The long trip of knowledge

 

Since long time past manhood has wondered about the most inner significance of our presence on the earth.

I imagine our primitives ancestors, still wrapped in their beast’s furs, asking themselves the meaning of the stars in  the sky, some brighter , some farer, some fading away, like falling down; or  they might be thinking why the rising and the setting down of the sun, the pouring rain, the flashing of the lightening, preceding the boasting thunder; and the mystery of flying , the fascination of dreams, the secrets in the silence, the magic of a new life coming out from feminine bodies.

They started worshipping the sun, the waters, the eagle, or the great mother because of these unanswered questions. May be the first spark of this craving of knowledge has started around the fire, old men telling stories to be remembered by the young of the tribe.

The quintessence of hundred thousand years of this human research can be found now in the great religious books of humanity: the Indian Vedas and Upanishads; the Tibetan Book of Death; the Wisdom Books of the Holy Bible; or even in the mysterious books of esotericism.

You might believe or not believe in God (I personally do); and we can discuss for thousands of years  Which One is the Only God (but I know there is only One God, anyway); some can call God the Cosmic Essence of the Universe and some others can crush the Unity of God in to a Pantheon of Gods (like ancient roman and Greek did and like Indians still do); you can even keep on worshipping idles and totems (as matter of fact money and lust are not  but the modern gods of contemporary times); but if have spent your life without searching a reason to be born, then your life has passed you by uselessly.

Through  centuries and millennia men have even abused of the power of knowledge, misusing magic formulas for cheating poor people, frightening them with the shadows of God (God Himself cannot scare anyone, because He can only love); the Books themselves were instruments of power: those capable to read them on them the sacred truths could exercise a great power on those ignoring the meaning of the signs traced on their lines.

This special issue of Arspoeticamagazine deals with the matter of knowledge in the beginning of the seventeenth century.

 Angelo Ruggeri shows in a selection of works, how Milton, Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei, Torquato Tasso and other great minds of this century, have handle and dealt with such a sensitive subject and  why the established power counteracted their thoughts.

In the same century,  I set my novel “The Perfect Watchmaker's Handbook” (at the momento available on Amazon's stores in Italian language with the title  of "Il Manuale del perfetto orologiaio"), where four main writers and their friends of the Academia of Lamole, in Tuscany, are compelled to hide away from Holy Inquisition because they have decided to translate in to vulgar language the Sacred Scripture against the Pope Clemente VIII’s 1596 Decree, who wanted the Holy Bible still to be published only in Latin ancient language (incomprehensible to most  people).

Still remains a great question: up to where can manhood  push his thirst of knowledge? Is it right to go beyond anyway? Is it correct to restraint the longing of manhood to break all the frontiers of knowledge? And who is titled to check scientist, poets and all the men who feel free to research the truth anyway and anywhere? Such questions are still of topical actuality and is not in the intentions of our magazine to dare to give any answers to them. I can personally only say that when I was much younger than today, my answer would be simply aimed to deny any chance of control or censorship.

But now I’m not so sure anymore.

https://www.amazon.it/Manuale-del-perfetto-orologiaio-Romanzo/dp/1677714697

The ten days which never happened

The ten days which never happened

by ignazio salvatore basile

Foreword

This is the reconstruction of the biography of a man called Jesus, sent to earth by God for the salvation of humanity, made in ten days by four poets at the end of the seventeenth century, perhaps from October 5 to October 14, 1690 and is based on the canonical sources of new Testament (and not only ) to tell the story of the earthly Son of God, by His Origins until his Resurrection.

 Wanting to write and disseminate their work in the Italian language, the original authors, although their intentions were honest and pious, because of the absolute prohibition of vulgarization of the Bible that the Roman Catholic Church  introduced by Pope Clement VIII in 1596 (who had commissioned the Holy Office to crack down harshly any related violation ), they decided not only to remain anonymous, but also to change the dates of their meetings and replace them with those that go from 5 October to 14 October 1582.

They had in fact studied the issue from a legal point of view and had come to the conclusion that if they were discovered, the charge against them would have to fall before the infamous Inquisition Tribunal ( the armed wing of the Holy Office ) for the fact that following the decree by Pope Gregory XIII,  which had reformed the Julian calendar,  from October 4, 1582 all the events in the Catholic States had to  pass directly to 15 October 1582. So that no public office of the Papal States, much less his Court, could convict someone of a crime committed in a period never existed.

