Giustino Fortunato (1777–1862)

Follower of the Jacobin ideas, he was a student of Carlo Lauberg and met other intellectuals such as Francesco Mario Pagano, Ettore Carafa, Emanuele De Deo and Ignazio Ciaia.

After the arrival of the anti-republican troops of the cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, Fortunato fought them in a desperate battle at the "Ponte della Maddalena".

Under the government of Joachim Murat, he covered judicial duties and, along with Vincenzo Cuoco and Pietro Napoli-Signorelli, had a great role in the rebirth of the Accademia Pontaniana (1808); Fortunato's house was a meeting place of intellectuals like Melchiorre Delfico, Vincenzo Monti, David Winspeare, Michele Tenore and Teodoro Monticelli.

Accused of servility to the king, he was strongly criticized by Giuseppe Ricciardi, Giacomo Racioppi, Pier Silvestro Leopardi and, in particular, Luigi Settembrini, who considered him an insatiable and fierce hyena.

[3] He was dismissed by Ferdinand II for not having informed him about the William Gladstone's letters, sent from Naples to the Parliament of London, defining the Kingdom as a negation of God erected to a system of government.