Growing up in a progressive environment

This chapter describes the youth and the education of Andrea and Giuseppe Meneghini and sheds light on public and private schooling in Padua in the 1830s and 1840s. The influence of religion and of members of the clergy as teachers on the educational sector as well as on the intellectual life and the revolutionary events of 1848 is of special importance. Two abbots had a particular impact on the Meneghini brothers. The first, Pietro Melo, introduced the brothers to botanical techniques. His scientific approach to the phenomenon of the ‘bleeding polenta’ that troubled many peasants reveals the enlightened facets of his character. The second, Giuseppe Bernardi, a fatherly tutor, was a central, though hitherto almost completely overlooked figure in Padua’s cultural and scientific life during the 1830s and 1840s. His philosophy harbors strong commitment to the doctrines of the philosophers Antonio Rosmini and Giambattista Vico. The final section focuses on the rocky path both brothers had to follow, after the bankruptcy of their father, to find their place in Padua’s society.