The authors furthermore thought  to hide themselves behind the names of the four canonical evangelists, attributing to their occasional guests and employees the fictitious identity of the closest disciples of Jesus  to detect their true identity only after the printing of the book.

The reconstruction work was carried out on fragments of the original writings that have allowed,  with obvious difficulty , this publication . The original idea was therefore to tell the story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man on the earth, in the vernacular, converging into a single literary context, all of the events narrated by eyewitnesses. For their greater protection, at any rate, as mentioned above, the authors concealed their identities behind the pseudonyms of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, attributing  to their friends and associates, willing to make a personal contribution to the history of Jesus, the identity of Peter, Andrew, James the Greater, James the Younger, Jude Thaddeus, Nathanael, Bartholomew, Simon the Zealot, Philip, Thomas and Judas Iscariot.

Even the place where the four got together and hosted their occasional collaborators remained a secret, though it is believed that they were housed in an isolated house in Lamole, now under the administration of the Tuscan territories but at the time  subject to the sovereignty of the Pope.

 In the drafting of their literary work the authors seem to have favored the terza rima classical form, although there are adaptations of Petrarch's Lyric, Ballad of the Great, and many quatrains of Sonnet septenaries interspersed with octosyllabic .

First Day - October the 5th, 1582

morning

[Luke , Matthew and John , waiting for Mark, who will join them in the afternoon with two much unexpected  guests, laying the foundations of their history , presenting their character both in its divine origin ( In the beginning was the Word ), and in the earthly ( Ancestors of Jesus) , continuing with the Annunciation, the conception and Birth of Jesus ]

Luke : - Well, friends , do we agree ?

John - Yes, I do! It seems to me the wisest thing . You, Matthew, what do you think ?

Matthew : - It might be all right for me ! Although we'll miss a good increasing  reputation   ‘You know?.... Think about whether this book , which in practice will be the first gospel in the vernacular, were spread all around! After all, today , with the press , it could also happen .....

Luke : - Well, but our opus is a story , a novel, as they say today , not a theological Bible ....

Matthew : - Though we vowed to be faithful in bringing the authentic words and the real events of the life of Jesus! And then, just the characters of originality are correct reason for the attribution of authorship that I claim, even if , on the other hand , I'd be afraid of the consequences. The glory and fame would attract the attention of the Inquisition .....

Luke : - If you put it on this way I agree with you, but I have an idea that can save the wine and the barrel .....

Matthew : - An idea ? What an idea ?

Luke : - Listen, we could fill a testamentary paper , claiming authorship of the work with it but we can  instruct the notary  not to publish our paper before the last of us has left this vale of tears .....

Matthew - I think it’s a nice idea , is not it John ?

John - Yes, of course ! But  will Mark agree ?

Luke : - Just ask him  the afternoon , when he arrives ! But I bet that he will agree !

John: - On the other hand it would be prudent to fill out the card at the end of the story .......

Matthew : - Yeah! You never know what a spy of the Inquisition ...... If they  discover that we are translating excerpts of the New Testament in the vernacular, poor of us .......

Luke - Better safe than sorry , even if here in Lamole, the judges of the Papal States are certainly not close!

Matthew : - Well, never mind then: how does our story begin ! ?

Luke : - From the beginning , of course!

John: - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God .....

Matthew : - Beautiful ! How does it sound good! So this will be first  page of our book ?

Luke. - I think so ! But this will be up to the printer to be decided! Do not forget that you are using prefix the title and then the preface ... We try to number our scrolls according to the established order .

Matthew : - It 's true ! You're right! I'm sorry , but I tremble with emotion : this should be my first book to be printed !

Luke : - Even for me. But it does not appear with our name ! Funny is not it?

Matthew : Yeah! The name will appear after our deaths !

Luke : We do not think. Come on John, read us your first whole song !

- "In the beginning was the Word

And the Word was with God,

Who held  in His mind

To redeem the sin

and the corruption of humanity

By sending His Son

Who descended  from pure lily

It is His revelation

In one with the Spirit

But you can list three !

How the Law to Moses

Was given , the grace Christ

Brought for us and the Truth.

Nevertheless Manhood

Didn’t recognize Him

And He was treated with cowardice .

But to those who have recognized Him

He has made them brothers

Giving them the most beautiful gifts

Without receiving so much in exchange.

The Word became flesh and history

Coming to live here !

We saw His glory

On the only begotten Truth!

