Before the following translation, it is important to write that -contrary to what usually states the French propaganda- the Corsicans welcomed the Italian irredentism showing some undeniable support. Indeed this irredentism in Corsica was promoted mainly by Petru Giovacchini, who in 1933 created the "Corsican Culture Groups" in Corsica to defend its Italian character. Giovacchini promoted the union of Corsica to the Kingdom of Italy especially starting from 1939, also seeking proselytes among the autonomous movements of the island linked to Santu Casanova. He organized large demonstrations on the island, celebrating the Italian annexation of Albania in that year. During the second world war these groups of Giovacchini favorable to Italy became the important "Gruppi di azione irredentista corsa" (Corsican groups of Italian irredentist action).
The members of the movement went up to a historical maximum, in February 1942, of 72,000 (it is noteworthy to pinpoint that all the population of Corsica was 220,000 in that year: this is an undeniable proof of the mild acceptance of the union to Italy by a very large percentage of the Corsican population!), while Giovacchini was rewarded with the nomination as national councilor of the Fascist Party. But the most emblematic fact of the rise of this irredentist movement in Corsica occurred in February 1942, when a Corsican Battalion of the Italian Army was established in Sardinia, framed in the Sassari division of the "73 Legione Camicie Nere". Furthermore, until the first spring months of 1943 there was no "resistance" movement (linked to De Gaulle) against the Italians in all Corsica. And in late December 1942 there were manifestations in some cities of Corsica in favor of the creation of an "Italian Governorate of Corsica" -similar to the just (in 1941) established "Governorate of Dalmatia"- under Governor Petru Giovacchini.
The members of the movement went up to a historical maximum, in February 1942, of 72,000 (it is noteworthy to pinpoint that all the population of Corsica was 220,000 in that year: this is an undeniable proof of the mild acceptance of the union to Italy by a very large percentage of the Corsican population!), while Giovacchini was rewarded with the nomination as national councilor of the Fascist Party. But the most emblematic fact of the rise of this irredentist movement in Corsica occurred in February 1942, when a Corsican Battalion of the Italian Army was established in Sardinia, framed in the Sassari division of the "73 Legione Camicie Nere". Furthermore, until the first spring months of 1943 there was no "resistance" movement (linked to De Gaulle) against the Italians in all Corsica. And in late December 1942 there were manifestations in some cities of Corsica in favor of the creation of an "Italian Governorate of Corsica" -similar to the just (in 1941) established "Governorate of Dalmatia"- under Governor Petru Giovacchini.
ITALIAN IRREDENTISM IN CORSICA, written by Giulio Vignoli (Universita statale di Genova)
More than sixty years ago the trial of Corsican irredentists took place in Bastia, at the Court of Justice of the Corsica (Court for the defense of the State), which ended with death sentences or harsh prison sentences.
Let's try to reconstruct the story starting from the facts.
The French occupation of Corsica (1769: battle of Pontenuovo, won by the French against Corsican separatists) did not, at the beginning, cut off commercial or cultural relations with the Peninsula: in 1820 on fifty ships arriving at the ports of the island, thirty came from Italy. The Risorgimento exiles preferred Corsica as a place of refuge because they seemed to be at home; in 1831 Mazzini thus expressed himself: "There I felt again with the joy of those who repatriate on Italian soil".
The design of imposing knowledge of French through teaching begins with the arrival of Inspector Morre in Corsica. The Journal de Département de la Corse of 7 October 1818 informs the population that the "French language, so neglected in the schools of this Department", will become the basis of education. Also remember that studies done abroad cannot be used in France to obtain qualifications in law or to practice medicine or surgery with the obvious aim of dissuading young people who are still studying in Rome or Pisa. In reality, despite the spread of French in schools, Italian continues to be taught throughout the first half of the century. In 1863 no French was spoken in any Corsica municipality; only 68 schools out of 516 exclusively use French as a teaching language, 61% of pupils between the ages of seven and thirteen do not speak or write French.
