SPADA, GIUSEPPE. — Historian, b. in Rome on 21 July 1793, d. there on 3 November 1867. In 1811 he entered the Torlonia bank, of which he soon became attorney and, in 1863, co-owner.
He wrote the Storia della Rivoluzione di Roma (partial posthumous ed. by his son Alessandro, 1868–69). The fundamental thesis of the “foreign” origin of the Roman Revolution is manifested in La difesa dei Romani and in the Trecento biografie of “foreigners” who came to Rome during that period to disturb the peaceful life of the local population; this thesis also reappears, in attenuated form, in the Storia.
S., a conservative Catholic, certainly did not fully understand the meaning and value of the new political and social currents, to which he was decisively opposed. His Storia is not, however, a partisan work, and the narrative, though weak and prolix, proceeds serenely and honestly; it must be regarded as one of the most serious and useful printed sources for the study of the Roman Revolution.
Published works: Osservazioni storiche sulla unità e nazionalità italiana (Rome 1860); Storia della Rivoluzione di Roma e della restaurazione del governo pontificio dal 1º giugno 1846 al 15 luglio 1849 (3 vols., Florence 1868–69). Unpublished works: a Cronaca di tutti gli avvenimenti di Roma dal 16 giugno 1846 al 3 luglio 1849; and Sommario ossia raccolta di alcuni documenti riportati in appoggio alla storia di Roma.