There was a man sent

By God , on behalf of John ;

was in the same years ,

he testified the Light !

He was not the Light,

but he was  a witness ,

the True Lord came afterward   !

All things were made by Him,

but  nothing is created !

He was not accepted ,

Star shining among dark skies !

No one has never seen God

But He has revealed Himself  in Christ !

...to be continued...

The hand of God

The Church is like a hand: the thumb is the Pope, who gives stability, firmness and safety;
the fore finger are the missionaries, who walk along the paths indicated by the Lord: "Go and preach all over the world!"
the medium finger  are  sisters and friars, because if you raise your hands to heaven, that's what you get nearer to God by prayer;
the ring finger are the priests, that bring the faith into the homes and receive families in the parish  to transmit their faith;
Finally the little finger are the bishops and cardinals who, if do not try to prevail with arrogance and presumption on the other fingers of the hand, may beautify and complete the hole hand.

Dante and his time - III

It should take too long to show, through the past centuries, how it came to be, at Dante’s time, the balance of powers. As matter of fact Dante found a world that was dying, an ancient order perishing, that had his roots craved in the crush of the roman empire and in the rise of the Germans power, which took place at the same time all along the last height centuries before his birth. In the time after the crush of roman empire, which historians date at 453 A.D., we can see haw the rude and uncivilized Germans get captured by the past  roman greatness, whose remnants they could find in the Papacy. It was the Papacy indeed which inherited, though transforming it a religious form, the power lost by the Romans, in terms of civilization, culture, language, customs and juridical organization. We could say with Horace’s verses, changing the subject,  “Roma capta ferum victorem cepit”.

And this world of distribution of the powers between the Church and the Empire was ending at long.

But Dante sight was able to go very farther than all his contemporaries.

Dante’s political ideal was instead that the Pope had to have the spiritual power while the monarchy in all temporal questions. Exactly what hat to be realized after centuries from his death.

That’s why I can’t agree on what writes A.N. Wilson in his recent book “Dante in love”, where he accuses  Dante of being incoherent and instable of mind and thought till madness.

And I’m very curious instead of reading what Angelo Ruggeri writes on his answering book of Wilson’s evidence on Dante’s life and his time.

The Italian writer warns not to mistaken on confusing the Guelfs Dante belonged (actually partisans of the autonomy of the Communes against both Pope and Emperor, so said With Guelfs) with the Black Gulefs, whe exiled him for his life, being in favour of the Pope against the Emperor.

… to be continued…

Dante and his time

Since 1800, a book a year has been edited, only in  English language, on Dante's masterpiece "The Divine Comedy",  which shows the great interest English culture has reserved to the "Supreme Italian Poet".

Is not a case that Dante Alighieri is enumerated between the six best poets of any time in the mondial literature.

Recently one more book has been published on the matter: Dante in love by A.N. Wilson.

Despite his title, it's not a book neither on Gemma Donati's love affairs, nor on Beatrice's. His right title could have been "Dante and his time", 'cause it's reckoned by his same author that the book deals with the social and political life in Florence during the poet's life (1265-1321).

May be that's the main reason why the book has had conflictual and opposite reviews by English critic and reviers.

As matter of fact while the Telegraph (both Daily and Sunday's) and the Times have expressed good opinions on the last Wilson's work, other papers, like The Observer and The Guardian show perplexities and douts on the reaching of his purposes and objectives by the book.

In Italy Angelo Ruggeri, a well known writer, very fond on classical studies, is working on Dante in love book's review.

Angelo Ruggeri believes that Wilson's Dante in love is well documented and solidly founded (as English, he affirms, have a great tradition on Dante's studies). He therefore underlines, according to Wilson's convictions,  the contradictions between  Dante's theories and his life, mostly because the Poet, while beloging to the Guelf's Party (thus being loyal to the roman Pope), nevertheless he vowed and wished the coming of an Universalistic  Empire (under the German power) able to gather and include old the states and all the world since then known.

He shares Wilson's statements quoting his book at page 118:

“His treatise written in exile, when he had changed his mind about being a papalist Guelf and became an ardente supporter of a universal monarchy, would strike many modern readers as bizarre and the open letters he wrote to the Emperor Henry VII would strike most dispassionate readers as deranged”.

Angelo Ruggeri gives evidence that Wilson's statement on Dante's incoherence and madness (of course in his political behaviour) was rightly confirmed by the judgement that Roman Church gave on Dante's treaty book  "The Monarchy".

