|
Italiano (different text) |
||||||||||||
 ian
Rinaldo, count of Carli (called likewise Gian Rinaldo Carli and Carli Rubbi, from the name of his
wife) was born in Capodistria on April 11, 1720, to Cecilia Imberti
and count Rinaldo Carli who was from an ancient and noble family.
|
|
economist, historian, archeologist and sociologist born in Capodistria |
||||||||||
| After receiving his
earlier education at home, where he applied himself with incredible
diligence and success to the study of classical literature and science, he
removed to Flambro, in the Friuli, where he had for his instructor the
learned abbé Bini. Here he studied natural philosophy and geometry, and at
the age of eighteen published a paper on the aurora borealis.
He then removed to Padua, where he also studied Hebrew. At twenty he was elected a member of the academy of the Ricovrati, of which he afterwards became president; and at twenty-four he was appointed by a decree of the senate of Venice, who wished to improve their marine, professor of a new chair of astronomy and navigation established at Padua. Before this time his taste for the study of the monuments of the middle ages had led him to acquire sufficient knowledge of that subject to enable him to engage in discussions with Fontanini and Muratori, the results of which he published, together with some able translations and some learned treatises on the antiquities of Greece. He was soon involved in a troublesome controversy with the abbé Tartarotti on the now exploded subject of magic, and exposed the tricks and devices by which the professors of that art had practised upon the credulity of the people in ancient and more recent times. The freedom of his remarks caused him to be accused of
heresy by his antagonist, who found more numerous abettors than Carli; the
latter, however, was supported by the marquis Maffei, who, after the
contest had raged for ten years, silenced it at last by his La Magia
Annichilati. In 1747 Carli addressed to the marquis an able treatise
on the subject of bullion, in which he discover |
||||||||||||
|
(Click to enlarge)
After holding his professorship at Padua for seven years he resigned it and returned to lstria, to attend to the management of his private affairs. About this time he visited the antiquities of Pola, which he afterwards described at length in his work on Italian antiquities. He had for a companion in his researches the naturalist Vitaliano Donati, whose work on the natural history of the Adriatic was edited by Carli after the author's death: Saggio della Storia Naturale Marina dell'Adriatico, 4to, Venezia, 1750. In 1754 Carli published the first volume of his great work, Delle Monete e della Istituzione delle Zecche d'Italia . The second volume appeared in 1757, and the third and fourth in 1760. (On the History of the Coins and Currency and on the Institution of the Mints of Italy) Carli employed nine years in the compilation of this work, during which he inspected the cabinets of medals and the archives of Milan, Turin, Tuscany, &c. A new edition, with corrections and additions by the author, was published at Milan in 1785, in 7 vols, 4vo. Carli begins the monetary history of Italy with the mint of Odoacer at Ravenna, after the fall of the western empire, and comes down as far as the seventeenth century, describing and profusely illustrating the numerous coins, national and foreign, which were current in Italy during the intervening ages; their weight, title, legends, and relative value, and also their value compared with the price of provisions at different epochs. He treats also of the commerce of bullion, and of the frequent alterations and deteriorations which took place in the weight and intrinsic value of the currency. He demonstrates, among other things, that the quantity of the precious metals in Italy was considerably greater in the fifteenth century, before the discovery of America, than in the eighteenth, and that the real price of provisions was proportionably higher; an assertion which appeared quite novel at the time.
In the fifteenth century every petty state of Italy had its mint at work; the mint of Venice alone, under the doge Mocenigo, coined yearly 1,000,000 of gold sequins, besides 2,000,000 sequins in silver coins. All this is explained by the fact, that Italy was then the most commercial country in Europe; and it serves to confirm the accounts of the prodigious wealth of Italy previous to the French and Spanish invasions in the beginning of the sixteenth century, of which wealth the innumerable palaces, churches, paintings, and other monuments of splendour and luxury still remaining in that country, are sufficient evidence. His merits as a financier were not overlooked. In his Ragionamento sopra i bilanci economici delle nazioni, Carli asserted, against the then received opinion of the economists, that the balance of trade between nation and nation proved little or nothing as to the real prosperity of each. He was also at variance with the economists in his dissertation Sul libero commercio dei grani, addressed to Pompeo Nero in 1771, in which he combated the general application of the principle of the freedom of the corn trade under all circumstances. He considered it as a question more of administration than of commerce. He quoted the example of Poland, Hungary, Sicily, Apulia, Egypt, &c, which countries produce and export enormous quantities of corn, and yet always remain poor. Another interesting work of Carli is his Relazione sul censimento dello stato di Milano. The censimento, or catasto, was a survey and valuation of all the lands of Lombardy, effected under Maria Theresa, and completed in 1759, for the purpose of equalizing the land-tax and other public burthens. The plan was afterwards imitated in Prussia under Frederic II., in France under Napoleon, and in other countries. Carli was appointed president of the new council of commerce and pubic economy established at Milan, as well us of the board of public studies. In these capacities he repaired to Vienna in 1765, to confer with the minister Kaunitz, and was received at court with great distinction. When Joseph II. went to Milan in 1769, he appointed Carli his privy counsellor, ana it was at Carli's suggestion that the emperor finally abolished the tribunal of the Inquisition, which had existed at Milan for centuries. He was made president of the council of commerce and public economy at Milan, and in 1771 president of the new council of finances, into which branch of administration he introduced many admirable reforms. The inhabitants were also indebted to his influence for the abolition of the inquisitions, tribunal. He also wrote some valuable works on Istrian and other antiquities; dissertations on classical subjects; against sorcery; against Rousseau's theory of natural religion, etc. His labours having seriously impaired his health, he resigned the presidency of the council of commerce, and devoted his time chiefly to complete his Antichità Italiche, which appeared in 1788, 5 vols, 4vo. Carli being now old and infirm, the emperor Leopold II. restored to him the whole of the pension, amounting to 20,000 francs, which he had enjoyed when in the full exercise of his office. He lived some years longer, and died in February, 1795. Carli's epistolary correspondence, spread over a period of fifty years, was very extensive, was carried on with the most enlightened men of his age, and was upon the most interesting subjects. He published many other works, among which are, Lettere Americane, in which he investigates the antiquities of America, and refutes Pauw's assertions in disparagement of the natives. In his L'Uomo libero, ossia ragionamento sulla libertà naturale e civile dell'uomo, he ably combats Rousseau's theory, put forward by that ensnaring sophist in the Contrat Social. He wrote also many dissertations on classical subjects, on the triremes, on the Argonauts, on Hesiod's Theogony, on the geography of the ancients, &c. Exclusive of his Italian Antiquities, Carli's works were published in 19 vols, 8vo, Milan, 1784-94. Principal works: Relating to political currency -
 Carli
published some writings in Pietro Verri's publication Il Caffèi. In
1785, he wrote for this publication his article entitled
"Della patria degli italiani", a carattere fortemente
nazionale.
See also:
Sources:
|
||||||||||||
|
This page compliments of Marisa Ciceran Created:
Friday, August 01, 2008. Updated
Thursday September 04, 2008 |
||||||||||||
A
commemmorative postage stamp was issued on March 24, 2003 in honor of
Carli and the elementary school in Pazin (Pisino) that was dedicated in
his honor. The school was established in 1898 and destroyed by German
bombs in 1943. [See: