“The leap forward in industrial activity occurred in the second half of the 19th century and was largely due to Giuseppe and Carlo Caprotti, born in 1837 and 1845 respectively. The two brothers are both truly remarkable characters (…). ” . (CAPROTTI, “Le Ossa dei Caprotti“, p. 23). In reality this is a mistake
Carlo, the younger brother of Giuseppe known as ‘Beppo’ [my great-great-grandfather] is the son of Bernardo, founder of the company ‘Bernardo Caprotti di Giuseppe’, which was to be the nucleus of the industrial weaving business later developed by his sons. His mother was Carolina Candiani, a very pious woman, whose implacable devotion marked the course of the lives of her five daughters and her profound intolerance towards Beppo’s outward forms of religiosity, as well as Carlo’s combative anticlericalism.
Like his older brother, Carlo received an appropriate education for those who would one day be running a company. After attending primary school at the Collegio Bianchi in Saronno, he is admitted to the Collegio-convitto commerciale d’lppolito d’Aste in Genoa. The Genoa “Gazzetta del Popolo” of 1857 reported the news of the institute’s autumn reopening, and it may be interesting to see what the young Carlo Caprotti studied in what remained the only boarding school in the Kingdom of Sardinia ‘where fathers can place their children whom they intend to send to trade‘: in the three-year high school course, the boys learn ‘the principles of Italian and French literature: English and German are taught [and this is why Carlo was then able to move at ease in the Swiss territories, N. d’R.], History of the Church, the Church of Milan, the Church of the Holy See and the Church of Milan.ed.], Natural History applied to commerce, Algebra, Geography, Civil and Commercial Law, Drawing, Double Writing, Collibistics [perhaps the study of packing and handling packages, i.e. shipping units? Editor’s note], Comparative History of the Different European Literatures, Logic, Ethics, Philosophy of History and Public Economics. Depending on demand, ‘Latin Classical Studies and an entire Nautical course’ may be added.
Beppo, Carlo’s older brother, although studying at a Swiss boarding school, did not have a very different education. And he too, thanks to his studies, became familiar with commercial languages, including English.
Sources:
Albiate (MB), Villa San Valerio, Villa San Valerio Archives, Carlo Caprotti Factory Archives, Carlo Caprotti Archives (1837-1895).
Bibliography:
G. CAPROTTI, ‘Le Ossa dei Caprotti. Una storia italiana’, Milan, 2024/3.
R. ROMANO, “I Caprotti. L’avventura economica e umana di una dinastia industriale della Brianza”, Milan, 1980.
“Gazzetta del Popolo”, year X-1857, no. 230, 29 September, column “Sacco nero”: “Il Collegio-Convitto Commerciale d’Ippolito D’Aste in Genova, via Caffaro di fronte al Teatro Paganini“.
G. CAPROTTI, “Mostra: la meccanica della Manifattura Caprotti“, 09/10/2024.
ID., “La famiglia Caprotti, innovazione e tradizione in una manifattura italiana: Albiate e la Svizzera“, 09/10/2024.
ID., “La famiglia Caprotti, innovazione e tradizione in una manifattura italiana: operai dal prigione di San Vittore“, 13/10/2024.
E. SÀITA, “I Caprotti : private aspects, from the Risorgimento to the Second World War“, 08/11/2022.
