zzkCrsC&pg=PA17 p. 17]
2. Seton-Watson, ''Italy from liberalism to fascism'', pp. 47–48
3. [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1903/12/27/105071559.pdf Signor Zanardelli Dead; Ex-Premier of Italy Was Seventy-four Years Old], ''The New York Times'', 27 December 1903
4. {{in lang. it [http://storia.camera.it/presidenti/zanardelli-giuseppe#nav Biografia Giuseppe Zanardeli], Camera dei deputati, portale storico
5. {{EB1911
6. (4 January 2017). "Zanardelli commemoration by Lodge 'Leonessa Arnaldo'".
7. In the latter capacity, he drafted the franchise reform, but created dissatisfaction by the indecision of his administrative acts, particularly in regard to the [[Irredentism
8. Seton-Watson. ''Italy from liberalism to fascism'', p. 131
9. "[http://www.archiviolastampa.it/component/option,com_lastampa/task,search/mod,libera/Itemid,3,/action,viewer/page,1/articleid,1234_01_1893_0339_0001_18451646/ Zanardelli rinuncia il mandato]". ''La Stampa''. 8 December 1893.
10. Seton-Watson. ''Italy from liberalism to fascism'', pp. 191–92
11. Sarti, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=xhoLorFC1iwC&pg=PA46 Italy: a reference guide from the Renaissance to the present]'', pp. 46–48
12. {{in lang. it "[https://zanardelliviaggio.wordpress.com/ Zanardelli: il viaggio in Basilicata]". Access date: 8 September 2016.
13. "[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1902/10/01/102632675.pdf Aid for Southern Italy; Premier Zanardelli Promises Two Railways to the Province of Basilicata]". ''The New York Times''. 1 October 1902
14. Giolitti (1923). ''Memoirs of My Life'', [https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.7778/page/155/mode/1up pp. 155–156]
15. Vecchi, Giovanni (2017), ''Measuring Wellbeing'', [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Measuring_Wellbeing/gxvGDQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=zanardelli+government+to+pass+law+no.+242+of+19+June+1902&pg=PA147&printsec=frontcover147 p. 147]
16. Clark (2008), ''Modern Italy: 1871 to the present'', [https://archive.org/details/modernitaly1871t0000clar/page/165/mode/1up p. 165]
17. Clark (2008), ''Modern Italy: 1871 to the present'', [https://archive.org/details/modernitaly1871t0000clar/page/166/mode/1up p. 166]
18. (1935). "Agricultural Credit in Italy". [[Economic Research Service.
19. Mazzola (2016), ''The sustainable city is possible'', [https://www.google.com/books/edition/La_citt%C3%A0_sostenibile_%C3%A8_possibile_The_s/7a5qCwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Luzzatti+law+31+May+1903+Italy&pg=PA52&printsec=frontcover p. 52]
20. Clark (2008), ''Modern Italy: 1871 to the present'', [https://archive.org/details/modernitaly1871t0000clar/page/196/mode/1up pp. 196–197]
21. "[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1903/10/22/104914940.pdf Italian Cabinet Resigns; Its Action Not the Result of the Political Situation but of the Premier's Failing Health]". ''The New York Times''. 22 October 1903.
22. (29 August 1902). "Latest intelligence – The King of Italy in Berlin".
23. (8 September 1902). "Italy and Turkey".
24. (10 November 1902). "Latest intelligence - France and Italy".