The son of Count Carlo Matteo Litta Biumi and Antonia, daughter of Count Carlo Giuseppe Brentano, Pompeo belonged to one of the many branches into which the
Litta family had been divided throughout its history and which only in the eighteenth century had added the surname Biumi due to the marriage of Francesco, Pompeo's grandfather, to Angela Biumi, daughter of the Marquis of
Binasco. Litta's maternal grandfather had been general treasurer of the
Duchy of Milan at the time of Empress
Maria Theresa. While young, he attended first the college of nobles in Milan and later studied in
Como and then moved to
Venice and finally to
Siena. Having embarked on his diplomatic career, in 1802 he obtained his first official post at the
Napoleonic Italian Republic as assistant secretary to the Consulta of State. His career came to an abrupt end, however, in 1804 when he decided to volunteer in the
Grande Armée in Italy in the artillery branch, receiving public praise from the president,
Francesco Melzi d'Eril, for being the first nobleman to join. For this purpose, he initially took preparatory courses in the military schools of
La Fère and
Strasbourg before becoming a
lieutenant. From 1805 until 1809, he took part in the
War of the Fifth Coalition against the
Austrian Empire, in particular in the
Battle of Ulm, the
Battle of Austerlitz, the
Battle of Raab, and in
Battle of Wagram, after which he obtained a promotion to captain and the
Legion of Honour on the field. Subsequently assigned to
Ancona, he was commissioned to organize the artillery corps intended to defend the coasts against the eventual intervention of the British and reported in 1814 in the
defense of Ancona with the troops of
Marshal Jacques MacDonald. After the dissolution of the Napoleonic army, he stayed for some time in
Rome and then returned to Milan where he maintained contact with the fervent liberal environment of the Lombard metropolis, actively collaborating with
Il Conciliatore and maintaining friendship and collaboration with
Federico Confalonieri and
Carlo Cattaneo. After the
Five Days of Milan in 1848, he was Minister of War in the provisional government of
Lombardy. As an inheritance that he received from his grandfather through his mother, Litta became the owner of the
Palazzo Brentano in
Corbetta which he lived occasionally, especially during the summer. In 1874, twenty-two years after his death, a monument in memory of Litta was inaugurated in the building of the
Brera Academy: the statue, the work of the Milanese sculptor
Francesco Barzaghi, was unveiled on 7 August during a memorial to the count. File:Pompeo Litta Biumi.jpg|Illustration of Pompeo Litta Biumi from
Il fuggilozio. File:5976 - Milano - Palazzo di Brera - 1o piano - Statua Pompeo Litta Biumi - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto - 5-May-2009.jpg|Statue by F. Barzaghi, on the loggia of
Brera Academy, Milan ==
Famiglie Celebri Italiane ==