Giuseppe Zurlo

Giuseppe Zurlo, also called Giuseppe Zurolo (Baranello, 6 November 1757 – Naples, 10 November 1828), was an Italian jurist and politician.

He is a descendant of the noble Neapolitan House of Zurolo, also known as Zurlo family.

Biography He born in Baranello in 1757, he descendant of the noble Neapolitan Zurolo family, also known as Zurlo family.

A member of the Freemasonry, in 1784 he became Scottish Master of the aristocratic lodge La Vittoria of Naples, elevated by the Grand Lodge of London to a provincial Grand Lodge. In 1813 he was Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Naples.

From a young age he held highly prestigious judicial and administrative positions within the administration of the Kingdom of Naples, up to that of Minister of Finance, under Ferdinand I, and Minister of the Interior during the French government (1806 –1815) and during the riots of 1820. As Minister of the Interior, Giuseppe managed the process of abolition of feudalism, decreed with a series of provisions approved by the sovereigns Joseph Bonaparte and Gioacchino Murat between 1806 and 1811.thumb Copper plate engraving from 1839 depicting Count Giuseppe Zurlo.

He decreed the transfer of disputes between the barons and the municipality to the feudal commission, removing them from the ordinary judiciary. The commission, an extraordinary judiciary whose procedures reflected the vertical logic typical of the executive and whose sentences were final, proved to be much faster and more effective in resolving disputes and in executing the law.

A staunch supporter of the need for a radical change in the system of government, Giuseppe, through his personal life experience, knew first-hand the ills that afflicted the populations of the South. In addition to the economic and social problems of his homeland, Molise, he had a thorough knowledge of the conditions of Calabria, where he stayed on two occasions: the first time, as a member of the commission set up to investigate the earthquake of 1783, and a second time, in 1790, when he was a judge of the Gran Corte della Vicaria.thumb Coat of arms of the Zurlo or Zullo or Zurolo family (Baranello branch): red, with a gold cuneate band. and Idem: red, with a gold band bordered in blue flanked by a star (6 rays), with a chief sewn in red charged with five silver stars arranged in a band surrounded by a silver and red chequered border – coat of arms granted together with the title of Count, by virtue of the Royal Decree of 25 March 1811, by Gioacchino Murat.

On this occasion he was given the task of carrying out a survey of the "defenses" of the Regia Sila and a verification of the occupations and usurpations of various lands carried out by local owners to the detriment of the royal state property.

In 1827 he became the president of the Academy of Sciences. He remained poor, heavily in debt and ill, in his last phase of life and no longer attended the sessions of the Academy.

Death He died in Naples in 1828, his remains are preserved there, in the ossuary of the SS. Trinità dei Pellegrini brotherhood. Assignments

Minister of Justice and Worship (February 1809 – November 1809); Minister of the Interior (5 November 1809 – May 1815).

Writings

Books

Letters