BRUNETTI, ANGELO, DETTO CICERUACCHIO

ANGELO BRUNETTI, known as CICERUACCHIO. — Born in Rome on 27 Sept. 1800, died at Ca’ Tiepolo on 11 Aug. 1849. Son of common folk (his father, Lorenzo, was a maniac), he inherited the virtues and defects of the Roman populace. Intelligent, bold, generous and violent, he managed through his trade as a carter to secure modest comfort and, by dint of personal qualities, to wield great influence over the lower classes. Though devoid of any true political interests, he was moved by the accession of Pius IX, whose reforms he proclaimed and championed among the common people. With rough but effective eloquence he upheld and extolled the Pope’s measures, and as a tribune respected and followed he led demonstrations and torchlit processions. His influence persisted even after the allocution of 29 Apr. 1848, which he strove to attribute to pressure from reactionaries. Lacking well-defined political ideas and guided only by the impulses of his heart, he ended by drifting toward more radical notions. According to the researches of Giovagnoli, he became implicated in the assassination of Pellegrino Rossi, which was carried out materially by his son Luigi. During the Republic he served as commissioner for the barricades and attended to the supply of provisions. After the fall of Rome he accompanied Garibaldi in the retreat as far as the landing near Mesola. Betrayed, together with seven other companions—among them his thirteen-year-old son Lorenzo—he was seized by the Austrians at the Chiarelli inn on 10 Aug. and, after a summary trial, shot along with the rest (including his son Luigi under the surname of Bossi) at Ca’ Tiepolo.