Albertini was born in Ancona, Italy. After reading law at the University of Turin, in 1894 he moved to London, where he was foreign correspondent for La Stampa of Turin. While in London he investigated labour conditions and studied the organization of The Times newspaper. In 1898 he joined the Milan newspaper, Corriere della Sera as an editorial assistant, working under Eugenio Torelli Viollier and then Domenico Oliva. In the spring of 1900, Viollier died and Albertini took his position as managing editor, and a few weeks later director. He also invested in the paper. He installed modern equipment and updated the paper's technical services. Under Albertini's direction, Corriere della Sera became the most widely read and respected daily paper in Italy. But, in November 1925 the paper's owners, the Crespi family, sacked him because of his public stance against the Fascist government. His last editorial was included in the 29 November 1925 edition. After that, Albertini withdrew from public life and retired to his model estate at Torre in Pietra near Rome. There, he dedicated his time to managing the estate and reclaiming land on it. He also extensively researched Italy's role in the First and Second World Wars. He wrote his memoirs and had just completed his three-volume seminal work on the origins of the First World War when he died on 29 December 1941 in Rome.
Legacy
Albertini's three-volume The Origins of the War of 1914 was his highest achievement and brought him world fame. He researched and wrote it with the assistance of Luciano Magrini, a former Corriere della Sera foreign correspondent who was skilled in German. From 1928 to 1940, Magrini interviewed many of the protagonists of the First World War. He obtained numerous documents that are reproduced in the work, which was published in Italian in 1942 and 1943. It was translated into English by Isabella Massey and published by Oxford University Press in 1953. Alberto Albertini wrote the first biography of his brother, which was published in Italian in 1945. Since 1965 Ottavio Brié, formerly of the political science facility at the University of Rome, has had access to Luigi Albertini's huge correspondence, which he has edited and published. He also researched and wrote a second biography, Luigi Albertini, which was published in Italian in 1972.
