Nicola Fabrizi and Maltese weapons in Sicily during the Spedizione dei Mille

Abstract

When Garibaldi landed in Marsala with his mille on 11 May 1860, fighting immediately started in the western part of Sicily. The unification process of Italy was well on its way. In the 19 century news did not travel very fast, but of course the population living in that part of Sicily soon got to know of Garibaldi's exploits. The same cannot be said for all parts of Sicily. How fast did news travel at that time to the more remote parts of the island? The scope of this work is to show that in fact, as regards the town of Modica, which is to be found in the South Eastern part of Sicily, and today falls under the province of Ragusa, a relevant amount of information regarding Garibaldi's progress on the island as well as other related activity actually arrived in Modica via telegrams which were sent from the island of Malta, which lies around 164 kms. to the south of this Sicilian town. The texts of some of these telegrams are to be found today in the section entitled Corrispondenza e scritture varie del periodo risorgimentale (1856-1861) of the Archivio De Leva, Archives of Ragusa, Sezione di Modica. Many of them have been collected and reproduced in the thesis entitled Con il vangelo e la croce in mano – Vita dell'Abate Giuseppe de Leva Gravina (1786 – 1860), which was presented at the University of Perugia in 2003 by Rosario Distefano. Another work on the Abate De Leva's political involvement is the thesis entitled Il Risorgimento in periferia. L'abate De Leva e le lotte politiche a Modica (1812-1861), presented at the University of Catania in 1986 by Teresa Maria Caruso. ; peer-reviewed