Politician of liberal and republican ideas born in Messina, Calvi joined the “Carbonari” movement and took part in the riots in 1821. Arrested and released in 1825, he later graduated in law (1830) and participated in the revolutionary events of Palermo in 1848. Head of the Republicans, Calvi was in charge of the Committee responsible to define the Sicilian Constitution and covered the role of Minister for Internal Affairs and Minister of Justice. Calvi proposed to hold Sicily as a republic: a minority position. The Parliament, at the end, chose a form of constitutional monarchy as a form of government. When the Bourbon returned to power, Calvi was exiled in Malta (1849).
Returned to Sicily in 1860, Calvi was appointed by Garibaldi as president of the supreme court of justice of the dictatorial government and on November 4th, 1860, it was Calvi who announced the results of the plebiscite for the annexation of Sicily to the Italian Kingdom. He ran in the constituency of Alcamo to the first elections in 1861 the Italian parliament, and was elected to the Chamber of the Kingdom for the next three years. He was then president of the Supreme Courts of Florence, Milan and Palermo. At his death, Calvi was buried in the Pantheon of the church of San Domenico in Palermo.
Read More:
1. Treccani, http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/pasquale-calvi_(Dizionario-Biografico)/
2. Wikipedia, https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasquale_Calvi
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