Giovanni Antonio Riso (Notarbartolo)[Note 1] (1836-1901), Baron of Colòbria, was a Sicilian patriot active in the Unification of Italy and scion of one of the wealthiest families[1] in 19th-century Palermo Sicily.

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.

[6] 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.

[11] 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 to train sailors for the Sicilian merchant navy.

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.”[12] 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).

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.

[19] 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.

[21] 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.

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.

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.

[31] 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.

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.”[33] 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.

[36] However “In Palermo...the members of the patriotic families who were too young to bear arms in the revolution of 1848, were working secretly and steadily against the cruel repression of all liberty of political thought or action carried out by King Ferdinand II and his representatives [including Chief of Police Salvatore Maniscalco].

[38] In the fall of 1859, a secret revolutionary committee formed in Palermo composed primarily of middle-class professionals, lawyers, doctors and artisans.

Riso indignantly challenged Brancaccio as follows: “I have a hunch that you are part of the conspiracy, but you hide the secret from me, and doing so is not a sign of trust or of friendship.

According to Brancaccio “We young conspirators did not lose our youthful high spirits, though feverishly active collecting arms and spreading revolutionary propaganda.

However, between one polka and another we went up to the floor above and, while below us in the gilded ballroom lords and ladies were swirling to the music of a Strauss waltz, we were casting bullets and rolling cartridges.

One of Riso’s aristocratic friends and co-conspirators, Corrado Valguarnera (later Prince of Niscemi), was one of several models for the character Tancredi in the book and film.

A Swiss ironmonger in Palermo made Orsini bombs based on the clay model left by Crispi several months earlier.

He was a middle-class master plumber and mason, intelligent, and a dedicated and fearless follower of Mazzini and had plotted against the Bourbons since the failed 1848 revolt.

Neither the populace nor the aristocracy took part in the fight, although Baron Riso and other nobles went about the streets urging people to rise, and promising the aid of an armament from Piedmont.

Padre Lanza, weak and in poor health, sought sanctuary on the American clipper ship “Taconnay” at anchor in Palermo harbor.

Maniscalco wanted to try Baron Riso and his fellow prisoners for complicity in a military court, which would have meant a death sentence to be carried out without delay.

[58] In fact the prisoners’ courageous attorney, Marchese Giuseppe Maurigi [future supreme court justice] convinced the authorities of the absolute illegality of Maniscalco’s proposed prosecution.

“Since these were non other than Baron Riso and the young nobles arrested on April 7, the most popular citizens in Palermo since that hour, it would clearly be necessary to carry them in triumph up the Toledo.”[65] Garibaldi stood gazing at the city from his temporary quarters in the Palazzo dei Normanni.

“While from the sea up the length of the Toledo, gay with flags and flowers, was heard ever nearer the joyful roar of the people as they came bringing the released prisoners to present them to the Liberator.

The Palazzo Riso was built on the site of a former Cistercian monastery and incorporated the small Church of Santa Maria di Roccadia.

A funeral monograph included four encomiums from his friends and employees in Carlentini: After his death, his daughter Maria Luisa inherited his estate.

[82] Sometime after the 1960s, the Palazzo Riso in Carlentini, which had served as a school and governmental office since the 1930s, was razed and replaced with residential buildings, with only the small Church of Santa Maria di Roccadia remaining.