Execution of four Carbonari in Ravenna

The day the city was draped in black

Tancredi Scarpelli's depiction of the 
scene following the executions

Four members of the secret society known as I Carbonari (the charcoal burners) were executed by hanging in a public square in Ravenna on this day in 1828.

The executions, thought to have taken place in one of the main squares in the centre of the city, possibly Piazza del Popolo, were carried out by the notorious papal executioner, Giovanni Battista Bugatti, who was nicknamed Mastro Titta, a slang version of maestro di giustizia, master of justice.

The four victims were found guilty of plotting to kidnap and assassinate Cardinal Agostino Rivarola, who had been sent to Ravenna to defend papal authority and clamp down on revolutionaries. 

Bugatti was the official executioner for the Papal States from 1796 to 1865. While working for six different popes, he executed 516 people by either beating, beheading or hanging them.

On this occasion in Ravenna, acting on behalf of the Papal Legate, he conducted the executions of Luigi Zanoli, Ortolani Angiolo, Gaetano Montanari, and Gaetano Rambelli.

The four unfortunate men were all believed to be members of the anticlerical Carbonari society.

The Vatican’s enforcer in the Romagna, Cardinal Rivarola, had issued mass condemnations against I Carbonari, and as a result, in 1826, shots had been fired at his carriage and a member of his entourage had died, although Rivarola had escaped unhurt.

Following an investigation into the incident ordered by Pope Leo XII, the death penalty had been dealt out to the four people accused of carrying out the shooting.

On the day of the execution, the square where it took place was completely occupied by the military to prevent anyone from getting near the gallows.

All shops, and the windows and doors of houses were closed, and many of them were draped in black. The streets were completely empty, reflecting the mood of the population, as the wagon containing the prisoners made its way through the deserted city surrounded by soldiers.

Agostino Rivarola, the cardinal who
survived an attempted assassination

The prisoners all refused the offer of confessing to two friars who were present at the gallows before they were put to death. As they mounted the steps to the gallows the four men shouted: ‘Viva Italia! Down with the papacy,’ before they were hanged.

The Carbonari was an informal network of secret revolutionary societies active in Italy from about 1800 to 1831. They were a focus for people who were unhappy with the repressive political situation in Italy. The secret societies played their part in the process leading to the Risorgimento and eventually to Italian unification.

They adopted the name 'Carbonari' because they used the charcoal-burning trade in the forested, mountainous regions of the Apennines, where the group originated, as cover for their clandestine meetings.

The English poet Lord Byron lived for two of the six years he spent in Italy in Ravenna, to be near Teresa Guiccioli, the young, beautiful wife of Count Alessandro Guiccioli, who he had been introduced to at a social gathering in Venice. During his time in Ravenna, he enjoyed the excitement of being part of I Carbonari, after being introduced to the society by Teresa’s father, Ruggiero Gamba, and her brother, Pietro Gamba.

Byron relished the secret meetings in pine forests outside Ravenna and even allowed members of the group to hide weapons and ammunition in his apartment. If Byron had been found to be housing the weapons, he would have been arrested and almost certainly imprisoned, or expelled from Austrian-controlled territory, but his fellow Carbonari believed he was less likely to be condemned to death because he was an English Lord.

The poet believed in the cause of fighting for a free Italy, but he left Ravenna to follow Teresa and her father and brother, after they had been exiled  to Florence, without ever having the chance to take part in a revolt against the Austrians. 

Giovanni Battista Bugatti had become the official executioner of the Papal States at the age of 17 and served the popes Pius VI, Pius VII, Leo XII, Pius VIII, Gregory XVI and Pius IX. Charles Dickens wrote about Bugatti in Pictures of Italy, after watching one of his executions in 1845. 

When Bugatti retired from his work, he was given a residence and a pension by the Pope and he wrote his memoirs. He died in 1869 in Senigallia in Le Marche, the town where he had been born. A book claiming to be his memoirs was published in 1891. The memoirs devoted an entire chapter to the execution of Leonida Montanari in Ravenna in 1825, who was the brother of Gaetano Montanari, one of the four men executed in Ravenna on 13 May 1828.

The Basilica di Sant Vitale is
famous for its stunning mosaics

Travel tip:

Ravenna in Emilia-Romagna, was the capital city of the western Roman empire in the fifth century. It is known for its well-preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture and has eight UNESCO world heritage sites. The Basilica of San Vitale is one of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture in Europe. Ravenna also houses the tomb of the poet Dante Alighieri, who lived and died there after he was exiled from Florence. Byron was said to have found the tomb of the poet inspirational and would sit writing his poetry close to it while he was living in the city. Florence has repeatedly asked for Dante’s remains to be sent back to them, but Ravenna has always refused to relinquish them.  Ravenna’s cuisine reflects Romagna’s rustic traditions. Signature dishes include piadina, the region’s soft flatbread, cappelletti in broth or ragù, and passatelli, made from breadcrumbs, cheese, and nutmeg. Local grills feature castrato (mutton), which is highly prized in the region for its bright red colour, white fat, and intense flavour.  Mussels from Marina di Ravenna feature on menus as well. 

Piazza del Popolo was the site of
Ravenna's public executions

Travel tip:

Piazza del Popolo, where public executions took place, is at the heart of the city of Ravenna and for more than 700 years has been home to the palaces of power, such as the town hall and the prefecture building, which was once home to the Papal Legation. Now a lively square with open-air cafés and bars, it is the convergence point of many streets. It has a Venetian feel because Venice added twin columns similar to the pair in Piazzetta San Marco during the period they ruled over Ravenna. The Venetian authorities governed the city from the Palazzetta Veneziana between 1441 and 1509.  The origin of the square dates back to the late 13th century, when the Da Polenta family became masters of the city. The palatial residence of Bernardino da Polenta became the political hub of the city and remained so until it was demolished in 1681, when it was replaced by the current Town Hall.

