Ernesto Nathan

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Ernesto Nathan

Ernesto Nathan (born October 5, 1845 in London , † April 9, 1921 in Rome ) was an Italian politician and mayor of Rome from November 1907 to December 1913. As a Jew born in England, a cosmopolitan, Republican and supporter of Giuseppe Mazzini and a secular-anti-clerical Freemason (since 1887), Ernesto Nathan was the first mayor of Rome who did not belong to the class of landowners (noble or non-noble) that the city also did had ruled until 1907 after the unification of Italy .

From 1896 to 1904 and from 1917 to 1919 he was the Grand Master of the Freemasons - Grand Lodge Grande Oriente d'Italia .

Life

Youth and first political experiences

Nathan was born on October 5, 1845 in London to Sara N. Levi from Pesaro and Mayer Moses Nathan. His father was a naturalized stockbroker of German origin in England and died when the boy was 14 years old. He spent his youth in Florence , Lugano , Milan and Sardinia , where he managed a cotton mill, which, however, went bankrupt. His education and his cultural and political orientation were strongly influenced by the influence of Giuseppe Mazzini and Aurelio Saffi , who were friends of the family even in London.

In 1867 he married Virginia Mieli. In 1870, the then 25-year-old moved to Roma to work as managing director of the Mazzinian magazine “ La Roma del Popolo ” (“The Rome of the People”), and from then on devoted himself to politics as a staunch laicist and anti-clerical. In 1879 he joined the Partito dell'estrema sinistra (party of the extreme left) under Felice Cavallotti . In 1888 he received Italian citizenship from the city of his mother's birth Pesaro, where he was a member of the provincial parliament from 1889 to 1895.

In 1887 he became a Freemason, in 1893 master of the Roman Lodge Propaganda massonica (today Lodge P2 ) and in 1896, as successor to Adriano Lemmi, Grand Master of the Grande Oriente d'Italia, which he headed until 1903. In 1889 he was a co-founder of the Società Dante Alighieri .

In April 1898, Nathan was elected to the Roman city council and a little later was appointed advisor for economic issues and cultural goods - an important office in the city administration as the capital experienced a strong real estate boom and rapid population growth. When the House of Savoy came to power in 1871 , Rome had just 226,000 inhabitants, a number that had doubled by 1900 . In the feverish construction activity (public buildings, development of traffic routes and the creation of new residential areas), attention was paid far too seldom to the fact that every excavation of the foundations for new buildings and new streets affected the remnants of the city's vast archaeological heritage.

In this climate, which the engineer and archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani has vividly described, Nathan was elected mayor in 1907 at the head of the Blocco popolare (popular block).

Mayor of Rome (1907–1913)

Memorial plaque for Ernesto Nathan, on his home, Via Torino, Rome

Nathan's tenure, which lasted until 1913, was imbued with the spirit of an ethic of the common good that explicitly referred to Giuseppe Mazzini and Aurelio Saffi , to whom Nathan gave a commemorative address in Forlì in 1892 on the second anniversary of Saffi's death . His policy was essentially twofold: the effort to bring the massive property speculation that had set in after the capital's move to Rome under control, and an ambitious school education and vocational training program designed on a strictly secular basis.

In 1909, for example, the city's first development plan was adopted, which defined the areas to be developed outside the city walls and took into account the fact that 55% of the building land was owned by just eight large landowners.

A public building program was also launched. The website of the city of Rome states: “ On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the unification of Italy, a major program of urban renewal was decided in Rome in 1911. The mayor at the time, Ernesto Nathan, took advantage of all the financing options for building projects that became the landmarks of Rome as the capital of the kingdom. This year began with the construction of the Vittoriano [the national memorial for Vittorio Emanuele II. ], The - soon to be christened by the Romans "Palazzaccio" - Palace of Justice , the Passeggiata archeologica (a large green area of ​​over 40,000 square meters between the hills Aventine and Caelius) and the Stadio Nazionale, today's Stadio Flaminio , the first modern facility for sporting events. "

During Nathan's tenure, around 150 municipal kindergartens were also set up in which the children were also fed. This number is more than remarkable when you consider that Rome currently has no more than 288 municipal kindergartens.

