Nicola Fabrizi

Nicola Fabrizi (born April 4, 1804, Modena, Italian Republic—died March 31, 1885, Rome) was one of the most militant and dedicated leaders of the Risorgimento, the movement aimed at the unification of Italy.

As a young man, Fabrizi helped plan and execute the 1831 Milan rising against the Austrians. Unsuccessful in his attempt to revive the revolution in Modena, he was forced to flee but was captured by the Austrians and imprisoned in Venice. Freed in May 1832, he went to Marseille, where he joined the revolutionary group “Young Italy,” whose founder, Giuseppe Mazzini, became his friend and political ally.

After an ill-fated attempt to stir up an insurrection in Savoy (February 1834), Fabrizi went to Spain to fight the conservative and clerical followers of Don Carlos, who claimed the Spanish throne. Proceeding to Malta, a refuge for Italian revolutionaries, he founded the “Italian Legion,” another militant secret society.

From 1848 onward Fabrizi took an even more active part in the revolution. He helped Francesco Crispi organize the Sicilian revolution of 1848 and fought in defense of Venice and Rome. After his return to Malta, he helped prepare another Sicilian revolution, which erupted in 1860. He contributed to the victory of the revolutionary forces and was appointed governor of Messina and minister of war in Garibaldi’s dictatorship at Palermo. Named general, he helped suppress brigands in the province of Avellino in southern Italy.

Elected deputy to the Italian parliament in 1861, Fabrizi sat on the extreme left. In 1862 on his way to Sicily to persuade Garibaldi to give up his march on Rome, he was arrested by the king of Italy’s lieutenant in Naples. From 1866 to 1867 he fought in the Italian war against Austria as Garibaldi’s chief of staff. Thereafter, he limited his activity to the Italian parliament, where he worked diligently to maintain unity among the quarrelling leftist leaders.