Pier Dionigi Pinelli

Born in Turin on 25 May 1804, Pinelli was the third child (and second son) of Lodovico Pinelli and Angela Carelli. He was a lawyer and agricultural scholar, Pinelli collaborated on the Annals of Jurisprudence, edited Il Carroccio, organ of the Casale Monferrato agrarian association, and published, in 1846, a Project of a large Italian association for the reclamation of uncultivated land throughout the peninsula.[1]

After the revolution of 1848 and the granting in the Kingdom of Sardinia of the Statuto albertino by King Carlo Alberto, Pinelli, of conservative ideas, entered politics, being elected deputy to Subalpine Parliament.[2] Appointed minister of the interior on 15 August of that year in the government of Cesare Alfieri di Sostegno and in that of Claudio Gabriele de Launay on 27 March 1849, immediately after the Piedmontese defeat at Novara and the king's abdication in favor of his son Victor Emmanuel II, Pinelli proved inflexible in the interior, taking an active part in crushing the Genoa riots that broke out in April. Later, as the government became very unpopular due to its authoritarianism, it was Pinelli himself who advised the king to choose his friend Vincenzo Gioberti (from whom he would later estrange himself due to political differences) as president of the council.[3] However, the sovereign chose in his place Massimo d'Azeglio, who, having taken office, kept him at the Interior ministry until 20 October 1849, when he forced him to resign in order to facilitate relations with the democratic wing of Parliament, replacing him with Filippo Galvagno. Despite this, Pinelli carried out other political and diplomatic activities, such as when, in 1850 he went to Rome to Pope Pius IX to seek an agreement on the issue of the Siccardi Laws, which had just come into effect and abolished the privileges of the Piedmontese clergy.[3]

From 20 December 1849 to 25 April 1852 he was President of the Chamber of Deputies, dying during his term; in his place succeeded Urbano Rattazzi as president.[3][4]

He is buried in the Monumental Cemetery of Turin.