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The Carbonari () was an informal network of Secret society active in Italy from about 1800 to 1831. The Carbonari may have further influenced other revolutionary groups in France, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia. Although their goals often had a Patriotism and Liberalism basis, they lacked a clear immediate political agenda. They were a focus for those unhappy with the repressive political situation in Italy following 1815, especially in the south of the Italian peninsula. Members of the Carbonari, and those influenced by them, took part in important events in the process of Italian unification (called the Risorgimento), especially the failed Revolution of 1820, and in the further development of Italian nationalism. The chief purpose was to defeat tyranny and establish a constitutional government. In the north of Italy, other groups, such as the Adelfia and the Filadelfia, were associated organizations.
As a secret society that was often targeted for suppression by conservative governments, the Carbonari operated largely in secret. The name Carbonari identified the members as rural "charcoal-burners"; the place where they met was called a "Barack", the members called themselves "good cousins", while people who did not belong to the Carbonari were "Pagani". There were special ceremonies to initiate the members.
The aim of the Carbonari was the creation of a constitutional monarchy or a republic; they wanted also to defend the rights of common people against all forms of absolutism. Carbonari, to achieve their purpose, talked of fomenting armed revolts.
The membership was separated into two classes—apprentice and master. There were two ways to become a master: through serving as an apprentice for at least six months or by already being a Freemason upon entry.. Their initiation rituals were structured around the trade of charcoal-selling, suiting their name.
In 1814 the Carbonari wanted to obtain a constitution for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by force. The Bourbon king, Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, was opposed to them. The Bonapartist Joachim Murat had wanted to create a united and independent Italy. In 1815 Ferdinand I found his kingdom swarming with them. He found an unhoped-for ally in the secret sect of the Calderari, that had separated from the Carbonari in 1813. Staunchly Catholics and legitimists, the Calderari swore to defend the Church and vowed eternal hatred to Freemasonry and Carbonari. Society in the Regno comprised nobles, officers of the army, small landlords, government officials, peasants, and priests, with a small urban middle class. On 15 August 1814, Cardinals Ercole Consalvi and Bartolomeo Pacca issued an edict forbidding all secret societies, to become members of these secret associations, to attend their meetings, or to furnish a meeting-place for such, under severe penalties.
The 1820 revolution began in Naples against King Ferdinand I. Riots, inspired by events in Cádiz, Spain that same year, took place in Naples, bandying anti-absolutist goals and demanding a liberal constitution. On 1 July, two officers, Michele Morelli and Joseph Silvati (who had been part of the army of Murat under Guglielmo Pepe) marched towards the town of Nola in Campania at the head of their regiments of cavalry.
Worried about the protests, King Ferdinand agreed to grant a new constitution and the adoption of a parliament. The victory, albeit partial, illusory, and apparent, caused a lot of hope in the peninsula and local conspirators, led by Santore di Santarosa, marched toward Turin, capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia and 12 March 1821 obtained a constitutional monarchy and liberal reforms as a result of Carbonari actions. However, the Holy Alliance did not tolerate such revolutionary compromises and in February 1821 sent an army that defeated the outnumbered and poorly equipped insurgents in the south. In Piedmont, King Vittorio Emanuele I, undecided about what to do, abdicated in favour of his brother Charles Felix of Sardinia; but Charles Felix, more resolute, invited an Austrian military intervention. On 8 April, the Habsburg army defeated the rebels, and the uprisings of 1820–1821, triggered almost entirely by the Carbonari, ended up collapsing.George T. Romani, The Neapolitan revolution of 1820-1821 (Northwestern University Press, 1950).
On 13 September 1821, Pope Pius VII with the bull Ecclesiam a Jesu Christo condemned the Carbonari as a Freemason secret society, excommunicating its members.Alan Reinerman, "Metternich and the Papal Condemnation of the" Carbonari", 1821". Catholic Historical Review 54#1 (1968): 55-69
Among the principal leaders of the Carbonari, Morelli and Silvati were sentenced to death; Guglielmo Pepe went into exile; Federico Confalonieri, Silvio Pellico and Piero Maroncelli were imprisoned.
