SALVEMINI, GAETANO (1873– ), Italian historian, was born in Molfetta in Sept. 1873. In 1902 he became professor of mediaeval and modem history at Messina university. He then went to Pisa university, and in 1917 was appointed to the chair of history at Florence university. His best known historical works are Magnati e Popolani in Firenze dal 1280 al 1295 (1899) La Rivoluzione francese 1789-92 (19°5); Mazzini (1915) and L'Italia e gl'Imperi Centrale dal 1871 al 1915. He edited the Lib eral newspaper L'Unita (1911-21). Before the World War he vigorously criticised the Socialists for their half-hearted social work, and attacked Giolitti's electoral methods. During the War he was a leading advocate of Italian diplomatic moderation. He was a member of the Italian parliament from After the Fascists captured power, however, his political activity was made impossible, and, being suspect, he was in constant personal dan ger. In June 1925 he was arrested in Rome and taken to Florence,
where he was charged on the hearsay evidence of a printer with complicity in the production of an anti-Fascist newspaper Non Mollare. He was imprisoned for 35 days before being tried. No evidence but that of the printer was cited, and his case was post poned till July 1925 when he was provisionally released. Prof. Salvemini was compelled to leave Florence, and was kept under police surveillance until Oct. 1925, when he took the occasion of the Government amnesty, proclaimed for the Matteotti mur derers, to leave the country. He settled in London, and became one of the fiercest assailants abroad of Fascist rule. Among the works published in exile was The Fascist Dictatorship (1928).