It was Napoleon III who reiterated the abolition of the use of Italian in public documents and suppressed the teaching, although throughout the nineteenth century an Italian Corsican literature flourished, which had above all the two prominent figures in Salvatore Viale and Pietro Lucciana . At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, apart from a few exceptions, the Italian was practically dead as a literary language, even though Italian newspapers were still circulating throughout Corsica as far as the most remote municipalities and if it lived partly as a spoken language. After the First World War the Italian language, however, is agonizing, while the economic situation of the island is disastrous, the incessant emigration and the government of the public thing inefficient. There are various statistics relating to emigration: from 275,000 inhabitants in 1860 we would have fallen to 170,000 in 1962 to go back to 228,000 in 1977. Currently (2001), the inhabitants of Corsica are 261,800 on an area of 8,680 square kilometers. Malta with 315.6 sq km has 378.518 inhabitants!
Let's try to reconstruct the story starting from the facts.
The French occupation of Corsica (1769: battle of Pontenuovo, won by the French against Corsican separatists) did not, at the beginning, cut off commercial or cultural relations with the Peninsula: in 1820 on fifty ships arriving at the ports of the island, thirty came from Italy. The Risorgimento exiles preferred Corsica as a place of refuge because they seemed to be at home; in 1831 Mazzini thus expressed himself: "There I felt again with the joy of those who repatriate on Italian soil".
The design of imposing knowledge of French through teaching begins with the arrival of Inspector Morre in Corsica. The Journal de Département de la Corse of 7 October 1818 informs the population that the "French language, so neglected in the schools of this Department", will become the basis of education. Also remember that studies done abroad cannot be used in France to obtain qualifications in law or to practice medicine or surgery with the obvious aim of dissuading young people who are still studying in Rome or Pisa. In reality, despite the spread of French in schools, Italian continues to be taught throughout the first half of the century. In 1863 no French was spoken in any Corsica municipality; only 68 schools out of 516 exclusively use French as a teaching language, 61% of pupils between the ages of seven and thirteen do not speak or write French.
It was Napoleon III who reiterated the abolition of the use of Italian in public documents and suppressed the teaching, although throughout the nineteenth century an Italian Corsican literature flourished, which had above all the two prominent figures in Salvatore Viale and Pietro Lucciana . At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, apart from a few exceptions, the Italian was practically dead as a literary language, even though Italian newspapers were still circulating throughout Corsica as far as the most remote municipalities and if it lived partly as a spoken language. After the First World War the Italian language, however, is agonizing, while the economic situation of the island is disastrous, the incessant emigration and the government of the public thing inefficient. There are various statistics relating to emigration: from 275,000 inhabitants in 1860 we would have fallen to 170,000 in 1962 to go back to 228,000 in 1977. Currently (2001), the inhabitants of Corsica are 261,800 on an area of 8,680 square kilometers. Malta with 315.6 sq km has 378.518 inhabitants!
The creation of the Historical Archive of Corsica by Gioacchino Volpe was fundamental in this regard; the best scholars of history run together with this magazine, born January 1, 1925.
Some young courses, tired of clashes between clans and the vegetating of autonomous conventicles (however, the autonomist party progressed directed by Petru Rocca was distinguished), the attempts to renew the situation of the island, reduced to a pensioner of old than in administration of the French colonial empire they had found modest accommodations, they left the island for Italy with the aim of ending their studies at Italian universities (as had happened in the past anyway) and to sensitize Italian public opinion to their problems. The University of Corte, founded by Pasquale Paoli in 1765, had in fact been closed by the French in 1768 (it will be reopened in 1982!).
Marco Angeli, Bertino Poli, Petru Giovacchini, intellectuals (they will be noteworthy poets and writers in Italian and in progress) and political agitators were distinguished among the pro-Italians. Dell’Angeli, then graduated in medicine at the University of Pisa, remember the volume Gigli di Stagnu. Liriche corse (Milan, 1932); of Giovacchini - a doctor - Corsicans papal archiatters (Rome, 1951), he also published Musa canalnica, Rime night, Aurore, Corsica, etc. They are responsible for the foundation of organized groups of courses, exiles from the island.
The race action groups were headed by the Angeli and the Giovacchini: the latter, however, enjoyed greater favor with the Italian authorities. Angeli's father, taking refuge in France from Corsica, will find a horrible end: lynched by the crowd in a riot. Poli, who also graduated in Pisa, but in letters, participated in a minor way in the activity of agitator, even if his publications are those of a purely political content, compared to those of the other two, also addressed, as we have seen , to topics, let's say, "extemporaneous". See del Poli The irredentist thought course and its controversies (Florence, 1940) and A Corsica by dumani (Livorno, 1943).
