Rossi, Pellegrino Luigi Edoardo, Count
ROSSI, PELLEGRINO LUIGI EDOARDO, COUNT (1787-1848), Italian economist and statesman, was born at Carrara on the 13th of July 1787. He was educated at Pavia and Bologna, and in 1812 became professor of law at the latter university. In 1815 he gave his support to Joachim Murat, and after his fall escaped to France, whence he proceeded to Geneva. There he began a course of jurisprudence applied to Roman law, the success of which gained him the unusual honour of natural- ization as a citizen of Geneva. In 1820 he was elected as a deputy to the cantonal council, and was a member of the extraordinary diet of 1832. He was entrusted with the task of drawing up a revised constitution, which was known as the Pacte Rossi. This was rejected by a majority of the diet, a result which deeply affected Rossi, and induced him to look with favour on the suggestions of Guizot and the due de Broglie that he should settle in France. He was appointed in 1833 to the chair of political economy in the College de France, vacated by the death of J. B. Say. He was naturalized as a French citizen in 1834, and in the same year became professor of constitutional law in the faculty of law at Paris. In 1836 he was elected a member of the Academic des sciences politiques et morales, was raised to the peerage in 1839 and in 1843 became doyen of the faculty of law. In 1845 he was sent to Rome by Guizot to discuss the question of the Jesuits, being finally appointed ambassador of France at Rome. The revolution of 1848 severed his connexion with France, and he remained at Rome and became minister of the interior under Pius IX. He was unpopular, however, owing to his conservative views, and was assassinated on the 15th of November, as he was alighting at the steps of the House of Assembly.
As a statesman, Rossi was a man of signal ability and intrepid character, but it is as an economist that his name will be best remembered. His Cours d'economie politique (1838-54) gave in classic form an exposition of the doctrines of Say, Malthus and Ricardo. His other works were Traite de droit penal (1829); Cpurs de droit constitutional (1866-67), a d Melanges d'economie politique, d'histoire et de philosophie (2 vols., 1857). His widow left a sum of 100,000 francs to the Institut de France, to found in his memory scholarships in political economy or law. Carrara erected a statue to his memory in 1876, and in 1887 the Societt d'economie politique celebrated his centenary with a notice of his life and works.
See also le Comte Fleury d'Ideville, Le Comte Pellegrino Rossi, sa vie, ses asuvres, sa mart (1887).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
