Giovanni Antonio Riso (Notarbartolo), Baron of Colòbria (13 February 1836 – 7 November 1901), was a Sicilian patriot active in the Unification of Italy and scion of one of the wealthiest families in 19th-century Palermo.
Born in Palermo, Riso studied in Paris as a young man, where in 1856 he married the beautiful daughter of French aristocrats. Inspired by European liberal principles in Paris, Riso conspired in the planning and financing of the Gancia Revolt in April 1860 in Palermo against the oppressive Spanish Bourbon monarchy of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The revolt failed and led to the summary execution of thirteen revolutionaries by the Bourbons. Riso and co-conspirators were imprisoned and nearly executed for their subversive activities. These events directly precipitated the arrival one month later of Giuseppe Garibaldi and his Expedition of the Thousand in Sicily in May 1860. As part of his Siege of Palermo in May 1860, Garibaldi negotiated the release of Riso and co-conspirators. They rode in triumphant procession from the prison to meet Garibaldi, and he tearfully thanked them for their service. Garibaldi proceeded onward toward Naples where he defeated the Bourbons, and then in March 1861 handed-over control to Vittorio Emanuele II to form the new Kingdom of Italy.
Riso served as an aide-de-camp and Officer of the Guides in the government of the new kingdom. He was appointed a Gentleman of the Court in 1869,Correnti, p. 8. and in 1870 was elected to the Chamber of Deputies where he served for two years representing Palermo.
In 1875 Riso retired to his vast estate adjacent to the town of Carlentini, Sicily, where he built a palace, managed his business and agricultural interests, and lived according to his ideals as an enlightened landowner and Carlentini's most prominent citizen and benefactor.Correnti, p 11-12.
Ancestry
Grandparents Riso's grandfather was also named Giovanni Riso (born 1776 in Palermo, died 1841 in Palermo, age 65). He was a self-made entrepreneur and the founder of the Riso family wealth. He was among a small group of modern business operators in Palermo whose wealth was based on trade and finance rather than land ownership. Others included Vincenzo Florio Sr. (shipping, Marsala wine), Gabriele Chiaramonte Bordonaro (finance and banking), and the British Ingham-Whitaker family (Marsala wine).
As a boy, Giovanni Riso (the grandfather) was one of the first twelve students in the “Real Istituto Nautico di Palermo” (“Royal Nautical Institute”) founded in 1789 by the famous Don Giovanni Fileti, royal navy commander, to train sailors for the Sicilian merchant navy. Riso was described as “needy” and was granted a scholarship, but “was able to acquire a respected name in commerce with his ingenuity, energy and skillful dealings, and become that Baron Giovanni Riso, diligent founder of one of the richest families of the Sicilian nobility.” Shortly after graduation he became captain of the ship “Seminario Nautico”, an armed xebec with twelve cannons (a two masted Mediterranean cargo ship, armed to protect against Barbary pirates). He became a teacher and later director of the school. In 1799 as a result of his extraordinary sailing skills, the king granted him a commission with the rank of “Captain” in the Royal Marines.Sansone, p. 42.
He owned cargo ships that sailed routes from North America to the Dardanelles.Correnti, p. 6. In 1818 his brigantine “Oreto” arrived in Boston harbor with a cargo of citrus, sulfur, and manna [a type of sweetener], and was the first cargo ship to arrive in North America from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Among his many business interests, he invested in shipping partnerships with Florio and others, owned sulfur mines in central Sicily (sulfur was exported primarily to Britain to make gunpowder).Cancila, O., Storia dell’Industria in Sicilia, p. 144.
Feudo di Colòbria. In 1814 he bought the Feudo di Colòbria in central Sicily, an estate that brought with it the right to the noble title of “Baron of Colòbria”.
Feudo Murgo. In 1836 he bought the immense Feudo Murgo with a land area of 2,350 hectares (approximately 9 square miles) on the southern edge of the fertile Piana di Catania on the east coast of Sicily.Cancila, Orazio, La Terra di Cerere, p. 123. The feudo (estate) was described as running from the gates of Carlentini to the sea at the small harbor of Agnone Bagni.Correnti, p. 7. The feudo included the ruins of the unfinished Basilica del Murgo founded in 1220 by Sicilian King Federico II (1194–1250), who hunted on the land.
Giovanni Riso and his wife Anna Villa had three children: Pietro (father of the subject of this article), Carolina, and Marianna.
Parents Riso's father was Pietro Riso (born 1810 in Palermo, died 1854 in Palermo, age 44). In 1841, on his father's death, Pietro inherited the title of “Baron of Colòbria” along with the bulk of his father's estate and became one of the wealthiest men in Palermo.Cancila, Palermo, p. 27. He continued his father's various partnerships and business interests. In 1841 he invested with Florio and others in a new company to own and operate steam-powered cargo and passenger ships which were gradually replacing sailing ships.Radogna, p. 137.
In 1834 Pietro married Maria Antonia Notarbartolo (1818–1897), daughter of the Duke of Villarosa and member of one of the oldest noble families in Sicily. They had three children, Giovanni (the subject of this article), Marianna, and Rosalie. Pietro and Maria Antonia separated in 1842, and their children stayed with their father, although Riso remained on good terms with his mother who corresponded regularly.
