Agostino Bertani

Agostino Bertani (19 October 1812 – 30 April 1886) was an Italian revolutionary and physician during Italian unification. He played a significant role in the development of Italy's public healthcare system during the 19th century. He is best known for organising medical services for Garibaldi's army and for co-founding the radical party Estrema sinistra storica. He was a close collaborator of Mazzini and Garibaldi. His contribution to the unification of Italy resulted in participation in most of the important military campaigns of the era.

Revolutionary

Education and early life Bertani was born in Milan on 19 October 1812. His father was an administrator for the Napoleonic government of Lombardy. He was raised in a liberal environment. He graduated as a surgeon from the University of Pavia in 1835 where he studied medicine and surgery. In 1842, Bertani founded the Gazzetta Medica Italiana, which became an important organ for disseminating contemporary medical knowledge in the country.

When Garibaldi took Naples in September 1860, Bertani was appointed secretary-general of the provisional government, in which capacity he reorganised the police, abolished the secret service fund, founded twelve infant asylums, prepared for the suppression of the religious orders, and planned the sanitary reconstruction of the city.

Bertani's parliamentary career was less successful than his revolutionary activity. Following the completion of Italian unification and the capture of Rome in 1870, he became the leader of the extreme left in the new Italian parliament. He is regarded as one of the principal ideologues of the modern Italian healthcare and social welfare system. His work on sanitary codification exerted a lasting influence on public policy in this field for several decades.