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Antonio Carlo Napoleone Gallenga

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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ANTONIO CARLO NAPOLEONE GALLENGA (1810-1895), Italian author and patriot, born at Parma on the 4th of November 1810, was the eldest son of a Piedmontese of good family, who served for ten years in the French army under Massena and Napoleon. He had finished his education at the university of Parma, when the French Revolution of 1830 caused a ferment in Italy. He sympathized with the movement, and within a few months was successively a conspirator, a state prisoner, a combatant and a fugitive. For the next five years he lived a wandering life in France, Spain and Africa. In August 1836 he embarked for New York, and three years later he proceeded to England, where he supported himself as a translator and teacher of languages. His first book, Italy; General Views of its History and Literature, which appeared in 1841, was well received, but was not successful financially. On the outbreak of the Italian revolution in 1848 he at once put himself in communication with the insurgents. He filled the post of Charge d'Affaires for Piedmont at Frankfort in 1848-1849, and for the next few years he travelled incessantly between Italy and England, working for the liberation of his country. In 1854, through Cavour's influence, he was elected a deputy to the Italian parliament. He retained his seat until 1864, passing the summer in England and fulfilling his parliamentary duties at Turin in the winter. On the outbreak of the Austro-French War of 1859 he proceeded to Lombardy as war correspondent of The Times. The campaign was so brief that the fighting-was over before he arrived, but his connexion with The Times endured for twenty years. He was a forcible and picturesque writer, with a command of English remarkable for an Italian. He materially helped to establish that friendly feeling towards Italy which became traditional in England. In 185 9 Gallenga purchased the Falls, at Llandogo on the Wye, as a residence, and thither he retired in 1885. He died at this house on the 17th of December 1895. He was twice married. Among his chief works are an Historical Memoir of Fret Dolcino and his Times (1853); a History of Piedmont ( 3 vols., 1855; Italian translation, 1856); Country Life in Piedmont (1858); The Invasion of Denmark (2 vols., 1864); The Pearl of the Antilles [travels in ] (1873); Italy Revisited (2 vols., 187J); Two Years of the Eastern Question (2 vols., 1877); The Pope [Pius IX.] and the King [Victor ] (2 vols., 1879); South America (1880); A Summer Tour in Russia (1882); Iberian Reminiscences (2 vols., 1883); Episodes of my Second Life (1884); Italy, Present and Future ( 2 vols., 1887). Gallenga's earlier publications appeared under the pseudonym of Luigi Mariotti.