Maddalena Montalban

Maddalena Montalban (born September 16, 1820 in Conegliano , † May 31, 1869 in Venice ), from 1842 Maddalena Montalban Comello , is considered the most important republican and champion for Venice's independence.

Life

Maddalena Montalban was born in 1820 as the daughter of Conte Girolamo Montalban and his wife Lucrezia Guizzetti. Possibly in Venice she attended a college and in 1842 married the wealthy trader Angelo Comello.

Apart from that, only two events have survived from her résumé that are related to the Risorgimento (“resurrection”), a heterogeneous political movement whose unifying goal was the unification of the states on the Apennine peninsula to form an Italian nation-state. The focus was initially on the Venice uprising in 1848 and 1849 , as well as the trials in the 1860s because of their anti-Austrian activities.

In both cases, her family background was of considerable importance. The noble Montalban family owned large estates and in the course of the 18th century they had acquired the title of Comes , Count. So she belonged to the nobility of the Terraferma . At least Maddalena's cousin Oscalco, who was so badly injured in the defense of Venice against the Austrians on the Zattere that he died of his wounds, but also her father, who became a member of the provisional government of Conegliano in March 1848 , were opponents of Austria. The political attitudes of the rest of the family are unknown.

The Comello came from Friuli and they had been closely linked to the Republic of Venice for generations . During the Napoleonic era, they had succeeded in making enormous profits from the massive sale of cultural goods that arose in the course of the dissolution of the Venetian institutions and the impoverishment of wealthy families. Under the Austrians she lived mainly from the grain trade, but also from extensive country estates in Veneto . The latter also included the Mottinello estate in Padovano, which was one of the couple's residences.

Valentino Comello, a brother of Angelo and thus Maddalena's brother-in-law, married Anna Papadopoli, sister of the wealthy merchant and banker Spiridione, honorary consul of Belgium and director of the Compagnia dei Veneti Assicuratori and owner of a mining company. Both families in turn had close political ties to Daniele Manin . They were among the most important financiers of his struggle for independence against Austria. Maddalena Montalban Comello shared the ideals of her husband and their families in a very autonomous way. In addition to Anna Papadopoli and the wife of Spiridiones, Teresa Mosconi , she was in contact with the Milanese circle around Clara Maffei , which was proven during the 18-month battle for Venice.

Maddalena Montalban participated in essential propaganda activities, she established connections throughout the north of the peninsula, raised funds. In April 1848 she became part of a women's committee, the Pia associazione pel soccorso ai militari , whose aim was to take care of the wounded - the Comello palace was converted into a hospital - but also to procure clothes and weapons for the volunteers. In an open letter from the women dated April 12, which their sister-in-law Teresa had also signed, they requested the formation of a women's battalion, but this was rejected. They were also asked to avoid the scandal of appearing in public, which even the leaders of the revolution Niccolò Tommaseo and Daniele Manin feared.

The question of equality for women turned up again and again in the press and in correspondence, but the political class criticized this idea, made it ridiculous, or considered the demand premature. In a letter to Garibaldi , Montalban Comello wrote: "Nature did me the injustice to turn me into a woman, because our sex is full of slavery".

Montalban probably played a part in Venice's first political women's newspaper, the Circolo delle donne italiane , a patriotic evening paper (September to October 1848). In addition, only the two Palermitaner sheets Tribuna delle Donne and Legione delle Pie sorelle as well as the Roman La Donna italiana existed in Italy at that time .

In addition to numerous other injured people, General Giacomo Antonini was also cared for in the Comello Palace in the municipality of San Cassian , who gave his amputated and embalmed arm to the lady of the house in gratitude for her care. The Austrians later confiscated the arm, which is now in the Pinacoteca civica of Varallo , in the 1860s.

Italy 1843

As early as the summer of 1848, the government of Venice felt compelled to support the Austrians in conquering the Kingdom of Piedmont . After Francesco Dell'Ongaro, Montalban left the room in tears because this decision ran counter to her republican sentiments. At the same time, the family spent financially through support from the republic.

With the defeat of Venice in 1849, and thus the end of the Municipalism, Montalban to was Contessa Mazziniana , as they stood on the side of Giuseppe Mazzini , of the Republic on February 9, 1849 Papal States proclaimed, the existence of French military but on July 3 Ended in 1849. Mazzini supported Garibaldi's attempt to force the unity of Italy through a popular uprising, which was however enforced "from above" by the royal family in Piedmont-Sardinia.

On August 13, 1851, Maddalena Montalban Comello lost her husband, whom the defeat of the Venetian Republic had forced into exile. She was left alone in the family palace with her young son Giovanni. The Austrian government subjected them to strict police surveillance, which was tightened after the liberation of Lombardy . However, this could not prevent their commitment to the liberation of Venice.

