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Francesco Ercole | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of National Education | |
| In office 20 July 1932 – 24 January 1935 | |
| Prime Minister | Benito Mussolini |
| Preceded by | Balbino Giuliano |
| Succeeded by | Cesare Maria De Vecchi |
| Member of theChamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy | |
| In office 20 April 1929 – 2 March 1939 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1884-03-30)30 March 1884 La Spezia,Kingdom of Italy |
| Died | 18 May 1945(1945-05-18) (aged 61) Gardone Riviera, Kingdom of Italy |
| Political party | |
Francesco Ercole (30 March 1884 – 18 May 1945) was an Italian historian and aFascist politician who served asminister of national education of theKingdom of Italy from 1932 to 1935.
Ercole was born inLa Spezia on 30 March 1884.[1] After graduating in law from theUniversity of Parma in 1907, he taught History of Italian Law at theUniversity of Urbino from 1912, and later became a professor at the universities ofSassari andCagliari until 1920. On that year he moved toPalermo, where he joined theItalian Nationalist Association (ANI) and became a member of its Central Committee. From 1924 to 1932, he was Rector of theUniversity of Palermo as well as full professor ofmodern history. In 1923, with the dissolution of the ANI, he passed to theNational Fascist Party.[1][2][3]
In 1925 he was among the signatories of theManifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals, drawn up byGiovanni Gentile. He was elected to theItalian Chamber of Deputies in 1929 and again in 1934 until 1939, and served as minister of national education from July 1932 to January 1935. In 1934 he excluded from theschool curricula anydialect or idiom or language other thanstandard Italian, in compliance with thelinguistic nationalism imposed by the Fascist regime.[4][1][2][5]
In 1935, after the end of his tenure as minister, he moved to teaching modern history at theSapienza University of Rome and became President of the Italian Historical Institute for the Modern Age; on 18 June 1936 he became a member of theAccademia dei Lincei. A renowned historian of legal institutions and medieval political thought, he studied in particular the problems concerning the passage from themedieval commune to thesignoria and the birth of theprincipality. He also wrote numerous studies onDante Alighieri's political views. He died inGardone Riviera in 1945.[1][2][5][6]
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