GARIBALDI'S AMNESTY

FALANGOLA, ANGELO.

Incartamento Generale della umanitaria opera Escarcerazione dei detenuti civili nelle provincie meridionali d'Italia disposta dell'invitto generele Giuseppe Garibaldi.

[No place or printer], 1861. Small folio. Bound in contemporary half vellum. Dampstaining in top corner throughout. Binding slightly loose. Pp. 48 + 5 folded tables.

Rare first edition (only?) of Neapolitan police inspector Angelo Falangola's account of a plea made on behalf of imprisoned debtors for an amnesty.
This most likely unprecedented legal action is documented in detail, reprinting the correspondence between Falangola, different legal instances and Garibaldi's permission to free the debtors.

During the height of the final battles for Italian unity and against the remnants of autocracy in Southern Italy, when Garibaldi figured as 'Dittatore dell'Italia Meridionale Generale Garibaldi,' the Neapolitan inspector of the police Angelo Falangola made a plea on behalf of imprisoned debtors for an amnesty, which was granted by Garibaldi, after a collection of money had been carried out in all Neapolitan provinces in order to raise money as a guarantee for the debts. Falangola here presents a documentation of the history of this amnesty, the legal and financial wranglings, including tables of the debtors, the amount of debts and the creditors.

The amnesty was given during the famous Expedition of the Thousand; an event of the Italian Risorgimento took place in 1860. A corps of volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in Sicily in order to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, ruled by the Bourbons.
The project was an ambitious and risky venture to conquer, with a thousand men, a kingdom with a larger regular army and a more powerful navy. The expedition was a success and concluded with a victory that brought Naples and Sicily into the Kingdom of Sardinia, the last territorial conquest before the creation of the Kingdom of Italy on March 17, 1861.

Order-nr.: 47327