Luigi Gabrielli
Luigi Cante Gabrielli-Quercita (1790–1854) was an Italian soldier and military writer. Life. Born in Naples to a family originally from Gubbio, Luigi was the son of Antonio Gabrielli, a nobleman of progressive ideas who in 1799 had supported the Parthenopean Republic against the Bourbon kings. In 1809, at the age of 19, Luigi enlisted in the army and served under Joachim Murat, the newly appointed king of the Two Sicilies, until 1815, when Ferdinand I was restored. As king Ferdinand acknowledged that some of the military reforms introduced by king Joachim were worth of being maintained, upon  accession he decided not to disband the Army and offered many officers the possibility to remain and keep the same rank. That was also the case for Luigi Gabrielli, who accepted the king's offer. Luigi's wishes to see a modernisation of the Neapolitan society were however frustrated by the increasingly conservative policy adopted by the government. Disillusioned and influenced by reformers such as Giuseppe Rosaroll, Luigi was introduced in philhellenic circles and briefly fought in Greece with the patriots pursuing the country's independence from the Ottoman empire. Following an injury, he decided to go back to Italy  and joined again the Neapolitan army, with the hope of contributing to its modernization. From the 1820s onwards, he dedicated himself to writing and translating military works and advocating for introducing into the army appropriate reforms. Among his works are the first Italian versions of the "Guide des Officiers particuliers en Campagne" by Jean-Gérard Lacuée de Cessac, the "Essai sur l'infanterie legère ou Traité des petites Opérations de la Guerre" by Guillaume Philibert Duhesme, and the "Essai général de Tactique" by Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte de Guibert. Luigi Gabrielli also wrote poems, most of which were inspired by political or  social events. He died in Palermo on 29 August 1854, while the Sicilian capital was being ravaged by a cholera outbreak. He had reached the rank of colonel.