Gaetano Filangieri, 5th Prince of Satriano

This article is about the jurist. For his grandson, the art collector, see Gaetano Filangieri, prince of Satriano.

Gaetano Filangieri, 5th Prince of Satriano
Portrait of Gaetano Filangieri by Jean-François Bosio, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Born	(1753-08-22)August 22, 1753 Cercola, Kingdom of Naples
Died	21 July 1788(1788-07-21) (aged 34) San Sebastiano al Vesuvio, Kingdom of Naples
Nationality	Italian
Occupation(s)	Jurist and political philosopher
Known for	La Scienza della Legislazione (1780-1785)
Title	Prince
Spouse	Charlotte Frendel ​ (m. 1783)​
Parent(s)	Cesare Filangieri and Marianna Filangieri (née Montalto)

Gaetano Filangieri (22 August 1753 – 21 July 1788) was an Italian jurist and philosopher.

Biography

Filangieri was born in San Sebastiano al Vesuvio, in the Kingdom of Naples. He was born the third son of a sibship of the noble family of Filangieri, which putatively had arrived in Campania with the Norman conquests. His father Caesar, prince of Arianiello, intended him to pursue a military career, which he commenced at the early age of seven, but soon abandoned for the study of the law. At the bar his knowledge and eloquence secured his success. His defence of a royal decree reforming abuses in the administration of justice gained him the favor of the king, Ferdinand IV of Naples, and his prime minister Bernardo Tanucci, and led in 1777 to an appointments at the court, including as maggiordomo di settimana and gentleman of the chamber for the monarch, and a post as officer of a Royal Guard. In 1782, the death of his uncle Serafino Filangieri, the archbishop of Naples, gained for Gaetano a sizable inheritance, allowing him more time to study and writing.

The first two volumes of his main work, La Scienza della Legislazione, was first published in 1780. The first book contained an exposition of the rules on which legislation in general ought to proceed, while the second was devoted to economic questions. These two books showed him an ardent reformer, and vehement in denouncing the abuses of his time. He insisted on unlimited free trade, and the abolition of the medieval institutions which impeded production and national well-being. Its success was great and immediate not only in Italy, but throughout Europe at large.

In 1783 he married, resigned his appointments at court, and retiring to Cava, devoted himself steadily to the completion of his work. In the same year appeared the third book, relating entirely to the principles of criminal jurisprudence. The suggestion which he made in it as to the need for reform in the Catholic Church brought upon him the censure of the ecclesiastical authorities, and it was condemned by the congregation of the Index in 1784. In 1785 he published three additional volumes, making the fourth book of the projected work, and dealing with education and morals.

In 1787 he was appointed a member of the supreme treasury council by Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, but his health, impaired by close study and over-work in his new office, compelled his withdrawal to the country at Vico Equense. He died somewhat suddenly of tuberculosis on 21 July 1788, having just completed the first part of the fifth book of his Scienza. He left an outline of the remainder of the work, which was to have been completed in six books.

La Scienza della legislazione has gone through many editions and translations. The best Italian edition is in 8 vols. 8vo. (1807). The Milan edition (1822) contains the Opusculi scelti and a life by Donato Tommasi. A French translation appeared in Paris in 7 vols. 8vo (1786–1798); it was republished in 1822-1824, with the addition of the Opuscies and notes by Benjamin Constant.

One of Filangieri's ardent admirers was Benjamin Franklin, and the two corresponded from 1780 until Filangieri's death in 1788. It consists of (at least) nine letters plus two spurious ones dealing with civil rights and slavery, central to the birth of the United States of America and the future integration of the European Union. The originals are preserved at the American Philosophical Society, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Museo Civico Filangieri in Naples.

Carlo Filangieri, the soldier and statesman, was his son, and Gaetano Filangieri, prince of Satriano was his grandson.

Works

• Riflessioni politiche su l'ultima legge del sovrano, che riguarda la riforma dell'amministrazione della giustizia. Naples: Michele Morelli. 1774.
• La scienza della legislazione. 8 vols. Naples. 1780–1785.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
• Eugenio Lo Sardo, ed. (1999). Il mondo nuovo e le virtu civili: l'epistolario di Gaetano Filangieri 1772-1788. Naples: Fridericiana editrice universitaria. ISBN 978-88-8338-001-3.

Works in English translation

• The Science of Legislation. 2 vols. London: Ostell. 1774.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

Bibliography

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Filangieri, Gaetano". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 339.
• Lo Sardo, Eugenio (1997). "FILANGIERI, Gaetano". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 47: Ferrero–Filonardi (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
• Imbruglia, G.; McCuaig, W. (2002). "Filangieri, Gaetano". Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
• Bedani, G. (2005). "Filangieri, Gaetano". The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
• Mazzacane, A.; Jackson, J. (2009). "Filangieri, Gaetano". The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
• Simon, Fabrizio (2011). "An economic approach to the study of law in the eighteenth century: Gaetano Filangieri and la scienza della legislazione". Journal of the History of Economic Thought. 33 (2): 223–248. doi:10.1017/S1053837211000046.
• Ricci, Saverio (2012). "Filangieri, Gaetano". Il Contributo italiano alla storia del Pensiero: Filosofia. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
• Giannola, Adriano (2012). "Filangieri, Gaetano". Il Contributo italiano alla storia del Pensiero: Economia. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
• Salfi, Francesco Saverio (2012). Franco Crispini (ed.). Elogio di Filangieri. Introduction by Valentina Zaffino. Cosenza: Pellegrini. ISBN 978-88-8101-863-5.

External links

• Koen Stapelbroek, Gaetano Filangieri at the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Nicolini, Fausto (1932). "FILANGIERI, Gaetano". Enciclopedia Italiana. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Retrieved 20 June 2025.