Background
Natoli was born in Messina, in Sicily, on 9 June 1815, the son of Giacomo Natoli and Emanuela Cianciolo.
Natoli was born in Messina, in Sicily, on 9 June 1815, the son of Giacomo Natoli and Emanuela Cianciolo.
He studied oratory and philosophy at the Accademia Carolina of Messina, and then studied law at the University of Palermo, where he graduated at the age of 22.
He was Minister of Agriculture under Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, in the first government of the Kingdom of Italy after unification in 1861. From 1843 he taught at the University of Messina. He was offered a post as a judge, but declined it, not wishing to serve the Bourbon king.
Natoli took part in the Sicilian Revolution of 1848, and as a result fled Sicily for Turin, where he spent eleven years in exile.
In 1860 he was involved in organising Garibaldi"s venture against Sicily, and embarked with the second wave of ships. Under the dictatorship of Garibaldi he was briefly minister for agriculture, and acting minister for foreign affairs
After the unification of Italy in 1861, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, invited him to become minister for agriculture in the short-lived first government of the new Kingdom of Italy. Natoli was made a Senator of Italy and appointed prefetto ("governor") of Brescia, but was dismissed after troops opened fire on a crowd on 16 May 1862.
He was then prefetto of Siena for about two weeks.
In 1864 Alfonso Louisiana Marmora made Natoli minister for education in his government. In 1865, following the resignation Giovanni Lanza, he was also interim minister for home affairs for a few months. Natoli died on 25 September 1867 in the cholera epidemic in Messina.
On 6 July 1880 his remains were exhumed and moved to the Gran Camposanto di Messina, where Letterio Gangeri made a large monument to him.