ADMINISTORY

JOURNAL FOR THE HISTORY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

VOLUME 2, 2017 PAGE 278–302

DOI:10.2478/ADHI-2018-0025

Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of the Italian Kingdom

LUIGI BLANCO

In a letter to General Giacinto Carini dated 14 October timeframes. In recent decades, in the wake of the new 1860, count Cavour, expressing his satisfaction with the ›culturalist‹ attention being devoted to the topic of the Sicilians’ decision to abandon the idea of summoning a nation as an »imagined community«,4 it has above all parliamentary assembly to ratify union with the mon- been the first of these two processes that has been the archy of Vittorio Emanuele II and to accept a plebiscite, catalyst for historiographical debate, with attention wrote: »None of the issues relating to the future inter- being focused on materials of extremely varied origin, nal system [have] any real immediate significance com- frequently pre-political, which led to the construction of pared with the supreme and urgent need to make Italy that ›artificial object‹ which is the modern Italian na- first and establish it later«.1 tion. This means, however, that other ties of territorial Cavour’s statement, which has subsequently been belonging – municipal, regional-national, and state-re- frequently quoted and commented on,2 is of interest not lated – that would remain alive and very powerful, not- only because of the awareness that it demonstrates of withstanding the absorption of the peninsula’s ancient the necessity and urgency to proceed rapidly with polit- state entities into the new national structure, have re- ical unification in the face of a Europe »that was accus- mained in the shadows and on the margins.5 tomed to expressing disbelief when the Italians spoke Regarding the process of constructing the new uni- of union and concord«,3 but also because it alludes to tary state, it becomes necessary to forge a reinterpre- the diverse nature of the two processes for creating a tation that attempts to combine the realization of aspi- unified Italy: construction of the state and formation of rations to unity with the political and administrative the nation. organization of the former states (›antichi Stati‹) that had ›Making Italy‹ and ›constructing the state‹ are two to yield. We should not forget that the new single state sides of the same coin: they denote processes that are was born from the ashes of seven other states that ceased inextricably bound up with each other but also differ to exist politically and legally. What remained of the ad- in many ways. They use different materials; they re- ministrative and legal structure of these states that was quire different resources; and they operate in different inherited by the new state under construction? How were

© 2017 Luigi Blanco. Published by Sciendo. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). AD INISTORY 2/2017

the previous state borders compressed into the internal Italian states. In his view, this was needed to overcome the administrative divisions of the new political structure? ›multinational character‹ that had traditionally marked The intention is therefore to propose a reading of the the history of the peninsula. Building the state was there- process of building the unitary Italian state which takes fore an urgent matter that could not be delayed; the new into account the ›multinational character‹ of the penin- nation was a necessity that should be entrusted to the sula’s history as well as the plurality of the administra- new parliament and the new institutions, educational tive structures and traditions of the former states which ones first and foremost, of a single Italian state. merged, with their peculiarities, into the new state. In the first section of this article, I will provide a brief I will not review the normative and institutional overview of the connection between geography and pol- profiles of the administrative order of the Kingdom of itics in the period of national revival, as it emerges from Italy, which took shape in step with the gradual realiza- the analyses conducted by geographers and politicians tion of political unification. These features are widely involved in the process of national and state unification. known thanks to the now-classic studies carried out on The second will be devoted primarily to the multiplicity the occasion of the first centenary of national unifica- of regional and state spaces which merged, not without tion.6 Instead, I consider it more useful to re-read them difficulties, into the new unitary state, giving rise to the from multiple perspectives, from the centre and the pe- territorial imbalances which still persist on the penin- riphery – or rather from the many centres and periph- sula even today. In the third, I will discuss the territorial eries that participated in the process of forming a united and administrative division of the new state, that is to Italy. I will try to consider the wide array of adminis- say, the question of the administrative constituencies, trative traditions that contributed to the foundation of with all its contradictions. My aim is to make visible the the new state, albeit through different methods, levels fundamental issues relating to the spatial and adminis- of intensity, and speeds. I shall attempt to give new val- trative structure of the new unified state – issues that ue and significance to the differences in ›identity‹ and arose at its inception and during the early years follow- belonging – to the municipal polyphony – that is a fea- ing unification, but would remain unresolved through- ture of the peninsula’s entire history. I will reconsider out its subsequent history. the complex process of territorial assemblage that con- struction of the new single state involved. I shall pursue this task without undervaluing, diminishing or – worse Geography and Politics still – challenging and delegitimizing the process of po- litical unification, as was the case on the occasion of the Napoleon’s reflections on the ›singular‹ geographical 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, which gave configuration of the Italian peninsula from his exile on rise to ›neo-Bourbon‹ and ›Venetianist‹ interpretations. St Helena still make interesting reading. His secretary, When in the aforementioned letter Cavour speaks of Emmanuel de Las Cases, describes him on his hands and the »need to make Italy«, he is therefore referring to the knees on a large map of Italy spread out on the floor, urgent necessity of achieving political and diplomatic intent on measuring distances. In addition to noting the recognition of the new Italian state. This state emerged exceptional length and limited width of the country, both without the convening of a constituent assembly, by geographic features that impacted on its political desti- way of annexation legitimized through plebiscites, very ny, the former emperor was struck by the clarity and much in line with the Sardinian-Piedmontese experience certainty of its ›natural borders‹, which were all either of statehood, whose main institutions, starting from the maritime or, in the case of its sole land border, marked founding act, the Albertine Statute of 1848, were extend- by the mighty semi-circle of the Alps, the easiest to de- ed to the new political formation of the Kingdom of Italy. fend »of all [...] the European borders«.7 These geograph- The Piedmontese statesman felt, however, that establish- ical considerations would be widely circulated during ing Italy »later« should be a long-term endeavour aimed the Risorgimento. The words of one of the fathers of the Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative

at instilling or consolidating a sentiment of identification movement, Giuseppe Mazzini, for whom Italy was the

279 with a single nation into the former subjects of the old »best-defined country in Europe«, are a good example: AD INISTORY 2/2017

In other lands with more uncertain or interrupted that in the multitude of varieties of their aspects and borders, questions may arise that will one day be climates maintain the mark of imposing unity.11 resolved by a peaceful vote of all, but which have cost, and will perhaps continue to cost, more tears That geography provided political discourse and the and blood; as regards yours, no. God has provided creation of the Italian nation with solid anchorage is Italy with sublime, indisputable borders: on one side attested by the significance that representations of the the highest mountains in Europe, the Alps, and on territory and their circulation through cartography – es- the other, the sea, the immense sea. Take a compass, pecially on a small scale – assumed for the construction fix one point in the north of Italy, at Parma, and the of a national identity (which has remained somewhat other at the mouth of the Varo, and trace a semicircle weak, in truth) and the establishment of a spirit of be- towards the Alps. When you have made a semicircle, longing. The image of Italy and the unitary representa- the point that falls at the mouth of the Isonzo will tion of its territory, where political and natural borders have completed the frontier that God gave Italy. Up are one and the same, became a powerful channel of to that frontier the Italian language is spoken and communication for patriotism at the time of the Risorgi- understood; beyond it, you have no claim.8 mento. It was able to provide an evocative indication of the objective of national unification to a country charac- Mazzini’s words show, on the one hand, the power of the terized by extreme variety, profound territorial imbal- theory of a natural border9 in the context of the Risor­ ances, and ancient political divisions.12 gimento, and on the other, the pedagogical, educational, The other great issue that animated political debate and moral values associated with geographical discourse and practice during the Risorgimento, that is, the ques- at that time. The geophysical and natural foundation of tion of where the capital should be located, was also the unity of Italy emerges very clearly from writings on linked to the physical and political geography of the geography and from maps and statistics of the period. country. Once again, it was Napoleon who emphasized We only need to consider the early writings of Adriano the problem of identifying the capital of the future unit- Balbi, in which he traced the »line of its natural borders«, ed Italy which, although its regions had »much more in which were »seas, rivers, and mountains«,10 or the works common« compared with countries that had already of Cesare Correnti and Pietro Maestri, which paid closer achieved political union, such as the »various British attention to the internal divisions or subdivisions of the kingdoms«, »lacks central cities due to the manner in Italian territory. Particularly Correnti, an important ge- which it is configured«.13 For a variety of reasons that ographer, statistician, and politician, reflected with great can essentially be traced back to geopolitical and stra- acuity on the geographical features of the peninsula and tegic considerations, none of the cities considered by their nexus with political unity. Writing on Italy’s bor- Napoleon seemed to correspond to the requirements ders in his popular almanac »Il Nipote del Vesta-Verde«, for a capital: neither Rome, nor Milan, nor Bologna, nor which he founded and wrote almost entirely by himself, Florence, nor Genoa or Venice. Ultimately, the country’s Correnti began thus: distinctive geographical layout hindered the identifica- tion of a city that would be able to act as the centre of There are artificial countries whose geography is gravity of the Italian political system. ­merely a historical patchwork or hodgepodge, and Moreover, the lack of centrality that is a feature of there are natural countries, whose history, while it the peninsula from a geographical perspective had to may overflow with turbulent events, finally settles be considered together with the large number of cities between its borders and obeys the divine right of that enjoyed the role and status of capitals of their re- the land. Our Italy, after the Iberian Peninsula, is spective states prior to political unification. This num- the best-channelled and most organic region of the ber began to be dramatically reduced immediately after European continent [...]. The lands occupied by the the political restructuring sanctioned by the Congress Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative

Italic race are the only ones that possess all their of Vienna, and it continued gradually as the process of

280 waters from source to mouth; they are the only ones formation of the unified state progressed, starting with AD INISTORY 2/2017

Genoa, Venice, and Palermo, and continuing with Milan, almost unani­mously against large capital cities, Parma, Modena, Florence, and Naples. To this loss of against what is called centralization of governments, importance, which preceded the more general restruc- interests, and wealth, against the despoliation of the turing of the urban and spatial hierarchy in the various provinces. And would anyone with seven capitals dis- territories, must be added the rapid transfer of the capi- possess six of them in favour of one? To hope for such tal which happened on two occasions between the proc- a thing is not a dream, but madness.17 lamation of the kingdom of Italy and the completion of political unification with the conquest of Rome. By contrast, the supporters of unification immediately The issue of the capital was also closely associated identified the strategic objective: to achieve political uni- with the political solution that was determined to be fication, which could not but be linked to the conquest most appropriate, or fitting, to the history of the coun- of the eternal city, Rome, where the seat of the new capi- try for the purposes of accomplishing unification. Those tal of the kingdom could and had to be located. In one of who were in favour of federal or confederal solutions the first sessions of the new national parliament, Rodolfo proposed projects for the organization of the new state Audinot from Bologna presented an interpellation in more focused on the morphological features of the pen- the Chamber of Deputies on the ›Roman question‹ that insula and its political history. While certain aspects of would inspire a lively debate on Rome as the capital. For these projects were of interest, others were wholly fan- Audinot, »Rome needs Italy« and »Italy needs Rome« be- ciful and extravagant, proposing a bipartite or tripar- cause »the entire nation cannot be governed forever from tite subdivision of Italy14 in which, besides an unwork- this distant strip of Italy«, meaning Turin, and because able system of territorial trade-offs and compensations »Rome as the capital city of Italy is the highest expres- for dispossessed dynasties,15 a number of capital cities sion of the unity and independence of the nation«.18 These were proposed that would host various political func- considerations were repeated by Cavour in one of his tions. One example of this is provided by the »Anonimo most incisive speeches. In his opinion, the identification Lombardo«, a name that concealed the identity of Luigi of the capital of a state was »to be determined by high Torelli; his proposal provided for two capital cities for moral reasons« rather than climatic, topographical or each of the three kingdoms into which Italy would be strategic ones. For Cavour: divided, one of which would be the seat of the executive and the courts, the other the seat of the representative All the historical, intellectual, and moral situations power, or National Congress. This proposal was dictat- that must determine the conditions for the capital of ed, wrote Torelli, by the need to preclude potential ri- a great State come together in Rome. Rome is the only valries between cities disputing the role of capital of the city in Italy that does not have exclusively municipal kingdom, and to create a healthy spirit of cooperation.16 memories; the entire history of Rome, from the time Two years before Torelli, Cesare Balbo had conveyed the of the Caesars until today, is that of a city whose anomaly of the Italian situation with extreme clarity, importance extends far beyond its own territory, of emphasizing the problems associated with identifying a a city which is destined to be the capital of a great political centre: State.19

It is a dream to hope that even one capital city would In the context of the parliamentary debate inspired by wish to be reduced to a provincial town; a greater Audinot’s interpellation, one of the first acts following the dream that six should be reduced to one; and the proclamation of the kingdom, the Boncompagni agenda, great­est dream of all is that the six might agree to was proposed. A good ten years before the breach of choose which one. This is not desirable either for Porta Pia, this agenda, which supported Cavour’s policy the six cities making the choice or for the one that and was approved »almost unanimously«, as the min- is chosen, nor for the nation as a whole. There is a utes of the parliamentary session report, requested that Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative

cry across the whole of Europe (whether rightly or Rome, »the capital acclaimed by public opinion«, be re-

20

281 wrongly is of no importance), a cry from everywhere­ joined with Italy. AD INISTORY 2/2017

