Italian Philhellenism

The Greek Revolution is regarded by historians nowadays as an international event. In this context of the transnationalism of the Revolution, despite their differences, the volunteers involved in it are seen as carriers of a radical liberal ideology and as members of a network of joint military action; an informal “Liberal International”, which runs through and connects the fronts of all the liberal Mediterranean revolutions of the 1820s (in Spain, Italy and Greece), as well as those of Latin America, and is subsequently active in the revolutionary fields of Poland, France and Belgium (1830). This approach allows us to focus on the communication channels and the transnational networks of revolutionary ideology and action. On the other hand, the approach by nations of the Philhellenes volunteer fighters allows us to identify additional individual motivations depending on the particular conditions in their places of origin, beyond the common background of defending Christian faith and the birthplace of European culture. This paper presents a collective biography of the Italian Philhellenes volunteer fighters in Greece during the 1820s.
In particular, it studies the arrival / influx of Italian patriots in Greece at the onset of the Greek Revolution, which marked the beginning of the military action of the Italian Philhellenes and combined with the political emigration which followed the failed constitutional and liberal revolutions in Piedmont, Naples and Sicily (1820-21). At that time a few dozen volunteers moved to Greece; and later (1824-26) some more, most of them from England, where they had taken refuge after their revolutionary adventures and the defeat of the liberal and constitutional front in the Iberian Peninsula.
Firstly, the author investigates their identity and the nature of their contribution to the Greek struggle for independence: some provided organizational and institutional services, while others reinforced the revolutionary press; the majority, however, contributed to the efforts of recruiting a regular Greek revolutionary army and generally participated in military operations, either fighting as commanders or mere combatants, or providing health care services to the fighters.
Secondly, the paper examines the often problematic communication and convergence between the Italian volunteers and the Greek leaders and fighters, their martial skills and activities, as well as the benefits they gained from participating in the Greek Revolution, given that it was additionally used as a field for serving their own patriotic needs: for testing new organizational tools, but also for consolidating and propagating their patriotic stakes.

The article examines the presence of the Italian Garibaldini volunteers in the Greek irredentist struggles of the period 1866-1912. This participation falls within the framework of a long tradition of military volunteerism by the Italians, which had commenced in the 1820s and was founded upon the concepts of the Mediterranean solidarity at first and of the Greco-Latin subsequently, as well as within the climate of constituting a “Liberal International” at that time. Principal agent and embodiment of the renewed philhellenic movement during the period of the Risorgimento’s major successes was Giuseppe Garibaldi, who assimilated the ideas and the projects of the democratic and Mazzinian movement, as well as the radical ideas of 1848.
First, Garibaldi’s relations with Greece and the Balkans are examined, and the profile of the Garibaldini volunteers is sketched. The discussion then focuses on the volunteers’ last mission to Greece, during the First Balkan War. Explored in this context are: the conditions of forming and sending a volunteer corps to Greece, on the initiative of Ricciotti Garibaldi (1912); its perception by the Italian political parties and public opinion, its reception in Greece and the oppositions within it; and its participation jointly with Greek and other Red Shirts in the battle of Driskos. Assessed next are the contribution of the Italian Garibaldini at an operational level, as well as the internationalization and publicizing of the Greek campaign; the impact of their activity on the – at that time complicated – Greek-Italian interstate relations; their further usefulness and the possibilities of keeping their myth alive within the political, ideological and geopolitical clime emerging in Europe and the Mediterranean on the eve of the First World War. Last, issues of memory of the Italian Garibaldini volunteers in modern Greece are raised as well, while the lacunae in research and the research prospects for the issue investigated are noted.

