SANTAROSA, ANNIBALE SANTORRE DI ROSSI DE POMAROLO, COUNT OF ( I 783-1825), Piedmontese insur gent, and leader in the revival (Risorgimento) of Italy, was born at Savigliano, near Coni, on Nov. 18, 1783. He was the son of a general officer in the Sardinian army who was killed at the battle of Mondovi in 1796. Santarosa entered the service of Napoleon during the annexation of Piedmont to France, and was sub-prefect of Spezia from 1812 to 1814. After the restoration of the king of Sardinia in 1814, he continued in the public service. When in 1821 the Austrian army was moved south to coerce the Neapolitans, Santarosa conspired to obtain the intervention of the Piedmontese in favour of the Neapolitans by an attack on the Austrian lines of communication. The conspirators sought the co-operation of the prince of Carignano, afterwards King Charles Albert. On March 6, 1821, Santarosa and three associates had an interview with the prince, and on the loth they carried out the military "pronuncia miento" which proclaimed the Spanish Constitution. The move ment had no real popular support, and very soon collapsed.
Santarosa was arrested, but escaped, and fled to France, living for a time in Paris under the name of Conti. Here he wrote in French and published in 1822 his La revolution piemontaise, which at tracted the notice of Victor Cousin, by whom he was finally concealed. He was imprisoned and expelled from Paris. He passed over to England, where he found refuge in London with Ugo Foscolo. He accompanied his countryman Giacinto Collegno to Greece in Nov. 1824. He was killed when the Egyptian troops attacked the island of Sphacteria, near Navarino, on May 8, 1825.
See Atto Vannucci, I Martini della liberty italiana (Milan, 1877), and vol. ix. of the series called I Contemporanei italiani (Turin) , in which there is a life by Angelo de Gubernatis. Santarosa's correspondence was edited by Bianchi, Lettere di Santorre Santarosa (Turin, 1877). A personal description by Victor Cousin will be found in the Revue des deux mondes for March t, 1840.