Giuseppe Cesare Abba (6 October 1838 – 6 November 1910) was an Italian patriot and writer. As a participant on the expedition of
i Mille he fought next to
Giuseppe Garibaldi in his
conquest of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1860.
Biography
He was born in
Cairo Montenotte
Cairo Montenotte () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Savona in Liguria, an Italian region located west of Genoa and northwest of Savona. Located in Val Bormida, it is a member of the Comunità Montana Alta Val Bormida. It is con ...
(
Liguria
it, Ligure
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, then part of the
Kingdom of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...
/Piedmont).
Abba studied in the Academy of Fine Arts in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
, which he left in 1859 when entered a cavalry regiment in
Pinerolo
Pinerolo (; pms, Pinareul ; french: Pignerol; oc, Pineròl) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, northwestern Italy, southwest of Turin on the river Chisone. The Lemina torrent has its source at the boundary b ...
. In 1860 he moved to
Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
, and then joined Garibaldi's volunteers. He took part in most of the battles which led to the dissolution of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
His literary work is limited to revolutionary memories; after retiring to private life, first at
Pisa, then in his native town, he attempted to write a romantic poem in five
canti
Canti may refer to:
* Canti (poetry collection), an 1835 collection of poems by Giacomo Leopardi
* Canti (surname)
* Canti Lau (born 1964), Hong Kong actor
* Canti, List of FLCL characters#Canti, fictional robot from the Japanese animated series ' ...
by the title ''Arrigo''. A fervent follower of
Manzoni, he then tried to write a historical novel (1875) with ''Le rive della Bormida nel 1794'' ("The Banks of the Bormida in 1794"), with the notes taken in the 1860 expedition, which he did not publish. In 1880 it became ''Noterelle di uno dei Mille edite dopo vent’anni'' ("Notes by one of the Thousand twenty years later"), assuming its final title, ''Da Quarto al Volturno: Noterelle d’uno dei Mille'' ("From Quarto to Volturno: Notes by one of the Thousand"), only in 1891.
This work was his magnum opus, being released thanks to
Giosuè Carducci
Giosuè Alessandro Giuseppe Carducci (; 27 July 1835 – 16 February 1907) was an Italian poet, writer, literary critic and teacher. He was very noticeably influential, and was regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy. In 1906, h ...
, to whom Abba had sent it on the urging of an old revolutionary friend, Sclavo. Carducci was at that time considering writing a work on the life of Garibaldi, and encouraged the survivors of the campaign to give him historical testimonies. When he had read the ''Noterelle'', he appreciated it so much that gave it to the editor Zanichelli to be published, telling the author that now he might never write the biography of the hero.
Abba quickly acquired fame, so much so that he became first teacher at the secondary school at
Faenza, then principal of the technological institute of
Brescia
Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...
, where he worked until his death.
Even though he produced other works based on the expedition, none became as celebrated as the ''Noterelle''. He also wrote poetry and short stories, but without much success.
Works
* ''Le rive della Bormida nel 1794'' (1875)
* ''Noterelle di uno dei Mille edite dopo vent’anni'' (1880)
**''A Diary of One of Garibaldi's Thousand'' translated by
E. R. P. Vincent. London: Oxford University Press, 1962
* ''Da Quarto al Volturno. Noterelle d’uno dei Mille'' (1880–1891)
* ''Storia dei Mille'' ("Story of the Thousand", 1904)
* ''Vita di
Nino Bixio
Gerolamo "Nino" Bixio (, ; 2 October 1821 – 16 December 1873) was an Italian general, patriot and politician, one of the most prominent figures in the Italian unification.
Life and career
He was born Gerolamo Bixio in Genoa. While still a boy ...
'' ("The Life of Nino Bixio", 1905)
* ''Cose garibaldine'' ("Garibaldian Things")
* ''Romagna''
* ''Cose vedute'' ("Things I Have Seen")
References
External links
Biography
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abba
1838 births
1910 deaths
People from Cairo Montenotte
Italian male writers
Italian people of the Italian unification
Members of the Expedition of the Thousand