The hypotheses rejected by historians (1845), represented as described by Dante in
canto XXX of the
Purgatorio of the
Divine Comedy. On the left, we can see Beatrice's green, white and red dress. Despite attempts to link the modern combination of green, white and red to medieval times, there are no sources that prove this. The three colours were present in some historical events, such as; • The flagpole of the
Carroccio during the
battle of Legnano • The banners of the Tuscan
Guelphs, whose coat of arms was a red eagle on a white field above a green snake, a charge that was granted by
Pope Clement IV, • On the sign of the Sienese
contrada of the Goose • On the tricolour uniforms of the servants of the Duchess of Milan
Valentina Visconti • In
Renaissance times the Italian national colours were imagined on the carpets that welcomed
Renée of France, who then married
Ercole I d'Este, upon her arrival in
Ferrara • On the tricolour uniforms of
Borso d'Este's army • On the green flag, white and red that began to enshrine from the
Cathedral of Milan on the occasion of the entry into the Milanese capital of
Francis I of France after his victory in the
battle of Marignano. Other scholars have suggested the prefiguration of the Italian tricolour in pictorial works; in fact the clothes of some characters painted on the walls of
Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara, which date back to the Middle Ages, are green, white and red. The reason for the historical inconsistency of the hypothetical presence of the tricolour in historical events and artistic works prior to the modern era lies in the fact that at the time the Italian national awareness, which appeared centuries later, had not yet occurred. The three colours of the Italian flag are cited, in literature, in some verses of
canto XXX of the
Purgatorio in the
Divine Comedy, and this has fuelled theories that would link the birth of the tricolour to
Dante Alighieri. They too are considered groundless by scholars, as Dante in these verses did not think of a politically united Italy, but of the
theological virtues, or rather of
charity,
hope and
faith, with the last two being metaphorically symbolized in the Italian flag.
Origins of the Italian tricolour first appeared, and with it the Italian national colours. , on which the three Italian national colours made their debut in 1789 The
tricolore was symbolically important preceding and throughout the
Risorgimento leading to
Italian unification. The first documented trace of the use of Italian national colours is dated 21 August 1789: in the historical archives of the
Republic of Genoa it is reported that eyewitnesses had seen some demonstrators pinned on their clothes hanging a
red, white and green cockade on their clothes. The green, in the primitive
French cockade, was immediately abandoned in favour of blue and red, or the
ancient colours of Paris, because it was also the colour of the king's brother,
Count of Artois, who became monarch after the
First Restoration with the name of
Charles X of France. The French tricolour cockade was then completed on 17 July 1789 with the addition of white, the colour of the
House of Bourbon, in deference to King
Louis XVI of France, who still ruled despite the violent revolts that raged in the country; the French monarchy was in fact
abolished on 10 August 1792. When the correct information on the chromatic composition of the French tricolour arrived in Italy, the Italian Jacobins decided to keep green instead of blue, because it represented nature and therefore metaphorically, also
natural rights, or
social equality and
freedom. In September 1794, Luigi Zamboni and Giambattista de Rolandis created a cockade by uniting the white and red of the
flag of Bologna with green, a symbol of liberty and hope that the populace of Italy join the revolution begun in Bologna to oust the foreign occupying forces. This tricolore was considered a symbol of redemption that from its creation was "consecrated to immortality of the triumph of faith, virtue, and sacrifice" of those who created it. , established on 7 January 1797. It was the first Italian tricolour flag.
Napoleon Bonaparte, in a letter from
Milan to an executive director on 11 October 1796, stated that the
Legione Lombarda had chosen these colours as the national colours. In a solemn ceremony at the
Piazza del Duomo on 16 November 1796, a
military flag was presented to the Legione Lombarda, which would become a unit in the
Cisalpine Republic (1797–1802) military, and was the first tricolore military standard to fly at the head of an Italian military unit. The first official Italian flag of an Italian sovereign state was created for the
Cispadane Republic (1796–1797) in
Reggio Emilia on 7 January 1797 based on a proposal by government deputy
Giuseppe Compagnoni. The formation of the Cisalpine Republic was decreed by Napoleon on 29 June 1797, and consisted of most of the Cispadane Republic and
Transpadane Republic (1796–1797), which included between them Milan,
Mantua, the portion of
Parma north of the
Po river,
Bologna,
Ferrara, and
Romagna, and later the
Venetian Republic. Its flag was proclaimed to be the tricolore, representing the "red and white of Bologna and the green of liberty".
Young Italy, a political movement founded in 1831 by
Giuseppe Mazzini calling for a national revolution to unify all
Italian-speaking provinces, used a "theatrical"
uniform based on the national colours. These colours had been in use in the Cispadane Republic, Transpadane Republic, Cisalpine Republic,
Italian Republic (1802–1805), and the
Kingdom of Italy (1805–1814), precursors to the modern state. During the formation of the Roman Empire of 1814, the foundational constitutional basis specified that the three national colours would be preserved.
Politics The colours have been used for political purposes. During his visit to London on 11 April 1864,
Giuseppe Garibaldi was greeted by a throng of people at the train station, many of whom carried Italian flags. English men dressed in
red shirts commonly worn by Garibaldi's followers during his
Mille expedition to
southern Italy, and women dressed in the national colours of Italy. Italian flags could be seen throughout the city. In 1848, Garibaldi's legion dressed in red shirts with green and white
facing. In 1868, two years after the Austrians departed
Venice following the
Third Italian War of Independence, the remains of statesman
Daniele Manin were brought to his native city and honoured with a public funeral. He had been acclaimed president of the Venetian
Republic of San Marco by residents of Venice after a revolt in 1848. The
gondola carrying his
coffin was decorated with bow "surmounted by the
lion of Saint Mark, resplendent with gold", bore "the Venetian standard veiled with black
crape", and had "two silver colossal statues waving the national colours of Italy". The statues represented the unification of Italy and Venice. The funeral procession was described as "magnificent". His remains are interred at the
Basilica of Santa Croce, the first person buried there in over 300 years. An apocryphal story about the
history of pizza holds that on 11 June 1889,
Neapolitan pizzamaker Raffaele Esposito created a pizza to honour
Margherita of Savoy, who was visiting the city. It was garnished with tomatoes,
mozzarella, and
basil to represent the national colours of Italy, and was named "Pizza Margherita". ==Definition==