Underlying the relationship between geography and can be very useful to give increased consideration to the politics to which I have pointed here in relation to the profound influence of the spatial dimension, and espe- processes of political unification and redefinition of ur- cially to the social and political construction of space. ban hierarchies is a more general question, one whose This will provide us with a better understanding of the roots may be found in the debates that took place in complexity and the historicity of the processes by which the French revolutionary Constituent Assembly on the political and administrative spaces are constructed, such creation of the departments as the basic units of a new as those that took place during Italian unification. administrative division of the national space.21 I am re- ferring to the relationship between natural space and political space. The first of these notions here means a One and Plural territory that is circumscribed precisely and recogniz- ably by physical features such as mountain ranges or In a wide-ranging analytical portrait of the political and river basins; the second is understood as the rigidly administrative situation of the Italian Kingdom written at geometrical and uniform subdivision of the new revo- the end of the first unitary parliament,22 Leopoldo Gale­ lutionary national space, in contrast to the manifold dif- otti describes the singular situation in which the new uni- ferences and territorial privileges which prevailed un- fied state found itself the day after its proclamation thus: der the Ancien Régime. This distinction was also clearly present in Italian political debates starting in the Jaco- We had as many legislations, administrations, and bin period, and was not confined to geographers alone; budgets, as there were former States composing the the latter, as well as many of the thinkers of the Risorgi­ new Kingdom. This confusion was further increased mento, looked upon physical or natural space as the de- by the innovations brought about by the Cabinet with termining factor for the creation of political spaces – al- Full Powers to the legal systems of the former provin- though, in the Italian case, the history of territories and ces and Lombardy, and by those that were introduced the urban network played a more important role, and by the provisional governments in Emilia, the Mar- by no means a secondary one as they did in France. This che, Umbria, and the southern provinces, where the spatial determinism in geographical discourse also had circumstances and the hatred for the past had rapidly to come to terms with the urgent necessity of organizing­ led to the immediate promulgation of quite a number the state and creating administrative divisions. The pro- of the Piedmontese laws. Only Tuscany remained cess of national unification took place under exception- immune to these improvised reforms, [but] because al circumstances, with the concession of plenary pow- of its autonomy, it contributed to an increase in the ers to the king and his government and the concomitant confusion. [...] To this must be added the little or no closure of the parliament. This led to political decisions knowledge that we have of each other, of our recipro- marked by a strong continuity with the territorial and cal business and of our own affairs.23 administrative boundaries of the former states, by the extension to the national level of the organizational op- The words of the Tuscan liberal very clearly illustrate tions tested in the Sardinian kingdom, and by myriad the peculiar, confused situation in the country, with its territorial contrasts resulting from an atavistic localism plurality of political formations brought together within that opposed political plans to restructure administra- the new state structure, and the disorder that had inten- tive constituencies in some areas and to change provin- sified during the crucial years of the national unification cial urban hierarchies. process. The situation was made even more complicated The Italian historiography of the process of political by the very limited knowledge of the various political unification has devoted little, if any, attention to the ter- and administrative – and socio-economic – realities that ritorial factor, which is closely linked to the measure- had given life to the new unified state. From a political ment of space and the collection of statistical data. In standpoint, unification was not completed by convening a Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative

light of the recent historiographical trends of the ›spa- constituent assembly (notwithstanding the vote by Lom-

282 tial turn‹ and of ›border studies‹, it seems to me that it bardy in far-off 1848 which had been approved by the AD INISTORY 2/2017

Subalpine Parliament); it was carried out and legitimized It is not possible here to review the controversy at that through adhesion or annexation to the Piedmontese con- time – which is still current today – between unitarists stitutional monarchy by means of a plebiscite. Adminis- and federalists,25 behind which the contrast between the tratively speaking, on the other hand, it was not accom- idealistic motives of the latter and the realism of the for- plished until 1865, again through the use of exceptional mer regularly re-emerges. Rather, I will dwell on the procedures, after the signing of the September Conven- diversity and variety of the political situation in the pen- tion, which led to the transfer of the capital from Turin to insula and on the nexus between territory and adminis- Florence. At this point, the new municipal and provin- tration in relation to the creation of the political-admin- cial law, the first law of administrative unification, was istrative space of unified Italy; or to be more precise, on also extended to Tuscany, which had enjoyed a fleeting the topic, »as important as it is neglected«,26 of the ad- autonomy up to that time. After all, how could the capital ministrative districts during the transition from the old be transferred to Florence without resolving the anoma- states to the new Kingdom of Italy. ly of Tuscany’s administration, which had persisted since From this perspective, the case of Italy offers aspects the Kingdom had been proclaimed? This was openly ac- of special interest for the study of administrative divi- knowledged by Francesco Restelli, who had introduced in sions: pre-unification state pluralism, the weight of the parliament the Lanza Bill on administrative unification, various administrative traditions, the differing political which also requested parliament to delegate the restruc- and constitutional roles of municipalities in the former turing of administrative districts to the government: Italian states, regional imbalances in territorial organi- zation, a peculiar national unification process that actu- Although Tuscany lies at the centre of the Kingdom, ally consisted in a simple expansion of Sardinian-Pied- legislatively speaking it is the most isolated province montese institutions and organizational models – these in Italy, the one that least experiences the administra- are all more than adequate to justify the renewed atten- tive life of the rest of Italy. Tuscany has its own tion that is being paid to the question of the territorial mu­nicipal and provincial laws and its own Council of and administrative districts of the new national state.27 State. It has its own public safety law, and its own In an age of national states, the position of those laws for the administration of public works. It would promoting the unitary solution had an unquestionable be highly indecent, and a truly repugnant spectacle, if advantage over the supporters of a federation, given the the laws for the implementation of which meas­ures circumstances and forces in the field. Mazzini himself are provided were not in force in the place from which declared that he would even accept a monarchy if this the most significant measures for the good government made it possible to achieve the unification of Italy, and – of the public body for the whole of Italy originate.24 referring to the long-standing formula of Aragonese con- stitutionalism – stated: »Create Italy and I am with you. A revisitation of the construction process of the new na- If you do not, I am not«.28 Being a ›unitarist‹ did not, tional state that takes account of the extraordinary di- however, necessarily mean being in favour of political versity of the political forms merged into that state can- and administrative centralization. This was made very not, however, start from its outcome, that is, from the clear by Senator Carlo Matteucci, among others, when achievement of political and administrative unification he issued an invitation not »to confuse unification with and the simultaneous expansion of the Franco-Napole- centralization: we have to avoid being dragged into es- onic administrative model, as reinterpreted during the tablishing a form of government that is not rooted in Sardinian-Piedmontese experience of the Restoration. On our traditions, and that would not fit our intellects and the contrary, it must encompass a broader diachronic our inclinations«. Matteucci, who was a convinced sup- horizon that starts from what might rightfully be con- porter of political unification, condemned the project to sidered the decisive turning point as regards adminis- build »a great capital and a great administrative centre« trative organization and the propulsion towards uni- that would, in his opinion, lead to a contraction in the Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative

fication in the Italian peninsula: that is, the ›triennio »peoples of the peninsula, as if everyone came from the

283 rivoluzionario‹ and the subsequent Napoleonic era. same mould, all cut from the same pattern, maybe not AD INISTORY 2/2017

even a native one«. He claimed that it was necessary to but they were not able to see that the real disgrace proceed with the creation of a system of »administrative was that Italian laws might appear to be inferior to decentralization« that consisted in allocating »all those the Austrian ones.30 administrative functions that are currently pointlessly divided among the various existing Councils, with a great During this same period, this standpoint was endorsed – loss of time and money«, to the provinces, which there albeit without Cattaneo’s broad political horizons – by the was no need to create because »they exist naturally«.29 editor of the »Annali universali di statistica«, Giuseppe­ Matteucci’s considerations on the new Kingdom’s po- Sacchi, who, writing on the work of the Piedmontese, litical organization would make Carlo Cattaneo feel less issued this categorical condemnation: isolated, and would induce him, in his famous prologue to the 9th volume of the »Politecnico«, to firmly condemn These inexpert legislators did not even want to know the »doctrine of absolute centralization« that had estab- about the institutions that governed the new provinces, lished itself in Italy with the extension of the Rattazzi Law and believing that they had been rendered savage by a to Lombardy and the newly-annexed provinces. Cattaneo savage foreign government, treated them in the same was not happy with the administrative decentralization manner as that in which the French believed they proposed by Matteucci, to whom he objected that »if there could treat conquered Algeria [...]. The administrative is in Italy a social entity called the province of Pisa or Cre­ system [which had existed in Lombardy until that mona, there is also a larger and no less real entity called time] could have, and should have, been respected by Tuscany, Lombardy, or Sicily, and each of these states or Rattazzi’s cabinet – at least for some time – but [...] united kingdoms is not a merely administrative body, but it wanted to lay its hands on everything, and with­ also includes a complete legislative structure«. Nonethe- out taking account of the good and the bad, sought less, the spirit that inspired his reflections was very close to restructure public affairs in its own way, deeply to that of Matteucci when he suggested that the progress disgusting all ranks of citizens.31 made in certain Italian states in the areas of legislation and administration should be taken into account and In the context of Italian administrative unification, the used, instead of reducing its effect. It is helpful to reread annexation of Lombardy and the extension to it of the this extremely well-known passage: Piedmontese system of administration is of exemplary and paradigmatic value. Initially, a commission was cre- No account whatsoever was taken of the fact that ated consisting of representatives of moderate Lombard for centuries, the provinces have been grouped into liberalism, charged with the task of establishing the meas­ legislative systems based on fundamentally different ures most appropriate for reconciling the particular principles, which represent very diverse degrees of civ­ Lombard administrative tradition with the Piedmontese ilization in the individual states of the peninsula and system,32 and a provisional system was designed for Lom- the three islands. Thus, while in the Roman ­States, bardy, which was introduced in June 1859. However, it Sardinia, Sicily, and Corsica many traditions from remained in force only a few months, and the Sardinian- medieval times survive, Tuscany in many respects, Piedmontese »Municipal and Provincial Law«, known and Lombardy in certain others, are truly at the fore- as the Rattazzi Law after the Minister of the Interior who front of progress. [...] Piedmont, however, although had promoted it under the regime of royal plenary powers, it concentrated a century’s worth of progress into six was immediately extended and applied to Lombardy. months, was inferior to Tuscany with regard to crimi- »Finis Langobardiae«, commented Cesare Correnti at the nal law, to Parma as to civil law, and to Lombardy in time, with the bitterness of a Lombard witnessing the the area of municipal systems; it had the misfortune end of »one of the most organic regions in Europe«, but of bringing new laws to its people in the guise of a with an Italian’s hope of seeing the disappearance of »all benefit that they greeted, however, as a nuisance and the sub-nationalities, just as the most illustrious and the Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative 33

harm. Sensible people found it to be disgraceful that oldest of them is disappearing today«. The pro-Lombardy

284 the population should prefer Austrian to Italian laws, faction, which believed that it could claim an especially AD INISTORY 2/2017

efficient local administration representing the interests the »state within a state«40 that Tuscany had become, the of the community, suffered, however, from a significant prime minister moved increasingly decisively in the direc- limitation: how could it support the Habsburg local ad- tion of policies of strict centralization, although it would ministration when it had fought, and would continue to be the ›Neapolitan question‹ above all that finally tipped fight, the war for independence and national unity against the balance towards administrative centralization. the power of the Habsburgs? It was precisely this under- A dynamic similar to the one that occurred at the time lying contradiction that provided Rattazzi with the op- of the annexation of Lombardy also took place in 1866 portunity to insist that the Napoleonic Italian Kingdom’s on the annexation of Veneto, which was the first region »administrative system« was to be preferred.34 to be included in the Kingdom following enactment of The Lombard local government applied a Theresian the administrative unification law. As in Lombardy, there model and was based on the institution of the ›convoca- was widespread discontent in Veneto, and in this case too, ti‹ (literally, ›the summoned‹), that is, the general assem- a commission was appointed, presided by Cesare Cor- bly of ›estimati‹, or landowners. Its superiority over the renti, who had previously been a member of the Giulini Sardinian-Piedmontese system had been acknowledged Commission – but no representatives from Veneto were even in Piedmontese liberal circles; in a letter to his wife, included in it. In an editorial dated 15 October 1866, be- count Giulini wrote that Cavour had confided in him that fore Italian troops arrived in Veneto, the »Gazzetta di Ve­ »he well knew that at the time the two countries were on nezia« warned of the risks of a pure, uncritical extension the point of being joined together, Piedmont had more of the Piedmontese administrative system: to learn as regards administrative systems than it had to teach«.35 To the administrative treatment which had been It is a well-known fact that the capital error that led reserved for Lombardy, and had provoked such unrest the Italian administration to such an unhappy result, and discontent among moderate Lombard liberals, Ca- which has been portrayed in every newspaper and by vour also referred in the parliamentary debate on the public opinion, was to suppress all the administrative transfer of Nice and Savoy, indicating that the cabinet had laws and institutions that had functioned in the an- taken the errors of the past into account.36 nexed States for so many years, and to introduce the After Lombardy, the Rattazzi Law, which maintained Piedmontese administrative system everywhere.41 the Franco-Napoleonic administrative system basically unchanged, was also extended to the former states that In the opinion of the journalist, the mistake was to have were annexed between 1859 and 1861.37 The only ex- believed that it would be possible to administer a large ception was the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, to which, de- structure such as the new Italian state by applying tools spite Cavour’s speech of May 1860 – which was intended that had been used to administer the small Piedmontese to reassure the parliamentary opposition that the law kingdom: would be passed rapidly in the rest of the country – the Kingdom’s administrative regime was only extended The cabinet governing Piedmont at the time of the by the unification law of 1865. Tuscany’s opposition to annexations […] applied the laws of a small State to ›piemontesismo‹, which was described as »the habit of a grand Monarchy. The evidence escaped it, its eyes imposing Piedmontese legislation on the new provinces became tired in its attempt to see everything as it had instead of Italianizing Piedmont using the laws that are in seen things in Piedmont, and it became blind, and no force in different parts of Italy, and which in many areas longer saw anything. [...] Veneto, especially in certain are wiser«,38 and its stout defence of the Leopoldine ad- areas of public service, has an excellent adminis­ ministrative traditions made it an ›anomaly‹ during the tration. Let us therefore move slowly, very slowly, in transitional regime. Behind Cavour’s growing aversion to demolishing its administrative system. Let us study it decentralization was the early work of Ricasoli, at the time well, let us look wisely at how its machinery works, when he was governor-general in Tuscany during the [...] and thereafter let us apply various of its administ- Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative 39

lieutenancy of the Prince of Carignano. Irritated by Ri- rative rules in the other provinces. What is good must

