Giuseppe Garibaldi | Autograph manuscript poem on the misfortunes of Italy, 1855

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Autograph manuscript fair copy of a poem on the misfortunes of Italy

7 six-line stanzas, 42 lines, on blue lined paper, an annotation below the verses recording that Garibaldi wrote them out in 1855 for Emma Roberts, 2 pages, folio

[with] excerpt of a newspaper with the printing of the poem

Garibaldi spent much of the mid 1800s in South America in exile, fighting in the Uruguayan Civil War with Italian troops and winning victories in the Battles of Cerro and San Antonio del Santo. This poem shows his enduring and lifelong attachment to Italy, where exclaims that he would rather see Italy burning in flames rather than crushed beneath a vandal's club ('prià de vederti trepida sotto il baston di un vandolo'). It was published with an English translation in The Times in 1863.

PROVENANCE:

Richard Monckton Milnes (1809-1885), sale of the property of his descendants, Christie's, London, 29 June 1995, lot 401