GIUSEPPI FERRARI, A major proponent of democratic federalism and
socialism in the Risorgimento, Ferrari was born to a
middle-class
family in Milan on March 7, 1811. After earning a
law degree at the University of Pavia and studying philosophy
with Gian Domenico Romagnosi, in 1838 Ferrari immigrated to
France in search of greater political freedom and intellectual
stimulation than were possible in Habsburg Lombardy. He moved in
Saint Simonian and socialist circles in France and became
acquainted with Pierre Leroux, Georges Sand, and François
Buloz, editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes. Ferrari
wrote for the Revue and for Leroux's Revue
Independante, but at the same time he took courses at the
College de France where he met Jules Michelet and Edgar Quinet.
Following in their footsteps, he published philosophical
treatises, with an eye to an academic appointment, which he
obtained at the University of Strasbourg in 1841. His lectures
on early modern Europe became a cause celèbre when Louis
Veuillot, editor of the ultramontane newspaper
L'univers, attacked the rector of the university for
allowing an atheist as well as liberal Catholics and Protestants
to teach there. Ferrari was forced to resign, and he accepted a
post at the lycée of Rochefort-sur-mer, where he became
involved in left-wing conspiracies. Ultimately, he fled
Rochefort to escape arrest. The Bonapartist coup of December 2,
1851, put an end to his academic aspirations, and he joined
Proudhon and other intellectuals in intransigent opposition to
the Second Empire. In the 1850s, he wrote his most important
political works, Filosofia della rivoluzione
(Philosophy of the Revolution) and the Histoire des
revolutions d'Italie (History of the Italian Revolutions),
and collaborated with Carlo Cattaneo in the publication and
dissemination of works on the revolutions of 1848.
Ferrari had no official role in the Milanese revolutionary
government of 1848, nor did he take part in the fighting against
Austrian troops. His contribution to the revolutionary
experience came later, after he had returned to France. His ties
with radical and socialist leaders from several European
countries, including Russia, gave him a broad perspective on the
revolutionary experience and motivated him to try to analyze the
failure of Italy's revolutionary governments within the context
of long-term historical trends in European society. His
reflections on 1848, and his dialogues with other intellectuals
such as Edgar Quinet, led him to reinterpret the French Revolution as the fountainhead of modern democratic ideology and
ultimately to develop a generational theory of historical
development.
JGC revised this file
(http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/dh/ferrari.htm) on
October 14, 2004.
Pl
ease E-mail comments or suggestions to chastain@www.ohiou.edu
© 1997, 2004 James Chastain.
Clara M. Lovett