Gino, Marquess Capponi

Gino, Marquess Capponi (born Sept. 13, 1792, Florence [Italy]—died Feb. 3, 1876, Florence) was a historian, statesman, and leader of liberalism in Tuscany who played an extremely influential role in the rise of the Risorgimento. His salon in Florence was long a centre for the leading liberal thinkers of Europe.

Capponi founded two periodicals, L’Antologia (1821; “Anthology”), which was modeled after the Edinburgh Review, and Archivio storico italiano (1839; “Italian Historical Review”). Although he was completely blind by 1840, he continued to lead an active political life, striving for the liberal government that he had so long envisioned. King Leopold II of Tuscany regarded him so highly that he appointed him, successively, counselor of state (1847) and minister of state (1848). After a long and successful battle to gain a liberal constitution from Leopold, Capponi served as senator in the Tuscan Assembly (1859), and he was nominated senator of the newly created kingdom of Italy in 1860 following the annexation of Tuscany that year by King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia-Piedmont. His failing health, however, prevented him from taking his seat in the Senate, and Capponi spent his last years writing his great work, Storia della repubblica di Firenze (1875; “History of the Republic of Florence”).