285 casoli’s striving for recognition, and anxious to eliminate be taken wherever it can be found, and it should not AD INISTORY 2/2017

be believed that the administration is entirely Austri- regions of our peninsula«, which were thus reduced to an here. We have many Italian laws and regulations fourteen in number, to which were added the three in force, and many norms that have been working largest islands, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica.45 excellently here for years were completely unknown Entirely different was the work of Cesare Correnti, in Austria.42 in the early 1850s and thereafter, to identify more ho- mogeneous and solid regional areas.46 The criteria that he used to subdivide the peninsula were not exclusively One and Divisible geographical, despite affirmations to the contrary;47 they also took account of data drawn from demograph- Theories on the territorial division of the Italian pen- ics and statistics, as well as considerations of a histori- insula had been proposed even before its political uni- cal and political nature. Correnti was highly aware of fication was completed. These proposals were closely the delicate and complex nature of any political and associated with the various views on the form that the administrative division or territorial distinction,48 and new state should assume – unitary, federal, or confeder- he therefore used a composite set of criteria to subdi- al –, and were initially put forward in order to identify vide what he described as the »best defined [and] most an adequate and realistic response to the problems of richly-articulated geographical region« in the world, the achieving national unification. In particular, these the- essential feature of which appeared to him from the out- ories were suggested by a number of geographers and set to be »maximum unity within maximum variety«.49 politicians who were in some way protagonists of the The regional divisions, of which there were initially six- national unification process, and whose attention was teen named after their geo-natural features,50 were in- focused more closely on the morphological and geopo- creased to nineteen in the second of his relevant articles, litical features of the peninsula. significantly entitled »Casa nostra« (»Our House«), with Of interest here are the observations of Carlo Frulli the addition of other territories, some of which would in 1845 on the geographical division of Italy, which have only belatedly become part of the Italian nation, such as recently been brought to our attention again by Lucio the »Northern Frontier. The High Valley of the River Gambi. Frulli, who was from Bologna, was not at all in- Adige (Bressanone and Trento)«, the »Middle Apennine- terested in the political and jurisdictional divisions of the Eridanian Valley, the territory that descends from the peninsula. He declared from the outset that he wanted Ligurian and Tuscan Appennines to the River Po (Parma, to »proceed with a more regular physical division which, Piacenza, Reggio and Modena)«, and finally, the island in order that it may be considered natural, we wish to of Malta. be based solely on the orography and hydrography of our In addition to the fact that the regional divisions de- beautiful country«.43 In so doing, he identified »the first, lineated by Correnti would, after later adjustments, give most natural, and greatest division of Italy into three vast rise to the statistical ›compartments‹ of the country, what parts«, which he designated ›versanti‹, or mountain slopes: is to be underlined is his awareness of the partiality of the Alpine, western, and eastern. Because they could not his administrative system and of its imprecise correspon- constitute an optimal division of the peninsula’s territo- dence to the requirements of the future unified state. He ry due to their great expanse, they were subdivided into was also acutely aware, and would become even more ›clivi‹, »circumscribed by natural borders and identified, so thereafter, of the differences and dissimilarities that like the former, by physical prerogatives and solely oro- characterized the numerous states of the peninsula, also graphical and hydrographical peculiarities«.44 Through from a jurisdictional and administrative point of view: this process, Frulli identified and defined 21 ›clivi‹ which in turn, however, due to their excessively large or small The administrative organization of the peninsula size were not equally suitable for an »appropriate, well- is highly irregular, exactly like the political one. proportioned Italian region«; his consequent proposal Altogether, the thirteen states and semi-states into Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative

was therefore to join the seven smallest ›clivi‹ to those which Italy is divided comprise 110 provinces, 495

286 adjacent to them, thereby giving form to »the physical districts, and 10,041 municipalities. These provinces, AD INISTORY 2/2017

districts, and municipalities have nothing like the of which the first census of the population of the King- same economic and political value, however. The dom was carried out.52 Their authors were Correnti and fifteen provinces of the Bourbon lands on this side of above all Pietro Maestri, who were leading representa- the River Faro have an average population of 440,000 tives of what has been called »patriotic statistics«53 and each, and therefore can be compared with the Pied- were both extremely attentive to topography and geog- montese divisions and the French departments. The raphy.54 Correnti would also become president of the seven provinces of Sicily are somewhat less populous, Italian Geographical Society, besides having promoted it and above all smaller. Both the first and the second in his capacity as Minister for Public Education. Many are, however, subdivided into 77 districts with an high-ranking statisticians and geographers occupied them- average population of over 100,000, which cannot selves with territorial studies in Italy in the first half of be compared in any way with the 127 small districts the 19th century. They included the already mentioned into which Lombardy is divided, the average popula- Adriano Balbi and Attilio Zuccagni-Orlandini, the author tion of which does not exceed 22,000. The Neapolitan of the monumental »Corografia fisica, storica e statistica districts, on the other hand, can be equated with the dell’Italia e delle sue isole«, which was published over the 50 provinces of Sardinia, because both have 100,000 course of ten years between 1835 and 1845,55 and pro- inhabitants each. The 14 divisions of the Sardinian fessor of statistics at the newly-created Istituto di Studi States, however, match the Neapolitan provinces Superiori Pratici e di Perfezionamento in Florence in 1860. and the French departments. In no part of Italy does In the 1864 edition of the »Annuario statistico Ita­ a district have so productive a character as those liano«, and particularly in an extensive section devoted of Lombardy and Venice: this is the fruit of fiscal to »Topography«, Correnti and Maestri reviewed the ad- institutions that are absent in almost all the other ministrative divisions of the former states of the penin- Italian states. As regards municipalities, there is a sula, comparing them to the territorial division of the very large difference between our small ones, which new Kingdom. In their view, the Kingdom was charac- have an average population of a little over 1,000, and terized by a worrisome confusion that had resulted in a those in southern Italy, whose population is almost 3 veritable »territorial labyrinth«, which was also due to times larger. [...] The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, for the work of the ministers who had succeeded one another example, which has a population of approximately at the various ministries in the early years of unification. 9,000,000, has only 3,241 communes, no more than For Correnti and Maestri, 2,158 of which are rural municipalities and villages. If we consider Sicily alone, where the agrarian system There would be as many administrative topographies of Imperial Rome remains in force, we only find 517 as there are ministries, and even this would not be villages, which is four times fewer than in the larger enough, because, for example, the Ministry of Finance territory of Lombardy. Aggregations of buildings are has divided the Kingdom into five regions for public four times more populous, and three-fifths of them debt, into six for legal consultations on disputes, (321) have maintained the grand title of »city«. [...] into fourteen for land registries, into eighteen for the Whenever we talk about a province, a district, or Treasury Offices, into twenty-seven for the Offices of a municipality, therefore, we must specify exactly Indirect Taxation, and into fifty for the administration to what part of Italy we are referring. Because the of state-owned land. In addition, there are various economic and administrative system varies so greatly sub-departments of these regional divisions that are from town to town, the similarity of names leads to also diverse and overlap in various ways. misunderstanding more than anything else.51 In their view, the picture that emerged from the territo- As noted previously, this moment in time was not only rial and administrative analysis of the divisions was a foundational as regards the administrative fabric of the result of the »lack of agreement on the criteria that had Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative

nascent unitary state, but was also linked to the subse- led to the reform or conservation of the territorial dis-

287 quent creation of the statistical divisions on the basis tricts«; this deficiency »caused very great inconvenience AD INISTORY 2/2017

in every part of the administration, and even greater in- political divisions, and emphasizing that the identifica- convenience to citizens, who have not found a guide to tion of fourteen »great compartments of the Kingdom« proceed through this tangle of jumbled divisions lacking into which statistical data would be divided was not »a any clear design«.56 definitive, scientific division of the national territory«, In the contemporaneous »Statistica del Regno d’Ita­ not even »from a purely statistical and economic stand- lia«, the official publication of the Ministry of Agriculture, point«. On the contrary, he claimed, »it will not be possi- Industry and Trade, Maestri, as director of the Central ble to achieve a final definition of the economic and statis- Office of Statistics, explained what the term ›statistical tical compartments until topographical, meteorological, districts‹ should be taken to mean, and clarified the pro- and agronomic studies have matured«. cedure by which they had been identified. It is helpful to In his pioneering work on the Italian administrative consider the reasoning he set forth: fabric and regional system over the long term, Lucio Gambi, analyzing the writings and works of Correnti and It was difficult for us to conduct comparisons between Maestri, identified the underlying »misunderstanding« one province and another without a framework of administrative geography in Italy, which consisted in through which the natural relationships among the confusion and overlap between statistical compartments58 various provinces due to their proximity, similarities and constitutional regions and the absence of an organic, in physical make-up, similar economic complexity, overall design for administrative divisions, an absence or common civil traditions could be coordinated. We already pointed out by Correnti and Maestri and others were therefore induced to group provinces together when the unified state was formed.59 Was the creation primarily on the basis of their topographical cohe­ of the statistical compartments, as homogeneous aggre- sion, which inevitably determines economic correla- gations of provinces entirely for instrumental use, also tion and correspondence, and secondly on that of the a result of or in some way associated with the regional moral and civil traditions of the various parts of Italy. design being promoted by the ministers Farini and Min­ These groups, which we will call ›Compartments‹, ghetti during the same period? To my mind, this ques- may perhaps evoke the image either of the former tion, which has been posed anew in recent times, merits States into which our country was divided, or of the more careful evaluation and a more in-depth review of Regions into which some analysts considered that the the history of administration and administrative geog- national territory might appropriately be separated. raphy. It is not enough to infer from Maestri’s position on Those who consider our idea closely will be persua- the ›decentralization‹ theories, which he proposed and ded, however, that our concept is based neither on the publicly expounded long before the regional projects painful vestiges of a past that we hope is now irrevo- were presented,60 the belief that he »already had the re- cably gone, nor on the now rejected preconceptions gions in mind as instruments of administrative decen- of administrative federalism. As we have already tralization« and that once »this idea had been rejected by stated, our Compartments are topographical, or, in parliament, the compartments were proposed as means a word, statistical; they merely reproduce territorial for the statistical configuration of the territory«.61 divisions based on the nature of the land and the laws Everything, or nearly everything, has already been of economic cohabitation, divisions that since ancient written on the regional projects presented by the Bolo­ times and in the mediaeval era did not correspond to gnese Marco Minghetti to the »Extraordinary and Provi- political borders, nor to the even more changeable sional Legislative Commission at the Council of State«, administrative districts, but which had a very dif­ whose activity lasted from 13 August 1860 to 25 October ferent, more solid, foundation in the laws of distance, 1861, the date on which the proposals were officially movement, and labour.57 withdrawn, although their fate had been sealed from the time when the government had decided not to sup- Maestri’s brief but dense introduction is entirely focused port them in March of the same year, citing the ›cabinet Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative 62

on dispelling any suspicion that the statistical compart- issue‹. However, it would be worth considering the doc-

288 ments might in some way reproduce the peninsula’s old uments in order to ascertain the linkage among these AD INISTORY 2/2017

projects, the work of the commission, the role played by movements raised by the Piedmontese ruling class, which Cavour and his collaborators,63 and the possible ties to was therefore increasingly decisively oriented towards the projects for the creation of the statistical compart- immediate annexation through a plebiscite. But it was ments in the new unified state. Despite the ultimately not only the fear that the former states might arise again negative outcome of the regional plans, there can be no under the guise of regions that brought about this fail- doubt that these represented an extremely important ure; another important factor was the spirit of ›citta- chapter in Italy’s administrative history. It is equally dineria‹ – the »spirit of enmity« to which Correnti re- clear that the spirit of many of Pietro Maestri’s observa- ferred at the beginning of the 1850s as one »among the tions can be easily identified in the »Nota« presented to many curses« of the peninsula.65 Jealousies between cities the commission by Luigi Carlo Farini. Especially signifi- and rivalries between provinces played a major role in cant in this regard is the passage in which Farini identi- the abandonment of the timid regionalization projects: fies the most effective means of securing the objective of Modena’s ruling class could not stand by passively and »coordinating the powerful unity of the State with the watch the emergence of a new regional centre at Bologna rapid development of local life«: while Modena itself lost its status as the capital of a small dukedom.66 Similarly, ­Siena, mindful of its ancient rivalry [...] in order to make a law that serves this purpose, with Florence, was more willing to accept Piedmontese it is first necessary to establish the fundamental max­ centralization and relinquish its administrative autono- ims upon which to create the design for the political my than it was to be subject to Florence;67 not to men- division of the State. To realize this division, is it tion Sicily, which, as the moderate Francesco Ferrara necessary to ignore every other moral unit other than wrote to Cavour, had embraced the »revolution« solely that created by a Province, as the law in force pro­ because of its »irresistible desire to be emancipated from vides? Or should we acknowledge that the Provinces Naples«, the Sicilians being willing to »welcome any sys- in Italy are grouped together naturally and histori­ tem that guarantees them liberty and independence from cally into other larger centres that have had, and Naples, today and in the future«.68 still have, a reason to exist in the body of Italy? [...] Despite the long dispute between minister Minghetti Above the Provinces, but below the political concept and the commission, the final rejection of the regional of the State, I believe that we must take account of the projects put an end to any notion of an expanded dis- centres which represent those ancient Italian autono- trict to which coordination of local administration could mies which so nobly sacrificed themselves to the unity be entrusted, and confirmed the unexpected centrality of the nation. The political division that we must of the provinces as an intermediate body between mu- establish should be the fruit of neither an abstract nicipalities and the state. As Adriana Petracchi claimed concept nor an arbitrary operation. It must represent when she drew attention to the close association be- the actual subdivisions that exist under natural and tween the projects to reform the Piedmontese admin- historical conditions; those centres of moral strength istrative system after 1848 and those for the new uni- that might revolt if they were to be oppressed by the fied state, the ›regionalist‹ ministers of the Kingdom of pedantry of the system, but which, if legitimately Italy were unable to achieve what Urbano Rattazzi had satisfied, might contribute admirably to the strength succeeded in doing in 1859 when he replaced the small and splendour of the Nation. If we wish to fulfil an Piedmontese provinces with larger divisions, which efficient task of decentralization and give our country were increased in number and redesigned as to their the institutions that are most appropriate for it, we boundaries to resolve the most evident territorial im- must, in my view, respect Italy’s natural framework.64 balances, making them the cornerstone of the Piedmon- tese territorial district.69 It is a widely-shared historiographical theory, and one When the idea of the region was abandoned, howev- openly endorsed already at that time, that what led to the er, this only led to the return of the long-standing prob- Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative

failure of the regional projects was the ›discovery‹ or ›con- lem that had accompanied discussions on the adminis-