But Angelo Ruggeri, at a certain point, leaves the Wilson's path and chooses his own ground:

" And if we  suppose "- asks the italian writer - "that Dante was neither Guelf nor Ghibeline, just wanting to be a mere and pure republican against both the papalist and the foreigner imperialists besieging Florence at the same time?"

... to be continued...

The life or great hero Garibaldi

5) The delusion of Aspromonte seeking to conquer  Rome and return to Caprera
 (1862 - 1870)

Waiting for  the convenient opportunity to attack Rome in May 1862, Garibaldi, who is not able to keep doing nothing, goes to Trescore Balneario, near the Austrian border.

After the Unification of Italy, he now has two objectives: as we have already said, one is Rome as Capital, which is still in the hands of the Pope and the other regards  the region of Venice Venetian which still belongs to the Austrians.
On May 14, hundreds of volunteers, commanded by Francesco Nullo and supported by Garibaldi try to enter Austria and are stopped by the Italian army. A demonstration in support of Brescia causes the death of three people, Garibaldi is responsible for the coup and condemns repression.

In Europe is enormous the emotion and Italy is divided. Moderates and the military are offended by the words of Garibaldi, who accuses them to shoot against Italians. He distanced himself from the Association emancipatory and decides not to disclose his intentions.

Garibaldi will be glad not more few months later when he sought to attack Rome.  Via Sicily he arrived in Calabria, but at  the foot of the Aspromonte mountain Garibaldi was wounded and captured by the Italian troops.

Here are the facts: on 27 June 1862 he embarked in Caprera, joined Palermo where he was greeted by a cheering population. He travels places emblematic of his expedition to Marsala (July 20) where he began his campaign to take Rome with 3000 men. However, the conditions are not the same, the men he has with him are not willing to sacrifice for a great ideal, his valiant officers are now part of the Italian army and the operation does not have the support of the public opinion. Despite calls from Victor Emmanuel II, Garibaldi thinks to go ahead.

Napoleon III, the only ally of the new kingdom of Italy, took Rome under his protection and this operation is an embarrassment. So the Italian government decided to stop Garibaldi in Calabria by sending regular army.

Garibaldi tries to avoid confrontation through a path in the heart of the mountains of Aspromonte. It is intercepted by troops of commander Emilio Pallavicini. The Piedmontese Bersaglieri open fire while their opponents are fighting back gently, Garibaldi who gave the order not to shoot. He then injured his left thigh and the left foot, the ball still lodged in the joint. Knocked out, the confrontation continues and General stopped. On September 2, he was taken to La Spezia and locked in prison Varignano. The ball has not been removed, the foot injury does not heal. Also, a large number of doctors succeed at his bedside, tilll the French Auguste Nelaton  provides a method to extract it.
On November 20, Garibaldi is transported to Pisa where he was examined by Professor Paolo Tassinari and on 23 November Professor Ferdinando Zannetti extracts the bullet according to the method recommended by Nélaton. Garibaldi finds its full powers in August 1861. In October, because of the wedding of one of Italian princesses, the General and his men were pardoned by Victor Emmanuel II on the recommendation of Napoleon III in order not to make a martyr. Meanwhile, Garibaldi supports the Polish uprising against the Russian Empire.

Our hero spends his convalescence in Caprera and we find him in March 1864 in the United Kingdom with his son Menotti and his private secretary  Giuseppe Guerzoni.  Against the advice of the British government, feared of  his stance, he  meets  exiles such as Mazzini. He arrived in Southampton, Portsmouth and then went to London (April 11) when he receives each time an enthusiastic or triumphant (500 000 people in London). He is received by the highest civil authorities, mayors, aristocrats, lords. He is the host of the Duke of Sutherland and the mayor gives him honorary citizenship. Only the most conservative does not share this enthusiasm, Queen Victoria said "Honest, courageous and selfless, Garibaldi certainly is, but he is a revolutionary leader."

During his stay, Garibaldi met Mazzini also, which he hoped raises money for Veneto, Alexander Herzen, the exiled French: Alexandre Ledru-Rollin and Louis Blanc. March 17, under the pressure of Turin, he is far from London. He then began a series of visits and then he decided to return to Italy. On 9 May, he returned to Caprera. In 1865, the second half of the island is offered by subscription of British donors. Prussia Austria claims to the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, the challenge is to take the ascendancy in the Germanic Confederation. By the Treaty of 8 April 1866, Prussia allied with Italy, which still hopes to get the Veneto, and mid-June the war begins.

