CARBONARI, kiir'10.nii'm (It., pl. of (wbo naro, from hat. eurbmiarius, eharcoal-burner, collier, from carbo, coal). The name of a secret political society which took an active part in the struggle fur Italian liberty and unity. Its existence and character first be came in some degree known in 1S15. The constitution, as well as the precise objects of the Ca•bonari, still remains in a great measure secret. though there have been printed instructions. catechisms, statutes, and rituals of the society. Like other secret societies, it sought to dignify itself and rationally amount fur its existence by claiming a high antiquity, but such accounts are fabulous. There is every reason to believe that it originated during the last French r6ginie in Naples. Botta, in his Storia states that under Murat's Government the Nea politan republicans, bating the French and King Ferdinand equally, escaped into the wild defiles of the Abruzzi, and formed a secret society, nam ing themselves Ca rbonari. The peculiar phrase ology of the Carbonari is taken from the voca tion of charcoal-burners. They were wont, for instance, to speak of "clearing the forest of wolves." The 'wolves' probably meant at first foreign tyrants; but in the course of time the term was applied to the Neapolitan Bourbons. Among themselves the initiated were styled 'good cousins.' The various societies do not seem to have possessed a common centre, or to have been properly organized for combined action. A place of meeting was- styled baracea, or hut; the ex ternal neighborhood 'the forest'; and the interior of the hut was the rendita or 'place for selling coal.' A union of several of these 'huts' formed a 'republic.' The superior 'huts' (alte vendite) at Naples and Salerno endeavored, but without suc cess, to effect a centralization of the Carbonari. The society, soon after its institution, numbered from 24,000 to 30.000 adherents, and increased so rapidly in Italy, that in March, 1820, it is said as many as 650,000 new members were in itiated, including considerable numbers of the military and clergy.
After the restoration of the Bourbons, several secret political unions were formed in France, which in 1820 were confederated with the Car bonari. Paris was made the headquarters of a
Carbonarism which, adopting all the symbolic phraseology, rules, and regulations of the Italian societies, received from the systematizing, genius of the French an organic character which it had never before possessed. The initiated styled themselves bons cousins, and spoke of the unini tiated as pagani (heathens). Written documents and communications were strictly prohibited, and treachery was punished by assassination. After the July Revolution, several of the leading French Carbouari attached themselves to the new r6ginie, and their society was gradually dis solved. In its place the new Charbonneric d6mo cratique was founded, having for its object the establishment of a repuldiean government, founded on the principles of Babeuf (q.v.). The endeavors of these new Carbonari to make l'aris the centre of all political movements led to the secession of the Italian refugees. Napo leon Ill. in his young republican days was a member of this society, and Charles Albert (q.v.) of Sardinia was persistently charged with being a Carbonaro. Though the Carbonari did some service in the cause of Italian unity by awaken ing the feeling of patriotism, it is doubtful if the results they accomplished were in proportion to their pretensions and to the vast resources which they commanded. When members were initiated in such large numbers it was inevitable that the fervor which actuated the original founders of the society should disappear. In the course of time the activity of the Carbonari degenerated into a mere spouting of symbolic catchword, and the celebration of an awe-inspiring ritual. It was as a revolt against namby-pamby patriotism mixed with mummery that Mazzini founded the revolutionary society of Young Italy (q.v.). Consult: Memoirs of the Seer, t Soei, ties of the South of Italy. Particularly the Carbonari (Lon. don, 18211; Ileckethorn, The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries ( New York, 1807) ; Saint Edme, Constitution des Carbonari 1821) ; Cantft, It conciliatore e i Carbonari 1878).