Portrait of Enrico Catellani, included in: I professori della R. Università di Padova nel 1922, Bologna, Stabilimenti poligrafici riuniti, 1922

Enrico Catellani was born in Padua on 12 June 1856 to Giacomo Levi Cattelan, a prominent Paduan lawyer, and Rachel Carlotta (called Carolina) Luzzatto, who chose the name of Enrico Abram Jechiel for him. He grew up in the Jewish tradition.

He studied Law in Padua; his professors included Antonio and Giambattista Pertile, Angelo Messedaglia, Francesco Schupfer, Luigi Bellavite, Francesco Bonatelli.

He graduated in December 1875 with a thesis on Administrative Law entitled «Dell’espropriazione forzata per causa di pubblica utilità; i diversi tipi legislativi. Analisi delle principali norme della nostra legge» ("Forced expropriation for the public interest; different legal approaches. Analysis of the main provisions of our law"). 

He loved classical culture and literature, as evidenced by some of the works of his youth; in 1879, he translated Xenophon’s Economico, and Oliver Goldsmith’s ballad, L'Eremita, which was included in the wedding pamphlet, Per le auspicatissime nozze Trieste-Treves, and, finally, Venezia e le sue letterate, where he showed interest in female poetry and literature, recounting the lives and works of Venetian women writers and poets who lived between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries.

He was a friend of Giorgio Colabich (1835-1897), librarian and assistant registrar of the manuscripts in the Royal University Library.  According to Bettanini, these had a role in guiding young Enrico, already fond of classical culture, to study law. The friendship is documented in a dedication in the Compendio di geografia descrittiva e statistica …, Milano Gnocchi, 1863 and in a commemoration made by Catellani in honour of his deceased friend in the pamphlet In memoria di Giorgio Colabich, Padova Tip. Fratelli Gallina, 1897.

Enrico Catellani's graduation thesis.
Courtesy of the University of Padova, Ufficio gestione documentale.
Settore Archivio di Ateneo, Facoltà di Giurisprudenza, Laureati,
Laureati dal 1873/74 al 1876/77, fasc. Levi Enrico

He converted to Unitarian Christianity. He married an Alsatian, Carolina Bahy (1867-1945), known as Lina, in Mulhouse on 29 September 1898 and they did not have children.

In 1900, he changed his name, Enrico Abram Jechiel Levi Cattelan, by removing Levi and changing Cattelan to Catellani.

At age 59, he took part in the Great War with the rank of lieutenant colonel, becoming a valuable consultant to the Supreme Command, specialising in issues of war law. He witnessed the atrocities of war and bequeathed his experience to posterity in a book, L’Italia e l’Austria in guerra, published in English and French to allow for wider dissemination.

Over the course of his life, he put together a vast library, later acquired by the University of Padova: Bettanini said he was “very protective of his books”, but always ready to make them available to students  (Commemoration, p. 10).
The importance which Catellani attached to the function of libraries can also be understood by the fact that he was a member of the standing committee of the Royal University Library and to which he lamented, in the previously mentioned book, L’Italia e l’Austria in guerra (pp. 108-110), the near total destruction of the libraries of the Asiago Plateau. In the book, he remembered in particular the destroyed library of Giambattista Pertile – his professor and former Rector of the University of Padova – and that of Abbot Giovanni Costa: of the latter, only 30 books were recovered and, amongst them, perhaps one donated to Catellani by Lieutenant Ugo Fano and found in the dedications section of this virtual exhibition.

In 1920, following the honours received for having championed the cause of the fatherland, he was invested with the office of Senator of the Kingdom.

He was active in the cultural life of his city, often taking part in the most esteemed gatherings in Padua.

His house was in Via Marsala 29b which is now Palazzo Nalin 49.

Palazzo Nalin

The last phase of his life was sadly marked and conditioned by tragic historical events: the Second World War and Italy’s racial laws. He was removed and isolated from the academic and cultural milieu; in 1944, his assets were confiscated and entrusted to his wife who had been declared of the "Aryan race". He was granted permission to remain in the house. He spent the last years of his life confined to his home which was occupied by German troops.
Occasional visits of dear friends interrupted the solitude of those days, including Anton Maria Bettanini who recalled the deep love he had for his university: “solo un pensiero  gli ritornava costante ed esprimeva a noi che, con affetto filiale ci recavamo a confortarGli le sue tristi giornate, il pensiero della Sua scuola, di questa Sua Università.” (Commemoration, p. 11). ("there was just one constant thought which he expressed to us who, with filial affection, would go to comfort him during those sad days, the thought of His school, of this University of His.")
 
 He died in the hospital at the age of 88 on 7 January 1945, three days after the death of his wife Lina.