Aurelio Saffi

Who was Aurelio Saffi?

Aurelio Saffi was an Italian politician, active during the period of Italian unification. He was an important figure in the radical republican current within the Risorgimento movement and close to its leader and chief inspiration, Giuseppe Mazzini.

Saffi was born in Forlì, then part of the Papal States. He received an education in jurisprudence in Ferrara, but began political activity in his native city, protesting against the bad administration of the Papal legates. He was also a member of the communal and provincial councils between 1844 and 1845.

He soon became a fervent supporter of Mazzini's ideas, and in 1849 took part in the short-lived Roman Republic. Saffi was a member of the government that attempted to establish a democratic republic, inspired by the United States. The revolutionaries, however, were soon crushed by French troops, and Saffi retired to Liguria as an exile. From there he joined Mazzini in Switzerland, and then moved with him to London.

Saffi returned to Italy only in 1852, to plan a series of risings to be held in Milan. After the failure of the project in 1853, he fled to England again and was condemned in absentia to twenty years in prison. He was appointed the first teacher of Italian at the Taylor Institute, Oxford, in 1856. While in England he married Georgiana Janet Craufurd. She was also a fervent supporter of Mazzini, and a feminist. They had four sons: Attilio Joseph, Emilio John, Charles Balilla Louis and Rinaldo Arthur.