Casgliadau Arlein

Two letters written in Italian and addressed to a 'Mr. Battista Pedrazzini, Barometer Maker' of Newport and Cardiff. *(Professor H. Hearder of the University College, Cardiff, has read these letters and offered the following comments in a letter to the WFM Archivist dated 23 August 1976: 'They are certainly from members of a 'Fratellanza' - a secret revolutionary society, probably Mazzinian, but it is impossible to make out every word. The most interesting letter reports that a certain 'Caccia' is still alive, and was concealing in his house a woman, Martina Faggioli, who had evedently run away from her husband. The husband apparently arrived at the house, kicked in the door, and then 'reported the matter to the superior, who questioned the woman, who confessed everything'. This passage, then, suggests a very close-knit and of course illegal society. Another letter has a post-script warning the recipient that his class - the class of 1818 - is about to be called up - presumably into the Piedmontese army, since the house of the refugees appears to have been Liguria. This same letter describes how the writer has been building a hut as a meeting-place for the brotherhood, going through their files, and doing their accounts....various people [are] mentioned in the letters - Pedrazzini, Filipponi, Moretti, Caccia, etc.'.)