Palazzo Belmonte-Riso: In 1841 Pietro bought the Palazzo Belmonte, among the largest private palaces in Palermo, facing the Piazza Bologni on the Via Toledo [today Via Vittorio Emanuele], the principal street in Palermo running from the Palazzo dei Normanni to the port.Falletta, p. 15. The palace was commissioned in 1784 by the Prince of Belmonte and had a huge ballroom with a fresco “La Fama” (now lost) by Antonio Manno (1739–1810) that covered the entire length of the ballroom ceiling. The ballroom was to play a role in the revolutionary events of 1859–1860.
Pietro participated in the 1848 revolution and served as the head of national guard during the brief 18-month existence of the revolutionary government. After the revolutionary government collapsed, he negotiated a general amnesty with the Bourbon government for all participants except for 43 intellectuals and politicians who were exiled.Cancila, Orazio, Storia dell’Industria in Sicilia, p. 252. Pietro along with Florio and Bordonaro were moderate liberals but also practical men of affairs with business interests to protect.Trevelyan, Raleigh, Princes Under the Volcano, p. 119.
Pietro died at age 44 during the cholera epidemic of 1854 in Sicily. Riso (the subject of this article), commissioned a tomb for his father in the Cemetery of Santa Maria di Gesù in Palermo, with an inscription in his honor: “In perpetual memory Pietro Riso, Barone di Colòbria, who with civic virtue during the Insurrection of 1848 defended the rights of his country as Minister of War, Praetor of Palermo, and Commander of the National Guard. Bitterly mourned, ceased to live on August 17, 1854, stricken by cholera. His affectionate son erected this monument.”Monument to Pietro Riso, Cemetery of Santa Maria of Jesus, Palermo
Biography
Paris (1850s) In 1854, on his father's death, Riso (then age 18) inherited the title of “Baron of Colòbria” along with the bulk of the Riso family fortune. As a young man Riso studied in Paris, where in 1856 he married Emilie Thérèsia Joséphine Emmanuel du Hallay-Coëtquen (born 1837 in Paris, died 1915 in Nice). She was a daughter of the Marquis du Hallay-Coëtquen (1799–1867) from an ancient noble family of Brittany. Her father was a military man, a member of the elite Kings Guards in France. Hallay was a famous duelist reported to have killed twelve men in sword duels.Brancaccio, p. 48 Her grandfather is entombed in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
On her mother's side, Emilie was the granddaughter of Thérèsia Cabarrus (1773–1835), Princesse de Chimay, known as Madame Tallien. She was a famous French beauty, trend-setter and socialite married three times to some of wealthiest and most powerful men in France. Once she appeared at the Paris Opera wearing a white silk dress with obviously nothing underneath. Talleyrand (1754–1838) commented: "Il n'est pas possible de s'exposer plus somptueusement!" ("One could not be more sumptuously undressed!"). Tallien lived through the Reign of Terror and used her influence to save many from the guillotine. She became friends with Joséphine de Beauharnais (1763–1814), future wife of Napoleon I (1769–1821), when they were both imprisoned during the Reign of Terror. She introduced Joséphine to the young General Napoleon Bonaparte and served as a witness at their wedding in 1796. Although Napoleon is said to have reprimanded Tallien for her uninhibited lifestyle.
Paris had a large colony of exiled nobles from Palermo, and was a favorite destination for young aristocrats, especially after regular steamship service from Palermo to Marseille was established (by a Florio company in which Pietro Riso was an original investor). Travel abroad made the Palermo nobility more open to demands for freedom and progress that were circulating in Europe.Cancila Orazio, Palermo, p. 27. Riso's good friend Francesco Brancaccio (1834–1908) described a lively social scene in 1850s Paris filled with Italian exiles forced to leave Italy after the failed Revolution of 1848. The exiles ranged from young firebrands to aging aristocrats whose fortunes had been confiscated in Italy.Brancaccio, p. 45.
In 1857 in Paris, Brancaccio challenged a man to a duel after being insulted during a performance at the Opera Le Peletier, then the principal opera house in Paris before the Opera Garnier was built in 1875. Brancaccio borrowed a sword from his friend Riso for the duel the next day. Although Brancaccio's opponent was a famous swordsman, “fortune smiled on me and the poor devil received a sword blow that knocked him out of combat. This proves how much the appreciation of hotshot swordsmen is often erroneous.”Brancaccio, p. 46. A few months later, in January 1858, French Emperor Napoleon III (1808–1873) survived unharmed an assassination attempt when bombs exploded under his carriage on the way to the same Opera Le Peletier. The attempted assassins were Felice Orsini (1819–1858) and other Italian nationalists aided by British radicals. The bombs, a type of grenade, had been made in London on a design by Orsini and became known as “Orsini bombs”. Although Napoleon III had Orsini executed, the “Orsini affair” is credited with winning the support of Napoleon III for the unification of Italy. In 1859 Riso and his wife Emilie were back in Palermo after their daughter was born in Paris in April 1859. The Palazzo Riso was a center of social life, and Emilie was described as among the most beautiful women in Palermo high society.Brancaccio, p. 68. Among the other activities of a rich young aristocrat, Riso raced trotting horses.Courrier Franco-Italien October 21, 1858.