Their work was accompanied by other public and private initiatives. The most important was the foundation of the association "Corsican Culture Groups" then erected in a public body. We also remember that the newspaper Il Telegrafo of Livorno published every Thursday a page Voices of the island of Corsica dedicated to the news of the island; also the newspaper The Island of Sassari published a weekly page our Corsica. A prominent place among the periodicals that at that time dealt with Corsica is the Mediterranean magazine of Cagliari and the university newspaper of Pisa Il Campano. Also at the University of Pisa was founded in 1942 the National Institute of Courses Studies directed by prof. Bruno Imbasciati.
Publication more properly of the exiles was ancient and modern Corsica, monthly magazine, founded by the first animator of the cultural movement course in Italy, prof. Francesco Guerri, aka "Minuto Grosso"; he went to Livorno in the thirties with the collaboration of Angeli, Q. Giglioli, O.F. Tencajoli, E. Pellegrini, etc. the magazine edited a series of volumes "Travel history documents". There was another irredentist newspaper L''idea idea, directed by Anton Francesco Filippini, course of origin, but who had taken Italian citizenship immediately after his arrival, so he was not persecuted.
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| Petru Giovacchini, leader of the Italian irredentism in Corsica, actively promoted the unification of Corsica to the Kingdom of Italy during the early 1940s. |
The claims of Italy towards France followed in 1938: Nice, Corsica, Djibouti, Tunis. The declaration of war on France and the Italian military occupation of Corsica opened the hearts of the irredentists to hope. Mussolini, however, did not turn occupation into annexation, postponing the issue to the end of the war (for further information read https://books.google.com/books?id=ZcUNELPsQQsC&pg=PA218&lpg=PA218&dq=italian+occupation+in+corsica&source=bl&ots=9HMSuPB9TE&sig=Jync7AzSKbmaC2K1ctTAisze08I&hl=en&ei=brR5Tb23FsKCrQG5xNWNBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=italian%20occupation%20in%20corsica&f=false.
).
The question of the agreements that would have taken place between the Italian Army and some military courses remains very interesting and yet to be fully investigated. For these reasons, after the "liberation" of Corsica by French colonial troops, Colonel Petru Simon Cristofini was sentenced to death; the shooting took place in Algiers in November 1943. Cristofini's wife, Marta Renucci, was also sentenced to several years in prison, which she served in Algiers. Marta Renucci, the first woman in Corsica to work as a journalist, died, after many vicissitudes, a few years ago over 90 years old.
Also for the reasons mentioned above, Colonel Pantalacci and his son Antonio were also sentenced to death, but they managed to repair in Italy. On the course of the military courses we intend to return to a future article.
The victory of the Allies ended a world. The French repression was very harsh. Every autonomist movement suppressed. One wanted to destroy every linguistic home, the same Corsican identity, once and for all. The French imposed everywhere: think that if the students of the schools were heard talking in progress, they were expelled, even beaten. The Church - the last guardian of Corsican corsicanity and who had previously used Italian in homilies, sermons, and factory records - adopted French as its language.
The irredentists were hunted down, while the death sentences were falling and so were the harsh prison sentences and deportations.
On the dock, in the trial held before the Court for the defense of the State, meeting in Bastia in 1946, they sat: prof. Eugenio Grimaldi (cousin of Petru Giovacchini); Angelo Giovacchini (brother of Petru); Yvia Croce, curator of the State Archives of Corsica; don Domenico Carlotti, monsignor of the Cathedral of Bastia and well-known dialect writer with the pseudonym of "Martinu Appinzapalu" (we remember the volume Racconti e leggende by Cirnu bella, Livorno, 1930); Petru Rocca, animator of the Corsican independent movement and director of the newspaper A Muvra; Giuseppe Damiani, teacher; Marco Leca, former mayor of Pastricciola; Maria Margherita Ambrosi, widow Piazzoli (Piazzoli was a delicate dialect poet who exalted Italy in its rhymes); by default Maria Rosa Alfonsi.
The fugitives were: Giovacchini, Poli, Angeli, Giovanni Luccarotti and Pietro Luigi Marchetti, journalist and poet, refugees in Italy.
Everyone, except Grimaldi, was accused of crimes of opinion for journalistic collaborations or for the content of the books they published in favor of Italy.