289 quest‹ of the South and the fear of potential separatist trative system and territorial partitioning at the dawn of AD INISTORY 2/2017

Italian unification and had led to the emergence of two 1865 and its »Attachment A: Municipal and Provincial opposing factions in the Kingdom of Sardinia – support- Law«.72 The first title of each of the two laws, »Division ers of the provincial district (›provincialists‹) and those of the territory of the Kingdom and government author- of the larger division (›divisionalists‹). Similarly, the ity«, opens with the same list of administrative districts: reproposal of the Piedmontese municipal and provin- »The Kingdom is divided into provinces, districts, ›man- cial law of 23 October 1859 merely increased criticisms damenti‹, and municipalities«.73 of the administrative structure, which clearly derived As is evident from the accompanying report present- from the French system, and the territorial partitioning ed to the king by Rattazzi, in whose opinion the law was imposed on the unified state. For example, in one of his meant to »centralize the political system and emanci- many writings expressly devoted to the territorial par- pate the administrative system«, the territorial entities titioning of the Kingdom of Italy, Consiglio Norsa of actually intended by the two laws were municipalities Mantua passed very severe judgment on the work of and provinces. The former, which were »the cradle of Rattazzi, whom he blamed for having – like a »barbar- modern freedoms throughout Europe«, represented the ian« – »razed Italian institutions to the ground without original core of community life and the greatest glory knowing anything about them«. Norsa continued: of Italian civilization; the latter, which would be given a central role according to the minister’s plan, were »a Everything that was done was done wrongly, hap­ great association of municipalities intended to protect haz­ardly, with no conceptual design, or was no more the rights of each of them and manage their collective than an ill-advised, pusillanimous transplant of moral and material interests«. They had been »created systems and the Piedmontese routines, besmeared on a broad basis comprising substantial and homoge- with foreign forgeries, in every part of Italy. [...] The neous economic and moral interests«.74 territorial partitioning that has been imposed on the Although Italian administrative historiography takes new Kingdom of Italy is, like all products in general account of the various interpretations of the central- of the genius that wafts over the Dora, a poor copy of ization of the new unified state,75 it has for some time the French system.70 revealed the distance between normative dictates and political and administrative practices, the contradic- These were by no means isolated criticisms in the debate tion between liberal ideological motivations and the on the political and administrative system of the new minute provisions for control and protection to which unified state, nor were they original; they were, how- local power was subjected. The administrative model ever, distinctive insofar as they analytically discredited of reference was that which had been expressly identi- the choices made on the administrative subdivision of fied by Rattazzi as »the administrative system that sup- the national territory, comparing them with the format ported the [Napoleonic] Italian Kingdom for a number of French departments, stigmatizing the confusion that of years, a system that Lombardy rightly considered to had been created, and suggesting drastic simplification be its own, in which it has never ceased to see the best and rationalization.71 regime, based on which it has been governed for many As mentioned before, the cause of the controversy centuries«.76 On the other hand, there has perhaps been was the 1859 Rattazzi Law. Issued pursuant to the plena- insufficient reflection on the administrative divisions ry powers granted to the sovereign for the war against of the Kingdom of Italy and the contradictions and ›dis- Austria on 25 April 1859, it was not very different from harmony‹ that arose from the transposition of a system the similar Sardinian law dating from 1848, except for designed for the small Sardinian-Piedmontese kingdom the names of the territorial divisions: the divisions (›di- to a far larger and more complex and diversified reali- visioni‹) became ›provinces‹, and the provinces were ty like the Italian peninsula. These questions were very renamed ›districts‹ (›circondari‹). The territorial divi- much in the minds of those who grappled with issues of sion introduced at this time would remain unaltered a predominantly technical-administrative, geographical Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative

on the basis of the subsequent »Law for the Adminis- and statistical nature at the time, as well as of the mul-

290 trative Unification of the Kingdom of Italy« of 20 March titude of politicians who posed – with a greater level of AD INISTORY 2/2017

awareness – the problem of the territorial division of division« of the new Kingdom remained that of the »for- the new unified state and made an undeniably powerful mer little kingdom of 50 provinces«, and the remainder commitment to its efficient configuration. of the country was divided into 59 provinces, »which It is sufficient to study the 1857/58 and 1864 volumes included some, like Porto Maurizio and Massa, that are of the »Annuario statistico italiano«, the work of Cor- stumps and patches, urban districts like Livorno, and renti and Maestri, to gain a picture of the critical reflec- some that are only a little less than regions, like Turin, tions inspired by the administrative restructuring of the Genoa, Umbria, and Basilicata«.81 Kingdom of Italy. These reflections are all the more in- The contradictions illustrated by the inventors of teresting if we consider that most of them had already the statistical compartments were not extraneous to been formulated before unification was achieved. In the the considerations and proposals that the Minister of earlier volume, the focus is on the differences »between the Interior, Minghetti, would develop in his bill on the the municipal institutions of central and continental It- »Division of the Kingdom and Government Authorities«, aly and those of southern Italy and its islands«, whose which he presented to the Chamber of Deputies together differing origins are highlighted: »feudal« in the case of with his other projects for reforming the administrative the latter, and »municipal« in the case of the former, es- system on 13 March 1861.82 In this project, which com- pecially in Lombardy and Tuscany.77 At the same time, bined radical proposals for reform with a healthy real- however, the authors emphasized the need to take note ism,83 the minister, in addition to presenting the pattern of »material conditions«, the »diverse statistical impor- of regional divisions and indicating certain contradic- tance of municipalities in the various regions of Italy«, tions relating to especially confused areas, for example and the various types of settlements.78 Emilia, the Marche, Umbria and Tuscany, dwelt on is- These latter questions are discussed analytically in sues relating to the municipal and provincial network. the subsequent 1864 volume, in which, after raising the With regard to this level of government, Minghetti issue of the »virtually insuperable difficulties faced by a stressed the need not to proceed »heavy-handedly« with legislator who intends to reduce all the Kingdom’s mu- municipal aggregations, although these were regarded nicipalities into one single legal norm«, taking statistical as indispensable by the minister and the many reform- data as a starting point, the focus is on the »very consid- ers around him who recalled the previous pontifical erable disproportions in the municipality« in regard to experience of ›annexed‹ municipalities (›comuni appo- demographics and surface area.79 The design of the mu- diati‹),84 but rather to undertake marginal rather than nicipal administrative network, which comprised the structural corrections and adjustments in the case of heritage of a tradition that in many cases dated back to the provinces. On the subject of the provincial network, the late mediaeval period and the Renaissance, was not, however, Minghetti also specified areas in which it was therefore, capable of being adapted to the institutional believed more fundamental modifications were needed: and territorial innovations of the new state structure, the provinces of Abruzzo Ulteriore I and Abruzzo Citeri- and hindered the projects for administrative reform due ore, regarding their borders with the provinces of Ascoli to the variety of its forms and dimensions.80 and Rieti, in the event of re-establishment; the province At a supra-municipal level, too, the administrative of Livorno, whose territorial jurisdiction corresponded system – that is, the provincial structure – could not fail to that of the municipality, an anomaly which it was be- to register the same enormous variety of situations, a lieved should be rapidly remedied; the province of Mas- consequence of the decisions and circumstances that sa and Carrara, »one part of which [should be joined] had driven the process of formation of the unified state to the Tuscan provinces, while the other part and the and the plan for administrative division. For Correnti district of Pontremoli [should be attached] to the prov- and Maestri, this was another case of »piedmontiza- ince of Genoa«.85 tion«: instead of doing away with the »old, small Sar- The most interesting proposal put forward by Min­ dinian provinces, [...] these nerveless, lifeless bodies ghetti in his project, however, relates to the creation of a Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative

which are the districts were invented«. The result was parliamentary commission appointed »to carry out spe-

291 that instead of pursuing a general plan, »the territorial cial studies and provide appropriate suggestions« for AD INISTORY 2/2017

resolving the most evident contradictions in the admin- with the resources necessary to respond to the needs of istrative network.86 This was an extremely significant the governed, and to adjust to the transformations then proposal, but it was not discussed any further after the under way in the country’s society and economy.89 rejection of the regional projects, not even on the occa- Proposals to reduce the number of provinces were sion of the approval of the law on administrative unifi- also linked to a second issue, which was also frequently cation of 1865, which Giuseppe Saredo later criticized raised: the need to simplify the administrative-territorial precisely because »it had not provided for a new admin- framework, with the objective of reducing and rational- istrative division of the Kingdom«.87 izing the costs of the administrative apparatus, and to address at the same time the problem of bureaucratic elephantiasis. This cost-cutting objective clearly related Final Considerations not only to the ›political‹ or general-purpose adminis- trative districts, but also – if not primarily – to sectoral It is not possible here to provide a detailed analysis of districts for specific tasks that depended on the various the most uncertain and confused territorial areas of the ministries and were located across the country.90 Italian administrative network, to which Minghetti did Demonstrating the structural role played by particu- not fail to refer in his project. In order to propose some larism and municipalism in the constitutional history of concluding thoughts, however, it will be appropriate to Italy, discussions on how to divide the territory were itemize the structural problems that were central to the also almost completely absorbed by an endless series of debate on territorial division at the dawn of the King- issues of local interest relating to individual cities or ter- dom of Italy. Besides involving scholars from various ritorial areas. An example is provided by the borderline disciplines, as well as politicians and administrators, case of Livorno, where the provincial territory was the the main arenas for this debate were not only the cham- same as the municipal area, so that it became necessary bers of parliament and the councils of local bodies, but to reorganize the adjacent provinces in order to ensure also the columns of the specialist journals in the sector, that the province of Livorno achieved the dimensions for example, the »Rivista dei comuni italiani« and the required of a province.91 Other noteworthy cases includ- »Rivista amministrativa del Regno«. ed that of the »microscopic« province of Porto Maurizio, The first problem on which the interest and attention which was created after the transfer of Nice to France,92 of insiders and public opinion focused was the ›size‹ of or that of the new province of Benevento, the creation of the intermediate administrative districts, that is, the op- which, according to Michele Basile, was an example of a timal dimensions of provincial districts – an issue that method that should be absolutely avoided when reor- was in turn closely associated with the desired format of ganizing the administrative fabric. In his opinion, one the state. The option for small provinces was mainly could not »make one province larger by stealing a piece of supported by the promoters of administrative central- land from the neighbouring province«, or create a new ization, while it was more often the supporters of decen- province by »cutting pieces off a number of adjacent prov- tralization who were in favour of a larger intermediate inces«, as was the case in the creation of the province of district. In one of the many works devoted to this topic, it Benevento: »expanded and swollen at the expense of Mo­ was claimed that division into districts of a smaller size lise, the Terra del Lavoro, and the Principato Ulteriore, it was appropriate for »small states«, while large states re- continues to vex Campobasso, Caserta, and Avellino, and quired a great deal of »centripetal force in their govern- the populations aggregated to Benevento curse the new mental authorities«, which needed to be appropriately hotch-potch, and want to return to their motherlands«.93 countered by the provision of larger districts.88 Proposals Complaints and petitions on the part of former prov- for sometimes drastic reductions in the number of prov- inces that had been suppressed or reduced in size as inces, with the consequent amalgamations and changes part of the new territorial partition of the Kingdom of in administrative borders, were put forward in many Italy, which often gave rise to institutional conflicts, were Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative

writings of the time, as well as in parliament. In general, so frequent that they became a recurrent theme of the

292 they were motivated by a need to provide provinces times: from Savona to Lodi, from Crema to Grosseto, from AD INISTORY 2/2017

