Francesco Mario Pagano (8 December 1748 – 29 October 1799) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

jurist,

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

, thinker, and the founder of the Neapolitan school of law.''The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought'', ed. Goldie & Wokler, 2006, p. 765 He is regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers. A moderate reformist, he is seen as a forerunner of the Italian unification.

Biography

He was born in Brienza in the southern Province of Potenza. He studied at the

University of Naples Federico II The University of Naples Federico II ( it, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) is a public university in Naples, Italy. Founded in 1224, it is the oldest public non-sectarian university in the world, and is now organized into 26 depar ...

under

Antonio Genovesi Antonio Genovesi (1 November 171322 September 1769) was an Italian writer on philosophy and political economy. Biography Son of Salvatore Genovese, a shoemaker, and Adriana Alfinito of San Mango, Antonio Genovesi was born in Castiglione, near ...

. At the age of twenty, he became special lecturer in

moral philosophy Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ...

there, at the same time practising law. He was friend of

Gaetano Filangieri Gaetano Filangieri (22 August 1753 – 21 July 1788) was an Italian jurist and philosopher. Filangieri was born in San Sebastiano al Vesuvio, in the province of Naples, Italy. He was born the third son of a sibship of the noble family of Fila ...

, entering the masonry with him, and was elected venerable master of the Neapolitan

lodge Lodge is originally a term for a relatively small building, often associated with a larger one. Lodge or The Lodge may refer to: Buildings and structures Specific * The Lodge (Australia), the official Canberra residence of the Prime Ministe ...

"La philantropia". Pagano was one of the men who powerfully helped Italy in her social and scientific advancement and in the 1790s he had striven more than any other intellectual to give a political form to the 18th century reform tradition in southern Italy. His work ''Saggi politici'' (1783–85) provided a philosophical history of the Kingdom of Naples, arguing against torture and capital punishment and advocating more benign penal codes. ''Considerazioni sul processo criminale'' (Considerations on the criminal trial, 1787), gave him international popularity and was much praised by ''

Le Moniteur Universel was a French newspaper founded in Paris on November 24, 1789 under the title by Charles-Joseph Panckoucke, and which ceased publication on December 31, 1868. It was the main French newspaper during the French Revolution and was for a long tim ...

'', the main newspaper of the

revolutionary France The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. In 1794 he defended Vincenzo Galiani, Vincenzo Vitaliani and Emanuele De Deo – three alleged conspirators against Ferdinand IV; after they were sentenced to death, Pagano was deprived of his professorship, arrested, imprisoned and expelled from the kingdom. After fleeing Naples in 1796, he returned in 1799 and drafted the constitution of the short-lived Neapolitan Republic. The document bore similarities to the

French Constitution of 1793 The Constitution of 1793 (french: Acte constitutionnel du 24 juin 1793), also known as the Constitution of the Year I or the Montagnard Constitution, was the second constitution ratified for use during the French Revolution under the First Repu ...

but presented original traits such as the institution of the "body of ephors", an authority who would have overseen the maintenance of the law. It is considered the precursor of the modern

constitutional court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

.Maria Rosa Di Simone, ''Istituzioni e fonti normative in Italia dall'Antico Regime al fascismo'', p. 111, Giappichelli, Torino, 2007. After the fall of the republic, Pagano was arrested and imprisoned in the Castel Nuovo. He was executed by hanging at the "Piazza del Mercato" in Naples, along with other revolutionaries:

Domenico Cirillo Domenico Maria Leone Cirillo FRS ( Grumo Nevano, Kingdom of Naples 10 April 1739Naples 29 October 1799) was an Italian physician, entomologist, botanist and patriot. Professional life Appointed while still young to a botanical professorship, C ...

, Giorgio Pigliacelli and

Ignazio Ciaia Ignazio () is a masculine Italian given name. Notable people with the name include: Arts *Ignazio Collino (1736–1793), Italian sculptor *Ignazio Fresu (born 1957), Italian sculptor *Ignazio Gardella (1905–1999), Italian architect and designer ...

. Pagano's other juridical or philosophical works included ''Progetto di Costituzione della Repubblica napoletana'', ''Sul processo criminale'', ''Esame politico dell’intera legislazione romana'', and ''Discorso sull’origine e natura della poesia''. He also translated works from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, and wrote six tragedies (''Gerbino'', ''Agamennone'', ''Corradino'', ''Gli esuli tebani'', ''Prometeo'', and ''Teodosio'') and one comedy (''Emilia'').

Notes

References

Nico Perrone Nico Perrone (born April 27, 1935) is an Italian essayist, historian and journalist. He firstly discovered papers on the plot for killing Enrico Mattei, the Italian state tycoon for oil in the 1950s. He is the author of twenty books, and some f ...

. ''La Loggia della Philantropia. Un religioso danese a Napoli prima della rivoluzione''. Palermo: Sellerio publ., 2006. . *

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pagano, Francesco Mario 1748 births 1799 deaths Italian jurists 18th-century Italian historians Italian republicans Italian Freemasons People from Brienza Enlightenment philosophers Philosophers of law 18th-century executions 18th-century Neapolitan people 18th-century jurists 18th-century Italian philosophers People of the Parthenopean Republic