Gian Paolo Borghetti

• Name — Gian Paolo Borghetti • Born — 23 June 1816 • Birthplace — Talasani, Corsica, France • Died — 4 November 1897 • Place of death — Bastia, Corsica, France • Occupation — Writer, poet, politician • Language — Italian, French • Citizenship — France • Education — Medicine • Movement — Romanticism

Gian Paolo Borghetti was born in Talasani, Corsica on 23 June 1816 into one of the most illustrious families of the Tavagna region whose members, related to Luiggi Giafferi, had particularly distinguished themselves in the reign of King Theodore and at the time of Pasquale Paoli. He studied medicine in Pisa from 1835 to 1839, and upon qualification returned to Corsica. In 1841 he enrolled in the French navy as a ship's surgeon, and in this function travelled the Mediterranean and Atlantic until the beginning of 1848.

At the announcement of the February Revolution he resigned his post and settled in Bastia, where he entered the political arena. Much influenced by his book Histoire des Girondins, Borghetti was a great admirer of Lamartine. In the first elections held under universal (male) suffrage on 13 and 14 May 1849 he was elected Conseiller Général of his home Canton of Pero-Casevecchie. Not one who was easily willing to compromise his ideals, he quickly became disappointed to see political intrigue and clientelism prevail over the general interest, and allowed himself to be replaced as Conseiller Général by one of his friends, justice of the peace Octavian Renucci, who kept the post until the end of the Second Empire. After the coup d'état of 2 December 1851, he abandoned public life. From 1849 to 1870, Borghetti remained in opposition to the regime. Unlike many others in his position he was not sent into exile, but he was frequently the subject of administrative harassment. When the Second Empire collapsed in 1870, Borghetti once again found favour with the authorities and was appointed (in Ajaccio) Chief of Staff of the new Prefect Dumenicu Francescu Ceccaldi.

Having contributed to the journal Progressive de la Corse (Bastia) in 1848, in the following year he founded his own newspaper La Corsica, written in Italian to be better understood by the population. The newspaper openly criticized the foreign policy of Louis Napoleon, which led to its being closed down after only five issues. He later became editor-in-chief of Le Golo (1869), Bulletin Officiel de la Corse (1870-1871), La République (1871-1872), La Solidarité (1879-1885), and Colombo, and founded the journals Le Républicain de la Corse (1871), Le Démocrate de la Corse (1871), and La Concorde (1880).

While his professional and political activities often took precedence over his literary work during his lifetime, Gian Paolo Borghetti is today primarily remembered as one of the greatest Corsican poets writing in Italian. Much of his poetry was inspired by his republican convictions. In 1848 he composed a canto lirico in honour of Lamartine of whom he was a great admirer, and was rewarded with the personal thanks of the head of the provisional government of the Second Republic. In the same year he praised the new Republic in a poem of six verses entitled Alla libertà, the first stanza of which presents obvious analogies with La Marseillaise, in which he speaks of the bitterly regained freedom that might soon reach the other peoples of Europe, beginning with neighbouring Italy. Another major source of inspiration was il Risorgimento. In 1859 he published A Vittorio Emanuele II, celebrating Victor Emmanuel II, and one of his most importants poems, the 1018 verse Giuseppe Garibaldi (episodio della guerra per l’indipendenza italiana), first published in 1927, contributed in an original way to the creation of the Garibaldian myth. Not least of his achievements in this area was the composition of a version of Camicia rossa Garibaldina for which he was personally thanked by Garibaldi himself. In May 1869, to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Ponte Novu (in which his grandfather had fought and been seriously injured) he published, in several installments in the Bastia weekly Phare de la Corse, a vast poetic fresco consisting of fourteen canti entitled Pasquale Paoli.

He had three sons and five daughters by his first wife Pauline Hyacinthe Salvatelli, who died in 1862. He married Delphine Louise Ciavaldini in 1878, and had a further three daughters and one son. All his sons and four of his daughters died during his lifetime. In October 1868 he lost his second son Eugenio, who was barely twenty years old, and this tragic loss inspired his poem In morte di mio figlio Eugenio. In 1894, Borghetti lost the position he had held since 1878 as Director of Public Health in Bastia when David Raynal, Minister of the Interior of the Government of Jean Casimir-Perier (considered by the Radicals and Socialists as the président de la réaction), expressed his astonishment that "the Health Service in Bastia had been entrusted to an enemy of France!". For Borghetti this was the beginning of a terrible old age spent at the edge of poverty. He died in Bastia on 4 November 1897 in the most profound indifference. Few people attended his funeral, which was held in the small Capannelle chapel in Bastia.

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• "Etude sur la Corse". L'Aigle Corse (Bastia: Ollagnier). From N°39 (15 February 1867) onwards. • "Le Cinq Mai, étude historique sur Napoléon". L'Aigle Corse (Bastia: Ollagnier). From 15 May 1868 onwards. * *