Gabrio Casati

Liberalism and republicanism Italy Italy 1798–1873 ○ Natural causes

Mayor of Milan who led the Lombard provisional government after the Five Days and carried its fusion with Piedmont-Sardinia

Born in Milan in 1798 into a noble family of Lombard landowners, he became podestà (mayor) of Milan under Austrian rule in 1837 and introduced civic improvements such as gas lighting. A moderate aristocrat who hoped for fusion with the Kingdom of Sardinia, he pleaded for Sardinian intervention during the Five Days of Milan in March 1848, then headed the provisional government and carried the referendum of 8 June that voted overwhelmingly for union with Piedmont. He was prime minister of Sardinia from 28 July to 15 August 1848 and resigned, holding the armistice void. As minister of education in 1859 he passed the Casati law, the basis of mass education in united Italy, and he was twice president of the Italian Senate between 1865 and 1870. He died in Milan in 1873.

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