Alfredo Oriani is often considered a precursor of Fascism, and in 1940 his books were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum of the Catholic Church.
21 Facts About Alfredo Oriani
1.
2.
Alfredo Oriani was born on 22 August 1852 in Faenza, the youngest of three children.
3.
Alfredo Oriani studied law at the Sapienza University of Rome in Rome and at the University of Naples where he received his law degree in 1872.
4.
Alfredo Oriani never practiced but retired to his family's estate to devote most of his life to his writing.
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An admirer of Crispi, Alfredo Oriani disdained bourgeois moderatism, and pleaded for a national revival based on the same spirit of fervent patriotism as had created Italy.
6.
Alfredo Oriani died on 18 October 1909 in his residence in Casola Valsenio, at the age of only 57.
7.
Alfredo Oriani began his career as a novelist in the last two decades of the nineteenth century.
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Alfredo Oriani published his first collection of short stories, Memorie inutili, under the pen name of Ottone di Banzole, 1876.
9.
In La rivolta ideale published in 1908, Alfredo Oriani tried to resurrect the lost dimension of a heroic and popular Risorgimento.
10.
Alfredo Oriani tended to examine the history of modern Italy by means of heroic figures, which lead Antonio Gramsci to refer to his historiographical "titanism".
11.
Alfredo Oriani envisioned a new aristocracy to lead the nation and the people to fully realize their historical destiny and endorsed the need of idealism against nineteenth-century positivism.
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Alfredo Oriani lashed against "democracy's plebeian materialism", and wished for the arrival of a charismatic leader who could change Italy for good.
13.
Alfredo Oriani only enjoyed a posthumous fame thanks to his late discovery by Benedetto Croce.
14.
Alfredo Oriani exerted a major influence on Italian politics, which culminated in his being labeled a precursor of Fascism.
15.
Alfredo Oriani's political thinking matured under Giuseppe Mazzini's influence and is reflected in his political essays that were primarily responsible for his belated status with Fascism.
16.
Alfredo Oriani put into question the outcome of the events of the Risorgimento.
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Alfredo Oriani criticized the "royal conquest" as a unilateral action to create a new state, assuming that without the support of a strong democratic movement, it would prove to be weak in its foundations.
18.
Alfredo Oriani's ideas influenced the work of the radical intellectual Piero Gobetti, especially his collection of essays Risorgimento without heroes, an harsh criticism of the liberal ruling class of the post-Unitarian period.
19.
Alfredo Oriani was appreciated by leftist and anti-Fascist Antonio Gramsci, who wrote about him in his Prison Notebooks.
20.
Sorel believed that Alfredo Oriani combined an aesthetic intuition with philosophic insight.
21.
Il Cardello, the old residence of Alfredo Oriani, who is buried in the surrounding park, became a popular visiting place in Fascist Italy.