While the family sold the Villa Galliera Veneta to raise funds to finance the newly founded Società Nazionale , Montalban corresponded with Garibaldi and other insurgents, distributed propaganda literature and tried to put pressure on the Savoyard royal family to resolve the Venetian question. The Austrian police could not prove anything at first, but in 1861 she was arrested and charged with having held a mass with Teresa Danielato, Laura Sardi and Marianna Goretti for Camillo Cavour , who died on June 6, 1861 . The police had the portals of St. Mark's Basilica locked during mass. In addition to Montalban, Antonietta Cornaggia Medici Bon, Teresa Danielato Labia, Laura Sardi Secondi and Marianna Goretti Gargnani were imprisoned. They were sentenced to 40 florins or 8 days in prison. Montalban paid 40 florins, the other women went to the S. Severo prison. Emmanuele Antonio Cicogna considered the judgment to be a mistake, as he confided in his diary on September 20, 1861.

In 1863 Montalban was arrested again, along with Leonilde Lonigo Calvi from Padua . They were accused of having commissioned a symbolic dagger for Garibaldi to urge the revolutionary to liberate Venice. In a letter written by Leonilde Lonigo Calvi and signed by Maddalena Montalban, the women of Garibaldi did indeed call for the liberation of Veneto; the corresponding cover letter has been received. They were also accused of having given Princess Maria Pia of Savoy , married in Portugal in 1862, an album with all too obviously symbolic content. It contained the Tre Venezie , which had been given to the princess by women from Veneto, from Trieste / South Tyrol and from Istria, i.e. from the areas whose liberation was symbolically demanded. In the course of the trial, Montalban's involvement with democratic circles came to light and she was sent to the Ponte della Paglia prison . After her correspondence activities were discovered, she was placed in the notorious prison on the Giudecca . In 1864 she was charged in a further trial in the same matter, but was pardoned by Emperor Franz-Joseph and released from prison after 28 months in prison, only to be acquitted of all accusations on August 2, 1864. She was in prison from January 4, 1863 to April 15, 1865.

A report by the Austrian police from 1865 shows a trip to Florence , the new capital of the Kingdom of Italy , together with Anna Papadopoli, on the occasion of the Dante celebrations. Dante has been an advocate of Italian unity at least since the early Risorgimento .

A street sign in Conegliano reminds of Maddalena Montalban.

In 1867 Montalban received a visit from Garibaldi, with whom she had corresponded since 1848. She told him to contribute to the company of Mentana to which the Garbialdis volunteer army Papal States wanted to conquer, a project which, however, failed early November 1867th Nevertheless, Maddalena Montalban's unbroken demeanor was evident.

Despite a stay in southern Italy, Montalban, who fell ill in 1868, was unable to restore her health. She died in Venice on May 31, 1869.

literature

• Deborah Pase: Due illustri mazziniane. Il processo a Maddalena Montalban Comello e Leonilde Lonigo Calvi (1863-1864) , tesi di laurea, University of Venice 2006.

Web links

• Marica Roda: Montalban, Maddalena , in: Dizionario biografico degli italiani

Remarks

1. ↑ Nadia Maria Filippini (Ed.): Donne sulla scena pubblica. Società e politica in Veneto tra Sette e Ottocento , FrancoAngeli, 2006, p. 119.
2. ^ Panteon dei martiri della libertà italiana opera compilata da varii letterati , vol. 2, Turin 1861, p. 148.
3. ↑ Nadia Maria Filippini (Ed.): Donne sulla scena pubblica. Società e politica in Veneto tra Sette e Ottocento , FrancoAngeli, 2006, p. 119.
4. ↑ "La natura mi fece il torto di farmi donna perché il nostro sesso è pieno di schiavitù" (Giuseppe Bianchi: Maddalena di Montalban ei suoi tempi (1820–1869) , Marton, Treviso 1978, p. 23).
5. ↑ Nadia Maria Filippini (Ed.): Donne sulla scena pubblica. Società e politica in Veneto tra Sette e Ottocento , FrancoAngeli, 2006, p. 121.
6. ↑ Nadia Maria Filippini (Ed.): Donne sulla scena pubblica. Società e politica in Veneto tra Sette e Ottocento , FrancoAngeli, 2006, p. 132.
7. ↑ Illustration of the dagger and the letter: Settima sessione. Domenica 11 December 2016 , n. 1182, p. 163 ( online ( memento of the original from March 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , PDF). 
8. ↑ Paolo Gaspari: Terra patrizia. Aristocrazie terriere e società rurale in Veneto e Friuli: patrizi veneziani, nobili e borghesi nella formazione dell'etica civile delle élites terriere 1797-1920 , Gaspari, 1993, p. 179.