Ricciardi

( Giuseppe Napoleone), Count, Italian patriot, b. Capodimonte (Naples), 19 July, 1808, son of Francesco Ricciardi, Count of Camaldoli, 1758–1842. Early in life he published patriotic poems. He says that never after he was nineteen did he kneel before a priest. In ’32 he founded at Naples Il Progre o , a review of science, literature, and art. Arrested in ’34 as a Republican conspirator, he was imprisoned eight months and then lived in exile in France until ’48. Here he wrote in the Revue Indépendante , pointing out that the Papacy from its very e ence was incompatible with liberty. Elected deputy to the Neapolitan Parliament, he sat on the extreme left. He wrote a History of the Revolution of Italy in ’48 (Paris ’49). Condemned to death in ’53, his fortune was seized. He wrote an Italian Martyrology from 1792–1847 (Turin ’56), and The Pope and Italy , ’62. At the time of the Ecumenical Council he called an Anti-council of Freethinkers at Naples, ’69. This was di olved by the Italian government, but it led to the International Federation of Freethinkers. Count Ricciardi published an account of the congre . His last work was a life of his friend Mauro Macchi, ’82. Died 1884.