Reggio Emilia to Vercelli, and from Sarzana to Fermo, there To conclude, we can say that the confusion and irratio- ensued a spate of memoranda, pamphlets, and historical nality of the administrative fabric of the new unified state papers underlining the importance of the city in question was the result, on the one hand, of the peculiar patterns and the historical, topographical, demographic, econom- and timeframes of its political unification, and on the ic, and territorial justifications for its reinstatement.94 other, of the inability of the liberal Italian ruling class to Equally frequent were protests – the reasons for which create and complete a unitary, homogeneous­ plan for likewise ranged from history to economy and from ter- territorial division. It is no surprise, therefore, that in the ritorial centrality to patriotic loyalty – by provincial cap- face of this confusion and irrationality, even the most itals that had been demoted in the hierarchy of the new carefully thought-out and innovative proposals for the administrative system: one of the first questions that the reform of the peninsula’s territorial divisions during the new unified parliament had to address, for instance, was passage from the former states to the new unified state, the transfer of a provincial capital from Noto to Syracuse.95 such as the regional projects of Farini and Minghetti, One final question, which is no less important than the came to naught. It is also not surprising that a large va- previous ones, lies at the core of these discussions: the riety of peripheral territorial divisions instituted by in- lack of a unitary design for the fabric of administrative dividual ministries for their activities persisted alongside districts in the new unified state. This was the result of the general administrative constituencies of the state. the »lack of agreement on the criteria« that was criticized From a territorial standpoint, the new unified Italian by Correnti and Maestri. Many observers at the time em- state focused primarily on its external borders, the lines phasized the intolerable confusion that was created in delimiting the space of national state sovereignty, as has the various territorial divisions, which was a source of traditionally been the case for all modern states, and es- very considerable inconvenience for citizens and of in- pecially at the time when nation-states were emerging. supportable costs to public administration. In an extreme- Far less attention was devoted to internal administrative ly clear and detailed contribution, Pietro­ Castiglioni, one divisions, which in Italy, as I have tried to underscore, of the scholars most attentive to the framework of the were highly problematic and complex and certainly would territorial administration of the state, referred to the un- have required more careful consideration. The decisions acceptable »multiplicity« of administrative partitions, made, in contrast, were dictated by considerations of ur- which generated »a frightening level of confusion«. He gency. Generally, this same pattern was perpetuated in sought to remedy this by making radical proposals for the subsequent history of the state, despite variations and reforms, starting with the suppression of the districts (›cir- interventions that often remained at the planning stage. condari‹), to be countered by a simultaneous increase in Successive projects devised in liberal Italy to reform the number of provinces to 100. He arrived at a highly the territorial constituencies failed to overcome the op- advanced, and almost unrealistic, proposal for one single position between, on the one hand, the importance of system of territorial partition which would be effective continuously adapting territorial divisions to the chang- for both the general and political administration of the ing needs of society and the economy, and on the other state and the sectoral activities of the various ministries. hand, the presumed ›inalterability‹ or ›inertia‹ of the ad- He provided a list of the very numerous general and spe- ministrative grid.97 The only major adaptation was the cial partitions by which the Italian state was fragmented: rather late introduction of regions under the Italian Re- there were 32 in all, from the electoral districts to those public. This contradiction also confirms the unavoidable for the judiciary, the military, commercial administration, ambivalence of the notion of ›territory‹ in modern and the postal service, civil engineering, public education, contemporary times: it is understood either as a space public works, and the forest service, not to mention the designed and established to manage and ensure the func- multiple systems used by the financial administration. tioning of a political community, or as a unit reflecting From this panorama, the considerable work that would be the historical identity of a social community. In the case necessary to reduce the reigning confusion even slightly, of Italian unification, the contradiction between the two Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of Italian Kingdom Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative

and to make the public administrative apparatus more is clearly visible, although the historical identity factor

96

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R T m i l l e t o a l a o e , m Ro- o - , , 296 Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of the Italian Kingdom 1 5 4 3 2 8 7 6

portance ofthequotation,toreportoriginaltextinnotes. im- the translationor the of complexity the due chosen, I have cases somein Only mine. are Italian translationsthe All from p. 144–145. con Villamarina, Scialoja, Cordova, Farini, ecc., vol. 1, Bologna 1961, giorno e la formazione del Regno d’Italia. Carteggi di Camillo Cavour liberazioneMezzoLa del in: 1860, - 10. 14. Carini, Giacinto to Cavour Parentela, santitàeonorealleoriginidell’Italiaunita,Torino 2000. tal; see especially Alberto Mario Banti: La nazione del Risorgimento. 1991. For the case of Italy, the works of Alberto Banti are fundamen- nities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London The obligatoryreferenceisBenedictAnderson:ImaginedCommu- vol. 1, p. 144–145. As Cavour himself remarked to Carini: Liberazione del Mezzogiorno, of thesecondchapterhisbook. titlethe as words Cavour’s uses Cassese p. 42. 2014, Bologna Stato, most recently by SabinoCassese:Governaregliitaliani.Storiadello and p. 862; 1984, Roma 1854–1861, vol. 3: tempo, suo il e Cavour Romeo: Rosario p. 91; 1964, Milano (1859–1866), Ricasoli a Rattazzi da periferica amministrazione e centrale Amministrazione Pavone: Venezia 3 vol., (1770–1861), cavouriana Claudiop. 290; vol. 1, 1962, dell’età chiudersi al regime dell’antico fine dalla locali enti sugli se piemonte- legislazione della Storia italiano. provinciale e comunale dell’ordinamento origini Le Petracchi: Adriana by others, Among (1861–1865), Roma2015. provinciale e comunale legge sulla parlamentare dibattito il e d’Italia Ballini: Il Governo dal centro. L’unificazione amministrativa del Regno Luigi Pier by committees and offices parliamentary the of minutes considered anew with the publication of the relevant documents and been recently have topics These 1968. Vicenza province, Le vol. 2: 1967; Antonio Amorth (ed.): L’ordinamento comunale e provinciale, (ed.): L’ordinamento comunale e provinciale, vol. 1: I comuni, Vicenza tiva ed i suoi protagonisti, Vicenza 1969; Massimo Severo Giannini ciano Benvenuti / Gianfranco Miglio (ed.): L’unificazione amministra- be discussing here, I would like to draw attention the to Feli reader’s unification, among which, for the purposes of the subjects that I will Pubblica (ISAP) on the occasion of the centenary of administrative dell’Amministrazione Scienza la per Istituto the by coordinated ies nella storia dell’Italia unita, Bari 1967; and the eleven volumes of stud­ amministrazione e Politica Ragionieri: Ernesto centrale; nistrazione Ammi- Pavone: dell’ordinamento; Origini Petracchi: only cite will I politico-militare,Lausanne1846,p. 86. liana. Saggio provincial sub-nationalities«; Giacomo Durando: Della nazionalità ita­ that »we are almost seven different nations, or, if one prefers, seven como Durando had taken a similar position when he bluntly stated riografico, Torino 1979, p. 178. Many years earlier, in the 1840s, Gia- L’ItaliaGalasso: Giuseppe see history; sto- Italian problema of come editor, Giuseppe Galasso had stressed the »multinational character« the was he which of d’Italia« »Storia the to volume introductory the gionali fra Settecento e Ottocento, Roma 2012, p. 7–32. Previously, in re- appartenenze e politiche Identità d’Italia. Nazioni (ed.): Mannori Luca Fosi / Irene Benedictis / De Angela in: introduttiva«, flessione ri­ una nazione: e nazioni »Tra Mannori: Luca see point, this On mi, innegabili: da un lato i più alti monti d’Europa, l’Alpi; dall’altro ildall’altro l’Alpi; d’Europa, monti alti più i lato un da innegabili: mi, steso intorno linee di confini subli- sangue: sulla vostra, no. Dio v’ha giorno, machehannocostatoecosteranno forseancora lacrimee possono insorgere questioni che il voto pacifico di tutti scioglierà un interrotti, o incerti più limiti con segnate terre altre »In p. 894–895: zini: Scritti politici, ed. Terenzio Grandi / Augusto Comba, Torino 2011, Giuseppe Mazzini: »Dei doveri dell’uomo« [1860], in: Giuseppe Maz- Migliorini, vol. 2,Milano2004,p. 1282–1293,atp. 1288. Mascilli ed. Luigi Sant’Elena, di Memoriale Cases: Las de Emmanuel - AD 9 16 15 14 13 12 11 10

De l’espace au territoire, XVI territoire, au l’espace De half of the 16th century, see Daniel Nordman: Frontières de France. On the theory of the natural border, which developed in the second Della nazionalitàitaliana,p. 70. diritti«. These ideas were taken up, with some var­ avete non quella oltre lingua: vostra la s’intende parla, si frontiera quella a Fino dava. vi Dio che frontiera la segnato avrà dell’Isonzo punta cheandrà, compito ilsemicerchio,acaderesuglisbocchi quella semicerchio: un Alpi, delle direzione nella essa, con segnate e Varo del sbocchi agli l’altra appuntate Parma: su dell’Italia, Nord al punta una collocate compasso: un Aprite Mare. l’immenso Mare, Torelli: Pensierisull’Italia,p. 60–61. even Sicily;Durando: Dellanazionalità italiana,p. 90–91. Savoy and Nice, or alternatively Sardinia and the island of Elba, or given be would Lucca of Bourbons the compensation; financial al receive Sicily, or Savoy and Nice, or Sardinia and Elba, plus addition­ would Tuscany of rulers the See; Holy the to Sicily, alternatively or allocating SardiniaandElba,inadditiontoRomeCivitavecchia, proposed he example, for territories, papal the of loss the for tion Durando fourcombinations.Ascompensa- inparticularsuggested zi: Delleeventualitàitaliane.Considerazioni politiche,Bastia1856. sull’Italia di un Anonimo lombardo, Lausanne 1846; Giovanni Fabri- Pensieri (anon.): Torelli Luigi italiana; nazionalità Della Durando: Las Cases:Memoriale,vol. 2,p. 1288,1290. p. 497–523. 2011, Torino unita, dell’Italia cultura e Scienze vol. 26: Annali, lia. nazionale«, in: Francesco Cassata / Claudio Pogliano (ed.): Storia d’Ita­ Roma 2011, p. 69–87; Sandro Rinauro: »La conoscenza del territorio italiana, L’unificazione (ed.): Vidotto Vittorio Sabbatucci / Giovanni in: territorio«, del rappresentazione »La Cerreti: Claudio see insula, pen- the of territory the of representations and knowledge On 446. Contemporanea. Rivista di storia dell’800 e del ’900 1 (1998), p. 427– confini dell’Italia‹. La rappresentazione cartografica della nazione«, in: giusti »›I Sturani: Luisa Maria p. 69–87; 2002, Roma Risorgimento, Banti / Roberto Bizzocchi (ed.): Immagini della nazione nell’Italia del d’Italia nella pedagogia politica del Risorgimento«, in: Alberto Mario ca della spazialità, Milano 2008, p. 189–213; Gilles Pécout: »La carta ganizzazione del potere e territorio. Contributi per una lettura stori- Or- (ed.): Blanco Luigi in: cartografia«, della storia della prospettiva dalla riflessione di spunti e materiali territoriali: identità di zione costru- nella cartografiche rappresentazioni »Le Sturani: Luisa Maria climi serbiilmarchiod’unapossenteunità«. suoi de’ e aspetti suoi de’ varietà molteplice nella che solo, il foce; le sue acque dalle scaturigini allaitaliche è il solo che possieda tutte stirpi dalle occupato terreno Il [...]. europeo continente del gione re- organica più la e inalveata meglio la è iberica, penisola la dopo nostra,L’Italia terra. della divino diritto al ubbidire e sponde le tra coll’adagiarsi poi traversa, finisce e vorticosa volta trabocchialcuna anche se storia, la dove naturali, di n’ha ve storica; frastagliatura o una rappezzamento un è che non geografia cui la artificiali, paesi »V’ha p. 93: at p. 93–102, (1853), 6 popolare Strenna Vesta-Verde. del Nipote Trentino«,Il Il in: italiane. frontiere »Le Correnti: Cesare vol. 5, Roma1963,p. 356–357. Italiani, degli biografico Dizionario in: Adriano«, »Balbi, Gliozzi: rio 1842, p. 89. On Balbi, a famous geographer and statistician, see Ma- TorinoBalbi, ed. Eugenio Germania, di e Francia di d’Italia, giornali Adri­ in: [1841], confini« naturali suoi dei e »Dell’Italia Balbi: Adriano (1990), p. 1423–1451. 95 Review Historical American The in: Century«, Seventeenth the Peter Sahlins: »Natural Frontiers Revisited: France’s Boundaries since ano Balbi: Scritti geografici, statistici e vari pubblicati in diversi in pubblicati vari e statistici geografici, Scritti Balbi: ano INISTORY 2/2017 e – XIX – e siècle, Paris 1998, p. 88–122; 1998, Paris siècle, iations, by Durando: 297 Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of the Italian Kingdom 26 25 24 23 22 27 18 17 21 20 19

