Zappi, Giovanni Battista - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XII, p. 1094

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

ZAPPI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. – General, born at Imola into a marquisal family on 2 June 1816, died in Florence on 28 December 1885.

He had served in the cavalry of the Austrian army until 1848. On 10 March 1851 he was admitted into the pontifical zuaves with the rank of major in the Dragoon Regiment. Lieutenant colonel on 1 May 1859, transferred to the General Staff Corps, he promptly helped suppress the disturbances in Ancona, occupying its fortress by a coup de main. At the outbreak of hostilities with Piedmont in 1860, he commanded the garrison of Pesaro; when, on 11 September, he was surrounded by Cialdini’s entire army corps in the Rocca Costanza, with only 1,200 men he delayed its advance for twenty-two hours, earning from Lamoricière (v.) promotion to colonel on the field.

Returning from captivity in Alessandria, he was appointed brigadier general and placed in command of the Second Brigade, charged with maintaining order in Rome and constituting its first defensive core (December 1865). He achieved this especially during the harsh Garibaldian guerrilla campaign of autumn 1867: in less than an hour he suppressed the numerous revolutionary riots of 22 October; on the 23rd he halted the Cairoli brothers’ thrust at Villa Glori; on the 25th he put an end to the resistance at Casa Aiani in Trastevere. He then played a major role in keeping the port of Civitavecchia open to French reinforcements and, Mentana (v.), in the reconquest of the Viterbese, while gallantly assisting the wounded Giovanni Cairoli and, at the request of his mother Adelaide Bono Cairoli, personally arranging for the return of the body of the fallen Enrico.

Even during the final crisis of 1870 he was an active advocate of staunch resistance, and on the morning of 20 September he personally distinguished himself, especially at Porta S. Giovanni and Porta Pia, ceasing fire only at the order of the Holy Father.

After commanding, on the following day, the pontifical troops’ parade at Porta S. Pancrazio to receive military honors from the royal troops, he once again followed his soldiers into captivity in Alessandria; having returned to Rome, he defied the hostility of the crowd (24 November) and, after a vigorous protest, withdrew to Florence.

BIBL.: in addition to the Necrologio, in L'Osservatore Romano of 30 December 1885, cf.: J. De Lamoricière, Rapporto sulla campagna del 1860, in Giornale di Roma, supplement to no. 259 (second half of 1860), part 2ª: E. Kanzler, Rapporto sulla invasione dello Stato Pontificio nell'autunno 1861, Rome 1868, pp. 9, 28, 31 and 32; G. G. Franco, I Crociati di S. Pietro, Rome 1869-70, see indexes; P. Balan, Continuaz. alla Stor. univ. della Chiesa dell'ab. Rohrbacher, II, Turin 1879, see indexes; A. M. Bonetti, La Liberazione di Roma e del gen. R. Cadorna, Siena 1889, pp. 10, 127, 265; id., Venticinque anni di Roma capit. d'Ital. e suoi precedenti (1825-1895), II, Rome 1896, see indexes; A. Mario, Garibaldi, Genoa 1895, pp. 105-97; P. V. FERRARIENSIS, Villa Glori, Rome 1899, pp. 110-23; K. von Schlözer, Rom. Briefe, Stuttgart-Berlin 1920, see indexes; A. Vigevano, La fine dell'Esercito Pontif., Rome 1920; id., La Campagna delle Marche e dell'Umbria, there 1923, pp. 286-291; A. Monti, Pio IX nel Risorgim. Ital., Bari 1928, p. 266; P. Dalla Torre, L'Anno di Mentana, Turin 1938; C. De Vecchi di Val Ciamon, Le carte di Giov. Lanza, VI, Turin 1938, pp. 290-91; R. Galli, Il generale è anche buono: A un alto ufficiale pontificio, lo Z., si rivolge con riconoscenza la madre del martire Enrico Cairoli, in Corriere Padano, 22 May 1943.

Paolo Dalla Torre