Ruggero Bonghi - Biography

Italian politician and man of letters, born in Naples, Campania, SW Italy. Forced to leave Naples after the 1848 risings, he later became a deputy for the Right in the Italian parliament (1860–5) and was education minister (1874–6). He was also a journalist and historian, founding the La Stampa newspaper and establishing the National Library in Rome.

Ruggero Bonghi (20 March 1828 - 22 October 1895) was an Italian scholar, writer and politician

Biography

Ruggero Bonghi was born at Naples.

Exiled from his native city in consequence of the movement of 1848, he took refuge in Tuscany, whence he was compelled to flee to Turin on account of a pungent article against the Bourbons.

In 1860, with the Cavour party, he opposed the work of Garibaldi, Crispi and Bertani at Naples, and became secretary of Luigi Carlo Farini during the latters lieutenancy, but in 1865 assumed contemporaneously the editorship of the Perseveranza of Milan and the chair of Latin literature at Florence.

Appointed minister for public instruction in 1873, he, with feverish activity, reformed the Italian educational system, suppressed the privileges of the university of Naples, founded the Vittorio Emanuele library in Rome, and prevented the establishment of a Catholic university in the capital. Upon the fall of the Right from power in 1876 he joined the opposition, and, with characteristic vivacity, protracted during two months the debate on Baccellis University Reform Bill, securing, single-handed, its rejection.

In foreign policy a Francophil, he combated the Triple Alliance, and took considerable part in the organization of the inter-parliamentary peace conference.