Filippo Buonarroti

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Filippo Buonarroti in his later years (painting by Philippe-Auguste Jeanron )

Filippo Michele Buonarroti - after his naturalization in France also Philippe Buonarroti - (born November 11, 1761 in Pisa , Duchy of Tuscany ; † September 16, 1837 in Paris ) was an Italian-French revolutionary activist, politician and publicist. He took an active part in the events of the French Revolution and, together with François Noël Babeuf, developed social-revolutionary concepts within the framework of the conspiracy of the equals that gave impetus to the socialist movements of the 19th century. Furthermore, Buonarroti is considered a pioneer for the national unity of Italy ( Risorgimento ).

Life

Origin and education 1761 to 1789

Filippo Buonarroti came from an old and wealthy Tuscan noble family and was a descendant of a brother of Michelangelo . He had a carefree childhood and received a solid education in math and philosophy. At the age of seventeen he began studying law in Pisa . The prevailing spirit in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany , where the enlightened ruler Leopold II was open to new ideas and limited reforms, strongly influenced the young Buonarroti. With enthusiasm he read the philosophical writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau , Claude Adrien Helvétius , Gabriel Bonnot de Mably and Étienne-Gabriel Morelly , whose social theories would shape him throughout his life. After graduation, the doctor of law worked as a lawyer, but Buonarroti did not fill this profession. More and more often he spent his time in Masonic lodges and philosophical circles. He wrote newspaper articles and pamphlets against the feudal order and despotism, which soon exceeded what Leopold allowed. Leopold's court arranged for a house search to be carried out in 1786 and confiscated forbidden writings such as “System der Natur” by Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach .

Corsica 1789 to 1793

Buonarroti wrote enthusiastic articles in the Florentine "Gazzetta universale" about the outbreak of the French Revolution and had to flee to Corsica in December 1789 as a result of the stalking of the Tuscan police . There Buonarroti published the magazine "Il giornale patriottico di Corsica" , one of the first publications of the Italian Risorgimento. However, his articles directed against the nobility, church and pope did not reach the religious majority and at the end of 1790 Buonarroti had to stop publishing his paper. Soon after, Buonarroti was hired by the administration of the department of Corsica to sell confiscated church property. But by doing this he only caught the increasing wrath of the Corsican people. On June 2, 1791, angry farmers brought Buonarroti to the port of Bastia and sent him by ship to Livorno .

There he was imprisoned, but after a few weeks Buonarroti returned to the island as the official rapporteur for Corsica affairs at the Welfare Committee . Buonarroti had learned from his mistakes, was considerate of the mentality of the people and thereby gained insight into the complicated structure of the Corsican village communities. In the west of the island he found the traditional state in which the entire land was common property and, divided into equal parcels, was left to the farmers for use. Individual property was limited only to the fruits of personal labor. As a result, the social equilibrium was maintained, no one could improve their standard of living and gain more influence. Buonarroti contrasted such equality of land ownership and consumption with the inequality observed in the rest of France. During this time he made friends with the Buonaparte ( Bonaparte ) family .

To get his naturalization in France, Buonarroti went to Paris in March 1793. For his services he was granted French citizenship by the National Convention on May 27, 1793. He joined the Jacobin Club and quickly got into the circle around Maximilian and Augustin Robespierre .

Oneglia 1794 to 1795

In April 1794 Buonarroti was appointed Revolutionary Commissioner for the Oneglia area occupied in the Kingdom of Piedmont . During the next eleven months Buonarroti tried to transfer the revolutionary measures to Italian conditions and to work for the unity of Italy. The future, unified Italy should be firmly anchored in revolutionary France.

Buonarroti built a school in Oneglia and founded a committee for popular education. He also sold emigrant goods and food at low prices. Buonarroti's measures polarized strongly. On the one hand, his social and educational policy was welcomed by a large following; on the other hand, the sale of confiscated goods led to influential enemies.

Due to a complaint by a Genoese nobleman, Buonarroti was recalled from Oneglia to Paris in March 1795. Buonarroti was sentenced to prison and met Babeuf in Le Plessis prison in September 1795.

