BRUNETTI, ANGELO, DETTO CICERUACCHIO

BRUNETTI, ANGELO, known as CICERUACCHIO. - Born in Rome on 27 Sept. 1800; died at Ca' Tiepolo on 11 Aug. 1849. The son of common people (his father, Lorenzo, was a farrier), he possessed the virtues and defects of the Roman populace. Intelligent, bold, generous, and violent, through his trade as a carter he attained modest prosperity and, through his personal qualities, great influence over the plebeians. Unconcerned with genuine political interests, he was moved by the accession of Pio IX, whose herald and champion he made himself among the common people. With rough but effective eloquence he upheld and extolled the Pontiff’s reforms and, as a respected and followed tribune, led demonstrations and torchlight processions. His influence endured even after the allocution of 29 Apr. 1848, which he sought to attribute to pressure from reactionaries. Without clearly defined political ideas and following only the impulses of his spirit, he eventually adopted more radical views. According to the studies of Giovagnoli, he was implicated in the assassination of Pellegrino Rossi, materially carried out by his son Luigi. During the republic he was commissioner of the barricades and attended to the provisioning of food supplies. After the fall of Rome, he followed Garibaldi in the retreat as far as the landing near Mesola. Betrayed, he and seven companions, among them his thirteen-year-old son Lorenzo, were captured by the Austrians at the Chiarelli inn on 10 Aug. and, after a summary examination, were shot with all the others (including his son Luigi, under the surname Bossi) at Ca' Tiepolo.