Giovanni Passannante ( Italian: Giovanni Passannante ; February 19, 1849 , Savoy di Lucania - February 14, 1910 , Montelupo Fiorentino ) - Italian anarchist , known for his attempt on the king of Italy, Umberto I. Originally sentenced to death, later the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
| Giovanni Passannante | |
|---|---|
| Giovanni passannante | |
 | |
| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth | |
| Citizenship | |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
| Crime | |
| Crime | attempt on King Umberto I of Italy |
| Punishment | Death Penalty Replaced by Life Imprisonment |
Content
Biography
Early years
Born in Savoy di Lucania from Pascal and Maria Fiore, was the youngest of ten children, four of whom died at an early age. He grew up in a poor family, since childhood he worked as a laborer and a shepherd, so he went to school only for a short time [2] . Later he moved to Vietri di Potenza , and then to Potenza , where he began to work as a cook in osteria .
There he met the captain of the royal army, who noticed the boy's interest in training. After a while, Passannante leaves with the captain in Salerno , where he receives a salary from him, which allows him to go to high school. Thus, in his free time, Giovanni began to read the Bible and the works of Giuseppe Mazzini , which brought him closer to republican ideas.
Passannante began attending Mazzini's circle, which is why his first problems with the law began. At night, in May 1870, he was discovered and arrested by law enforcement officers for distributing revolutionary leaflets directed against the monarchy and the papacy [3] . After two months in prison, he returned to Potenza , where he worked as a cook. In 1872 he returned to Salerno. In June 1878, Passannante moved to Naples , where he changed jobs from day to day.
Assassination attempt
After the death of Victor Emanuel II , his son, Umberto I , prepared a tour of Italian cities to show himself as the new ruler. He was accompanied by his wife Margarita of Savoy and Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli . The royal motorcade planned to visit Naples , although there were heated debates in the city council about the high costs of receiving guests.
On November 17, 1878, Umberto I and his royal court staged a parade in Naples. Passannante, being among the crowd, was waiting for the right moment. When the king said "Largo della Carriera Grande", the anarchist approached his carriage with a fictitious request. Suddenly he pulled out a knife and attacked him shouting “Long live Orsini ! Long live the universal republic! ” [4]
Umberto I dodged the attack and was slightly injured in the arm. Queen Margarita threw a bouquet in Giovanni's face and shouted “ Cairoli , save the king!” [5] . Cairoli took his hair, but the Prime Minister was wounded in the leg. Giovanni himself was wounded by a saber in the head of Stephanie De Giovannini, captain of the cuirassiers , and was arrested. He wanted to kill the king with an 8-centimeter knife, which was exchanged for a jacket. The weapon was wrapped in a red rag, on which was written "Death to the king! Long live the universal republic! Long live Orsini ! ” [4]
Consequences
The assassination attempt shocked the whole nation, and the government was afraid of an anarchist conspiracy. Passannante’s actions led to unrest in many cities, with several killings, injuries and arrests. On November 18 in Florence, a group of anarchists threw a bomb at a crowd that celebrated the unsuccessful assassination attempt on the king. Two men and one woman were killed, and about 10 people were injured. Another bomb exploded in Pisa , but there were no casualties [6] .
Some Republicans such as Alberto Mario have denounced his actions. Poet Giovanni Pascoli at a socialist rally in Bologna publicly read the ode to Passannante, but there was no trace of it, since Pascoli destroyed it immediately after reading it. Only the last verse is known: "Con la berretta d'un cuoco faremo una bandiera" [7] (from Italian. - "From the cap of the cook we will make a flag"). After the arrest of some anarchists who protested against the detention of Passannante, Pascoli and a group of internationalists protested against the verdict, and the poet shouted "If these are villains, then long live villains!" Pascoli and internationalists were arrested.
Some newspapers made unfounded accusations against Passannante: Verona L'Arena and Milanese Corriere della Sera portrayed him as a robber who killed a woman in the past, and the Turin printing house reported that his father was a mafia. A few days after the attempted murder, the Cairoli government was accused of failure to maintain public order, and after a motion of no confidence from Minister Guido Bachelli, Cairoli resigned.
The Passannate family was imprisoned, only his brother managed to escape. Giovanni Parrella, mayor of Savoy di Lucania , went to Naples to apologize and ask for pardon from Umberto I. As a sign of forgiveness, on the advice of the royal advisers, the hometown of Passannante was hastily renamed Savoy di Lucania (formerly the city was called Salvia di Lucania), the decree entered into force on July 3, 1879 [8] .
