He then joined Michele Mannucci in publishing La Speranza, a political newspaper of moderate tendencies.

[2][3][4] Borgatti began his political career in his native Papal States following the election of Pius IX.

In May 1848 he was entrusted with the general secretariat of the Papal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a position he also held during the Roman Republic.

[5] After the French army seized Rome, he was forced to abandon the city and went back to Bologna and to his legal work, only returning to political activity in June 1859.

[7][6] The enduring question for justice ministers of the time was the enormous task of trying to unify the legal systems of the old Kingdom of Sardinia with those of the newly-annexed territories.