Liborio Angelucci (born 1746,

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

; died 1811,

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

) was a Roman politician and physician.

Biography

He had an excellent reputation as a physician and obstetrician and as a scholar because he was editor of the first Roman edition of Dante's

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...

. He was among the first in Rome to accept ideas of French Revolution and one of the few who worked for it. He was in contact with de Bassville whose doctor he was. In May 1794, he was arrested on charges of relationships with France and plotting against

Pius VI Pope Pius VI (; born Count Angelo Onofrio Melchiorre Natale Giovanni Antonio called Giovanni Angelo or Giannangelo Braschi, 25 December 171729 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to hi ...

. Released from

Castel Sant'Angelo Castel Sant'Angelo ( ), also known as Mausoleum of Hadrian (), is a towering rotunda (cylindrical building) in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. ...

on medical parole, he was in house arrest. Three years later (August 1797), he was arrested again for plotting to murder the Pope then released again as the result of French help following the

treaty of Tolentino The Treaty of Tolentino was a peace treaty between Revolutionary France and the Papal States, signed on 19 February 1797 and imposing terms of surrender on the Papal side. The signatories for France were the French Directory's Ambassador to the H ...

. He was now regarded as one of the pro-French party leader and he developed relationships with the new French Ambassador

Eugène de Beauharnais Eugène Rose de Beauharnais (; 3 September 1781 – 21 February 1824) was a French statesman and military officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Through the second marriage of his mother, Joséphine de Beauharnais, ...

. From September 1797 to March 1798, after a brief stop in Milan where he saw

Ugo Foscolo Ugo Foscolo (; 6 February 177810 September 1827), born Niccolò Foscolo, was an Italian writer, revolutionary and poet. He is especially remembered for his 1807 long poem ''Dei Sepolcri''. Early life Foscolo was born in Zakynthos in the Ionia ...

, he met

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

first in

Rastadt Rastatt () is a town with a Baroque core, District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located in the Upper Rhine Plain on the Murg river, above its junction with the Rhine and has a population of around 51,000 (2022). Rastatt was an i ...

, then in Paris to advocate for the Rome release. Following the fall of Rome when Berthier French troops invaded on 10 February 1798, Angelucci returned to Rome and was called up as a

Prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

, and shortly after,

Consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

(20 March 1798). As soon as he came to power, he was far from meeting the patriotic and democratic expectations of his fellows, concerned primarily with his family economical position while avoiding French occupants offence. Following numerous misappropriations, he was forced to resign but remained a prominent politician. In September 1799, at the fall of

, he followed the French and took refuge in France, in Marseille and Paris. After Marengo, he went back to Italy but not to Rome. Instead, he stopped in Milan where he became the Surgeon and Major Surgeon of the Italian Division of the "Veliti della Guardia". In 1809, when the French army occupied Rome, he went back home but he was kept out into the margins of public life by the Imperial administration. He was a member of the Roman Republic National Institute (''Istituto nazionale della Repubblica romana''). He died on 1811.

Posthumous reputation

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, s ...

Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1 ...

, the character of Cesare Angelotti was based in part upon Liborio Angelucci's life.

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Angelucci, Liborio 1746 births 1811 deaths People from the Papal States Physicians from Rome Roman Republic (18th century) Politicians from Rome