More reading:

How Lord Byron became a Ravenna revolutionary

Gabriele Rossetti, the poet and academic who became a key Carbonari figure

The strange life of Mastro Titta, souvenir seller and executioner

Also on this day:

1726: The death of composer and singer Francesco Pistocchi

1804: The birth of Venetian patriot Daniele Manin

1909: The first Giro d’Italia

1935: The birth of entrepreneur Luciano Benetton

1938: The birth of politician Giuliano Amato

Home

  

Giovanni Battista Bugatti - executioner

An 18th century woodcut shows Mastro
Titta showing off the head of a victim

‘Mastro Titta’ ended 516 lives in long career

Giovanni Battista Bugatti, who served as the official executioner for the Papal States from 1796 to 1864, was born on this day in 1779 in Senigallia, a port town on the Adriatic coast about 30km (19 miles) northwest of the city of Ancona.

Bugatti, who became known by the nickname Mastro Titta - a corruption of the Italian maestro di giustizia - master of justice - in Roman dialect, carried out 516 executions in his 68-year career.  He was the longest-serving executioner in the history of the Papal States.

The circumstances of him being granted such an important role in Roman life at the age of just 17 are not known.  What is documented is that while not carrying out his grim official duties he kept a shop selling painted umbrellas and other souvenirs next to his home in the Borgo district, in Vicolo del Campanile, a short distance from Castel Sant’Angelo, which served as a prison during the time of the Papal States.

It seemed an incongruous day job for someone whose very name struck a chill among Rome’s criminal fraternity. Yet he treated his responsibilities with the utmost solemnity, leaving his home early in the morning on the days an execution was to take place, dressed in his scarlet executioner’s coat, stopping off first at the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina for confession.

Bugatti would often offer the condemned
man or woman a pinch of snuff

For his own safety, he was not permitted to enter the central part of Rome except to carry out his official duties.  When Mastro Titta was spotted crossing the bridge it became a signal to Romans that an execution was due and crowds would gather.

Executions did not take place solely in Rome. Bugatti was required to travel to all parts of the Papal States to fulfil the terms of his service. Indeed, his first execution took place more than 150km (93 miles) north of the capital in the city of Foligno in Umbria. His first victim, on 22 March, 1796, was Nicola Gentilucci, who had been convicted of strangling and killing a priest, a coachman and of robbing two friars.

In Rome, many of the executions took place in Piazza del Popolo, in the shadow of the famous Egyptian obelisk, others on the Ponte Sant’Angelo, which links Castel Sant’Angelo with central Rome.  Both Lord Byron and Charles Dickens witnessed Bugatti’s work during visits to Rome and wrote about it for their English readers.

Bugatti himself called the executions justices and referred to the condemned as patients.  He bore no personal animosity towards his victims and would often offer them a pinch of snuff as a last experience of earthly pleasure. He was skilled in what he did, whether it was execution by hanging, beheading by axe, the administering of a fatal blow with a mallet or, latterly, with the guillotine, and prided himself on being both neat and quick.

Notices of impending executions were posted in churches, asking for prayers for the condemned, and so crowds would assemble. Fathers would bring their children so that they learned at an early age what fate might befall them as adults if they disobeyed the law.

Remarkably, Bugatti is said to have maintained his strength and the precision into his work even into old age and he was 85 when at last he agreed to retire, accepting a pension from Pope Pius IX.  He returned to Senigallia and lived a further five years.

Today, his blood-stained scarlet coat, plus a selection of axes and guillotines, are on display at Rome’s Museo Criminologico - Museum of Criminology - in Via del Gonfalone.

The Ponte Sant'Angelo, which connects Castel Sant'Angelo
with the centre of Rome across the Tiber river 

Travel tip:

Castel Sant’Angelo, the towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano, on the banks of the Tiber, was originally commissioned by the Roman emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. It was later used by the popes as a fortress, castle and prison, and is now a museum. It was once the tallest building in Rome.  Hadrian also built the Pons Aelius – now Ponte Sant’Angelo – which provides a scenic approach to the mausoleum from the centre of Rome across the Tiber. Baroque statues of angels were later added, lining each side of the bridge.

Find a hotel in Rome with Booking.com

The beach at Senigallia, with its art nouveau pier and
pavilion, the Rotonda al Mare

Travel tip:

Badly damaged in both world wars and by an earthquake in between, the Adriatic port of Senigallia has a modern look today but has a long history. It takes its name from a third century Roman settlement Sena Gallica.  Captured and recaptured many times by opposing sides during the Guelph and Ghibelline war, it was the scene of a bloodbath early in the 16th century as Cesare Borgia routed some of his disloyal supporters. It became the property of both the Medici and Della Rovere families before the Papal States took charge.  In more recent years, it has become an important holiday resort but retains some historic attractions, such as the well-preserved Gothic Rocca Roveresca, which was restored in the 15the century.

Also on this day:

1483: The birth of Florentine historian and diplomat Francesco Guicciardini

1853: Verdi’s opera La Traviata is performed for the first time

1933: The birth of Augusto Adone, the father who famously invented Lorenzo’s Oil as a medicine for his sick son


Home