Facilis Descensus Averno
Part 3:
Semo tirannicidi, s'armamo de cortello e giù dal piedistallo lì famo ruzzica'! Viva la libertà! (1)
The events of 17 April 1848 changed the future history of Rome: if Paris had a "day of the Bastille" in 1789, Rome may be equally proud of the "day of Campo dei Fiori" (2). Count Terenzio Mamiani personally witnessed the unfolding of the events from the vantage point of a terrace facing the square, and wrote a moving newspaper article which was published by "Il Risorgimento" of Turin on 30 April, and subsequently syndicated to many Italian newspapers as well as to European and American ones. We are grateful to the Terenzio Mamiani Foundation, which has kindly given permission to reprint it here.
Justice for Lucrezia, by Terenzio Mamiani della Rovere
It was a beautiful morning, April is the best month in Rome, but nothing would appear less appropriate for the masque of death that was planned here today.
The choreography had started yesterday: placards had been affixed on the door of the many churches in the vicinity of the square, inviting the faithful to pray for the souls of the condemned, while workers assembled an elevated platform on which two identical gallows were erected, side-by-side. A trapdoor was installed under each gallows, and their operation was tested.
This morning I woke up early, and by 8 o'clock I was standing on a terrace with my good friend signor Gioberti: Campo dei Fiori was filling quickly with people. Roman citizens are usually fond of public executions, "giustizie" as they are called by the people, and the mood is usually almost festive. Not today: the crowd was mostly silent, and the traditional sellers of food and beverages were absent.
Suddenly, a cry from the border of the square: "Mastro Titta ha passato il ponte!" (3)
After a few minutes, the crowd started to part: a big man completely dressed in red slowly approached the platform, greeting his assistants. They started to prepare the ropes for the hanging, and to test again the trapdoor.
Another half-hour passed, then I heard loud prayers and the crowd parted again: a monk, completely dressed in black and his face hidden by a pointed hood of the same color, entered the square holding up the Black Christ (4); he was followed by a dozen monks in the same attire, chanting and praying (5) and by a fat, hawk-nosed monsignore (6). The procession continued with a dozen policemen, guarding the condemned men, and two companies of regular soldiers.
I could finally see the two condemned men when they passed under my eyes on their way to the gallows: Gaetano Tognetti, from Rome, and Giuseppe Monti, from Modena. They looked to me very young, and pale in the face, but they were holding their heads up with pride, and I could not see any fear in their eyes.
There were a few cries from the crowd, "Innocenti, sono innocenti!" (7), but no incident occurred and the procession reached the platform: the soldiers stood at parade rest in front of it, while the others mounted the platform.
The tableau was arresting: the two condemned men, dressed in white smocks and in chains, surrounded by priests and monks all in black, inciting them to repent and to pray. On one side, a bulky figure all in red: Mastro Titta, waiting to proceed with the execution.
I saw that both the young men refused to bend, to admit their guilt. I heard the murmurs of the crowd become angrier and louder. Some movement at the edge of the square: a couple of companies of the Guardia Civica taking position. On their right, I could glimpse a squad of papal dragoons, a bit farther away from the piazza.
For a moment everything stood still, then the assistants of Mastro Titta started to drag the prisoner towards the gallows.
I looked at them with sadness, knowing that nothing could save their lives, praying for them. It was then that everything started to happen.
The crowd parted again, revealing a huge man dressed as a common laborer pushing a handcart: on the handcart, a young woman, in a white smock, covered in flowers. I had no doubt she was dead, but what was the meaning of this?
The laborer slowly pushed the handcart to the center of the square, repeating over and over the same words in a deep, sonorous voice: "Justice for my Lucretia! Justice for my daughter, raped by an unworthy priest". Quickly the appeal was taken up by the crowd, and expanded: "Justice for Lucretia! Justice for the innocent! Death to the defiler!".
I saw the Monsignore speaking in urgent tones to the officer in command of the troops, then the order rang out: "Fix bayonets!"
"Hear me, Romans!" a man had climbed on the fountain in the center of the piazza (8), and I recognized him: Pietro Sterbini! "Hear me, Romans!" The noise abated, and Sterbini harangued the crowd in ringing tones:
"Twenty-three years ago, I was in Piazza del Popolo when two patriots, Angelo Targhini and Leonida Montanari (9), were beheaded in a travesty of justice like the one we are witnessing today. On that shameful day, we were unable to raise against the injustice. Today history repeats itself: once again two innocents are going to be executed on trumped charges. The first time we failed to act, but today God has sent us a sign which we cannot ignore: Lucretia" Sterbini pointed to the young body on the handcart "More than two millennia ago, a young Roman matron with the same name was raped by the king's son, and killed herself in shame. Her husband brought her body to the Forum, denouncing the misrule of the kings and asking for justice. The rule of kings was ended, and the Roman Republic was founded. (10)" A shot rang, and a bullet chipped the marble near Sterbini, but he went on unmoved: "Romans, is your blood so watered down you cannot raise against a tyrant as your own ancestors did ? Are your eyes so blind you cannot see the sign that God Himself has given us? Raise, Romans! Redeem your long years of servitude and reclaim your God-given free..." A second shot, and this time Sterbini slowly crumpled down, a bright splash of blood on his torso.
