ORSINI, FELICE (1819-1858), Italian revolutionist, was born at Meldola in Romagna. He joined the Giovane Italia, a so ciety founded by Giuseppe Mazzini. Implicated together with his father in revolutionary plots, he was arrested in 1844 and condemned to imprisonment for life. The new pope, Pius IX., released him, and he led a company of young Romagnols in the first war of Italian independence (1848). He was elected mem ber of the Roman constituent assembly in 1849, and after the fall of the republic he conspired against the papal autocracy once more in the interest of the Mazzinian party. Mazzini sent him on a secret mission to Hungary, but he was arrested in 1854 and imprisoned at Mantua, escaping a few months later. His account of his prison experiences, Austrian Dungeons in Italy (1857), led to a rupture between him and Mazzini.
He then formed a plot to assassinate Napoleon III., whom he regarded as the principal obstacle to Italian independence. On the evening of Jan. 14, 1858, while the emperor and empress were on their way to the theatre, Orsini and his accomplices threw three bombs at the imperial carriage. The intended victims were
unhurt, but several other persons were killed or wounded. Orsini was arrested; on Feb. II, he wrote a letter to Napoleon, exhorting him to take up the cause of Italian freedom. He addressed an other letter to the youth of Italy, stigmatizing political assassina tion. He was executed on March 13, 1858. Of his accomplices Pieri also was executed, Rudio was condemned to death but ob tained a commutation of sentence, and Gomez was condemned to hard labour for life. Orsini's attempt terrified Napoleon, who may have been so induced to take up Italy's cause.