Trento 2015,p. 41–86. fini dell’Unità d’Italia. Territorio, amministrazione, opinione pubblica, per la cultura politica risorgimentale?«, in: Luigi Blanco (ed.): Ai con- federalismo »Quale Mannori: Luca recently most see weakness, tal On thestructureoffederalist theoriesinItalyandtheirfundamen- quei provvedimentisaranno dati«. quali delle esecuzione in leggi, le vigore in siano non per Italia, pubblica tutta cosa della regime buon del importanti più dimenti colo veramente ripugnantechelà,dondedo­ opere pubbliche.Visarebbesconciotroppograve,- sarebbespetta delle l’amministrazione per regime proprio un pubblica, sicurezza diprovinciale conunproprioConsigliodiStato,unaproprialegge della rimanente Italia. Ha la Toscana comunale e una propria legge isolata, quellachemenodiognialtra vivedellavitaamministrativa più d’Italia provincia la legislativamente è regno, del mezzo nel ta zione centrale, p. 658–678, at p. 659: »La Toscana, quantunque pos- Amministra- Pavone: in reproduced report, commission’s the From zionale in una antologia di scritti (1840–1865), Pistoia 2013, p. 9–61. nori (ed.):Nascitadiunliberale. tra LeopoldoGaleotti localeena­ Man- Luca Gabbrielli / Veronica Chiavistelli / Antonio in: all’Italia«, Toscana dalla Galeotti Leopoldo di politica »L’evoluzione Mannori: Luca see work, his and Galeotti On p. 22–23. 1866, Firenze ricordi, e Studi d’Italia. Regno del legislatura prima La Galeotti: Leopoldo EmanueleII. Piedmont: Vittorio retained thesameordinalnumberhehadusedas King ofSardinia- lining the continuity of the two states. Likewise, the first King of Italy state, referringtoitselfastheeighthlegislatureandthusunder­ tinued the numbering of the Subalpine Assemblies of the Sardinian con- Italy of Kingdom new the of assembly parliamentary first The cherche ensciencessociales35(1980),p. 63–72. re- la de Actes in: région«, de l’idée sur critique réflexion une pour Éléments représentation. la et »L’identité Bourdieu: Pierre 1989; at p. 151. p. 151–159, (1992), 22 Pubblica dell’Amministrazione Scienza la per storiografico«, Amministrare. quadrimestrale in: Rivista dell’Istituto Ettore Rotelli: »Le circoscrizioni amministrative italiane come proble­ initial results of a research group coordinated by Francesco Bonini ticular regardtotheprovincialfabric, seethevolumegathering par- with Italy, unified in districts administrative of subject the On Lo sperarlo sarebbe nonpiùsognomapazzia«. chi ha sette capitali si ridurrebbe a spogliarne sei a vantaggio d’una? E provincie. delle spogliazione alla contro ricchezze, delle interessi, degli governi, de’ centralizzazione chiama si che ciò a contro pitali, si grida ora contro alle grandi quasi unanimemente dappertutto ca- importa), non male, o (bene tutt’Europa in grida Si intiera. nazione desiderabile, né per le èsei sceglienti, né non per l’una ciò prescelta, né che per la più tanto E quell’una. – scegliere a sei le s’accordin che massimo sogno sott’una; riducano si sei che sogno maggior le; è sperar capitale,chevogliaridursiaprovincia- daunasola città »Sogno p. 21: 1844, Capolago d’Italia, speranze Delle Balbo: Cesare storia.camera.it/regno/lavori/leg08/sed022.pdf (20.9.2017). DCD], VIII Legislatura, Sessione del 1861, 25. 3. 1861, p. 282, online at: Atti del Parlamento italiano. Discussioni della Camera dei deputati [API line at:storia.camera.it/regno/lavori/leg08/sed024.pdf (20.9.2017). API DCD, VIII Legislatura, Sessione del 1861, 27. 3. 1861, p. 334, on 2017); 9. (20. storia.camera.it/regno/lavori/leg08/sed023.pdf at: line API DCD, VIII Legislatura, Sessione del 1861, 26. 3. 1861, p. 303, on online at: storia.camera.it/regno/lavori/leg08/sed022.pdf (20. 9. 2017). p. 284–285, 1861, 25. 3. 1861, del Sessione Legislatura, DCD,VIII API La représentation du territoire français à la fin du 18 du fin la à français territoire du représentation La départements. Ozouf-Marignier:Marie-Victoiredes formation See La vranno partireiprovve- e siècle,Paris ma ma - - AD 33 32 31 30 29 28 tals; Cesare Correnti: »Il nuovo ordinamento interno dello Stato«, in: in: Stato«, dello interno ordinamento nuovo »Il Correnti: Cesare tals; lan was being treated in the same way as the other provincial capi the pagesofsamejournaltoobject tothefactthatcityofMi- in phrase same the used earlier had Correnti p. 3–4. 1860), (12. 1. Perseveranza La in: Langobardiae«, »Finis (anon.): Correnti Cesare provisional systemsintheprovinces ofModenaandParma. bardy’s temporary system after its liberation, were also used for the the Commission,whichwereappliedbyCavourtoestablishLom­ and it worked feverishly from 10 to 26 May. The projects approved by ing of special powers to the king due to the outbreak of hostilities, Palazzo del Parlamento, which had been closed following the grant­ met inTurin, fromitsseventhmeetingonwardsinaroomatthe commission The 1962. Milano (1859), Lombardia della temporaneo Nicola Raponi (ed.): Atti della Commissione Giulini per l’ordinamento 1967; Milano moderati, dei programma Il dell’Unità. esordi agli dia della Porta, see Nicola Raponi: Politica e amministrazione in Lombar- On the Giulini Commission, named after its chairman Carlo Giulini proprio a pubblica modo edisgustòvivamenteogniordinedicittadini«. cosa la ricomporre di cercò male al e bene al rattazziano, ma […] esso volle por mano ad ogni cosa e senza badare dalministero e dovevaessere,almenoperqualchetempo,rispettato conquistata Algeria [...]. Questo ordinamento amministrativo poteva forestiero le trattarono come i francesi di poter trattare la credettero governo dalselvaggio le nuoveprovincieecredendolereseselvaggie legislatori non vollero neppur conoscere le istituzioni che reggevano inesperti »questi p. 335–336: at p. 331–336, (1860), 1 Ser. 4, mercio, com- e viaggi storia, legislazione, pubblica, economia statistica, di universali Annali in: italiano«, Parlamento nuovo Il II. Regno. nuovo del Statistica I. marzo di mese del italiana »Rivista Sacchi: Giuseppe delleaustriache«. italianepotesseroapparirepeggiori che leleggi eravituperio il che avvidero si non e italiane; alle austriache leggi le danno. Li assennati riputarono un vituperio che il popolo preferisse un e disturbo un come accolsero ch’essi leggi nuove beneficio, un munali alla Lombardia; ebbe la disgrazia d’apportare ai popoli, come penale alla Toscana,diritto civile a Parma, in ordini com- in diritto in inferiore trovò si secolo, d’un progressi i mesi sei in addensando anche Piemonte, il Ma […] progresso. del veramenteall’avanguardia evo, laToscana inmoltecose,laLombardiaalcunealtre,sono sopravvivonoCorsica, in Sicilia, tradizioniin molte degna, mediodel molto diversi di civiltà. Perloché, mentre negli Stati Romani, in Sar- rappresentanti neisingolistatidellapenisolaenelletreisoleordini in sistemi legislativi, sovraaggruppate principii capitalmente diversi, secoli da sono provincie le che nulla per badò si non […] gislativo. meramente dia, la Sicilia. E ognuno di codesti stati o regni uniti non è un corpo Lombar- Toscana,la la chiama si che reale, meno non e grande entepiù altro un anche v’è Cremona, di o Pisa di provincia si la che chiama sociale ente un Italia in v’è »se p. 74–75: at p. 65–82, 1965, Firenze Boneschi, ed. Mario vol. 4, politici, Scritti Cattaneo: Carlo in: [1860], Politecnico« del IX volume al »Prefazione Cattaneo: Carlo amministrativa«. for hiscentral conceptis»s’centralizzazione phrase Matteucci’s 10. 6, contemporaneap. 5, at p. 3–19, (1860), 22 Rivista in: regno«, nuovo del organizzazione »Sulla Matteucci: Carlo di / AugustoComba,Torino 2011,p. 157–177. ›Se no, no!‹«, in: Giuseppe Mazzini: Scritti politici, ed. Terenzio Gran- 1831; see Giuseppe Mazzini: »A Carlo Alberto di Savoja, Un italiano: in written text a in epigraph an as prominent is Manin, Daniele by This referencetotheAragonese principle,whichwasalsotakenup amministrative dell’Italia unita,SoveriaMannelli2016. circoscrizioni delle storia una Per cittadinanza. di Orizzonti (ed.): at Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta, Rome: Francesco Bonini et al. INISTORY 2/2017 , ma comprende un intero edificio intero un comprende ma amministrativo, le- - 298 Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of the Italian Kingdom 35 34 36 39 38 37 42 41 40

Petracchi: Originidell’ordinamento, vol. 2,p. 151–155. in reproduced 1859«, ottobre 23 il dell’Interno Ministro dal S. M. a fatta provinciale e comunale ordinamento nuovo sul »Relazione 1962, p. 92–130,atp. 120. svoltosi a Torino e a Saint Vincent dal 3 al 7 settembre 1961, Milano e l’articolazione dell’intervento pubblico. Atti del Conve­ regionali squilibri Gli in: Destra«, della caduta alla dell’unificazione e degli squilibri regionali nella cultura politica italiana dal periodo riae« in his diary; see Giuseppe Talamo: »Il problema delle diversità to theTuscan plebiscite,MarcoTabarrini wouldwrite»FinisEtru- La Perseveranza (23. 12. 1859). In a similar vein, in March, referring Bologna 1975,p. 283–305. L’opera(ed.): Lacaita G. L’opera, vol. 1: Cattaneo, Carlo di l’eredità e Rotelli: e »Carlo gli Cattaneo ordinamenti locali lombardi«, in: Carlo andothers,seeEttore of theTheresianlocalsystembyCattaneo mythologizing the On p. 129. at p. 117–138, (1959), 11 temporanea in: IlRisorgimento. RivistadistoriadelRisorgimento edistoriacon- 1859«, giugno Torino,a maggio – missione sua la riguardanti Porta delconteCesareGiuliniDellaBruno Malinverni:»Alcunelettere nav­ on­ API DCD, VII Legislatura, Sessione del 1860, 26. 5. 1860 – 29. 5. 1860, dell’unificazione italiana, Torino 1956,p. 146–147. Passerin d’Entrèves: L’ultima politica battaglia di Cavour. I problemi Ettore from cited 1860, 12. 22. on Nazione« »La newspaper the In in theNeapolitanprovinceson2.1.1861. 1860, in Umbria and the Marche at the end of September 1860, and amendments in Emilia and Romagna on 27. 12. 1859, in Sicily on 26. 8. After Lombardy, the law of 23. 10. 1859 was enacted with only a few altre provincie. Il buono si deve prendere ovunque si trovi, nè si creda altre provincie.Ilbuonosideveprendere ovunquesitrovi,nècreda indurremo ad applicare varie delle sue regole amministrative nelle viamo sapientemente come funziona la di lui macchina, […] e poscia ci osser- bene, studiamolo amministrativo; sistema lui di il demolire nel adagio assai adagio, dunque Andiamo eccellente. un’amministrazione Il Veneto, specialmenteinalcune partidelpubblicoservigio,ha […] nulla. più vide non e cieco divenne Piemonte, in vedeva come tutto veder per vista la affaticandosi e mano di sfuggì gli l’evidenza cipio; applicò le leggi d’un piccolo Stato ad una Monarchia grandiosa; monte all’epoca delle annessioni non ebbe in mente quest’ovvio prin Pie­ il reggeva che Ministero »Il p. 9–10: Unificazione, Pototschnig: government followingtheprematuredeathofCavour. trative organization of the state when he assumed leadership of the Ricasoli would take diametrically opposite positions on the adminis- nistrativa ed i suoi protagonisti, Vicenza 1969, p. 379–405, at p. 390. ammi- L’unificazione (ed.): Miglio Gianfranco Benvenuti / Feliciano in: italiano«, Stato dello amministrativa l’unificazione e Ricasoli no - »Betti Pansini: Giuseppe from cited lies«; nation the of power the unity, andtoconservethevitalityofparts,becauseitisherethat I believe, however, that it is essential to maintain differences within [...] Parliament. of deliberations the to and order, may government King’s the as studies complex more and broader such to rest the insofar as this can be done without causing disturbance, leaving similating the Tuscan systems with the remainder of the monarchy of concept the with proceed I will I believe office, had recently become the Governor of Tuscany, wrote: »In my new who Ricasoli, 1860, 26. 3. dated Cavour to letter confidential a In le provincevenete,Vicenza1967,p. 9. Cited from Umberto Pototschnig: L’unificazione amministrativa del- vol. 4: Laliberazione delMezzogiorno, Bologna1961,p. 283–284. 1861, al 1858 dal Nigra Cavour – Carteggio Il Cavour. di Carteggi in published 1860, 3. 12. dated King the to Cavour from letter a From line at: storia.camera.it/lavori/regno-di-sardegna/leg-sabaudo-VII# ­ (20. 9.2017). unifying, ofas- gno di studio - AD 51 50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43

presenterebbero leprovincienapoletane, eidipartimentifrancesi. abitanti ciascuna.Mapercontrole14 divisionidegliStatiSardirap- alle cinquanta provincie sarde, che l’una per l’altra hanno centomila napoletanisonoinvecedapareggiarsi non passai22.000.Idistretti quali dei popolazione media la Lombardia, la stratagliata è cui in distretti 127 coi analogia alcuna hanno non anime, mila 100 d’oltre popolazione una medio per toccando che distretti, 77 in suddivise provincie della Sicilia: ma sì le une come le altre sonosono le sette menti francesi. menoestese Alquantomenopopoloseesoprattutto diparti- ai e piemontesi divisioni alle ragguagliarsi perciò ponno ciascuna e per abitanti 440.000 che più di media popolazione una Le quindici provincie dei dominj borbonici al di qua del Faro fanno pure approssimativamentelostessovaloreeconomicoepolitico. ecomunichenonhannonep- 10041 comuni:maprovincie,distretti distretti, 495 provincie, 110 contano l’Italia, spartita è cui in stati dipende dalledivisionipolitiche.Presiinsiemeitredicistatiesemi- ministrativo della penisola, esso è affatto disforme, come quello che am- compartimento al »Quanto p. 155–156: nostra«, »Casa Correnti: for Puglia,andsoforth. Tuscany,»Valfor Lombardy, d’Arno« bimare«»Pianurafor padana« Correnti: »Fisionomia«, p. 43: »Pedemontana« for Piedmont, »Trans­ Correnti: »Fisionomia«,p. 42. d’unpezzo«).tutto nel tempostessosnodateecongiunte,cheinuncolossomarmoreo persuaso che v’ha più unità in un corpo vivente, le cui membra sono ogni altra cosa, lo spirito importa assai più che la lettera: ed io sono e delle provincialità, sarà un bel guadagno. Ma in questa, come in subnazionalità delle divisioni consuete alle prevarranno geografici nomi i ed articolazioni, le distinzioni, le quando che credo me per Io […]. spinosa è partizioni delle materia (»Questa sculpture« ble together atthesametimethanthereisinonesinglegiganticmar- is moreunityinalivingbodywhoselimbsareundoneandjoined andIamconvincedthattherefar moreimportantthantheletter, have beengained,butinthis,aseveryothercase,thespiritis of sub-nationality and provincialism, something important will tails, andgeographical namesprevailoverthecustomarydivisions de- distinctions, when that believe I part, my For [...]. one thorny a is division of subject »This p. 147–148: nostra«, »Casa Correnti: land andtheimpartialwitnessofriversmountains«. when creatingdistricts,onemustfollowtheinviolablerightof a not is politics;ethnographyand consider not must one geographicentity, Italy because »But p. 149–150: nostra«, »Casa Correnti: Una biografia diCesareCorrenti,Milano2014. radici‹. essere di contentiamoci fiori esser potendo ›Non Soresina: Marco see politician, and scholar a as Correnti On p. 13–38. (1848), grafiche su l’Italia«, in: Il Nipote del Vesta-Verde. Strenna popolare 1 storico-geo- »Nozioni Correnti: Cesare also See p. 138–164. (1855), 8 popolare Vesta-Verde.Strenna del Nipote Il in: nostra«, »Casa Correnti: Cesare p. 42–61; (1852), 5 popolare Strenna Vesta-Verde. Cesare Correnti: »Fisionomia delle regioni italiche«, in: Il Nipote del Frulli: »Fisicheregioni«,p. 102. Frulli: »Fisicheregioni«,p. 95–96,99. (1998), p. 89–106. 7 geografia della storia di e antico mondo del storica geografia di »L’invenzioneRivistaGeographiaantiqua. in: italiane«, regioni delle Gambi: Lucio see article; recent a in anastatically reproduced is Annuario geografico italiano (1845), p. 92–104, at p. 92–93. The in: dell’Italia«, insulari ed peninsulari regioni »Fisiche Frulli: Carlo scono mirabilmente, erano inAustria«. sconosciutedeltutto agi­ anni, da qui, che norme, moltissime e italiani; regolamenti e leggi molte attività in v’hanno austriaca; tutta sia l’amministrazione qui che INISTORY 2/2017 ­piece 299 Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of the Italian Kingdom 53 52 55 54 57 56

