Ciro Menotti

Born Jan. 22, 1798, in Carpi, Italy; died May 26, 1831, in Modena, Italy. Owner of a silk mill and dis-patching office in Modena. Italian national liberation figure.

Menotti, a member of the Carbonari movement, headed a conspiracy aimed at organizing an uprising in the Italian states to achieve Italian unification and independence. His program envisaged the creation of an independent Italian state, with Rome as its capital, headed by a king elected by a constituent assembly.

According to Menotti’s original plan, the uprising was set for Feb. 5, 1831. This was changed to the night of February 3 after a number of the conspirators were arrested on that day. How-ever, on the evening of February 3, Menotti was arrested too. The uprising that he had organized nevertheless took place in Modena and spread to neighboring states, marking the beginning of the 1831 Revolution in a large part of central Italy. After the suppression of the revolution by Austrian troops in March 1831, Menotti was executed.