A. M. Ghisalberti. Giuseppe Montanelli e la
Costituente. (Florence, 1947).
G. Montanelli. Memorie sull'Italia e specialmente sulla
Toscana dal
1814 al 1859. (Turin, 1853).
Ernesto Ragionieri. "Mazzinianesimo, Garibaldinismo e origini del
Socialismo in Toscana," Rassegna storica toscana, 10
(1963): 143-158.
Carla Ronchi. I democratici e la rivoluzione fiorentina del
1848-1849. (Florence, 1963).
JGC revised this file
(http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/ip/montanel.htm) on
October 24, 2004.
Please E-mail comments or suggestions to chastain@www.ohiou.edu
© 1999, 2004 James Chastain.
GIUSEPPE MONTANELLI (1813-1862) Italian revolutionist and leader in
the 1848-49 Tuscan revolution and republic. As a volunteer he
foug
ht under Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia in the 1848 war
against Austria in which Montanelli was wounded and made prisoner.
Upon his release in September 1848, he returned to his native
Tuscany and was elected deputy to the newly designated Tuscan
assembly. Appointed governor of Leghorn, then in open rebellion
against the moderate constitutional government of the grand duke,
he was greeted enthusiastically by its people. In a public speech
on October 8, Montanelli blamed lack of unity among Italians for
the earlier defeat of Charles Albert by Austria. For Montanelli,
before Italian independence from foreign control could be realized,
Italians had to unify, a process that could best be achieved by
convening a constitutional assembly with representatives from all
parts of the peninsula, to write a national constitution for all of
Italy. Meanwhile agitation increased throughout Tuscany. Unable
to stem it, the moderate government resigned and Grand Duke Leopold
II appointed Montanelli prime minister on October 27, 1848. On the
next day Montanelli presented his ministerial program, which
included the calling of an Italian constituent assembly, to the
grand duke who approved it. When Pope Pius IX, however, declined
to participate, the grand duke also withdrew his support.
Meanwhile, popular tumults increased throughout Italy. At the end
of November 1848, after the assassination of his Prime Minister
Pellegrino Rossi, Pope Pius IX fled Rome. Repercussions from the
Roman revolution fanned Tuscan unrest, and the grand duke left
Tuscany at the end of February 1849 to join the pope in exile.
Without an effective ruler, the assembly set up a provisional
government. Dissension arose between the more radical Montanelli,
who pressed for union with the Roman Republic and had initiated
talks with the Roman leaders, and the moderates who assessed the
Italian situation more realistically. After the second defeat of
Charles Albert by Austria at the battle of Novara on March 23,
1849, and that monarch's subsequent abdication, Montanelli lost
support in the Tuscan parliament. Sent to Paris on a futile
diplomatic mission, he remained there in exile after the demise of
the Tuscan revolutionary government and the return of the grand
duke to Tuscany.
Emiliana P. Noether
Bibliography