Even before the start of the war, the volunteer corps, composed of 10 regiments, nearly 40,000 men poorly armed and poorly equipped, is organized before being assigned to the command of Garibaldi. Once again, the mission is the same as that carried out around the lakes of Lombardy in 1848 and 1859: Acting in an area of ​​secondary operation, the Alps between Brescia and Trento to the west of Lake Garda, with the strategic goal to cut the road between Tyrol and the Austrian fortress of Verona. The main strategic action is entrusted to two great armies on the plains, led by Alfonso La Marmora and Enrico Cialdini.

Garibaldi bypasses Brescia then goes on the offensive in Ponte Caffaro June 24, 1866. On July 3 at Monte Suello he suffered a setback and he was wounded in the thigh but forced the Austrians to retreat. With the victory of the Battle of Bezzecca and Cimego on  July 21, he opens the road to Riva del Garda and therefore the imminent occupation of Trent prevented by the truce, August 12, 1866, due to the Prussian victory at Sadowa . On this occasion, he received the news of the armistice and the order to abandon the occupied territory. It meets telegraph "I obey." Venetia was ceded to Italy, Garibaldi becomes a citizen and joined Caprera.

Quickly, Garibaldi resumed his crusade to conquer Rome. It creates associations to raise funds and is particularly anticlerical speeches. The Roman conspirators seek and March 22, 1867, he took the title of general was conferred by the Roman Republic. Initially the public supports, unlike the government. As in the past, he tries to foment rebellion in the Papal States to justify intervention. Crispi warns against a new Aspromonte. After the resolutions of French and German workers against the war, he participated in September 1867 at the International Congress for Peace and Freedom in Geneva peace conference where he was received triumphantly, offering a visionary program in 12 points announcing the Company Nations but shocked by his bellicose tone and anticlericalism. Among the participants, there Arago and Bakunin. The intervention of the latter is particularly noteworthy: "Garibaldi, who presided, stood up, took a few steps and gave him a hug. This solemn meeting of two old veterans of the revolution produced an astonishing impression. Everyone rose and there was prolonged applause and enthusiastic. "

After his return to Italy, 24 September 1867, Garibaldi was arrested while leaving Florence, the then capital, to the border with the Papal States, which triggered violent protests. He is under house arrest on the island of Caprera, from which he escaped in October to resume the fight. It organizes new shipment of Rome (third) commonly called "Agro Romano campaign for the liberation of Rome," this time of Terni: it takes the stronghold of the revolution but Monterotondo awaited in Rome has not occur. October 30, 1867, French troops landed at Civitavecchia and Garibaldi was defeated decisively November 3, 1867 at the Battle of Mentana by the papal troops and reinforcements, with the new Chassepot rifles, sent by Napoleon III. Victor Emmanuel II, meanwhile, confirms the Franco-Italian initiative and disclaims Garibaldi. A despatch from General Failly dated 9 ending with these words: "Our Chassepot rifles were perfectly" provoked strong criticism in France and Italy.


It was not until the defeat of the French Empire and Napoleon III's surrender on 2 September 1870 that Rome was conquered by Italian troops September 20, 1870. On 2 October 1870, Rome is incorporated into Italy after a plebiscite. Garibaldi Italian dream is realized, but has been the Italian army which conquered the Eternal Town to Unity.

...to be continued...

The life of great hero Giuseppe Garibaldi - 11th Part

It is impossible for these men to remain in the Republic, the Austrians also impose strict conditions to their exit; for Garibaldi they are unacceptable. His wife Anita, who joined him in Rome on June 26 and has chosen to follow in his fight, dressed as a man, falls ill. Nevertheless, with 200 men, he decided to join Venice still resisting the Austrian army.

On August 2, 1849, Garibaldi seizes, in Cesenatico, 13 fishing boats to reach with his men, who fell Venice on July 22. On August 3, during the attack of an Austrian brigantine, eight boats fell to the Austrians, 162 legionnaires were captured, a number is executed. Garibaldi docks in one of the islands in the lagoon of Comacchio. The health status of Anita worsened, they join a fisherman's cottage, where she died on August 4 and is buried there.

 The same night he hit the road to reach the Kingdom of Sardinia. After a long journey, September 5, he reached Chiavari, Liguria.

