Carlo Pisacane

Roman Republic (1849) Revolutionary socialism 1818–1857 ✕ Died in the Sapri expedition

Early Italian socialist who directed the defence of the Roman Republic, preached propaganda by the deed and died in the Sapri expedition

Born in Naples in 1818 into an impoverished noble family, he entered the Neapolitan army in 1839, but imbued with Mazzinian ideas he emigrated in 1847 and served in the French army in Algeria. The revolution of 1848 brought him back; commanding a company of the Lombard volunteer corps, he was badly wounded fighting the Austrians. In 1849 he was war commissioner and chief of staff in the defence of the Roman Republic. In exile in London and Genoa after the fall of Rome he lived by teaching, and his reading of Proudhon and Fourier led him to dispute with Mazzini over the character of the coming Italian revolution. An early advocate of propaganda by the deed, he held that ideas result from deeds. In June 1857 he sailed from Genoa, freed hundreds of prisoners on Ponza and landed at Sapri, but found almost no local support and died at Sanza on 2 July.