Sentence and death
During the process of March 6 and 7, 1879, Passannante, who acted alone, claimed that Risorgimento’s ideas were betrayed [9] , the government does not care about people who are getting poorer and poorer due to the growth of the flour tax [10] . March 29, 1879 Passannante was sentenced to death, although the death penalty is given only for the murder of the king, but later the death penalty was replaced by life imprisonment.
The anarchist was imprisoned in Portoferraio , in a small and dark room below sea level, without a toilet and with complete isolation for many years. Day after day, his mental state became worse, because he could not talk to anyone and suffered greatly. He fell ill with scurvy , was struck by a pork tapeworm , bald, his skin was peeling, his eyelids were wrapped , according to some witnesses, he ate his feces [11] . Every night, the sailors who were near the prison heard Passannante screaming in pain.
In 1899, parliamentarian Augusto Bertani and journalist Anna Maria Mozzoni condemned the mistreatment of a prisoner, causing a great scandal. After being examined by professors Serafino Biffi and Augusto Tamburini, Giovanni was declared insane. He died in Montelupo Fiorentino , at the age of 60 [12] .
After death
After his death, his body was beheaded, his brain and skull were studied by criminologists in accordance with the theories of anthropologist Cesare Lombroso [13] . In 1935, the anarchist’s skull and brain, mothballed in formaldehyde , were on display at the Rome Forensic Museum, where they could be seen for over 70 years. His remains occupied one of the most creepy stands in a museum in Italy [14] , causing protests and parliamentary inquiries. In 1998, Italian Minister of Justice Oliviero Diliberto signed a decree on the burial of the remains in Savoy di Lucania , but he was not valid until 2007. Passannante's brain and skull continued to be in the museum.
On the night of May 10, 2007, the remains of Passannante were delivered to Savoy di Lucania and secretly buried only in the presence of the mayor of Rosini Riccardi, Deputy Minister Vito De Filippo, Governor of Basilicata and journalist “La Nuova Del Sud” [15] . Some say the monarchists recommended this because they did not want the anarchists to receive any kind of advertising. On June 2 of the same year, a mass rally was held in memory of the deceased in the cathedral of the city [16] .
In the cinema
In 2011, the Italian film director Sergio Colabona shot about the life of the anarchist the feature film "Passannante" .
See also
- Umberto I
- Gaetano Breschi
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 AA.VV. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - 1960.
- ↑ Galzerano, 2004 , p. 116.
- ↑ "Non vi fidate di Garibaldi! Perché Garibaldi ama la monarchia. " Pungolo, A. XIX, n. 321 del 19 novembre 1878.
- ↑ 1 2 Galzerano, 2004 , p. 396.
- ↑ George Boardman Taylor, Italy and the Italians , America Baptist publication society, 1898, p. 88
- ↑ Galzerano, 2004 , p. 226.
- ↑ Bulferetti, 1914 , p. 57.
- ↑ Galzerano, 2004 , p. 209.
- ↑ Galzerano, 2004 , p. 395.
- ↑ Galzerano, 2004 , p. 361.
- ↑ Galzerano, 2004 , p. 642.
- ↑ Galzerano, 2004 , pp. 671, 678-681.
- ↑ Galzerano, 2004 , p. 672.
- ↑ Peter Kiefer. Anarchist's Head Is Finally Buried, but Outcry Arises Over Timing . The New York Times (May 12, 2007). Date of treatment March 10, 2012.
- ↑ Alessandro De Feo. Giovanni Funeral Day (Italian) . L'Espresso (18 maggio 2007). Date of treatment March 24, 2012.
- ↑ Sergio Boschiero. L'UMI protesta per l'esaltazione del Passannante (Italian) . Unione Monarchica Italiana (31 maggio 2007). Date of treatment March 24, 2012. Archived May 14, 2015.
Literature
- Giuseppe Galzerano. Giovanni Passannante. La vita, l'attentato, il processo, la condanna a morte, la grazia 'regale' e gli anni di galera del cuoco lucano che nel 1878 ruppe l'incantesimo monarchico. - Casalvelino Scalo, 2004 .-- 811 p.
- Domenico Bulferetti. Giovanni Pascoli. L'uomo, il maestro, il poeta. - Milano: Libreria editrice milanese, 1914 .-- 405 p.