Domenico Bartoli

Domenico Bartoli (3 March 1912 - 9 July 1989) was an Italian journalist and essayist. In 1960 he became the director of Il Resto del Carlino, a Bologna-based mass-circulation daily newspaper, remaining in the position for ten years.

Biography Bartoli was born at Turin. His journalistic career started in 1933 when he joined the Corriere della Sera. The next year the papers sent him to report from China. Then, "due to the complication of the political situation" he was replaced in China, after a brief hiatus, by Luigi Barzini Jr. Instead Bartoli was now sent to report on the Italo-Abyssinian War. After the conclusion of that war, he worked as a war correspondent on a succession of assignments, notably in central Africa, till 1943. A remarkably detailed report of the momentous meeting, which had ended in Mussolini's removal from power, was nevertheless made public on the front page of the Corriere della Sera a few days later. The name at the foot of the report was that of Domenico Bartoli. It later became clear that Bartoli had for many years enjoyed access to high level contacts among the monarchist and military elements in the Italian establishment, and he must have used these to prepare his report. Commentators were not all slow to point out the irony that a journalist who for twenty years been trusted by senior movers and shakers of fascist Italy was now the first to report the leader's downfall. The early years were difficult: after the events of 8 September 1943, which ushered in a partition of Italy, it became necessary to print the paper clandestinely. Only after allied troops liberated Rome on 4 June 1944 did regular daily publication resume. Still with the Corriere, between 1951 and 1956 he was based in London as the paper's correspondent there. One outcome of his lengthy stay in the English capital was a long thoughtful essay about the country, informed by a certain liberal perspective: "L'Inghilterra senza impero" ("England without the empire").

While Enzo Biagi took over control at the Resto del Carlino, in 1970 Bartoli was appointed editor-director at La Nazione in succession to Enrico Mattei, remaining in post for slightly under 7 years. During this period he also wrote regularly for the mass-circulation weekly magazine Epoca, in which his contributions appeared in a column headed "L'Italia allo specchio" (loosely, "Mirror on Italy").