Deaths were condemned: the Luccarotti, the Poli, the Angeli, Petru Giovacchini, the Marchetti and the Grimaldi. Petru Rocca was sentenced to fifteen years of forced labor: he was deported to Guiana (La Cayenna) and died a few years after serving his sentence. Carlotti was sentenced to ten years in prison: he was then already sixty-eight years old and will die in prison; the Cross, the Alfonsi and the Damiani to five years of forced labor (the Cross will die in poverty after having published a book of memories); the Ambrosi five-year prison sentence; the Giovacchini Angelo with two. Everyone's assets were confiscated except for those belonging to Angelo Giovacchini and Marco Leca, who, alone, was found not guilty of the crime of harming the security of the State, but condemned to "national degradation!"
As for those condemned to death, the defendants were, as we have seen, hidden in Italy (except for Grimaldi) and remained here. About Luccarotti it was not possible to get news; Petru Giovacchini, Poli and Angeli died in the succession indicated several years ago in Italy where they lived almost clandestine. The Angels, and was the last, died on December 22, 1985. Giovacchini died in Canterano in the Lazio Apennines, Poli and Angeli where they had taken refuge, in northern Italy. Marchetti, a few years after the sentence, asked for a pardon and returned to France. Finally, Grimaldi, who was under arrest, applied for a pardon, obtaining the commutation of the death sentence into a prison sentence; he's been dead for several years noiw. The Grimaldi, it must be said, was not however born in Corsica, being from Termini Imerese (in Italy's Sicily).
The question of the agreements that would have taken place between the Italian Army and some military courses remains very interesting and yet to be fully investigated. For these reasons, after the "liberation" of Corsica by French colonial troops, Colonel Petru Simon Cristofini was sentenced to death; the shooting took place in Algiers in November 1943. Cristofini's wife, Marta Renucci, was also sentenced to several years in prison, which she served in Algiers. Marta Renucci, the first woman in Corsica to work as a journalist, died, after many vicissitudes, a few years ago over 90 years old.
Also for the reasons mentioned above, Colonel Pantalacci and his son Antonio were also sentenced to death, but they managed to repair in Italy. On the course of the military courses we intend to return to a future article.
The victory of the Allies ended a world. The French repression was very harsh. Every autonomist movement suppressed. One wanted to destroy every linguistic home, the same Corsican identity, once and for all. The French imposed everywhere: think that if the students of the schools were heard talking in progress, they were expelled, even beaten. The Church - the last guardian of Corsican corsicanity and who had previously used Italian in homilies, sermons, and factory records - adopted French as its language.
The irredentists were hunted down, while the death sentences were falling and so were the harsh prison sentences and deportations.
On the dock, in the trial held before the Court for the defense of the State, meeting in Bastia in 1946, they sat: prof. Eugenio Grimaldi (cousin of Petru Giovacchini); Angelo Giovacchini (brother of Petru); Yvia Croce, curator of the State Archives of Corsica; don Domenico Carlotti, monsignor of the Cathedral of Bastia and well-known dialect writer with the pseudonym of "Martinu Appinzapalu" (we remember the volume Racconti e leggende by Cirnu bella, Livorno, 1930); Petru Rocca, animator of the Corsican independent movement and director of the newspaper A Muvra; Giuseppe Damiani, teacher; Marco Leca, former mayor of Pastricciola; Maria Margherita Ambrosi, widow Piazzoli (Piazzoli was a delicate dialect poet who exalted Italy in its rhymes); by default Maria Rosa Alfonsi.
The fugitives were: Giovacchini, Poli, Angeli, Giovanni Luccarotti and Pietro Luigi Marchetti, journalist and poet, refugees in Italy.
Everyone, except Grimaldi, was accused of crimes of opinion for journalistic collaborations or for the content of the books they published in favor of Italy.
Deaths were condemned: the Luccarotti, the Poli, the Angeli, Petru Giovacchini, the Marchetti and the Grimaldi. Petru Rocca was sentenced to fifteen years of forced labor: he was deported to Guiana (La Cayenna) and died a few years after serving his sentence. Carlotti was sentenced to ten years in prison: he was then already sixty-eight years old and will die in prison; the Cross, the Alfonsi and the Damiani to five years of forced labor (the Cross will die in poverty after having published a book of memories); the Ambrosi five-year prison sentence; the Giovacchini Angelo with two. Everyone's assets were confiscated except for those belonging to Angelo Giovacchini and Marco Leca, who, alone, was found not guilty of the crime of harming the security of the State, but condemned to "national degradation!"
