Tommaso Villa
Tommaso Villa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President of the Chamber of Deputies | |
| In office 10 June 1895 – 2 March 1897 | |
| Preceded by | Giuseppe Biancheri |
| Succeeded by | Giuseppe Zanardelli |
| In office 28 June 1900 – 22 February 1902 | |
| Preceded by | Nicolò Gallo |
| Succeeded by | Giuseppe Biancheri |
| Senator | |
| In office 10 March 1909 – 24 July 1915 | |
| Minister of Justice | |
| In office 25 November 1879 – 29 May 1881 | |
| Preceded by | Giovanni Battista Varè |
| Succeeded by | Giuseppe Zanardelli |
| Minister of the Interior | |
| In office 14 July 1879 – 25 November 1879 | |
| Preceded by | Agostino Depretis |
| Succeeded by | Agostino Depretis |
Tommaso Villa(Canale d'Alba,29 January 1832 –Turin,24 July 1915) was an Italian lawyer and politician.[1][2][3]
Early life and career
[edit]He was able to apply for university thanks to the scholarship from theCollege of the Provincesand in 1849 he enrolled in the faculty of law in Turin, from where he graduated in 1853. While still a student he collaborated with the periodicall'Eco delle provinciale,directed byAgostino Depretis.
As soon as he graduated, he interned at the office of the lawyerAngelo Brofferio,a prominent figure in the Turin political environment, a republican, opponent ofCavourand deputy. The marriage with Brofferio's daughter strengthened the relationship between the two.[4][5]
He combined his activity as a lawyer with that of a political journalist, writing for two republican-area periodicals,Goffredo MameliandIl Mago.[4][5]
In March 1854 Villa was imprisoned for put up a poster calling for the abolition of the death penalty inside the Royal Palace. However his commitment to politics only took place after the brutal repression of demonstrations in September 1864 against the transfer of the capital fromTurintoFlorence.Villa provided legal assistance to many people involved in the unrest.[6]
Deputy and minister
[edit]In 1865 he entered politics and ran for election in the constituency ofVillanova d'Asti,in opposition toCarlo Bon Compagni di Mombello.His candidacy wss supported by the Permanent Liberal Association, of which he was the founder and one of the most active members. On 22 October 1865 he was elected to theChamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy,where he was confirmed in 1867 and 1870 and where he aligned himself with thehistorical Left.He suffered an electoral defeat in November 1874, but in January of the following year he won the by-election held inSan Daniele del Friulito replaceFederico Seismit-Doda.The victory of the left in the1876 electionsmarked Villa's return to the constituency of Villanova d'Asti, where he would be re-elected until 1904.[6]
On 8 March 1878 he held the position of Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies for the first time, which he left on 13 July 1879 to join thesecond Cairoli government,asMinister of the Interior(14 July - 25 November 1879).[7]The reshuffle which saw the rapprochement of Depretis and Cairoli took him, on 25 November 1879, from the Interior toJustice(25 November 1879-29 May 1881).[7][5]As minister he brought forward unsuccessful bills for the reform of the civil code and the introduction of divorce; he also issued a circular to provincial prefects asking them to curtail the activity of theJesuits.[4][6]
With the fall of the Government in 1881, Villa's ministerial career ended; However, he remained close to Benedetto Cairoli.[6]
President of the chamber
[edit]On 11 June 1886, with the support of the radical left, he was re-elected vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies, a position he held for three legislatures until 13 January 1895. In the 19th legislature he was elected President of the Assembly on 11 June 1895 and remained in office until 3 March 1897, when the legislature itself ended.[7]