Il presente lavoro intende indagare alcune forme letterarie ed artistiche del filellenismo siciliano  come espressione di una mitografia risorgimentale che si collega al discorso nazionale italiano. I limiti cronologici del presente lavoro, fissati all’ascesa di Ottone di Baviera al trono di Grecia fra il 1832 e il 1833, atto conclusivo dei moti rivoluzionari, permettono di cogliere solo le fasi iniziali, ma già rilevanti, di un movimento filellenico di vasta portata; si ritiene pertanto necessario prendere in considerazione non solo testi letterari – si esamineranno componimenti poetici di Felice Bisazza, Nicola Cirino, Rosina Muzio Salvo – ma anche due opere pittoriche di Letterio Subba, per identificare l’ampia gamma di significazioni di un fenomeno sfaccettato quale il filellenismo siciliano.

La rivoluzione per la liberazione greca va sincronizzata con lo scoppio dei primi moti rivoluzionari in Italia (1820-21), fatto che fa congiungere i patriottismi di entrambi i popoli. Oggetto di studio dell’intervento è l’edificazione di un’importante tradizione italiana di volontarismo militare in Grecia durante il decennio del 1820. In questo contesto va esaminato il caso di un filelleno piemontese, del conte Giacinto Provana di Collegno, ex ufficiale dell’esercito napoleonico e uno dei protagonisti del moto costituzionale manifestato in Piemonte (1821). In particolare, vanno studiati le sue origini sociali, la formazione politica e ideologica, l’esilio in Europa, l’inserimento nella cosiddetta “internazionale liberale” e soprattutto, sulla base del suo Diario dell’assedio di Navarino (Torino 1857), la partecipazione alla resistenza greca contro gli Ottomani.
Argomenti particolari che vengono indagati sono: il viaggio del Collegno –con l’eminente compatriota liberale e amico di cuore Santorre di Stantarosa– da Londra verso Nauplia (novembre-dicembre 1824); il soggiorno di sette mesi in Grecia e i suoi compiti militari (ha servito come comandante del Genio nella fortezza di Navarino durante il suo assedio da parte delle forze egiziane di Ibrahim Pascià); la sua ottica e gli stereotipi nei confronti dei greci, i suoi rapporti quotidiani con loro e i rapporti edificati con greci ufficiali e dirigenti (p.e. con Macrygiannis, Mavrokordatos, Ypsilantis, Kunturiotis, Kolokotronis ecc.); la sua valutazione della situazione politica e militare della Grecia ribellata e le sue analisi sul clima della guerra civile fra le fazioni greche; la sua ottica e gli stereotipi nei confronti dell’ “altro”, ossia degli ottomani “crudeli” e “infedeli”, come pure i suoi rapporti quotidiani con loro (nei campi di battaglia); i rapporti edificati con ufficiali militari del campo nemico durante le trattative (p.e. con il colonnello Suleyman Bey o con lo stesso Imbrahim Pascià); la sua ottica nei confronti degli europei commilitoni e suoi rapporti quotidiani con loro; la sua psicologia e i suoi sentimenti, come ad esempio la paura per la morte, l’ansia per la sorte dei compagni, il dolore e la sofferenza per la perdita dell’amico Santarosa a Sfacteria, la nostalgia per la patria, la delusione a causa dell’atteggiamento negativo e di tanto in tanto anche ostile dei greci commilitoni nei suoi confronti o a causa dell’ingratitudine dei greci nei confronti di Santarosa sacrificato per la loro libertà, i sentimenti confusi di fronte alla magnanimità del nemico, il piacere dell’incontro con i compatrioti o con i vecchi conoscenti e amici (p.e. con Fabvier) in terra straniera, la commozione nel momento che la bandiera ottomana si alzava sulla chiesa di Navarino, il conforto per il disimpegno e per il ritorno in Europa ecc. Infine, l’interesse dell’autore si focalizza sull’immagine della Morea (Peloponneso), così come questa viene delineata dalle descrizioni di Collegno nella forma di letteratura di viaggio. È da notare che le considerazioni e le riflessioni di Collegno, riguardanti il carattere e la civiltà dei greci moderni, esposte nel suo Diario, costituiscono un contributo importante al discorso in questione che suscitò tensioni fra gli inglesi benthamiti e gli esuli italiani a Londra.