A famous anecdote tells how the city budget was presented to the newly elected mayor for signature. Nathan studied the paper carefully and asked the officer who presented it for an explanation when he came across the item "Offal for cats." He replied that it was a matter of maintaining a colony of cats in order to protect the documents kept in the offices and archives on the Capitol from the mice. Nathan then picked up his pen, crossed the budget, and explained to the dismayed man that the cats on the Capitol would in future feed on the rodents they would have to catch and that if they could no longer find mice, their presence would be superfluous . This episode became the origin of the Roman idiom Nun c'è trippa pe 'gatti (No tripe for cats).

Tomb of Ernesto Nathan on the Cimitero del Verano in Rome

The last years of life

At the age of seventy, Nathan volunteered for the Italian army in 1915. In the rank of lieutenant he took part in the battle of the Col di Lana in the Dolomites .

In later years, Ernesto Nathan was once again Grand Master of the Grand Lodge Grande Oriente d'Italia from 1917 to 1919 .

Nathan died in 1921 at the age of 76.

Works and writings

  • Intorno all'epistolario mazziniano, in “Rivista d'Italia”, XIX (1916), 12, p. 841-850.
  • Le diobolaire e lo stato. Quadro di costumi regolamentari , Roma, Forzani, 1887.
  • Commemorazione del natalizio di Giuseppe Mazzini, 22 giugno 1890. Discorso, Urbino, Tip. Righi, 1890.
  • Discorso di Ernesto Nathan pronunciato nel teatro Rossini di Pesaro il November 16, 1890, Pesaro, staff. Annesio Nobili, 1891 (Pubblicazione del Comitato radicale provinciale per le elezioni politiche).
  • X aprile 1892. Discorso commemorativo pronunciato da Ernesto Nathan nel Teatro Comunale di Forli nella ricorrenza del II anniversario della morte di Aurelio Saffi, Forli, Tip. Lit. Democratica, 1892 (Pubblicazione del Circolo Giuseppe Mazzini, Forli).
  • Discorso pronunciato nel Teatro Rossini di Pesaro il 23 ottobre 1892, Pesaro, staff. Tip. Annesio Nobili, 1892.
  • La societa Dante Allighieri [sic]. Conferenza tenuta in Viterbo il Giorno 29 maggio 1892 (Comitato viterbese della societa Dante allighieri), Viterbo, Tip. Soc. Agnesotti e C., 1894.
  • Il dovere presente per Ernesto Nathan , Edizione 2. ed. Con pref., Roma, Commissione editrice degli scritti di Giuseppe Mazzini, 1895 (Tip. Federico Ricci).
  • Il compito massonico. Discorso inaugurale del Gran maestro Ernesto Nathan alla Conferenza massonica nazionale di Torino, September 20, 1898, Roma, staff. Tip. Giuseppe Civelli, 1898.
  • L'opera massonica nel triennio 1896-99. Relazione del gran maestro Ernesto Nathan. September 20, 1899, Roma, Stab. tip. Civelli, 1899.
  • Due lettere del Gran Maestro E. Nathan e del Sov. Gran Commendatore A. Lemmi. Discorso del Fratello Oratore Ernesto Orrei inaugurandosi il nuovo tempio delle RR. LL. Rienzi ed Universo, Roma, staff. Civelli, 1900.
  • La massoneria: sua azione, suoi fini. Conferenza del Gran maestro E. Nathan, Roma, Stabilimento tipografico Civelli, 1901 (Tenuta all'inaugurazione della sede massonica in Roma April 21, 1901).
  • Roma e il 20 September. Conferenza di Ernesto Nathan, Roma, staff. Tip. Civelli, 1902.
  • Il bivio , Roma, Nuova Antologia, 1904.
  • Vent'anni di vita italiana attraverso all '"Annuario". Note e commenti , Roma Torino, Roux e Viarengo, 1904.
  • Pel centenario di Giuseppe Mazzini. Discorso di Ernesto Nathan tenuto il 22 giugno 1905 nell'Aula magna del Collegio Romano, Roma Torino, Roux e Viarengo, 1905.
  • La morale nell'insegnamento pubblico , Roma, Nuova antologia, 1907.
  • La morale nella conquista della ricchezza: prolusione al corso di etica professionale nel R. Istituto di studi commerciali di Roma , Torino Roma, Societa Tipografico-Editrice Nazionale, 1907.
  • Per il centenario della nascita di Giuseppe Garibaldi. Commemorazione massonica di Ernesto Nathan tenuta al Teatro Adriano il 3 luglio 1907, Roma, F. Centenari & C., 1907.
  • Roma papale a Roma italiana. Discorso commemorativo del 20 September 1910, Roma, Tip. F. Centenari, 1910.
  • Giuseppe Mazzini. Discorso pronunziato in Campidoglio il 10 marzo 1911, Sl, sn, 1911 (ma: Roma, Tipografia editrice nazionale).
  • Vittorio Emanuele 2.: discorso pronunziato in Campidoglio il 4 giugno 1911, Sl, sn, stampa 1911 (ma: Roma, tip. Editrice nazionale).
  • Del Congresso e della pace , Roma, Direzione della Nuova Antologia, 1916.
  • Intorno all'Epistolario mazziniano , Roma, Tip. Unione Ed., 1916.
  • Relazione del R. Commissario generale italiano per la Esposizione Internazionale panama Pacifico, di s. Francisco, a s. E. Il Ministro di agricoltura, Industria e commercio sen. Giannetto Cavasola, Roma, Tip. Nazionale, di G. Bertero e C., 1916.
  • La terza Roma , Roma, Nuova antologia, 1916.
  • Il dovere presente: discorso pronunciato al Teatro Costanzi in Roma il 4 marzo 1917, Roma, Tip. Nazionale, Bertero, 1917.
  • Giuseppe Mazzini: Conferenza al Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova il 26 March 1917, Genova, Libr. Ed. Moderna, 1917 (Tip. Sociale).
  • La massoneria, la guerra ei loro fini: discorso tenuto al teatro Costanzi di Roma il April 21, 1918, Milano, Societa edi trice Dante Alighieri, 1918.
  • L'insidioso contagio delle parole: il bolscevismo , Roma, Nuova Antologia, 1919.
  • La terza Italia: quale fu, e, e sarà , Firenze, R. Bemporad, 1919.

