Ferdinando Martini (30 July 1840 – 24 April 1928) was an Italian writer and politician. He was governor of

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

for from late 1897 to early 1907.

Biography

Born in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, he worked as journalist and writer. He collaborated with '' Il Fanfulla'' and in 1879 he founded the '' Fanfulla della domenica'' literary supplement, for which he was editor until 1882; he was also editor of ''La Domenica letteraria'' from 1882 until 1885 and professor at the University of Pisa. He founded '' Giornale per i bambini'' in 1881 and was its editor until 1883. In 1876 he was elected to the

Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy The Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy () was the bicameral parliament of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established in 1861 to replace the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia and lasted until 18 June 1946, when it was replaced by the present-day ...

, a position he held for 43 years. He was Minister of the Colonies in the Salandra I and Salandra II cabinets, and Minister of the Public Instruction in the first Giolitti cabinet. Martini was also governor of Eritrea from 1897 to 1907, a country that received the name from him. On 1 March 1923 he was appointed to the

Senate of the Kingdom of Italy The Senate of the Kingdom of Italy () was the upper house of the bicameral parliament of the Kingdom of Italy, officially created on 4 March 1848, acting as an evolution of the original Subalpine Senate. It was replaced on 1 January 1948 by the ...

. In 1925 he was one of the signers of

Giovanni Gentile Giovanni Gentile ( , ; 30 May 1875 – 15 April 1944) was an Italian pedagogue, philosopher, and politician. He, alongside Benedetto Croce, was one of the major exponents of Italian idealism in Italian philosophy, and also devised his own sys ...

's Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals. In 1920 he wrote his famous literary masterpiece, about his years as governor of Eritrea:''Il Diario Eritreo''.Martini Ferdinando. "Il Diario Eritreo" (with his phot

/ref> He died at Monsummano Terme in 1928.

Awards

* Cavaliere dell' ''Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro'' * Commendatore dell' ''Ordine della Corona d'Italia'' * Cavaliere dell' ''Ordine Civile di Savoia''

Literary works

*''Chi sa il gioco non l'insegni. Proverbio in un atto in versi'', Pisa, 1871 *''Ad una donna. Versi'', Venezia, Visentini, 1872 *''Il primo passo e' quello dell' uscio''. Milano, 1874. *''Fra un sigaro e l'altro: chiacchiere di Fantasio'', Milano, G. Brigola, 1876 *''Cose africane, da Saati ad Abba Carima, discorsi e scritti'', Milano, F.lli Treves, 1896 *''Confessioni e ricordi'', Firenze, Bemporad, 1922 (e successive edizioni) *''Lettere (1860-1928)'', Milano, Mondadori, 1934 *''Nell'Affrica italiana'', Milano, Treves, 1891 *''Il Quarantotto in Toscana''. Firenze, Bemporad, 1918. * ''Il Diario Eritreo''. Roma. Vallecchi editore. 1920. *''A Pieriposa, novella antica''. Milano, Treves, 1923.

Notes

Sources

*Piero Buscioni. ''A Ferdinando Martini nel centenario della nascita''. Monsummano Terme, 1941

External links