Scheda
Augusta Tanari Malvezzi was born in Bologna on the 7 April 1831 to Marquis Giuseppe and Brigida of count Fava Ghisilieri and, in September 1849, she married the count Giovanni Malvezzi of the Medici. Growing up in the liberal envinronment of her mother’s, Brigida, salon Augusta demonstrated an interst in the national cause since she was young and then in 1848, when her brother Luigi left to follow Carlo Alberto to the Front, Augusta kept in touch with her brother in rich correspondence thus keeping her up-to-date on the developments of the war. She did not hesitate to personally support the national cause by raising and giving money to the soldiers and to the production of bandages for the Civic Guard (Guardia Civica). In 1849 she suffered during the siege of Bologna, during which, Augusta wrote in her Ricordi (Memories), “barely anything was missed by the bullets. The commoners invaded the Tanari house demanding weapons; some roughly gripped the arms of beautiful young women cursing the Austrians."
After supporting her nation, she supported her husband Giovanni Malvezzi’s career when, following the Austrian’s departure from Bologna in June of 1859, he became a member of temporary council of the government. At the same time her two sons started their military careers and in 1860 she was made the head of the Commitee of Noble Women of Bologna and she brought the Mayor the three colored (tri-colored) flag for the battalion of the National Guard (Guardia Nazionale). She followed her husband’s administrative positions to Piedmont, where she continued to read and comment on political events. Like her mother, Brigida, she also dedicated herself to the education and the care of children and in 1881 she founded an “Aslyum for Infant Children”, promoted by Women’s Artisan Society of Bologna (Società Artigiana femminile di Bologna), in which Augusta contributed in part to the drafting of the Statutes. Augusta died in Bologna on 27 March 1886.
Translation from italian language by Holly Bean.
