MANIN, DANIELE. — Patriot and statesman, b. in Venice on 13 May 1804, d. in Paris on 22 Sept. 1857. He devoted himself to legal, historical, and philological studies; in 1831 he revealed his fierce patriotism by issuing a proclamation exhorting his fellow citizens to rise up against the foreigner.
His efforts bore more effective results a few years later, when he undertook what he himself called a “legal struggle” against Austrian despotism, exposing with irrefutable evidence the continuous and flagrant violations by Austria of the Constitution it had itself granted to the Lombard-Venetian populations. Manin’s arrest in January 1848 sparked the revolt of the Venetians, who loudly demanded his release. Once freed, he set about realizing the idea he had conceived in prison: proclaiming the Republic of San Marco, so that Venice could take an active part in the great national unification movement. This proclamation took place on 22 March 1848, and Manin was acclaimed as its president, a position he held until the painful moment of the surrender on 22 August 1849, when, after the Piedmontese defeat at Novara (23 March), Venice remained alone in resisting the Austrians. Manin was then forced into exile, but from Paris, where he had taken refuge, he continued to follow the fate of his homeland. In 1855, he once again urged the Venetian republican party to sacrifice its ideals for the triumph of the national cause, which required the united strength of all Italian patriots under the Savoy monarchy. In matters of religion he was indifferent, if not openly hostile; he is said to have been a Freemason.