Carlo Matteucci to Faraday   6 June 18481

È da gran tempo che non ho vostre notizie; noi siamo alla guerra, ed io vi sono sino al collo. Per due mesi ho fatto il commissario, ed ora fo il diplomatico2. Gridate ai quattro venti per l’Inghilterra, affinchè il vostro Governo faccia cessare questa ingiusta guerra. Pensate che tutti gli studenti dell’Università di Pisa coi loro professori si sono battuti come leoni il 29 maggio3. Abbiamo perduto quindici a venti studenti dei migliori col povero Pilla4. Pensate, amico mio, che Piria5, Mossotti6, i migliori amici vostri in Italia, possono da un istante all’altro essere uccisi da cotesti orribili Croati. So bene che voi potete rispondermi con flemma troppo inglese: “ma lasciate fare la guerra ai soldati.” Sta bene, ma noi siamo e vogliamo esser tutti soldati.

TRANSLATION

It is a long time since I had any news from you; we are at war, and I am in it up to my neck. For two months I was a Commissioner and now I am a diplomat7. Cry out to the four winds throughout England so that your Government may put an end to this unjust war. Think that all the students at the University of Pisa and their professors fought like lions on 29th May8. We lost fifteen to twenty of the best with poor Pilla9. Think, my friend, that Piria10, Mossotti11, your best friends in Italy, can from one minute to the next be killed by these horrible Croats. I know well that you can reply with all too English phlegm: "but leave the war to the soldiers." Fine, but we all are and all want to be soldiers.

1
Date as given in Bianchi (1874), 156.
2
Of the revolutionary Tuscan government who sent him as their representative to the Frankfurt Diet.
3
On this see Borgato (2009), 220.
4
Leopoldo Pilla (1805–1848, EI). Italian geologist killed at the Battle of Curtatone on 29 May 1848 during the Italian rising against Austrian rule.
5
Rafaelle Piria (1815–1865, P3). Professor of Chemistry at the University of Turin.
6
Ottaviano Fabrizio Mossotti (1791–1863, DSB). Professor of Mathematics at Pisa, 1841–1863.
7
Of the revolutionary Tuscan government who sent him as their representative to the Frankfurt Diet.
8
On this see Borgato (2009), 220.
9
Leopoldo Pilla (1805–1848, EI). Italian geologist killed at the Battle of Curtatone on 29 May 1848 during the Italian rising against Austrian rule.
10
Rafaelle Piria (1815–1865, P3). Professor of Chemistry at the University of Turin.
11
Ottaviano Fabrizio Mossotti (1791–1863, DSB). Professor of Mathematics at Pisa, 1841–1863.

Bibliography

BIANCHI, Nicomede (1874) Carlo Matteucci e L’Italia del suo tempo, Turin.

Please cite as “Faraday2086a,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 3 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2086a