The crowd snarled, and surged towards the platform: "Down with the king! Kill the hangman! Kill the guard dogs of the tyrant", and a wave of song swept the piazza: "Only a dog has a master, no master for a man! Freedom forever."
A ragged volley from the soldiers guarding the platform only managed to enrage the crowd even more: the soldiers were quickly overpowered, and the insurgents were on the platform.
Two crisp volleys rung from the edge of the piazza: the Guardia Nazionale, no doubt. Was I going to be the witness of a massacre? I quickly turned my eyes toward the source of the sound, and saw with relief that the companies of the Guardia Nazionale had wheeled right: their volleys had stopped the charge of the dragoons. Another two volleys followed, and the dragoons turned on their heels and retired in haste.
I looked back at the gallows platform: the policemen were down, stunned or killed I don't know, the young men had been freed, and two bodies were hanging down from the gallows like fruits from a leafless tree (11). One of them was dressed in black, the other in a bright-red cape.
"A sign from God! The force of history and the will of God lie within the people, the Italian people. not in the words of false prophets. Or wily Cardinals." Gioberti had been silent until now, but when I turned to look at him, his eyes were bright and feverish and the despondency of the last few days was gone.
"I have to go, join the people in their just fight, spread the Word of God. Good bye, Terenzio." He left quickly, and I couldn't help to think that in this momentous days I had witnessed again another wonder: the thin and mousy Abbé Gioberti had suddenly metamorphosed into a reborn Marat.
What about Pietro Sterbini?
"Vidi quel Bruto che caccio' Tarquino" (12): this verse of Dante haunted my thoughts. Sterbini's words had fired up the crowd, and started the insurrection. If he can survive his wound, he's going to be a force to be reckoned with, but Brutus the Elder was never praised for his generosity or clemency.
What about the Pope himself? Being compared to Tarquin the Proud is not going to be taken well, and having to renounce to Temporal Power is going to be taken even worse.
I don't know the future, but I can see that the Days of Campo dei Fiori have started with a vengeance, and Rome is going to be be changed forever. How? It is hard to tell, but as Lord Byron once said:the best prophet of the future is the past.
Footnotes
- "We are killer of tyrants: let's get our knives and push them down from their pedestal! Freedom forever!" It's the third verse of a Jacobin song dating back to the Roman Republic of 1798
- Campo dei Fiori (Flower-filled Meadow) is a piazza of Rome between the wards of Parione and Regola, so named because until the early XV century it was a quilt of vegetable gardens and grass meadows dotted with flowers. A horse market was held here twice a week, but it was also routinely used for executions (Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake here in 1600).
- "Mastro Titta has crossed the bridge!". Mastro Titta, whose real name was Giovanni Battista Bugatti, had been the hangman of Rome for over 50 years, starting his career with the first hanging and quartering in 1796, when he was barely 17 years old. He was not allowed to stay in the city, but had to live on the right bank of the Tiber, and was allowed entry in Rome only for carrying out executions. He had to cross Ponte Sant'Angelo, and in the parlance of the common people "Mastro Titta crossing the bridge" meant not only that the hangman was coming but also that there would be an execution. IOTL, Mastro Titta would stay on as chief executioner until 1864, when he would be 85 years old: during his career, he carried out 514 executions. He would die in his bed in 1869, 90 years old, leaving behind a detailed list of all the executions he had carried out and his memoirs.
- The Black Christ (the Savior on a cross, all painted black), was traditionally displayed only for executions.
- The black monks are Brethren of the order of St. Jerome of the Charity, and attended men condemned to be executed, praying for them and beseeching them to repent and save their souls.
- A senior representative of the Secretariat of Justice
- "Innocent, they are innocent"
- In 1848, Campo dei Fiori was smaller in extension than nowadays (IOTL the piazza was expanded on the north side in 1858) and the Fontana della Terrina was in the center of the piazza.
- Angelo Targhini and Leonida Montanari were two Carbonari, arrested for the attempted murder of a police informer, tried and sentenced to death for Lèse-majesté and beheaded in Piazza del Popolo on 23 November 1825. The executioner was Mastro Titta, it goes without saying.
- Titus Livius tells the story of the rape of Lucretia Collatina, her subsequent suicide and the revenge taken against the Gens Tarquinia in his History of Rome (1.57.7). Lucretia was a semi-legendary character.
- The bodies of Mastro Titta and the Monsignore were left hanging for a day and a night, until the Brethren of St. Jerome were allowed to lower them down and provide for a burial.
- Titus Livius tells also how Marcus Junius Brutus (another semi-legendary character) took the opportunity to incite the plebs to revolt against the king, and was the founder of the Roman Republic and one of the first two consuls. Dante placed him in Limbo, among the virtuous pagans. (Hell, IV Chant)