La Marmora, special commissioner in Genoa in the kingdom of Sardinia, anxious to make politically harmless Garibaldi, had him arrested. Authorities inform him that they want him to leave the territory, which he accepts after realizing in Nice with his family. On 16 September he sailed for Tunis who refuses, then Cagliari, the archipelago of La Maddalena, before reaching Gibraltar, November 14, at Tangier. He resumed writing his memoirs, begun at La Maddalena and after a few months, June 27, 1850, he moved to New York hoping to resume his duties as a seaman. Until March 1851, he worked in the factory of candles of Antonio Meucci, known for inventing the telephone before Alexander Graham Bell. He leaves for Peru to engage as a captain in the Navy and traveling the world. In January 1852, he obtained citizenship and the Peruvian vessel command Carmen, with whom he went to China and then sell the guano he went to Manila and Australia. In January 1853 he is in Lima and back in Boston on September 6 and then to New York where he is stepping down as captain because of a financial disagreement with the owner. His mother died March 20, 1852.

January 16, 1854, Garibaldi,  sailed from Baltimore. He arrived in London on February 11 where he met Mazzini. Mazzini has in mind to send Garibaldi in Sicily he feels ready for insurrection. However Garibaldi does not intend to get involved in an adventure compromised from the outset, and wishes to endorse his action by recognized authorities. In February 1854 he told the Russian revolutionary Alexander Herzen, exiled in London, as against an organized army and equipped like that of France or Austria,  an army well equipped is  required, as he gives his support Kingdom of Sardinia.On May 6, Garibaldi sails  from Newcastle to Genoa. The disagreement between Mazzini and Garibaldi is made public by the press and it ends up taking his distance.

Back to Italy, he moved to Nice before buying, in December 1855, half of the island of Caprera (Sardinia island in the archipelago of Maddalena) for the price of 35,000 lire from the inheritance he received after the death of his brother Felice. He began building a house with friends, then he resumed his seafaring. He commanded a ship Sardinian, Salvatore. In 1857 he moved to Caprera, where he is a farmer, blacksmith and farmer, with olive trees and vineyards.


 In 1865, his admirers will buy the rest of the island.

... to be continued...

The life of Giuseppe Garibaldi - 10th Part

On December 12th, 1848, Giuseppe Garibaldi enters in Rome while his legion of volunteers came to be stationed at Rieti. Garibaldi was politically active: on the  21st of   January 1849, he was elected to the Constituent Assembly of the future Republic which is organized around a triumvirate with Carlo Armellini, Giuseppe Mazzini and Aurelio Saffi, who arrives in Rome on March 6.On February 8, 1849, the Roman Republic was proclaimed.

The other major event of March is the resumption of fighting against the Austrians by Charles Albert and the Austrian victory at Novara (22-23 March 1849) that seals the final defeat of the Piedmontese, the return to those borders of before the conflict started and the abandonment of Milan.

Pope Pius IX called for international help: Austria, France, Spain and Naples give an answer to his call. Louis Napoleon, anxious to gain the support of French Catholics, reserves to himself the honor of restoring the Pope and, on April 25, 7000 men commanded by General Oudinot landed at Civitavecchia. Garibaldi, who was appointed brigadier general of the Roman Republic shows to be the most brilliant general of the Roman army. He defeats the French on April 30 but he does not use his victory, by order of Mazzini and for political reasons, what he strongly criticized after the landing of new French troops. This is the first confrontation between the two men and from  then Garibaldi will start keeping his distance against the man he calls his "master."

On May 9, Garibaldi triumphantly confronts the Neapolitans before returning to Rome because of Oudinot's movements . French forces are increased to 30,000 men, he can then animate the resistance due to the disproportion of forces. He faces the well trained and equipped French troops but  resists only a month, from June 3 to July 2, in fierce fighting in which many of his friends fall: Emilio Morosini, Luciano Manara, Andrea Aguyar. He becomes fiercely anticlerical because of the position of the clergy, mostly loyal to the pope that support the French and Austrians.

The Italian and international press follow the actions of Garibaldi:   the British newspaper The Times, sends a special envoy who does not hide his admiration for Garibaldi.

