From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Il Risorgimento ("The Resurgence" in Italian) was a liberal, nationalist newspaper founded in Turin 15 December 1847 by Count Camillo Benso di Cavour and Cesare Balbo, who was a backbone of the "neo-Guelph" party that saw in future a rejuvenated Italy under a republican government with a papal presidency—ideas with which Cavour did not agree; they were soon joined by Pietro di Santa Rosa and Michelangelo Castelli, who soon assumed the position of vice-director. The atmosphere generated by a relaxing of stringent press control made the newspaper viable.^[1] Within weeks the paper, conceived as a weekly, was published daily, as revolutionary events, initiated by an insurgency in Palermo and demonstrations in Genoa, gained momentum. The paper was initiated to form a moderate middle-class "respectable" balance to the more radical "democratic" program of Concordia, which was initiated at the same time. The initial editorial by Cavour projected "Our aim not being of making money but of enlightening the country and of cooperating with the grand works of "Resurgence" initiated by the government".^[2].

Thus without seeming to lead, Cavour's Risorgimento offered a regimen of liberal political ideas, of constitutionalism and freedom from foreign control, advocating from the start ideas of a constitution to be granted by Carlo Alberto of Savoy, the absolute monarch of Sardinia-Piedmont.: the eventual constitution was the Statuto Albertino, decreed on 8 February. Cavour's editorials were produced with the longer view of preparing Sardinia-Piedmont for a leading role in the coming upheavals, which came to the fore in the revolutionary events of 1848-49 As editor of the newspaper, Cavour gained a great degree of influence in Sardinian politics; in an editorial on 23 March he pressed for a warto drive the Austrians from Lombardy and Venice, where urban revolutions were under way. The proved disastrous for the kingdom with the severe defeat of the Battle of Novara (1849).

Though he withdrew as editor in October 1848, Il Risorgimento paved Cavour's way towards entering the government—he was appointed prime minister to Vittorio II Emmanuele in 1852, after Carlo Alberto's resignation— and a decade's career engineering Italian unification.

In May 1849 Il Risorgimento combined with the more conservative La Nazione, continuing to support government measures.

In the course of the unification of Italy, the term "risorgimento" came to be applied to the process of unification itself.

1. ^ It cost 0.40 lire, at a time when a Torinese workman's daily wages averaged 1.30 lire.
2. ^ "lo scopo nostro non essendo di guadagnar quattrini, ma quello di illuminare il paese e di cooperare alla gran opera di Risorgimento cominciata dal governo

• Emiliana P. Noether, "Risorgimento (newspaper"
• [Rosario Romeo, Cavour e il suo tempo, (Laterza, Bari) 1977] excerpt concerning Il Risorgimento (Italian)