Abstract

This paper focuses on the figure of the Jew lawyer Isacco Rignano. In particular, in 1861, Rignano wrote an impressive text, titled «Della uguaglianza civile e della libertà dei culti secondo il diritto pubblico del Regno d’Italia». In the years after the Italian unification, Rignano’s work was revised and updated twice, in 1868 and in 1885. There, he collected and systematized legal sources about relationships between Kingdom of Italy and religious communities, with a constant reference to religious minorities, especially Jews. By analyzing the evolution of Rignano’s legal thought about the freedom of conscience and the equality of citizens before the law, it will be possible to reconstruct preliminary phases of the Italian ecclesiastical law.