On 28 June 1900, the electoral victory ofLuigi Pelloux's opponents and the rapprochement withGiovanni Giolittiof the Piedmontese delegation, of which Villa was part, brought him back to the Presidency of the Chamber, replacingit:Nicolò Gallo,who had been elected just twelve days earlier but then accepted a government position before taking up the Presidency. Immediately after the election, Villa appointed a commission responsible for drawing up within two days a bill restoring the liberal guarantees eliminated in 1899 and at the same time rationalizing parliamentary work. On 1 July the Chamber approved the new Regulations.[6]
On 21 February 1902, after two votes in which blank ballots outnumbering preferences for Villa, he was re-elected to the Presidency, but believing that he did not enjoy the full confidence of the Assembly, he immediately resigned.[6]
He was defeated in the general elections of 7 March 1909, but on the 10th of the same month he was nominated senator. In the Senate he was a member of the commission for the examination of the bill on Reform of the Code of Criminal Procedure (17 June 1909).[5]
Legal career and other activities
[edit]At the same time as his National political career he served on the municipal and provincial councils of Turin. He also worked as a lawyer and was involved in a number of high-profile court cases, including the trial if the suspects in the murder ofit: Raffaele Sonzogno.[4][6]As a member of the Council of the Turin Bar Association, on 9 August 1883 he expressed his opinion in favor of the registration ofLidia Poët,Italy's first woman lawyer.[8]
In 1905, together withHerbert AsquithandRaymond Poincaré,he drafted a brief for the Cairo District Court in support of a claim by descendants of theKhedive Ismailfor a share in the proceeds from the sale of his property.[9]
A Freemason, he was expelled from theGrand Orient of Italywithit:Edoardo Daneoand others in 1906 "because he had sponsored a liberal-Catholic bloc to stem the advance of the socialists in Turin."[4][10][11]
Villa played a leading role in organizing and promoting national and international exhibitions in his later years. These included theGeneral Italian Exhibitionheld in Turin in 1884,[12][13]General Italian Exhibitionof 1898[14]and theTurin Internationalin 1911.[15]
Honours
[edit] |
Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus[5] |
 |
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy [5] |
References
[edit]- ^"Villa, Tommaso".treccani.Enciclopedia Italiana.Retrieved29 September2023.
- ^Moreni, Leonardo (1915).Relazione Statistica dei Lavori Compiuti dalla Corte di Cassazione di Torino nell'anno 1914-1915(PDF).Turin: Tipografia S. Giuseppe.Retrieved29 September2023.
- ^"Tommaso Villa".gazzettauffuciale.it.Gazzetta Ufficiale del Regno d’Italia.Retrieved29 September2023.
- ^abcde"Il Presidente Tommaso Villa".camera.it.Camera dei Deputati.Retrieved29 September2023.
- ^abcdef"BILLA, Tommaso".senato.it.Senato Della Repubblica.Retrieved30 September2023.
- ^abcdefgMontaldo, Silvano."VILLA, Tommaso".treccani.it.Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani.Retrieved30 September2023.
- ^abc"Tommaso Villa".storia.camera.it.Camera dei Deputati.Retrieved30 September2023.
- ^"Lidia Poët, la prima donna Avvocato in Italia era piemontese".100torri.it.CentoTorri.Retrieved30 September2023.
- ^Hoyle, Mark S. W. (May 1987)."The Mixed Courts of Egypt, 1906-1915"(PDF).Arab Law Quarterly.2(2): 166–184.JSTOR3381347.Retrieved29 September2023.
- ^Cordova, Ferdinando (2011).Massoneria e Politica in Italia, 1892-1908.Milan: Carte Scoperte. p. 229.
- ^Mola, Alessandro (2018).Storia della Massoneria in Italia dal 1717 al 2018.Florence: Bompiani-Giunti. p. 358.
- ^Della Coletta, Cristina (2006).World's Fairs Italian-Style The Great Expositions in Turin and Their Narratives, 1860-1915.Toronto: University of Toronto. p. 46.ISBN9781442658097.Retrieved30 September2023.
- ^Onger, Sergio (2010).Verso la modernità. I bresciani e le esposizioni industriali 1800-1915.Milan: Franco Angeli Edizione. p. 329.ISBN9788856827255.Retrieved30 September2023.
- ^Bispo, Antonio Alexandre."Mostra italo-brasiliana na Esposizione nazionale italiana de 1898 em Turim".revista.brasil-europa.37.Revista Brasil-Europa - Correspondência Euro-Brasileira.Retrieved30 September2023.
- ^"Tommaso Villa (Canale, Cuneo, 1832 - Torino 1915)".museotorino.it.Museo Torino.Retrieved30 September2023.