APOSTOLATO DANTESCO

APOSTOLATE OF DANTE. — Under the inspiration and encouragement of the learned man of letters Nicola Gaetani Tamburini of Monsampolo, who wished to educate Italians in the cause of freedom through the cult of Dante, this association, political in nature and opposed to the temporal power, was founded in Ascoli in 1855 under the guise of a literary academy. The title and veneration for the supreme poet recalled Mazzini, but the forms still bore the imprint of Carbonari models. Thus the noms de guerre (Ferruccio, Michelangelo, Galileo, Arnaldo, Bruto, Masaniello) of the “founding brothers,” as well as the rituals of their meetings and the bonds uniting members from various provinces. Around Tamburini gathered former liberals and young students, such as a Selva, an employee of the delegation, a Baldacelli of the customs, an Orazzi, municipal secretary of Cestorano, a Corsini, a Palmarini, a Menghi, a De Tomasi, and many others, among whom the most notable was Temistocle Mariotti. The action of the Apostolate of Dante within the broader conspiratorial movement of the Marches was not extensive, and it can be said that, by November 1857, when the papal authorities began arresting members, it was already effectively inactive. The “Ascolan case of lèse-majesté, or of membership in a secret society,” concluded with the sentence of 17 December 1858, by which Tamburini, Baldacelli, Palmarini, Menghi, and Orazzi were condemned to ten years in prison, while the others received lesser sentences. A woman, the young Giulia Centurelli, was acquitted through the intervention of the good Bishop Belgrado. Between the spring of 1859 and the summer of 1860, all were granted amnesty.