As for those condemned to death, the defendants were, as we have seen, hidden in Italy (except for Grimaldi) and remained here. About Luccarotti it was not possible to get news; Petru Giovacchini, Poli and Angeli died in the succession indicated several years ago in Italy where they lived almost clandestine. The Angels, and was the last, died on December 22, 1985. Giovacchini died in Canterano in the Lazio Apennines, Poli and Angeli where they had taken refuge, in northern Italy. Marchetti, a few years after the sentence, asked for a pardon and returned to France. Finally, Grimaldi, who was under arrest, applied for a pardon, obtaining the commutation of the death sentence into a prison sentence; he's been dead for several years noiw. The Grimaldi, it must be said, was not however born in Corsica, being from Termini Imerese (in Italy's Sicily).
History
Corsica was considered Italian (ethnically, linguistically and historically) until 1768,[1] when the Republic of Genoa, which had ruled the island for centuries, ceded the island to France, one year before the birth of Napoleon Bonaparte in the capital city of Ajaccio. Under French rule, the use of the Corsican language, which is closely related to standard Italian, has gradually declined and has been replaced by French.
Giuseppe Garibaldi promoted the unification of Corsican Italians to Italy when Rome was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, but Victor Emmanuel II did not agree to it.
The course of Italian irredentism only marginally affected Corsica, and only during the Fascist rule of Benito Mussolini were the first organizations strongly promoting the unification of the island to the Kingdom of Italy founded.[2]
Before World War I in Livorno, professor Francesco Guerri founded the review "Corsica antica e moderna", inspired on the "Archivio storico di Corsica" of Gioacchino Volpe. Petru Rocca created in the 1920s the Partito autonomista of Corsica (of which he was the leader) with the support of monsignor Domenico Parlotti and dr. Croce, director of the "Archivi di Stato della Corsica".
Before and during World War II, some Corsican intellectuals staged pro-Italian propaganda and cultural activities in Italy (mainly in the "Gruppi di Cultura Corsa" - read: http://www.giovanniarmillotta.it/pisa/pisa94_corsica.html). These included Marco Angeli di Sartena, Bertino Poli, Marchetti, Luccarotti, Grimaldi and Petru Giovacchini (he was later proposed as a possible governor of Corsica if Italy had annexed it).[3] The most renowned was Petru Giovacchini, who considered Pasquale Paoli (the hero of Corsica) as the precursor of Corsican irredentism in favor of the unification of the island to Italy.[4] The "Gruppi di Cultura Corsa" of Giovacchini reached a membership of 72,000 members by 1940, according to the historian R.H. Rainero.[5]
In November 1942 the VII Army Corps of the Regio Esercito occupied Corsica as part of the German led response to the Ally landings in Africa, leaving the island still under the formal sovereignty of Vichy France. Because of the lack of partisan resistance at first, and to avoid problems with Marshal Philippe Pétain, no Corsican units were formed under Italian control (except for a labour battalion formed in March 1943). However, a Resistance movement based on local inhabitants loyal to France and boosted by Free French leaders developed, opposing the irredentist propaganda and the Italian occupation, and was repressed by Italian fascist forces and subsequently by German troops.
Some irredentist Corsican military officials collaborated with Italy, including the retired Major Pantalacci (and his son Antonio), colonel Mondielli and colonel Petru Simone Cristofini (and his wife, the first Corsican female journalist Marta Renucci).[6] After Free French forces and Resistance forces, together with some Italian troops which sided with the Allies, retook Corsica, Petru Cristofini was executed in 1943. Of nearly 100 irrendentist collaborators (including intellectuals) put on trial by the French authorities in 1946, eight were sentenced to death, but none were executed.[7] Petru Giovacchini was also condemned to death, but fled to Italy where he found refuge until his death in 1955. With him, the Italian irredentistic movement in Corsica died out, though separate movements for independence from France (like the Corsica Nazione, Partitu di a Nazione Corsa) and the terrorist organization called National Front for the Liberation of Corsica) are currently active.
