Gioacchino Prati was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 revolution

Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...

ary and patriot

Patriotism

Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...

, a supporter of the Risorgimento who was exile

Exile

Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...

d for his activities in 1821. He was later a Saint-Simonian.

Life

Prati was born in Tenno, County of Tyrol

County of Tyrol

The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...

 and educated in Salzburg

Salzburg

-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...

, Innsbruck

Innsbruck

- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

, Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 and Landshut

Landshut

Landshut is a city in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany, belonging to both Eastern and Southern Bavaria. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also the seat of the...

. He trained in both medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 and in law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, taking his law degree in Pavia in 1810. He moved to Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

 to continue his studies where he became a Freemason and a Carbonaro. He practised law in Brescia

Brescia

Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...

 and Trento but his clandestine activities came to the attention of the authorities and he fled to the safety of Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 in 1816. There he continued his political agitation, largely based in Chur

Chur

Chur or Coire is the capital of the Swiss canton of Graubünden and lies in the northern part of the canton.-History:The name "chur" derives perhaps from the Celtic kora or koria, meaning "tribe", or from the Latin curia....

 and Yverdon.

He travelled throughout Europe, maintaining his revolutionary activism, before being granted right of asylum

Right of asylum

Right of asylum is an ancient juridical notion, under which a person persecuted for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her own country may be protected by another sovereign authority, a foreign country, or church sanctuaries...

 in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in 1823. There, he soon established a broad circle of exiled and radical friends including: Ugo Foscolo

Ugo Foscolo

Ugo Foscolo , born Niccolò Foscolo, was an Italian writer, revolutionary and poet.-Biography:Foscolo was born on the Ionian island of Zakynthos...

, Sir John Bowring

John Bowring

Sir John Bowring, KCB was an English political economist, traveller, miscellaneous writer, polyglot, and the 4th Governor of Hong Kong.- Early life :...

, Thomas Campbell

Thomas Campbell

Thomas Campbell was a Scottish poet chiefly remembered for his sentimental poetry dealing specially with human affairs. He was also one of the initiators of a plan to found what became the University of London. In 1799, he wrote 'The Pleasures of Hope' a traditional 18th century survey in heroic...

, Joseph Henry Green

Joseph Henry Green

Joseph Henry Green was an English surgeon who became the literary executor of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.-Life:Green was the only son of Joseph Green, a prosperous merchant, and was born on 1 November 1791, at the house over his father's office in London Wall. His mother was Frances Cline, sister of...

 and Edward Craven Hawtrey

Edward Craven Hawtrey

Edward Craven Hawtrey was an English educationalist.He was born at Burnham in Norfolk, the son of the vicar of the parish. He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, and in 1814 was appointed assistant master at Eton under Dr John Keate...

. Though he claims that Bowring had introduced him to write for the Westminster Review

Westminster Review

The Westminster Review was a quarterly British publication. Established in 1823 as the official organ of the Philosophical Radicals, it was published from 1824 to 1914. James Mill was one of the driving forces behind the liberal journal until 1828....

, he managed a meagre living on various failed educational enterprises, and publishing on educational matters and tutoring in German. He was imprisoned for debt

Debt

A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...

 in 1829 and took the opportunity to learn English medical terminology under the guidance of Green.

On his release from prison in 1830, he visited Philippe Buonarroti

Philippe Buonarroti

Filippo Giuseppe Maria Ludovico Buonarroti more usually referred to under the French version Philippe Buonarroti was an Italian egalitarian and utopian socialist, revolutionary, journalist, writer, agitator, and freemason; he was mainly active in France.-Early activism:Buonarroti was born in Pisa...

, an old friend, in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 then, after a brief return to England, rushed to France to join in the July Revolution

July Revolution

The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution or in French, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown...

.

Returning to England in 1831 he joined the Friends of the People Society

Friends of the People Society

The Society of the Friends of the People was formed in Great Britain by Whigs at the end of the 18th century as part of a movement seeking radical political reform that would widen electoral enfranchisement at a time when only a wealthy minority had the vote...

 and professed to be a Saint-Simonian. He then took up the practice of medicine, contributing a medical column to the radical Penny Satirist from 1837 to 1840, in addition to editing the magazine.

There was some public alarm at his radical views when he was joined in some public professions of his views by Gregorio Fontana

Gregorio Fontana (radical)

Gregorio Fontana-Rava was an Italian expatriate supporter of the Risorgimento.Little is known of his life but he ran a bookshop in Antwerp as a meeting place for Italian patriots. His visit to England in 1833, during which he lectured, in association with Gioacchino Prati, caused some public alarm...

 in 1834.

He repeatedly petitioned the Austrian

Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

 authorities of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia to allow him to return to Brescia and they relented in 1852. Prati died in Brescia.

Sources

• Prati, G. (1837–39) "Autobiography", Penny Satirist, reprinted in Annuario dell’istituto storico italiano per l’età moderna e contemporanea, Vols. XVII–XVIII (1965–66) and XIX–XX (1967–68).
• Robson, A. P. & Robson, J. M. (eds) (1986) The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXIII - Newspaper Writings August 1831 – October 1834 Part II, Toronto: London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, "234. 'Fontana and Prati's St. Simonism in London', Examiner, 2 Feb., 1834, pp68–9"
• The Times
  The Times
  The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
  
  , "St. Simonian Propagandism-Regeneration Of Woman", Wednesday 30 October 1833, p.3 col.F
• —, "Dr. Prati, 'Preacher of the St. Simonian religion in England,' delivered a lecture yesterday evening at the ...", Saturday 30 November 1833, p.2 col.D