With the end of the Roman Republic, Garibaldi refuses the proposal of the Ambassador of the United States to board an American ship and left the city, with 4,700 men he harangued with shouts of "Who Loves Italy follow me! "With the intention of bringing the war in Umbria, Marche and Tuscany. A number of supporters went into exile in Uruguay, where the war is still, with the complicity of the Uruguayan consul in Genoa. Surrounded by the armies of different nations, Garibaldi crossed the Apennines and must show trick to avoid a direct confrontation. Pursued by the troops of Field Marshal of Aspre Constantine, with only 1,500 men, he takes refuge in the Republic of San Marino, July 31, after having laid down their arms, and declared himself a refugee. He acknowledges that "the Roman war for Italian independence is over."

...to be continued...

The life of great hero Giuseppe Garibaldi - 9th Part

3) The Roman republic and the death of Anita with his second exile (1849-1858)

On 23 June 1848, after 14 years of absence, Garibaldi lands in Nice with his companions war has already begun.
 On 29th of the same month he leaves Nice for Genoa with 150 volunteers. Garibaldi, whose reputation has preceded his coming, offers his sword to the King of Sardinia, while repeating that he is a Republican, anxious at first to fight against the Austrians. Charles Albert was challenged by Democrats who suspect him of wanting to annex the Milanese State, and have not committed when the Austrians were driven out.



When Garibaldi, which has always kept in touch with the Italian patriots, learns the changes taking place in Italy, inauguration of liberal Pope Pius IX, insurgency in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, he is so anxious to get back to Italy, especially as peace seems imminent in Montevideo. He leaves the Italian legion in the hands of Antonio Susin.

In January 1848, Anita returned to Nice with his children followed by Garibaldi in April along with 63 companions while initially 150 men were to follow.

In the late nineteenth century, Montevideo has six streets in the name of the hero and the country has at least five monuments. July 4, 1907, the centenary of the birth of Garibaldi, President José Batlle y Ordóñez decreed a national holiday commemoration in front of 40,000 people. On June 2, 1882, five days before the death of the hero, the Círculo Legionarios Garibaldinos  is created which still exists as an association.

Europe experienced during the year 1848, a series of revolutions by which the people demand more freedom, and is known as the springtime of the peoples. It begins in France and gave birth to the Second Republic, extends to Germany, Romania, Hungary, Poland and Austria. States of the Italian peninsula, the Papal States, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Sardinia Kingdom of Piedmont are engaged in constitutional reforms. Milan at the "Five Days of Milan", known to turn his insurgent movement against the Austrian Empire which then directs the Lombard-Venetian kingdom created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. King Charles Albert of Sardinia, were initially supported by some states of the peninsula, taking up the cause of the Milanese state and declares war on Austria.

On 5th of July  our hero goes to  Roverbella  near Mantua, to offer himself as a volunteer with the King Charles Albert, who receives him without enthusiasm and refuses to see him fight alongside the regular army. Garibaldi goes to the provisional government of Milan that made him a General and where  he finds Mazzini. Although there have been exchanges of mail, the atmosphere of the game is cold, the two men are on divergent paths; Mazzini aims unitary republican revolution, Garibaldi wishing to free themselves from Austrian has chosen to put aside, temporarily, the Republican ideas.

Garibaldi must join Brescia with the legion which he organized and which he calls "Battaglione Italiano della Morte" (Italian Battalion of Death) when takes place theCustoza's defeat of Piedmont,   on 25 July. On 9 August 1848, an armistice was concluded between Austria and Piedmont, that Garibaldi violently reproached Charles Albert.

Garibaldi refuses to stop fighting despite the king's order and called on the youth: "Italy needs you ... Hasten, concentrate around me." It gets a little success over the Austrians who decide to destroy them, he must also renounce to face of Austrian power. On August 27, Garibaldi goes to Switzerland and then to France to join Nice. On Harsh, commander of the second Austrian army composed of 20,000 men, is impressed enough to praise him during a meeting with an Italian magistrate, "the man who would powerfully served your cause, you did not recognize: He's Garibaldi. "

In September, Garibaldi was elected Member of Parliament for the college of Cicagna, near Chiavari, he joined Genoa on 26 after passing through various locations throughout the reception was enthusiastic. It follows a period of uncertainty: where to intervene? He decides to join Sicily, changes his mind, and thinks to resist returning to Venice  but when he is on his way, he is informed of  the departure of Pope Pius IX to Gaeta,  and decided to join Rome. Indeed, after having supported the Milanese's, Pius IX turns around and points his troops, causing anger among Italian patriots.

 He appoints prime minister Pellegrino Rossi but he's assassinated on November 15, paving the way for the riot, the flight of the Pope and the proclamation of the Roman Republic.

... to be continued...