di Ettore Rotelli,Pavia2014,p. 25–37. di Ettore no e democrazia nell’età moderna e contemporanea. Scritti in onore Elisabetta Colombo / Fabio Rugge (ed.): Autonomia, forme di gover- delle circoscrizioni amministrative nell’Italia unita«, in: Piero Aimo / tema sul lavoro di appunti amministrazione: e »Territorio Blanco: On thegenesisofunitaryadministrative divisions,seeLuigi trovata, piùchealtro,adinganno«. parenomi de’ somiglianza la che paese, a paese da vario sì è vi tivo parte d’Italia si parli: perché l’organismo economico ed amministra- comune,vuolsiguardareaqualque diciamoprovincia,distretto, dun- Quando [...] città. di superbo nome il conservano (321) quinti tre che più quali delle edificj, di aggregazioni le popolose più volte volte meno numerose, e quasi quattro vasto del Lombardo quattro più territorio un su cioè paesi, 517 troviamo vi imperiale, Roma di se E consideriamo la sola Sicilia, dove ancora vige l’ordinamento agrario2.158. di più sono non villaggi i e rurali comuni i quali delle pio, con una popolazione di circa 9.000.000 ha solo 3.241 comunità esem- per Sicilie due delle Regno Il [...] tripla. quasi media lazione popo- una hanno che meridionale, dell’Italia comuni i e d’abitanti, i nostri piccoli comuni, che per media appena passano il migliaio tra grandissima differenza una] [esiste comuni ai Quanto italiani. to delle istituzioni censuarie, che mancano in quasi tutti gli altri stati Venezia:nella e Lombardia nella frut- come organismo fecondo, un ed proprio suo carattere un ha distretto il d’Italia parte nessuna In nomico-statistico dell’Italiaperl’anno1853,Torino 1853,p. V–VIII. eco- Annuario in: »Prefazione«, Maestri: Pietro body«; national the strength, andpresent,ifnotthemuscles,thenatleastbonesof patriotic act« that would provide »a less incomplete inventory of our »a as also but opportunity«, statistical »a as only not work his fined de- Maestri p. 122–154. 1996, Cambridge Italy, Nineteenth-Century Silvana Patriarca:NumbersandNationhood.Writing Statisticsin 737. Annali, vol. 26: Scienze e cultura dell’Italia unita, Torino 2011, p. 705– zione«, in: Francesco Cassata / Claudio Pogliano (ed.): Storia d’Italia. amministra­ e scienza fra statistica »La Favero: Giovanni see tury; were extremely permeable throughout the first half of the 19th cen- The boundaries between the disciplines of statistics and geography lia edellesueisole,17 vol.,Firenze1835–1845. dell’Ita­ e statistica storica fisica, Corografia Zuccagni-Orlandini: Attilio ammattassate [sic]eaccavallate senzafermodisegno«. ammattassate partizioni di viluppo codesto in sicuramente scorgere possa li chi grandissimo; e un disagio più grande ai cittadini i quali non trovano disagio un dell’Amministrazione parte ogni ad venne ne […] mente. partizioni sono anch’essi diversi e s’intralciano e s’intersecano varia- codeste di sottocompartimenti i e Demanio: del direzione la per ta cinquan- in gabelle, delle direzioni le per ventisette in Tesoro, del del contenzioso, in quattordici pei catasti, in diciotto per le Direzioni gno in cinque regioni pel debito pubblico, in sei per le consulte legali rebbe, dacchè il ministero, per esempio, delle Finanze, ha diviso il re- baste- non ancora e ministeri: i sono quanti amministrative, grafie topo- le essere vorrebbero »tante Torinop. 45–46: 1864, 1864, II. – Anno italiano. statistico Annuario Maestri: Pietro Correnti / Cesare pare fra secondolalorocoesione loroleprovincie,prima ditutto - aggrup ad indotti fummo ciò Da civili. tradizioni di comunanza per infine sia economica, complessione di analogia per sia fisica, tuzione provincie tra loro sia per vicinità di luogo, sia per conformità di costi- delle relazioni naturali le coordinarsi a venissero cui a intorno gio, d’ap­ punto intermedio un senza provincie e provincie tra fronti follow are also taken: »ci riusciva poi disagevole procedere per raf- that citations the which from p. VI, 1864, Firenze 1863, nell’anno le civi stato dello Movimento Popolazione. d’Italia. Regno del Statistica pog­ - AD 64 63 62 61 60 59 58

altra unità morale fuorché quella costituita dalla Provincia, così come lendo divisare questa circoscrizione, dobbiamo noi disconoscere ogni VoStato. dello politica circoscrizione della - disegno il farsi quali sulle fondamentali massime le stabilire lo tutto innanzi necessario è fine, vol. 3, p. 186–192, at p. 187–188: »Per fare una legge che miri a questo dell’ordinamento, Origini Petracchi: in reproduced is »Nota« Farini’s dell’ordinamento, vol. 1,p. 286. Torino1860, nel Garibaldi e Petracchi:by Originicited p. 488; 1958, CavourSmith: Mack Denis regionalism; Cavour’s of subject the on ously of written »tactical expediency aimed at facilitating annexation« previ- had Smith Mack Denis p. 408–415. 1999, Firenze 1855–1864, unita dell’Italia L’invenzione Martucci: Roberto in formulated been already had theory similar A p. 101–143. 2004, Roma Mezzogiorno, e Federalismo Garibaldi. e Cattaneo (ed.): Zichi Giuseppe / Trova nismo per le allodole‹ (18 1860 –maggio giugno 1861)«, in: Assunta edel›regio- Farini-Minghetti impossibile. Apropositodelprogetto l’autonomia o »Cavour, Martucci: Roberto see concluded; been had ate moment, once the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies plebiscites, andthenabandoningtheprojectsatmostappropri- of occasion the on annexation towards diffidence reducing of aim the with independence«, of supporters Neapolitan, extent lesser a was more of a »Cavourian ambush on the thatmoderate it Sicilian, and to hasclaimed and Cavour, with starting affair, this in onists cerity ofthecommitmenttoindependencemanyprotag­ sin- the concerning doubts raised has Martucci Roberto Recently, 1971. Milano (1862–1942), dittatura alla dall’unificazione regionale tione ques- La Ruffilli: Roberto is here reference of point obligatory The (2009), p. 317–347,atp. 333. 146 italiana geografica Società della Bollettino in: dell’Ottocento«, nell’Italia geografia e Statistica territorio. e »Numeri Lando: Fabio coltura sociale10(1861),p. 288–305. Politecnico. Repertoriomensiledistudiapplicatiallaprosperitàe Pietro Maestri: »Del dicentramento amministrativo in Francia«, in: Il See Pietro Maestri (anon.): Annuario economico-politico, Torino 1852; Quaderni storici43(2008),p. 155–176. in: Gambi«, Lucio da partire a ›découpage‹ del dinamiche le sare ripen - amministrativa: geografia della »L’›equivoco‹ Sturani: Luisa Maria Galluccio / Floriana see general, in Italy in geography trative adminis- of status controversial the on and contribution, Gambi’s On 1963. Faenza costituzionali, regioni e statistici compartimenti L’equivocotraGambi: Lucio p. 275–298; (1977), 12 storici Quaderni in: storico«, problema come italiane ›regioni‹ »Le Gambi: Lucio See They wereofficiallyrenamed›regions‹in1912. solida delladistanza,locomozione edellavoro«. base nelleleggi più e altra ben una avevano che ma amministrative, zioni circoscri­ mutevoli più alle nè politiche, divisioni alle spondevano ri­ non Evo Medio nel e antichi tempi dai fin che territoriali sioni sulla natura del suolo e sulle leggi della convivenza economica, divi- fondate territoriali divisioni le riprodurre che fanno non essi stici; stati- parola, una in tutto dir per o topografici, sono compartimenti federalismo amministrativo. Comeabbiamogiàaccennato,inostri di preconcezioni condannate ormai sulle nè irrevocabile, speriamo che passato, un di vestigie dolorose sulle nè s’informa non cetto con- nostro il che persuaderà si guardi ben chi Ma nazionale. torio quali alcuni divisavano poter opportunamente scompartire il terri- antichi Statiincheera divisalanostra patria,odelleRegioninelle meremo Compartimenti, rendono per avventura immagine o degli li e civili proprie delle diverse parti d’Italia. Codesti gruppi, che chia- rispondenza economica; in secondo luogo giusta le tradi­ e unacorrelazione necessariamente determina che topografica, INISTORY 2/2017 zioni mora- 300 Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of the Italian Kingdom 70 69 68 67 66 65 .. I cmatmno ertrae mot a noo en d’Italia Regno nuovo al imposto territoriale compartimento Il [...] d’Italia. parti le tutte in contraffazioni, straniere di infardata tese, il trapianto inconsultoepusillodegliordinidellarotina piemon- chefu non o disegno; senza concetto, senza casaccio, a sproposito, a fatto fu fatto, fu che quel »Tutto p. 4–5: 1863, Milano nomiche, eco- ed statistiche Considerazioni d’Italia. Regno nuovo del zione sull’amministra­ e territoriale compartimento Sul Norsa: Consiglio April 1860;Petracchi: Originidell’ordinamento,vol. 1,p. 294. toGiuseppePasolinidated23 fromMinghetti denced byaletter evi- as Martino, San di Ponza Gustavo of direction and work the derived from the discussions in Piedmont, and in particular from tive system of the Kingdom of Italy, the original reform projects also between Piedmonteseadministrative reformsandtheadministra­ ties close extremely the emphasizes who author, same the to ing Accord­ p. 183–240. vol. 1, dell’ordinamento, Origini Petracchi: See Pavone: Amministrazione centrale, p. 309–327. in reproduced is Sicilia«, di Ufficiale »Giornale the in published ro, Sicily«. The report drafted by Michele Amari and Stanislao Cannizza- »advising onthemeanstoreconcileItalianunitywithneedsof ordinary CouncilofStatewasconvenedinSicilywiththetask Extra­ an 1860, November of end the At 305. p. 296–297, at are ges passa- quoted the p. 296–305; vol. 1, Mezzogiorno, del liberazione La in reproduced are letters Both them«. for respect nor sympathy the KingofNaples,andnottojoinpeopleswhowouldhaveneither Sicilians would be well advised to accept the concessions offered by idea to create a great, strong nation is not appreciated there, the the if Sicily, in influence no has Italy of idea the »If Amari: Michele to letter a in found be can words these to reaction angry Cavour’s 272. The full text of this petition may be found in Ballini: Governo, p. 269– Tuscans«.not and Italians, be to wish we short, in Kingdom; new the with union complete and full is desire decisive Our [...] exclusively. cient arbitrary, bureaucratic system notonlypredominate,butrule an­ the and element Lorenese the [...] which in regime a unity: and slowly devouring the national impetus that so suited Italian liberty the wordautonomy what Sirs, know, you »Do 1861: March in Siena in printed parliament to province Tuscan the of citizens the from petition a in read we As Parma andBologna?«. Emilia, reducedtosuchalowstatuscomparedwithitsneighbours interest,thecentreofcapital ofasmallstate,centrenolittle the was that city »a Torinop. 165: Modena, 1861, di provincia della specialmente e provinciale circoscrizione Della Bosellini: Lodovico Correnti: »Casanostra«, p. 160. lemembraturegna, aparermio,rispettare naturali dell’Italia«. biso- convengono, si le più che istituti gli patria nostra alla dare e to, discentramen- di opera efficace una compiere vogliamo Se Nazione. della splendore allo e forza alla concorrere mirabilmente possono soddisfatte, risollevarsi inmodopericoloso,mache,legittimamente fossero oppresseperpedanteria di sistema potrebbero riscuotersi e le condizioni naturali e storiche: que’ centri di forze morali, le quali se ma deve rappresentare quelle suddivisioni effettive che esistono nel- vuol astratto, essere né d’un né un’operaconcetto il frutto arbitraria; non stabilire dobbiamo che politica circoscrizione La nazione. della all’unità sè di omaggio nobile sì fecero che italiane, autonomie tiche debba tenercontodiquesticentri,iqualirappresentano quellean- politico dello Stato,iopensochesi delconcetto Provincia, al disotto della disopra Al [...] italiana? vita della nell’organismo esistere di ne loro in altri centri più vasti, che hanno avuto ed hanno ragiotuttavia - naturalmenteProvincie italiane si aggruppano e storicamente fra di in vigore? O invece non dovremo conoscereche le provvede la legge meansforTuscany? It meansaregimethat is AD 79 78 77 76 75 74 73 72 71

