«Quanti la lessero, ne piansero». Stampa, opinione pubblica e inchiesta Donati

Several essays have been dealt with the life and suicide of Italia Donati, the young primary schoolteacher whose death moved and shocked Italian public opinion in 1886. Nevertheless, no contribution analyzed why the episode exerted such a remarkable influence on Italian society. This paper is going to examine how the report the «Corriere della Sera» published on her death described characters involved and circumstances. Letters written by the newspapers’ readers and the following literature about the topic will be taken also into account for examinate how the investigative report influenced schoolteachers’ mentality on a mid-term basis.