literature

  • Nadia Ciani: Da Mazzini al Campidoglio. Vita di Ernesto Nathan . Roma, Ediesse, 2007
  • Maria Immacolata Macioti: Ernesto Nathan il sindaco che cambiò il volto di Roma: attualità di un'esperienza. Roma, Newton, 1995
  • Maria Immacolata Macioti: Ernesto Nathan: un sindaco che non ha fatto scuola. Roma, Ianua, 1983. ISBN 88-7074-023-4
  • Ernesto Nathan: Scritti politici di Ernesto Nathan (a cura di Anna Maria Isastia). Foggia, Bastogi, 1998. ISBN 88-8185-158-X
  • Romano Ugolini: Ernesto Nathan tra idealità e pragmatismo. Roma, Edizioni dell'Ateneo, 2003. ISBN 88-8476-013-5
  • Alessandro Levi: Ricordi della vita e dei tempi di Ernesto Nathan. Lucca, Maria Pacini Fazzi, 2006. ISBN 88-7246-746-2

On Ernesto Nathan as Grand Master of the Grande Oriente d'Italia:

  • Anna Maria Isastia: Ernesto Nathan, il pensiero e la figura a 150 anni dalla nascita , Perugia 1998;
  • Anna Maria Isastia: L'eredità di Nathan, Guido Laj prosindaco di Roma , Rome 2004;
  • Anna Maria Isastia: "Nathan Ernesto", entry in the Encyclopédie de la Franc-Maçonnerie , Paris 2000;
  • Aldo A. Mola: Storia della Massoneria italiana dalle origini ai nostri giorni . Bompiani, Milan 1992;
  • Enrico Simoni, Bibliografia della Massoneria in Italia , 5 vols., Bastogi, Foggia, 1992-1993-1998-2006-2010.

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ cf. Alessandro Galante Garrone: I radicali in Italia (1849-1925) , Garzanti, Milano, 1973, p.215
  2. ↑ Vittorio Gnocchini: L'Italia dei liberi muratori , Erasmo editore, Roma, 2005, p. 195
  3. ↑ The text on the plaque reads: ERNESTO NATHAN • (1845 - 1921) • SINDACO DI ROMA • IN QUESTA CASA • VISSE E MORÌ • + S • P • Q • R • 1994 (The Mayor of Rome Ernesto Nathan (1845 - 1921) lived and died in this house + S • P • Q • R • 1994)
  4. ↑ Miss_ROMA_1911 . Comune Roma. Archived from the original on September 26, 2007. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Nathan, Ernesto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian politician, mayor of Rome
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 1921
Place of death Rome