Luigi Settembrini was a Neapolitan man of letters and politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

.

Biography

Aged 22, he was appointed professor at Catanzaro, and married Raffaela Luigia Faucitano (1835). While still a young man he had been affected by the wave of liberalism

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 then spreading all over Italy, and soon after his marriage he began to conspire mildly against the Bourbon

House of Bourbon

The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...

 government.

Betrayed by a priest, he was arrested in 1839 and imprisoned at Naples; although liberated three years later he lost his professorship and had to maintain himself by private lessons. Nevertheless he continued to conspire, and in 1847 he published anonymously the Protest of the People of the Two Sicilies, a scathing indictment of the Bourbon government.

On the advice of friends he went to Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 on a British warship, but although, when King Ferdinand II

Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies

Ferdinand II was King of the Two Sicilies from 1830 until his death.-Family:Ferdinand was born in Palermo, the son of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his wife and first cousin Maria Isabella of Spain.His paternal grandparents were King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Queen Marie...

 granted a constitution (February 16, 1848), he returned to Naples and was given an appointment at the ministry of education, he soon resigned on account of the prevailing chaos, and retired to a farm at Posillipo

Posillipo

Posillipo is a residential quarter of Naples, southern Italy, located along the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples; it is called Pusilleco in the Neapolitan language.-Geography:...

.

When reaction set in, once more Settembrini was arrested as a suspect (June 1849) and imprisoned. After trial, he and two other "politicals" were condemned to death, and nineteen others to varying terms of imprisonment (February 1851). The death sentences were, however, commuted to imprisonment for life, and Settembrini was sent to the dungeons of Santo Stefano

Santo Stefano Island

Santo Stefano is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the west coast of Italy, and part of the Pontine Islands. It has a circular shape, is less than 400 metres in diameter, and is located 2 kilometres east from the nearby island of Ventotene....

. There he remained for eight years. His friends, including Antonio Panizzi, then in England, made various unsuccessful attempts to liberate him, and at last he was deported with sixty-five other political prisoners.

The exiles received an enthusiastic welcome in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, but Settembrini after a short stay in England joined his family at Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 in 1860.

On the formation of the Italian kingdom he was appointed professor of Italian literature at the university of Naples, and devoted the rest of his life to literary pursuits. In 1875 he was nominated senator.

His chief work is his Lezioni di letteratura italiana, of which the dominant note is the conviction that Italian literature "is as the very soul of the nation, seeking, in opposition to medieval mysticism, reality, freedom, independence of reason, truth and beauty" (P. Villari).