Carlo Cattaneo

Liberalism and republicanism 1801–1869 ○ Died in exile

Philosopher who led the council of war in the Five Days of Milan and argued for a federal republic against the Savoy monarchy

Born in Milan, the son of a goldsmith, he studied law at Pavia and in his youth took part in the Carbonari movement in Lombardy. In 1839 he founded the review Il Politecnico in Milan, urging the regeneration of Italians through the positive sciences. In the Five Days of Milan in March 1848 he formed a council of war with young democrats such as Cernuschi to direct the rising, and rejected Radetzky's offers of a truce, insisting on the complete evacuation of Lombardy. An uncompromising republican and federalist, he opposed the intervention of the Piedmontese monarchy. When the Austrians returned in August 1848 he fled to the canton of Ticino and taught philosophy at the lyceum of Lugano, and, unable to take the oath to the monarchy, never sat in parliament. He died in Switzerland in 1869.