Felice Cavallotti

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Felice Cavallotti in 1898, the year of his death
Bust of Cavallotti in the Villetta Di Negro, Genoa

Felice Cavallotti (born May 6, 1842 in Milan , † March 6, 1898 in Rome ) was an Italian politician, journalist, writer and translator. He died in a duel that caused a sensation across Europe.

Life

As early as 1860, the son of an employee of the financial administration joined the procession of Giuseppe Garibaldi's thousand organized by Giacomo Medici and fought at Milazzo and Volturno. In October of that year he worked in Naples for the indipendent founded by Alexandre Dumas . On his return to Milan he wrote for various small newspapers and in 1863 became editor of the Gazzetta di Milano .

In 1865 he founded the journal Lo Scacciapensieri , which he discontinued the following year to join Garibaldi in the Third Italian War of Independence . He then took over the management of Gazettino rosa from Achille Bizzoni , who had to flee to Lugano . From 1870 to 1871 he headed the magazine Il Lombardo . In the next few years he wrote several dramas, including I Pezzenti (1871), Agnese (1873), Guido (1873), Alcibiade, la critica e il secolo di Pericle (1874) and I Messeni (1877). He also translated David Friedrich Strauss ' book Das Leben Jesu, published 1835-36 , critically into Italian.

In 1873 he was elected to the Camera dei deputati , where he campaigned for electoral reform, supported Garibaldi's Lega della democrazia and in 1883 became one of the promoters of the Fascio della democrazia . In the 1890s he was the pioneer of the Lega italiana per la difesa della libertà . He not only conducted his political disputes with vehemence and aggressiveness in parliament, but also carried out a total of 32 duels, although duels had long been banned in all Italian states and a law came into force after the unification of Italy in 1875 that forbade duels.

Duel and death

In the fall of 1897, Cavallotti was sued by a lawyer for defamation. Since he was a member of parliament, the waiver of immunity had to be requested. One of his parliamentary opponents, Conte Ferruccio Macola , who was originally friends with him, ran the important conservative daily Gazzetta di Venezia in addition to his political activities . In his newspaper Macola alleged that Cavallotti had unlawfully interfered in the decision-making committee and intervened in his own favor in order to maintain immunity. Cavallotti accused the authors of the Gazzetta di Venezia in counter-articles of being “professional liars”, which Macola in turn replied with polemics. Attempts to mediate failed and the dispute escalated. Finally Cavallotti challenged Count Macola to a duel. On March 4, 1898, the seconds Cavallottis, Achille Bizzoni and Camillo Tassi, and those Macolas, Carlo Donati and Guido Fusinato (with the exception of Bizzoni all deputies) signed a protocol on the conduct of the duel with sabers.

The duel between MPs Onorevole Cavallotti and Onorevole Macola on March 6, 1898 in the garden of Villa Cellere, a contemporary lithograph dated March 20, 1898

The challenger Cavallotti was considered the favorite in the duel. Contemporaries described him as

"Personality with a passionate and stubborn character who had previously won thirty-two duels without ever killing an opponent" (quoted from Graziella Andreotti)

Ferruccio Macola had a little less combat experience between sixteen and eighteen duels, but he was athletic, taller, younger than Cavallotti, who was 56 years old at the time, and had a greater range with the cutting weapon. It was foreseeable that Cavallotti had little chance in a saber duel. It would have been an uneven fight - if Macola, who didn't want the duel, had attacked at all. But according to eyewitness reports, he did not. On March 6, 1898, the combatants met with their seconds in the park of the Contessa Cellere villa at the gates of Rome. The encounter lasted only a few minutes. Macola just stood there, fending off Cavallotti's attacks. In the third failure, which Macola parried with a straight saber, Cavallotti fell victim to an unfortunate accident. He had lost some front teeth in a previous duel. Through this gap in his teeth, the opponent's weapon penetrated his throat and cut the carotid . After a very short time he was bleeding to death.

Felice Cavallotti grave monument in Dagnente

The consequences

Cavallotti's body was transferred to Dagnente on Lake Maggiore (now part of Arona ), a three kilometer long funeral procession accompanied the coffin, the socialist Filippo Turati gave a funeral speech in Milan, the poet Giosuè Carducci one at the University of Bologna. The memory of Cavallotti stayed alive, many streets and squares in Italian cities were named after him, and countless monuments and busts were erected.

Duels were forbidden, but tolerated, but the perpetrator was punished in the event of death. The jury court in Rome sentenced Ferruccio Macola on October 21, 1898 to thirteen months in prison, the seconds were acquitted. The sentence was reduced on appeal, but thanks to an amnesty she never had to face Macola. However, the historical “extreme left” ensured that it was cut socially and politically. He didn't get over Cavallotti's death. He committed suicide in August 1910.

The left lost an important spokesman for the opposition to the House of Savoy . The repression of the police state increased, with the suppression of the Milan uprising in May 1898 by General Fiorenzo Bava Beccaris , hundreds of people died. In 1900, social and political tensions culminated in the assassination attempt on Umberto I , who was shot in Monza by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci . Immediately after Cavallotti's death, a conspiracy theory circulated widely , according to which the former Prime Minister Francesco Crispi was the commissioner of a murder, and therefore the real culprit, and Macola was only a tool of the Catholic-conservative right.

This rumor, which could not be historically proven in any way, is reflected in the verse that the poet Lorenzo Stecchetti addressed to Crispi and which can also be found on Cavallotti's bust in Genoa (see picture):

"Nel mortal duello / non fu tua la vittoria.
Con un colpo di spada o di coltello / non si uccide la storia!
(German: In a fatal duel / you have not won. / One does not kill history with the cut of a sword or knife) "

References and comments

  1. ^ Graziella Andreotti: La damnatio memoriae di Ferruccio Macola. Riposa nel cimitero di Rovigo con i Milanovich. In: Aidanews, Rivista culturale. Aidanews, August 29, 2018, accessed November 9, 2019 .
  2. ↑ La Civiltà Cattolica, Series XVII, Volume I, Fascicle 1146, March 12, 1898. pp. 743-746
  3. ^ Il duello Cavallotti-Macola. L'Antologia dell '"Informazione", Corriere d'Informazione, 12. – 13. July 1958
  4. ↑ Codice penale italiano (1889): Art. 237.
  5. ^ Obituary for Felice Cavallotti (Italian) [1]

literature

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Commons : Felice Cavallotti  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Cavallotti, Felice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cavallotti, Felice Carlo Emanuele
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian politician, journalist, writer and translator
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1898
Place of death Rome