Ciceruacchio

Ciceruacchio
Angelo Brunetti, better known as Ciceruacchio, was a Roman popular leader who participated in the Roman Republic of 1849. Born in the Campo Marzio district of Rome, he owned a small carting business and became involved with the movement for the political unification of Italy. Having risen to a prominent position in Roman politics after the accession of Pope Pius IX, he supported the overthrow of the pope's government and the proclamation of the Republic. After the Republic's defeat by the French, Brunetti was captured and executed by the army of the Austrian Empire.
Name
Brunetti was known by the nickname Ciceruacchio. Writing in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, the historian Maria Luisa Trebiliani gives two possible explanations for the name: 1) the Roman statesman and orator Cicero, to whose eloquence Brunetti was compared, or 2) a puerile term of endearment derived from the Italian ('chubby') and the Romanesco ('piece').
Background
Angelo Brunetti was born on 27 September 1800 into a working-class family in the Campo Marzio district of Rome. His parents were Lorenzo Brunetti, a farrier, and Cecilia Fiorini. After receiving a simple education, Brunetti started working as a cart driver, transporting wine from the Roman Castles to the city. In 1820, he married Annetta Cimarra, a woman from his home district; they had two sons, Luigi and Lorenzo. In the following two decades, he greatly expanded the size of his transport business, and begun delivering hay and cereals to customers including the Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia. His business afforded the family a moderate level of comfort.
Involvement in politics
Having acquired considerable local influence through his business activities, Brunetti seems to have been introduced to politics by the writer and the notary , who in 1827 led him to join the Carbonari, a revolutionary group advocating for the political unification of Italy. In 1835, encouraged by the Italian nationalist , he became a member of Young Italy, a unification movement led by the activist Giuseppe Mazzini. In 1837, he came under police surveillance because of his involvement in politics.
In 1846, the accession of Pope Pius IX raised hopes for liberal reforms within the Papal States. Brunetti organised the Roman public to gather in mass rallies in honour of the new pope. Through his leadership of these events, he became one of the city's most influential politicians, inspiring imitators such as the Neapolitan Michele Viscuso. Visiting Rome during this time, the Piedmontese politician Massimo d'Azeglio described Brunetti thus: "[he] is Rome's first citizen. He exhorts, he pontificates, he keeps the peace."
Roman Republic
In the context of the Revolutions of 1848, the government of Pius IX came under pressure to enact liberal reforms. As the pope resisted the popular demands for change, the leaders of the reform movement began to antagonise him. Initially, Brunetti isolated himself by his continued support of Pius, but gradually came to embrace the increasingly radicalised opposition. In November 1848, Pellegrino Rossi, the head of the pope's government, was assassinated. Brunetti was thought to be personally implicated, while his son Luigi was suspected to have been the assassin. After Rossi's death, Pius IX fled to the Neapolitan town of Gaeta.
In February 1849, while the pope was exiled, the Roman opposition replaced their theocratic government with a democratic one, the Roman Republic. Brunetti occupied a less prominent role during this period. However, he participated in the defence of the city against a French assault under Charles Oudinot. When the city was captured by the French, Brunetti accompanied Giuseppe Garibaldi, the military leader of the Republican forces, on his northward retreat towards Venice.
Death
On 9 August 1849, Brunetti, his sons, and a small group of Republicans were captured by troops of the Austrian Empire before crossing into Venetian territory. Without a trial, they were executed on the next day for their involvement in the Roman Republic by a firing squad in the town of . Ciceruacchio asked the Austrians to spare his youngest son, aged 13; instead, they shot him first.
Reception
In Luigi Magni's film In the Name of the Sovereign People (1990), Ciceruacchio is played by the Italian actor Nino Manfredi.
References
Bibliography
1800 births
1849 deaths
Carbonari
Politicians from Rome
Italian independence activists
Italian nationalists
People of the Revolutions of 1848
People executed by Austria by firing squad