GIUSEPPE

MONTANELLI (1813-1862)  , Italian statesman and author, was born at Fucecchio in Tuscany, and in 1840 was appointed law professor at Pisa . He contributed to the Antologia, a celebrated Florentine review, and in 1847 founded a newspaper called L' Italia, the programme of which was " Reform and Nationality." In 1848 Montanelli served with the Tuscan student volunteers at the battle of Curtatone, where he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Austrians . On being liberated he returned to Tuscany, and the grand duke Leopold II, knowing that he was popular with the masses, sent him to Leghorn to quell the disturbances . In October, Leopold, much against his inclinations, asked him to form a ministry . He accepted, and on the loth of January 1849, induced the grand duke to establish a national constituent assembly . But Leopold, alarmed at the turn affairs were taking, fled from Florence, and Montanelli, Guerrazzi and Mazzini were elected " triumvirs " of Tuscany . Like Mazzini, Montanelli advocated the union of Tuscany with Rome . But after the restoration of the grand duke, Montanelli, who was in Paris, was tried and condemned by default; he remained some years in France, where he became a partizan of Napoleon III . On the formation of the kingdom of Italy he returned to Tuscany and was elected member of parliament; he died in 1862 . He was an enthusiastic, but a fickle and ambitious demagogue, and he achieved a better reputation as a writer . His most important literary work is his Memorie sull' Italia e specialmente sulla Toscana dal 1814 al 1850, in 2 vols . (Turin, 1853) ; he also wrote Il Partito nazionale italiano (Turin, 1856), L'Impero, it papato, e la democrazia in Italia (Florence, 1859) : and Dell' ordinamento nazionale in Italia (Florence, 1862) .

His dramatic poem La Tentazione and his tragedy Camma achieved some success in their

day . See Assunta Marradi, G . Toscanelli e la Toscana dal 1815 al 1862 (Rome, 1909) .