Manin, Daniele

(1804–1857)

   A lawyer born into one of Venice’s noblest families, Daniele Manin became one of the symbolic figures of Italian nationalism. Briefly arrested by the Austrians in January 1848, he became the focus of the nationalist uprising in the city. At the end of March, after a tumultuous fortnight of street conflict, a republic was declared, with Manin being chosen as the first president of the new state. However, in July 1848, when the Venetian national assembly voted for unification with the Kingdom of Sardinia, the antimonarchist Manin resigned from the presidency. In 1849, when Austrian victories over the Kingdom of Sardinia left Venice without allies, Manin heroically guided the city’s resistance. The city was blockaded by the Austrians at the end of May 1849 and resisted— until the end of August—land, sea, and aerial bombardment (by lighter-than-air balloons) and a serious outbreak of cholera. Under the terms of the armistice, Manin and some 40 other citizens were compelled to leave the city. He immigrated to France, where he lived in poverty. In 1856, he was persuaded by Camillo Benso di Cavour to set aside his distrust of the Sardinian royal family and accept the presidency of the Italian National Society, a body uniting all strands of the nationalist movement except the Mazzinians, which pledged itself to unite Italy under the direction of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Manin died the following year. His son, Giorgio, took part in Giuseppe Garibaldi’s expedition to Sicily in 1861 and became aide de camp to King Victor Emmanuel II.