Francesco Lomonaco Bust

Francesco Lomonaco survived the fall of the Neapolitan Republic in 1799 and wrote about the repression that followed. His Rapporto al cittadino Carnot addressed the French statesman Lazare Carnot, bringing the republic’s fate before a wider political readership. It was an intervention by a participant, not a detached account written long afterward.

Born in Montalbano Jonico in 1772, Lomonaco studied medicine as well as the legal and philosophical debates of Naples. Political defeat led him north, where he entered the intellectual world of the Napoleonic period. He taught history and geography at the military school in Pavia.

His biographical writings assembled accounts of notable Italians. Such collections offered examples through which readers could think about character and public action before a unified Italian state existed. They also depended on choices about whose life deserved attention.

Lomonaco died in Pavia in 1810. His bust places the author of exemplary biographies within another selected assembly of historical figures.