Ferdinando Petruccelli della Gattina

Ferdinando Petruccelli della Gattina

Ferdinando Petruccelli della Gattina (born August 28, 1815 in Moliterno , Basilicata , † March 29, 1890 in Paris ) was an Italian journalist, writer and politician.

He wrote articles for many Italian and foreign newspapers and was one of the greatest war correspondents in Europe in the 19th century. He was also the author of numerous novels. His only work translated into German is Die Memoiren des Judas .

Life

Early years

He was born as Ferdinando Petruccelli in a small town in Basilicata, which was then part of the Kingdom of Naples . He later added the addition della Gattina (a farm in his possession) to avoid the pursuit of the Bourbon police. His father was a member of the Carbonari , his mother a noblewoman from Marsicovetere .

Even as a child he developed a strong anti-clericalism after he was entrusted to the care of his fanatically religious grandmother at the age of four, who treated him with unkind harshness. Under the supervision of the Archpriest of Castelsaraceno , to whom he was given as a youth by his uncle, the doctor of Joachim Murat and founder of the first Masonic lodges in Basilicata, and in the Jesuit Seminary of Pozzuoli , whose director was known for his brutal methods, he experienced further harrowing experiences. After writing to ask to be released from seminary by the bishop, the leader locked him in solitary confinement before driving him out of school.

Beginning of the journalist career and exile

Petruccelli graduated as a doctor from the University of Naples . However, he felt drawn to journalism and began to write for the Neapolitan newspaper Omnibus in 1838 . As a correspondent for two other newspapers, he went to France and Germany in 1840. In 1846 he was arrested because of his membership in Giovine Italia and sent to his birthplace for surveillance.

In 1848 he returned to Naples , became a member of the local parliament and founded a newspaper which accused the ruling Bourbons of mismanagement and was banned by a court. After the unsuccessful uprising in Naples in connection with the revolutions of 1848/1849 he lived in hiding in various places in southern Italy for about a year and then had to flee to France. He was sentenced to death by the government in absentia and his property was confiscated.

In Paris, he studied French and English literature at the Sorbonne and the Collège de France, and pursued a brilliant career as a journalist thanks to the support of Jules Simon and Daniele Manin . He became a correspondent for French and Belgian newspapers such as La Presse , Journal des débats , Revue de Paris, Le courrier français and Indépendance Belge . In 1851 he fought together with French Republicans against Louis Napoléon Bonaparte's coup d'état of December 2, 1851 , but was expelled from France after the failure of the resistance. He settled in England, where he met Giuseppe Mazzini , Louis Blanc , Lajos Kossuth and other refugees. He has written for The Daily News by Charles Dickens and other newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph and Cornhill Magazine .

War correspondents and parliamentarians

In 1859 he was the correspondent of the Second Italian War of Independence and followed Napoleon III's troops . In 1860 he followed Garibaldi on the procession of the Thousand from Calabria to Garibaldi's victorious entry into Naples. When the Kingdom of Italy was founded, he was a socialist member of the Italian Parliament for several years, first from Brienza , then from Teggiano . During his time as a parliamentarian, he lost his previous enthusiasm and was very disappointed by the developments in the “ new Italy ”. In his polemical work I moribondi di Palazzo Carignano (“The dying of the Palazzo Carignano ”) he expresses his frustration with the new classe politique , which he believes have betrayed their ideals and are characterized above all by greed and incompetence. He continued to write for Italian newspapers and magazines and was a correspondent for Journal des débats during the Third Italian War of Independence of 1866 .

Last years

In 1868 he married the English writer Maude Paley-Baronet, whom he had met in London in 1867. In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War , he reported on the events on the Paris barricades. After the fall of the Paris Commune in 1871, he was expelled from France on the instructions of Adolphe Thiers , but was later able to return with the help of influential friends and from 1873 spent the rest of his life mainly in Paris. During this time he was prevented from writing by paralysis, but was able to continue his activities with the help of his wife.

After his death at his Paris residence and cremation, the Naples City Council wanted to have his urn buried in the Poggioreale cemetery, reserved for Neapolitan celebrities. His widow refused, and the ashes of the deceased were buried in London as he wished.

reception

During his lifetime, Petruccelli received honors mainly in the French and English-speaking areas. His reports on the Battle of Custozza were praised by Ernest Renan and Jules Claretie . Justin McCarthy (1830–1912), Irish historian and Member of the British Parliament, described him as a "brilliant, daring, eccentric Italian journalist". In his native Italy he was rejected by church superiors because of his anti-church attitude and also heavily criticized by Vittorio Imbriani and Benedetto Croce . On the other hand, authors such as Salvatore Di Giacomo and Luigi Capuana praised him , and Indro Montanelli called him “the most brilliant Italian journalist of the 19th century”. Even Luigi Russo appreciated his journalistic work, which he judged his novels critical.

Notable works

• La rivoluzione di Napoli del 1848 (1850)
• Rome and the papacy (1859)
• I moribondi del Palazzo Carignano (1862)
• Pie IX, sa vie, son règne, l'homme, le prince, le pape (1866)
• The Memoirs of Jude (1867)
• Il re prega (1874)
• Il sorbetto della regina (1875)
• I suicidi di Parigi (1878)
• Memorie del colpo di stato del 1851 a Parigi (1880)

Web links

Commons : Ferdinando Petruccelli della Gattina  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Ferdinando Petruccelli della Gattina in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by Ferdinando Petruccelli della Gattina in Project Gutenberg ( currently not available to users from Germany )