Ferdinando De Cinque, lawyer, deputy and scholar of literature, was born in Casoli (Italy) in 1876 from a family of notaries.
He studied law at the universities of Bologna and Genoa, graduating in 1901 with a thesis entitled “Della mezzadria”.
At the time, Bologna’s university was a veritable hotbed of patriotism, where students improvised speeches, often observed by professors and the Rector himself. Ferdinando was among these speakers who, as if in an eloquence contest, challenged each other in mock hearings or thematic lectures, stimulating his skills as a lecturer and his ambitions, until he became one of the most famous lawyers in the Bologna court.
Dante Manetti described him as follows: “agile intellect, profound, sharp observer, he first found himself uncomfortable in the forensic environment. He took it upon himself to set the case, through digressions, apparent digressions, of literary, political and philosophical views of life. All this was judged to be an originality that was difficult to achieve. Hence benevolent or sarcastic criticism, and the appellation of… poet. But De Cinque, forcing the fact, gave it the form of drama, reaching out to the emotion of the listeners. So the first hostility was replaced by interest: he managed, through feeling, to win what could not be won through legal reasoning.”
He actively participated in various conflicts, fighting in 1897 in the Red Shirts Legion in Domokos alongside the Greeks against the Ottoman Empire and as a volunteer in the First World War.
In Bologna, Ferdinando was also a member of several patriotic associations, in particular the “Trento and Trieste”, of which he was one of the main speakers; his political and cultural commitment to the irredentist movement found its full scope with the Kingdom of Italy’s entry into the First World War.
Many representatives of Trieste’s irredentism had found refuge in Bologna, thanks to the attractiveness of the University and the welcoming climate for these exiles.
Deployed on Podgora, the group of volunteers of which Ferdinando was a member was instructed to go during the night to open up gaps in the Austrian reticulate, and then proceed the next morning to assault the imperial positions.
The attack that followed was a real massacre: among the wounded was Ferdinando himself, who was hit by shrapnel from a hand grenade as well as a few shots.
Awarded the silver medal for military valour, he was assigned to the press and propaganda office of the Bologna army corps with the rank of captain and collaborated with the Resto del Carlino newspaper.
Also active on the political scene, in 1900 his republican Mazzinian political ideas were already known, which was certainly not easy in a purely socialist city like Bologna; but Ferdinando was respected and acted as a man of dialogue between the two factions.
Perhaps also for this reason he began to frequent Romagna a lot, opening a law office in Faenza.
In 1908 he was elected to the Board of the Central Committee of the Italian Republican Party for Emilia-Romagna.
He also took part in the defence of Pietro Nenni, at the time secretary of the Forlì Chamber of Labour, who was arrested for the strike against the Libyan war in 1911, managing to reduce the sentence imposed.
In 1909, perhaps also due to his growing notoriety, the Public Security opened a file in his name at the Central Political Records Office.
As a lawyer, specialising in criminal law, he could have made far more substantial profits, but in reality he often accepted pro bono cases: “I don’t value money” he used to say.
After the First World War, Ferdinando immediately joined the fascist movement, recognising himself as part of that minority that demanded recognition for ex-combatants and claimed a leading role for Italy, and linked himself to the figure of Leandro Arpinati.
He held the office of deputy from 1929 to 1934, but despite this, surveillance against him did not cease and a new file was opened in his name at the Fascist Political Police to intercept and read his correspondence.
Soon, however, he increasingly lost faith in the regime he had initially supported, particularly after Arpinati’s political demise and the promulgation of the racial laws.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, and especially with the presence of German troops in Italy, he maintained a marginal role in Bolognese fascist politics, so much so that during the German occupation he was suspected of anti-fascist activities and suffered several searches.
When the Allied troops entered Bologna, both he and his wife Matilde welcomed the liberators in the centre of Bologna: she was adorned in a tricolour peplos, Ferdinando in a red shirt, alongside Bauer, a friend and fellow Garibaldian, of the Jewish religion, who was housed with his family in a basement belonging to Ferdinando, who did not fail to provide them with food and living goods even during the darkest period of the German occupation.
The last years of Ferdinando’s life were spent quietly in his Bologna, surrounded by his books, writings and his collection of art objects.
He passed away in 1950 and was buried in the family grave in his hometown.
A multifaceted man with a constant passion for study, his life was full of experiments and a deep curiosity about the world around him.
In the early 1900s, he began to put his knowledge of botanicals into practice, playing with new combinations and flavours, driven by the same intellectual curiosity that had made him such an effective speaker and such a passionate advocate.
Ferdinando never revealed the formulas for his liquors, which remained preserved in his notes, among which we can include at least a hundred procedures for the most different creations, with variations and corrections..
These documents, true treasures of knowledge, represent one of the beating hearts of Bad Spirits today: each bottle of the Ferdinando line carries a piece of this extraordinary legacy, combining a passion for excellence with contemporary craftsmanship.
Worth mentioning among his many interests is also the one for writing, which culminated with the publication in 1944 of a collection of poems and short stories, entitled “Scheletri, cani, lupi e ninfee” (Skeletons, dogs, wolves and water lilies); currently, the copies available in circulation are very rare.
So, more than seventy years after his death, Ferdinando De Cinque lives on through the unique flavours of our spirits, evidence of a life lived with passion, courage and a constant desire for perfection.