Cristofini Pietro
Colonel Cristofini Pietro (or Petru Simon Cristofini) was born in Calenzana (near Calvi, Corsica) on 26 May 1903 and in 1939 became a captain of the 3rd Algerian Fusiliers regiment. He was initially a supporter of Pétain. After the Allied occupation of French North Africa he commanded the Phalange Africaine.
In Tunisia he was wounded in one eye and then, before returning to Corsica, met Benito Mussolini in Rome. He was a supporter of the union of Corsica to Italy and defended irredentist ideals. He actively collaborated with Italian forces in Corsica during the first months of 1943. In the island he worked with Petru Giovacchini (the possible governor of Corsica if the Axis had won the war). Cristofini, as head of the Ajaccio troops, helped the Italian Army to repress Resistance opposition in Corsica before the Italian Armistice in September 1943.
He was put on trial for treason after the Allies retook Corsica, and sentenced to death. He tried to kill himself, and was executed while suffering from his wounds in November 1943. His wife, Marta Renucci, was sentenced in 1946 to 15 years of jail in Algiers for supporting irredentism and for collaborating with Italian fascism, but served only a reduced sentence.
Language
While most Corsicans spoke a Corsican dialect at home, until the first half of the 19th-century Italian was the language most publicly spoken and written on the island.
The first Corsican Constitution, for the short-lived Corsican Republic established in 1755, was written in Italian and Paoli proclaimed Italian as the official language of Corsica. Italian was the 'language of culture' in Corsica until the end of the 19th century.[8] Even Paoli's second Corsican Constitution, for the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom in 1794, was in Italian.[9] In the second half of the 19th century French replaced Italian, mainly because of Napoleon III. The Corsican dialect started to be used by Corsican intellectuals.
The actual Corsican language is directly related to the Tuscan dialect of Pisa, an Italian city that dominated the island before Genoa. In the north of the island (Calvi), there is a local dialect very similar to the medieval Genoese. In the mountainous interior of Corsica there is a significant number of villages where nearly all the inhabitants speak Corso, a medieval Pisan dialect mixed with Sardinian words.[10]
The extreme similarity of the Corso to Italian can be seen in an example phrase:
Corso: Sò natu in Corsica è g'aghju passatu i megli anni di a mio ghjuventù
Italian: Sono nato in Corsica e ci ho passato i migliori anni della mia gioventù
English: I was born in Corsica and spent the best years of my youth there
Nearly 12% of Corsicans speak Italian, while three-quarters understand it thanks to the television programmes from Italy.[11]
The irredentist Marco Angeli di Sartèna wrote the first book in "Corso" (titled Terra còrsa) in 1924 and many lyrics (titled Malincunie) in Ajaccio. He created and wrote the newspaper «Gioventù» of the "Partito Corso d'azione", partially in Italian and Corsican.
Today Italian Corsicans speak French fluently, but most of them are second-language speakers.
Pasquale Paoli and Italian irredentism
Pasquale Paoli was considered by Niccolo Tommaseo, who collected his Lettere (Letters), as one of the precursors of Italian irredentism.
The "Babbu di a Patria" (father of Corsica), as Pasquale Paoli was nicknamed by the Corsican Independentists, wrote in his Letters [12] the following message in 1768 against the French invaders: "We (Corsicans) are Italians by birth and feelings, but first of all we feel Italian by language, roots, customs, traditions and all the Italians are all brothers for History and for God.... As Corsicans we do not want to be slaves nor "rebels" and as Italians we have the right to be treated like all the other Italian brothers.... Either we'll be free or we'll be nothing.... Either we'll win or we'll die (against the French) with our weapons in our hands.... The war against France is just and holy as the name of God is holy and just, and here on our mountains will appear for all Italy the sun of liberty." ("Siamo còrsi per nascita e sentimento ma prima di tutto ci sentiamo italiani per lingua, origini, costumi, tradizioni e gli italiani sono tutti fratelli e solidali di fronte alla storia e di fronte a Dio… Come còrsi non vogliamo essere né schiavi né "ribelli" e come italiani abbiamo il diritto di trattare da pari con gli altri fratelli d’Italia… O saremo liberi o non saremo niente… O vinceremo con l’onore o soccomberemo (contro i francesi) con le armi in mano... La guerra con la Francia è giusta e santa come santo e giusto è il nome di Dio, e qui sui nostri monti spunterà per l’Italia il sole della libertà…")
Pasquale Paoli wanted the Italian language to be the official language of his Corsican Republic. His Corsican Constitution of 1755 was in Italian and was used as a model for the American constitution of 1787. Furthermore, in 1765 Paoli founded in the city of Corte the first University of Corsica (where the teaching was done in Italian).