Ο ελληνικός επαναστατικός αγώνας συγχρονίζεται με την εκδήλωση των πρώτων κινημάτων της ιταλικής Παλιγγενεσίας (Risorgimento), γεγονός που συνδέει άρρηκτα τους πατριωτισμούς των δύο πλευρών. Ο συγγραφέας εστιάζει στην πρώτη φάση της οικοδόμησης μίας σημαντικής ιταλικής παράδοσης προσφοράς εθελοντικής στρατιωτικής υπηρεσίας (volontarismo) και διερευνά αφενός την ιδεολογική και πολιτική συγκρότηση των εξόριστων επαναστατών της δεκαετίας του 1820 και αφετέρου τις ιδέες και τα προγράμματα που αυτοί επεξεργάστηκαν αναφορικά με την ελληνική εθνική υπόθεση μεσούσης της επανάστασης. Από τη μελέτη αυτή προκύπτει πως η ιακωβινική και ναπολεόντεια εμπειρία, σε συνδυασμό με τις δικές τους εθνικές βλέψεις, οδήγησαν τους ιταλούς φιλέλληνες, και δη τους εξ Αγγλίας προερχόμενους κόμητες καρμπονάρους, στη διαμόρφωση μίας πολιτικής κουλτούρας που αντιτασσόταν στην υπεροπτική-αποικιοκρατική οπτική μερίδας των άγγλων του φιλελληνικού κομιτάτου του Λονδίνου και προσέβλεπε στην οικοδόμηση ενός ελληνικού έθνους-κράτους πάνω στις βάσεις της πολιτικής σταθερότητας και των ελεύθερων θεσμών. Η στρατηγική δε της ανάδειξης της ιδέας της μεσογειακής πολιτισμικής ισοτιμίας, της μεσογειακής αλληλεγγύης, του αδιάλειπτου ελληνοϊταλικού παραλληλισμού σε όλα τα επίπεδα και εν τέλει της διεθνούς προβολής του ιταλικού εθνικού προβλήματος μέσω της υπηρέτησης του αντίστοιχου ελληνικού –του δημοφιλέστερου εκείνη την εποχή στην Ευρώπη– συνιστά πράξη πολιτικού ιδεαλισμού, που προωθούσε την εμπέδωση της αξίας και της ενότητας του μεσογειακού πολιτισμού σε πρώτο χρόνο ή του ελληνολατινικού μετά την ήττα των συνταγματικών στην ιβηρική χερσόνησο˙ παράλληλα, προσδίδει στον ιταλικό φιλελληνισμό ιδιάζοντα χαρακτηριστικά και εξηγεί εν πολλοίς γιατί αυτός υπήρξε μακροβιότερος από τα υπόλοιπα ομόλογα κινήματα, μια και η εθελοντική παράδοση της δεκαετίας του 1820 θα ανανεωνόταν κατά το δεύτερο μισό του 19ου και τις αρχές του 20ού αιώνα με τη συμμετοχή των ιταλών γαριβαλδινών εθελοντών στους ελληνικούς αλυτρωτικούς αγώνες της περιόδου.

In this paper I analyse historiographic sources (Pouqueville’s Italian translation, Pieri, Ciampolini) and literary examples (Brofferio, Regaldi, Zecchini) of Italian philhellenism, concerning the violence in the Greek Revolution. In these narratives I found both rhetorical schemes and voyeuristic complacency. Furthermore, I deal with the stereotype of the cruel Turk, but also with the violent acts committed by the Greeks. A particular focus is given to the severed and talking heads, a dreadful and horrifying spectacle. 
Keywords: Greek Revolution – Italian philhellenism – beheadings – talking heads – rhetoric schemes – Turks cruelty – Greek violence