Cesare Fani

Cesare Fani (Perugia, 5 February 1844 – Palermo, 5 February 1914) was an Italian politician, three times Undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice and then Minister (1910 -1911) in the Luzzatti government, as well as Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies.

Early life and legal career At the age of fifteen he took part in the 1859 Perugia uprising. As soon as he graduated with honors in 1866, he ran away from home to volunteer with Garibaldi in the Trentino expedition and volunteered to fight again in 1867 at the Battle of Mentana, earning promotions in the field. He was several times elected councilor of the Municipality as well as provincial councilor of Umbria, and served as president of the Monarchist Liberal Party of Perugia, president first of the Disciplinary Council of Prosecutors and then of the Bar Association of Perugia.

Political career A proponent of liberal ideas, he was returned to the Chamber of Deputies by the electors of the second constituency of Perugia for 28 consecutive years from 1886 until his death, joining the ranks of the historical Right in the Chamber. He campaigned for the establishment of the Agricultural Institute (which later became the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Perugia), the polyclinic and the electric tram (together with the then Prefect of Perugia Tommaso Tittoni).

With the Luzzatti Government he became Minister of Justice and subsequently vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies (1912-1913). Funeral chambers were set up in Palermo, Rome and Perugia, where a crowd of 40,000 people welcomed the return of the body and took part in the city's mourning; a film was also shot of the occasion, and is today the oldest film in the history of Perugia.

Streets are dedicated to him in the historic center of Perugia (with a marble plaque on the family palace in the parallel Via Mazzini), in Rome and in Bastia Umbra.

Family Cesare Augusto Fani was the son of Angelo Fani (1808-1871), director of the Sacro Monte di Pietà of Perugia, and his wife Eugenia Angelini (1810-1890).

He married again in 1887 to Iginia Rossi (1856-1895), daughter of the Florentine industrialist Cesare Rossi (1813-1870) and Eraclea Foschi (1826-1909). By her he had a daughter Annetta Fani (1888-1921) who married the engineer Paolo Bensa (1875-1963) from Genoa; and a son, :it:Amedeo Fani (1891-1974), also a lawyer, deputy (1925-43), undersecretary of Foreign Affairs (1929-32), commissioner of the Chamber of Deputies (1934-43) and president of the Bar Association of Perugia.

Honours