The Conspiracy of Equals 1796

On October 8, 1795, Buonarroti was released as a result of the general amnesty for imprisoned Jacobins. He joined the “Society of Friends of the Republic” , who held their meetings near the Panthéon and therefore became known as the “Panthéon Club”. Buonarroti quickly gained influence and was elected president of the Panthéon Club a short time later. The board of directors feared a strengthening of the opposition from the left and on February 27, 1796 enforced the closure of the Panthéon Club.

In March 1796 Buonarroti went to Italy. He tried through conspiratorial activities important figures in the French army in Italy, including the new Commander-in-Chief Napoléon Bonaparte , to win over the unity of Italy. Buonarroti's followers were able to establish a revolutionary Jacobin rule in the Piedmontese city of Alba for a few weeks . The Italian Jacobins also tried to mobilize other revolutionary forces in Piedmont and Lombardy. For the first time the green-white-red tricolor was set up in Italy.

Buonarroti returned to Paris and formed on April 9, 1796 with Babeuf, Darthé and other opponents of the Board of Directors the "Secret Executive Board for the Public Welfare" to plan and carry out the " Conspiracy of Equals ". Buonarroti worked there for a joint action of the Italian and French revolutionaries and took care of the organization of the conspiracy with Darthé. He also wrote the "Analysis of the Teachings of Babeuf" , which was distributed as a flyer in the Parisian arrondissements in preparation for the uprising. Buonarroti developed solutions to change the agrarian situation in France and Italy. Based on his experiences in Corsica, he affirmed the abolition of private land ownership. The soil as a common good should lead to high yields without exploiting the farmers. With this agricultural policy Buonarroti wanted to bind the masses of landless farmers to the "equals" . Buonarroti also attributed the failure of the “conspiracy of equals” to the lack of support from the rural masses. This also applied to the failure of the Italian Jacobins, who refused to follow Buonarroti's agricultural policy.

As a result of information from the police spy Grisels, Babeuf , Darthé , Buonarroti and over forty co-conspirators were arrested on May 10, 1796 . The arrested were transferred to Vendôme on August 30, 1796 , and the trial began on February 20, 1797. On May 26, 1797, the Vendôme Supreme Court sentenced Filippo Buonarroti to deportation.

Exile from 1797 to 1815

Buonarroti was initially imprisoned in Cherbourg and later transferred to the island of Oléron . Napoleon Bonaparte assigned him Sospel in the Alpes-Maritimes department in 1803 , Geneva in 1806 and Grenoble in 1813 . But despite the police surveillance, Buonarroti managed to act as a member of secret societies for the national unity of Italy.

Risorgimento 1815 to 1837

After the fall of Napoleon, Buonarroti returned to Italy. Disappointed with the restoration of the pre-Napoleonic order in Italy, Buonarroti joined the Risorgimento movement.

In 1828, in Brussels, Buonarroti wrote his main work “Babeuf's Conspiracy for the Equals” ( “Conspiration pour l'egalité, dite de Babeuf” ). This work is considered to be the most important source for depicting the events associated with the title and influenced the socialist movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. In his work, Buonarroti assumed that similar needs and sensations are innate in people or that they develop from childhood. In a large national community of goods and work, he saw the ideal communist social order, which presupposes the abolition of private property.

After the French July Revolution , Buonarroti went to Paris in 1830 and met Giuseppe Mazzini , the exiled democratic pioneer of the Risorgimento . Mazzini respected Buonarroti's national ideas, his struggle for the national unity of Italy and also advocated the republican form of government for the future Italy. But Mazzini and the alliance of “ Young Italy ” ( La Giovane Italia ), which he had largely formed, rejected Buonarroti's social revolutionary ideas. The two men only fell out after Mazzini favored a policy directed against France.

On September 16, 1837 Filippo Buonarroti died completely impoverished in Paris.

Fonts

  • Babeuf and the conspiracy for equality with the trial they initiated and the evidence ; Dietz-Verlag Bonn, Bad Godesberg, reprint of Buonarroti's main work published in 1828 (German translation), 2nd edition 1975, ISBN 3-8012-1049-9

literature

Web links

Commons : Philippe Buonarroti  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Buonarroti, Filippo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Buonarroti, Filippo Michele
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian politician and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1761
PLACE OF BIRTH Pisa
DATE OF DEATH September 16, 1837
Place of death Paris