Vincenzo Gioberti

Kingdom of Sardinia state institutions Liberalism and republicanism 1801–1852 ○ Natural causes

Priest and philosopher who proposed an Italian confederation under the Pope (Neo-Guelphism) and was prime minister of Sardinia in 1848–1849

Born in Turin in 1801, he took a doctorate in theology at the University of Turin and was ordained in 1825. Partly under Mazzini's influence, the freedom of Italy became his ruling aim. Made a chaplain to Charles Albert, he was arrested on a conspiracy charge in 1833, held four months and banished without trial, and taught philosophy and wrote in Paris and Brussels. His fame dates from Del primato morale e civile degli Italiani (1843), which proposed a confederation of all the Italian states with the Pope at its head. Returning to an enthusiastic welcome in Turin in April 1848, he was elected president of the Chamber of Deputies and at the end of the year headed a new ministry. After Victor Emmanuel's accession in March 1849 he was sidelined on a mission to Paris, from which he never returned, and he died there of apoplexy in 1852.