cipality islessthan10squarekilometres, whereasinTuscany itis territories is even greater. In Lombardy, the average size of a muni - population as a large city. The disproportion in the size of municipal There arealsorural municipalitiesinTuscany thathavethe same whereas inTuscany andRomagnathenumber isseventimeslarger. 1,000, of average an exceed barely villages, and cities the counting not Lombardy, in [municipalities] inhabitants, of number the to regard »with p. 48–49: 1864, statistico Annuario Maestri: Correnti / Correnti / Maestri:Annuariostatistico1857–58,p. 506. ci/documenti/documenti2009.html#2009_3 (20. 9.2017). www3.istat.it/dati/pubbs- ISTAT,at: Documenti online in: Italiano«, Statistico nell’Annuario dell’Italia ›misure‹ »Le Fiocco: Barbara see Rome, comes from the municipality«. On the life of the »Annuario«, of rest and Savoy of exception the with State, the the hand, other the on Italy, in State; the of creature a in is as municipality Sicily, the France, »In p. 506: at p. 502–507, 1858, Torino 1857–58, – I. Anno italiano. statistico Annuario Maestri: Pietro Correnti / Cesare provisionalsystem. of theGiuliniCommissionforLombardy’s this passage should be read in connection with the outcome of the work stated, As p. 152. 3, vol. dell’ordinamento, Origini Petracchi: dell’Amministrazione Pubblica23(2015),p. 7–54. Scienza la per dell’Istituto Annale Costituzione. Amministrazione Storia in: A)«, (all. controlli e funzioni Province, e »Comuni Aimo: There is an updated review and analysis of the question in Piero Petracchi: Originidell’ordinamento,vol. 3,p. 151–155. like intheItaliandistricts. thus larger than the districts, andwereheaded by a sub-prefect, just werelessnumerousanddistricts with›arrondissements‹.Thelatter replaced and departments, the of head the at prefect of office the concerning Division of the Republic and Administration in­ partments, districts, cantons and communes. The Act of 17. 2. 1800 stituent Assembly had subdivided the territory of the state into de- ments and the elimination of the former provinces, the French Con- provinces andeliminatedthedistricts.Withcreationofdepart- severalcreated government newFascist the liberal1927, In period. entire the for effect in remain would 1789–90 – in Assembly uent the subdivisionofFrenchterritoryapprovedbyConstit­ reflecting and origin French of clearly distribution – territorial This Scienza dell’Amministrazione Pubblica23(2015),p. 55–90. la per dell’Istituto Annale Costituzione. Amministrazione Storia in: A)«, (all. circoscrizioni Province, e »Comuni Bonini: Francesco see On thepartsofMunicipalandProvincialLawdiscussedhere, 1865). (6. 12. System Legal the on Law Organic the by later months Itwasfollowedafewand theLawonPublicWorks F). (Attachment tachment D),theLawonAdministrative E), Disputes(Attachment theLawonCouncilofState(At- C), Public Health(Attachment B),theLawontachment A),theLawonPublicSafety(Attachment (At- Law Provincial and Municipal the attachments: six had law The gno d’Italia.Cenni,Milano1867. territoriale e sull’ordinamento giudiziario ed amministrativo del Re- nel Regno d’Italia, Firenze 1865; Pietro Ruscone: Sul compartimento amministrazione pubblica della l’avvenire e presente il passato, Il ministrativa del Regno 12 (1861), p. 81–90, 217–243; Carlo De Cesare: am­ Rivista in: d’Italia«, Regno del amministrativo »Riordinamento Boggio: Carlo Pier 1860; Bologna Considerazioni, Stato. di Consiglio discorso inaugurale deilavoridellaCommissionespecialepressoil suo nel dell’Interno Ministro dal proposto sistema del e regno del regional issue, see Leone Carpi: Del riordinamento ammini­ the on especially orientation, political different of althoughSimilarly, una malacopiadell’ordinamentofrancese«. sulla Dora, in generale del genio che aleggia è, come tutti i prodotti INISTORY 2/2017 troduced strativo 301 Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of the Italian Kingdom 83 82 81 80 84 85 86 91 90 89 88 87

produced inPetracchi: Originidell’ordinamento,vol. 3,p. 335–343. Marco Minghetti: »Ripartizione del Regno e autorità governative«, re- amministrative, Massa1865. circoscrizioni Le Calenda: Andrea amministrativo; Riordinamento Carpi: lines, same the along also, See Basilicata«. Umbria, Genova, distretti urbani, come Livorno; o poco men che regioni come Torino, o rapezzi; e toppe Massa, e Maurizio Porto come sono, che n’ha ve quali »delle p. 44–45: 1864, statistico Annuario Maestri: Correnti / whatsoever betweenoneMunicipalityandanother«. that wewanttoapplyallidenticalprovisions,withnodistinction within the system that prevails among us of a single municipal law far aslawsandadministrative reformsareconcerned,especially cipally inthenorthernprovinces,andthisisnosmallhindrance as and economic resources. This lackof proportion can be seen prin- dom ofItalyisdividedinrelationtotheirsurfacearea,population, of proportionamongthe7,720municipalitiesintowhichKing- Galeotti: Prima legislatura, p. 339: »there is a very considerable lack trict oftheoldPiedmont«. the former census district of Lombardy and the administrative dis- and territoryintoaccount,aTuscan municipalitymightresemble under 100. This means that if one takes its populationonly a little veria Mannelli2016,p. 33–69. So- unita, dell’Italia amministrative circoscrizioni delle storia una Per del Regno«, in: Francesco Bonini et al. (ed.): Orizzonti di cittadinanza. circondari I città. duecento per trama »Una Mori: Simona see 1927, ject of debate, but which would nonetheless remain in existence until sub- a remain would abolition whose districts, the On p. 336. vol. 3, Petracchi:from cited »Ripartizione«, dell’ordinamento, Origini ghetti: maintain »at least temporarily, by sending a vice-prefect there«; Min- of central and southern Italy«, it seemed opportune to the minister to the current conditions in the peninsula, and especially in certain parts bound to disappear at a more or less distant time«, but which »under [...] division superfluous and pointless »a districts, the Consider pontificio (1790–1870),Milano1968. Stato nello territoriale quadro del riassetto il Ruffilli:ed L’appodiamento Roberto see taxes, of division separate a with cities ger ofsmallmunicipalitiestolar- On ›appodiamento‹,theaggregation namento, vol. 3,p. 338. dell’ordi­ Origini Petracchi: from cited »Ripartizione«, Minghetti: namento, vol. 3,p. 338. dell’ordi­ Origini Petracchi: from cited »Ripartizione«, Minghetti: nicipalities; see API DCD, VIII Legislatura, Sessione 1863–1864, 6. 7. 6. 7. 1863–1864, Sessione Legislatura, VIII DCD, API see nicipalities; Provincial Delegation to exercise protection and control over the mu- and municipal law could apply there, given that they required the provincial the to modifications his how Interior, the of Minister the Peruzzi, asked and territory«, a without »province a of case omalous an- an Livorno called Deputies, of Chamber the in Fabrizi, Giovanni De Cesare:Passato. TorinoCircoscrizione, nuova 1864; una di proposta e Studii piegati. Pietro Castiglioni: La riforma amministrativa e la questione degli im- dello StatoinItalia,Torino 1865;Calenda:Circoscrizioni. amministrazione della riordinamento Del Baer: Costantino 1860; Gori: De’ Augusto Sull’ordinamento dello al Stato. Senato Omaggio del Regno, Firenze 1860; Genova provinciale, e municipale mia il dicentramento amministrativo edassicurilalibertà autono- stabilisca che legge d’una necessità la sopra Saggio Spinola: liano Massimi- p. 3–54; (1863), 3 italiani comuni dei Rivista in: d’Italia«, Regno del territoriale ripartizione »Della Spinola: Massimiliano See Calenda: Circoscrizioni,p. 68. 1898,n. 164),vol. 1,Torinovinciale (4maggio 1901,p. 96. pro- e comunale amministrazione sulla legge La Saredo: Giuseppe AD 97 96 95 94 93 92 1867, p. 54–57. Firenze venete, provincie le comprese d’Italia, Regno del comuni dei dizionario e diocesana, e elettorale giudiziaria, amministrativa, Circoscrizioni Castiglioni: Pietro see scope; in modest albeit tions, parti- territorial to changes 119 than less no lists work reference than an actual fact. Produced only a few years after unification, this belief« common of »sort a more was boundaries administrative of by PietroCastiglioniallowsonetoappreciatethattheinalterability work A 62–79. p. 2011, Milano contemporanea, età in venete de vicen- e generali Prospettive Italia. in provinciali amministrazioni Le (ed.): Agostini Filiberto in: geostorico«, problema come vinciali pro- amministrativi confini dei »L’›inerzia‹ Sturani: Luisa Maria See Circoscrizioni, p. 18–19. of the one hundred provinces supported by Castiglioni was Basile: Castiglioni: Riforma amministrativa. Strongly opposed to the theory di Siracusa controNoto,Torino 1861. Noto a Siracusa, Torino 1862. For Syracuse’s arguments, see Ragioni da provincia della capoluogo del trasferimento lo per dell’Interno Ministro signor dal presentato legge di progetto sul osservazioni vi Bre- Raeli: Matteo see Noto; from deputy the Raeli, was project the of critic One 2017). (20. 9. camera.it/regno/lavori/leg08/sed060.pdf storia. at: online 1861, 20. 5. 1861, DCD,Sessione Legislatura, VIII API 2017); 9. (20. storia.camera.it/regno/lavori/leg08/sed059.pdf at: online 1861, 18. 5. 1861, Sessione Legislatura, DCD,VIII API See Petizione alParlamentoNazionale,Vercelli s. d. Vercelli. di Provincia della ricostituzione la Per 1861–1862; Genova Promemoria, economico-civile. d’amministrazione centro essere per Lunigiana alla relativamente Sarzana di città la ha che co-geografica stori- Dell’importanza 1864; Grosseto corredo, di documenti e 1863 la autonomia ed integrità della provincia grossetana del12 Dicembre mantenuta sia perché Grosseto di Municipio del Petizione 1862; rino gioni della necessità della restaurazione della provincia di Savona, To- toriale in relazione al territorio cremasco. Memoria, Crema 1860; Ra- Lodi provinciale, 1861; Carlo Donati De’ un’autonomia Conti: Sulla riforma dello avere scomparto terri- per Crema di diritti dei e pretese Delle p. 311–324; (1862), 6 italiani comuni dei Rivista in: Crema«, e ragionivicendevoli Lodi delle di e lodigiana provincia della stituzione rico­ »Della Salmini: V. see examples, As picture. exhaustive an vide pro- to extensive too literature the and numerous too are cases The torio inItalia,Bologna1995,p. 229–232. Gambi / Francesco Merloni (ed.): Amministrazioni pubbliche e terri- Lucio in: Campania«, »La Aversano: Vincenzo see recently, Most 145. p. 144– Passato, Cesare: De 1861; Caserta Benevento, di Provincia ince of Benevento, see Memoria sulla circoscrizione territoriale della prov­ the to changes territorial the On patrie«. madri proprie alle gate a Benevento maledicono il nuovo accozzo, e aspirano il ritorno - aggre popolazioni quelle e Avellino, ed Caserta Campobasso, ritati lise, dellaTerra diLavoro,edelPrincipatoUlterioretieneancora ir- Mo- del spese a gonfiata e »ingrandita p. 6–7: Circoscrizioni, Basile: Basile: Circoscrizioni,p. 6. up«; them of any cutting without provinces, entire »aggregate to making itthecapitalofa district. Basile was a supporter of the need province ofGenoa,compensatingitwithasub-prefecture,thereby the to added be should it that suggests 1865, Messina d’Italia, gno Re- del amministrative territoriali circoscrizioni Le Basile: Michele the islandofElba.SeealsoDeCesare:Passato,p. 144–145. trict of Volterra, some municipalities of theprovince of Florence,and include two municipalities fromtheprovinceofPisa,entiredis- to expanded eventually was province The 2017). 9. (20. sed663.pdf storia.camera.it/regno/lavori/leg08/ at: online p. 5971–5972, 1864, INISTORY 2/2017 302 Luigi Blanco — Space and Administrative Boundaries at the Birth of the Italian Kingdom historical moment. the of ›exceptionality‹ the to linked partitions, territorial of boundaries the on consequences inevitable its with ization, central administrative of choice the statistics; and ography regionalization; the contribution of new sciences, such as ge- or large provinces,theweightofmunicipalities, projects of problems of the new state: natural or artificial districts, small administrative and territorial the unification; of completion geographers, statisticians and politicians, even before the by organization regional country’s the for forward put als propos- various the peninsula; the of states former the of the legacy of the boundaries and internal territorial divisions history; subsequent and structure initial their conditioned Italy: the territorialcontradictions and theimbalances that sign oftheadministrative districts of thenewKingdom essay highlights the main problems encountered by the de- disciplinary provenance, politicians, and administrators, the ing thediscussionsoftimeinvolvingscholarsdiverse and territory at the birth of the Italian unitary state. Follow- The essay analyses the relationship between administration Abstract - AD amministrative dell’Italiaunita,SoveriaMannelli2016. circoscrizioni delle storia una Per cittadinanza. di Orizzonti Galluccio), F. Mori, S. Bonini, F. with (ed. 2015; Trento blica, dell’Unità d’Italia. Territorio, amministrazione, opinione pub- trine e istituzioni in Occidente, Bologna 2011; (ed.) Ai confini occidentale: appunti storiografici«, in: Luigi Blanco (ed.): Dot- lità, Milano 2008; »Lo Stato ›moderno‹ nell'esperienza storica spazia­ della storica lettura una per Contributi territorio. e et chaussées‹, Bologna 1991; (ed.) Organizzazione del potere zionari nella Francia del Settecento: gli ›ingénieurs des ponts fun- e Stato publications: his Among Italy. unified the in tion gineers), and the relations between territory and administra- the modern age, the history of technical bureaucracies (en- search interests are state-building in Western Europe during stitutions at theUniversityofTrento (Italy). Among hisre- Luigi Blanco is AssociateofHistory Professor of Political In- About theAuthor INISTORY 2/2017