Agostino Depretis

His Excellency Agostino Depretis
Prime Minister of Italy
In office 29 May 1881 – 29 July 1887
Monarch	Umberto I
Preceded by	Benedetto Cairoli
Succeeded by	Francesco Crispi
In office 19 December 1878 – 14 July 1879
Monarch	Umberto I
Preceded by	Benedetto Cairoli
Succeeded by	Benedetto Cairoli
In office 25 March 1876 – 24 March 1878
Monarchs	Victor Emmanuel II Umberto I
Preceded by	Marco Minghetti
Succeeded by	Benedetto Cairoli
Minister of the Interior
In office 25 November 1879 – 29 July 1887
Prime Minister	Benedetto Cairoli Himself
Preceded by	Tommaso Villa
Succeeded by	Francesco Crispi
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 4 April 1886 – 29 July 1886
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Carlo Felice Nicolis
Succeeded by	Francesco Crispi
In office 29 June 1885 – 6 October 1885
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Pasquale Stanislao Mancini
Succeeded by	Carlo Felice Nicolis
In office 19 December 1878 – 14 July 1879
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Benedetto Cairoli
Succeeded by	Benedetto Cairoli
In office 26 December 1877 – 24 March 1878
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Luigi Amedeo Melegari
Succeeded by	Luigi Corti
Minister of Finance
In office 25 March 1876 – 26 December 1877
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Girolamo Cantelli
Succeeded by	Agostino Magliani
In office 17 February 1867 – 10 April 1867
Prime Minister	Bettino Ricasoli
Preceded by	Antonio Scialoja
Succeeded by	Francesco Ferrara
Minister of the Navy
In office 20 June 1866 – 17 February 1867
Prime Minister	Bettino Ricasoli
Preceded by	Diego Angioletti
Succeeded by	Giuseppe Biancheri
Minister of Public Works
In office 3 March 1862 – 8 December 1862
Prime Minister	Urbano Rattazzi
Preceded by	Ubaldino Peruzzi
Succeeded by	Luigi Federico Menabrea
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office 18 February 1861 – 29 July 1887
Constituency	Stradella
Personal details
Born	(1813-01-31)31 January 1813 Stradella, Lombardy, Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy
Died	29 July 1887(1887-07-29) (aged 74) Stradella, Lombardy, Kingdom of Italy
Political party	Historical Left

Agostino Depretis (31 January 1813 – 29 July 1887) was an Italian statesman and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Italy for several stretches between 1876 and 1887, and was leader of the Historical Left parliamentary group for more than a decade. He is the fourth-longest serving Prime Minister in Italian history, after Benito Mussolini, Giovanni Giolitti and Silvio Berlusconi, and at the time of his death he was the longest-served. Depretis is widely considered one of the most powerful and important politicians in Italian history.^[1]

He was a master in the political art of Trasformismo, the method of making a flexible, centrist coalition of government which isolated the extremes of the left and the right in Italian politics after the unification.^[2]