Freemasonry in Italy

Freemasonry in Italy dates to the first half of the eighteenth century. Its success largely depended on the lack of enthusiasm with which Papal bans on the order were enforced in the various states, but after the end of the Napoleonic regime Freemasonry was suppressed in most of the peninsula. The start of the unification process in 1859 saw a revival in Freemasonry. Giuseppe Garibaldi, a leader of Italian unification, was an active mason and a keen supporter of the craft. In the 1920s Freemasonry was again suppressed under Fascism, but revived again after the fall of Benito Mussolini. Today's Italy contains a wide variety of Masonic observances, regular, liberal, male, female and mixed.

The early history of Freemasonry in the Italian peninsula precedes the unification of the country in 1859/60, and must be dealt with as it occurs in separate states.

A minute of 1845 records a lodge called Fidelitas being founded at Girifalco in Calabria in 1723. In spite of the lack of earlier records, this is often cited as the first Masonic Lodge in Italy. Lack of documentation is a major problem in tracing the history of Italian Freemasonry. Many documents were burned by Fascists in the 1920s, often assisted by Freemasons who wished to destroy any record of their own participation.

Some time before August 1732, Lord Charles Sackville, then Earl of Middlesex, later the second Duke of Dorset, founded a lodge in Florence which later attracted Italian noblemen and intellectuals. It also attracted the interest of the Inquisition, and its Italian secretary, Tommaso Crudeli, was imprisoned and tortured, later dying as a result. Two lodges were formed in Livorno in 1763 and 1765 under the Antient Grand Lodge of England, and the Premier Grand Lodge of England produced two more in the same city in 1771. Lodges were also formed when French troops were quartered in Leghorn in 1796-97, but all were closed by the Grand Duke in 1800. Lodges were again formed in Florence and Leghorn in 1807-09 after annexation by France, but the end of French rule in 1814 meant the end of Freemasonry until Tuscany became part of the Italian State in 1859.

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