Literature
The Italian language, promoted by the Corsican Italians, had been the language of culture in Corsica since the Renaissance. Many Corsican authors wrote an extensive literature in Italian in the last centuries.
In the 14th century there was La Cronica of Giovanni della Grossa (1388-1464), Pier Antonio Monteggiani (1464-1525) and Marcantoni Ceccaldi (1526-1559). Storia di Corsica was published in 1594 by Anton Pietro Filippini. In the 15th and 16th centuries there were Ignazio Cardini (1566-1602), Pietro Cirneo (1447-1507), Guiglielmo Guglielmi di Orezza (1644-1728) with A Malannata and Ottave giocose.
In the 18th century, the Accademia dei Vagabondi was founded in Bastia, following the model of the Italian "Accademie". Angelo Francesco Colonna wrote Commentario delle glorie e prerogative del Regno e Popoli di Corsica in 1685.
During the Corsican Republic of Pasquale Paoli, there were Giulio Matteo Natali (Disinganno intorno alla Guerra de Corsica in 1736), Don Gregorio Salvini (Giustificazione della Revoluzione di Corsica (1758-1764)) and the same Pasquale Paoli (Corrispondenza (published only in 1846).
During the 19th century in Bastia, Salvatore Viale wrote La Dionomachia in 1817, Canti popolari corsi in 1843 and Dell'uso della lingua patria in Corsica in 1858.
Many Corsican authors (who wrote in Italian) were influenced by the ideals of the Italian Risorgimento during the second half of the 19th century, such as Giuseppe Multado, Gian Paolo Borghetti, Francesco Ottaviano Renucci (Storia della Corsica dal 1789 al 1830 and Novelle storiche corse). Even the Italian Nicolo Tommaseo collected the Canti popolari corsi (with points of view of Italian irredentism) and made a compilation of the letters (Lettere di Pasquale de Paoli) of Pasquale Paoli.
Santu Casanova founded the famous literary review A Tramuntana (published in Ajaccio between 1896 and 1914) and wrote in Italian Meraviglioso testamento di Francesco in 1875 and La morte ed il funerale di Spanetto in 1892. He is considered the link between the old generations of Corsican writers who wrote in Italian language and the new ones, who started to use the Corsican language.
During the first half of the 20th century, the most important Corsican publication in Italian was the literary review A Muvra of Petru Rocca. Other Corsican authors in Italian were Versini Maiastrale, Matteu Rocca (I lucchetti in 1925), Dumenicu Carlotti (Pampame corse in 1926), Ageniu Grimaldi and Ugo Babbiziu (Una filza di francesismi colti nelle parlate dialettali corse in 1930).
The Corsican Italians who promoted the ideal of Corsican irredentism published mainly in Italy, because of the persecutions from the French regime in the island in the first half of the 20th century.
Thus, Petru Giovacchini wrote the poems Musa Canalinca and Rime notturne in 1933 in Corsica, but successively wrote and published Aurore, poesie corse, Corsica Nostra and Archiatri pontifici corsi in Rome (the last, while he was in exile in 1951, a few years before his premature death).
The irredentist Marco Angeli published in Milan Gigli di Stagnu and Liriche corse in 1934 and Bertino Poli wrote Il pensiero irredentista corso e le sue polemiche in Florence in 1940.
Notable Corsican Italians
Small list of renowned Corsican Italians:
- Petru Giovacchini, irredentist candidate for Governor of Italian Corsica during WWII.
- Petru Rocca, founder of the Partito autonomista of Corsica and director of A Muvra literary review.
- Petru Simone Cristofini, irredentist colonel who was executed for treason in 1943.
- Marta Renucci, first Corsican female journalist.
- Marco Angeli di Sartèna, founder of newspaper «Gioventù» of the "Partito Corso d'azione" and writer/poet.
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| Map of Corsica showing the historical areas of the Corsican and Ligurian dialect in the island (Calvi, Ajaccio and Bonifacio were cities populated by Ligurian colonists during the Middle Ages: actually only the "Bonifacino" dialect is still used). |
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