Ciro Menotti was to take the reins of the initiative, trying to find the support of Duke Francis IV of Modena, who pretended to respond positively in return for granting the title of King of Italy, but the Duke made the double play and Menotti, virtually unarmed, was arrested the day before the date fixed for the uprising. Francis IV, at the suggestion of the Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich, had condemned him to death, along with many others among Menotti's allies. This was the last major effort by the secret group.
In 1830, Carbonari took part in the July Revolution in France. This gave them hope that a successful revolution might be staged in Italy. A bid in Modena was an outright failure, but in February 1831, several cities in the Papal States rose and flew the Carbonari tricolour. A volunteer force marched on Rome but was destroyed by Austrian troops who had intervened at the request of Pope Gregory XVI. After the failed uprisings of 1831, the governments of the various Italian states cracked down on the Carbonari, who now virtually ceased to exist. The more astute members realized they could never take on the Austrian army in open battle and joined a new movement, Giovane Italia ('Young Italy') led by the nationalist Giuseppe Mazzini, in which many members would trace their origins and inspiration to the Carbonari. Rapidly declining in influence and members, the Carbonari practically ceased to exist, although the official history of this important company had continued, wearily, until 1848. Independent from French Philadelphians were instead the homonymous carbonara group born in Southern Italy, especially in Puglia and in the Cilento, between 1816 and 1828. In Cilento, in 1828, an insurrection of Philadelphia, who called for the restoration of the Neapolitan Constitution of 1820, was fiercely repressed by the director of the Bourbon police Francesco Saverio Del Carretto, whose violent retaliation included the destruction of the village of Bosco.
A new organization of the same name and claiming to be its continuation was founded in 1896 by Artur Augusto Duarte da Luz de Almeida. This organization was active in efforts to educate the people and was involved in various antimonarchist conspiracies. Most notably, Carbonária members were active in the assassination of King Charles I and his heir, Prince Louis Philip in 1908. Carbonária members also played a part in the 5 October 1910 revolution that deposed the Constitutional Monarchy and implemented the republic. One commonality among them was their hostility to the Church and they contributed to the republic's anticlericalism.
In particular, the dispersion of the Carbonari leaders had, at the same time, the effect of extending their influence in France. General Guglielmo Pepe proceeded to Barcelona when the counter-revolution was imminent at Naples and his life was no longer safe there; and to the same city went several of the Piedmontese revolutionists when the country was Austrianized after the same lawless fashion. The dispersion of Scalvini and Ugoni that took refuge at Geneva and others of the proscribed that proceeded to London added to the progress which Carbonarism was making in France, suggested to General Pepe the idea of an international secret society, which would combine for a common purpose the advanced political reformers of all the European States.
Robert Louis Stevenson's story "The Pavilion on the Links" features the Carbonari as the villains of the plot.
Katherine Neville's novel The Fire features the Carbonari as part of a plot involving a mystical chess service.
In Wilkie Collins' "The Woman in White" the character of Professor Pesca is a member of 'The Brotherhood', an organization placed contemporaneously with, and similarly featured as, the Carbonari. Clyde Hyder suspects that the model for Prof. Pesca was Gabriele Rossetti, who was a member of the Carbonari, as well as an Italian teacher resident in London during the 1840s.
Anton Felix Schindler's biography of Beethoven "Beethoven, as I Knew Him" states that his close connection with the composer began in 1815 when the latter requested an account of Schindler's involvement with a riot of Napoleon's supporters in Vienna, who were agitating against the Carbonari uprisings. Schindler was arrested and lost a year at college. Beethoven was sympathetic and, as a result, became a close friend of Schindler.
The Carbonari are mentioned prominently in the Sherlock Holmes short story "The Adventure of the Red Circle" (1911), written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The Carbonari are also mentioned briefly in the book "Resurrection Men" by T. K. Welsh, in which the main character's father is a member of the secret organization.
They feature in Tim Powers' The Stress of Her Regard as opponents of the vampire-backed Austrian Empire.
Mr. Settembrini's grandfather in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain is said to be Carbonari.
The Carbonari are mentioned in The Hundred Days by Patrick O'Brian, part of the Aubrey-Maturin series.
Umberto Eco's The Cemetery of Prague mentions the Carbonari, with the main character joining them as a spy.
In The Horseman on the Roof by Jean Giono, the character of Angelo Pardi is a young Italian Carbonaro colonel of hussars
They also appear in Carmen Mola's novel La Bestia (2021).
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