Lanza was born in the Piedmontese city ofCasale Monferrato. He studied medicine at Turin, capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia, then returned to Casale where he divided his energies between practising medicine and developing his 33 hectare estate in nearby Roncaglia. He studied and wrote on agriculture developments in both the practical and social aspects. Lanza was among the first in Monferrato to introduce modern equipment as iron ploughs and seed drills, and also involved himself in the agricultural education of poor children, hoping to achieve at once “the betterment of our agriculture and the moral and intellectual betterment of our agricultural workers.” Lanza was also an active member of the Subalpine Agricultural Association of Turin and became its secretary. The association was concerned for reform in the political and economic spheres, as well as in that of agriculture, and its identification with the cause of liberal nationalism—with the Risorgimento—was underlined at the September 1847 agrarian congress in Casale, when Lanza raised the cry of “Viva l’Italia libera ed indipendente!” Later he commented on that event: “I did not join the association purely to improve the cultivation of cabbages.”, Lanza took an active part in the rising of 1848 and was elected to the Piedmontese parliament in that year. He attached himself to the party of Cavour and devoted his attention chiefly to questions of economy and finance. He became minister of public instruction in 1855 in the cabinet of Cavour, and in 1858 minister of finance. Lanza followed Cavour into his temporary retirement in July 1859 after the Treaty of Villafranca, and for a year was chairman of the House. He was minister of the interior in the La Marmora cabinet, and arranged the transference of the capital to Florence. He maintained a resolute opposition to the financial policy of Menabrea, who resigned when Lanza was a second time elected, in 1869, chairman of the House. Lanza formed a new cabinet in which he was himself minister of the interior. With Quintino Sella as minister of finance he sought to reorganize Italian budget, and resigned office when Sella's projects were rejected in 1873. His cabinet had seen the accomplishment of Italian unity and the installation of an Italian government in Rome after the defeat of the Papal States in late 1870.
