Alessandro Malaspina

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Alessandro Malaspina
Portrait of Alejandro Malaspina y Melilupi, Brigadier of the Real Armada. Anonymous. (Naval Museum of Madrid).

Alessandro Malaspina, known in Spanish as Alejandro Malaspina (Mulazzo, November 5, 1754 – Pontremoli, April 9, 1810) was an Italian nobleman and naval officer in the service of Spain, Brigadier of the Real Armada, famous for leading one of the great scientific voyages of the Enlightenment era, the so-called Malaspina Expedition (1788–94). After conspiring to bring down Godoy, he fell into disgrace, which led to his great achievements being forgotten.

Life

Youth

Alejandro Malaspina was born in Mulazzo, in present-day Italy, then part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. His parents were the Marquis Carlo Morelo and Caterina Meli Lupi di Soragna. From 1762 to 1765 he and his family lived in Palermo, under the protection of his uncle, the Viceroy of Sicily Giovanni Fogliani de Aragon. From 1765 to 1773 he studied at the Clementine College in Rome, agreeing in 1773 to join the Order of Malta. He lived in Malta for a year, where he learned the rudiments of navigation in the fleet of the Order. In 1774 he joined the Spanish Royal Navy. On November 18 of that year he received the rank of midshipman.

In the service of Spain

During 1775 and 1776 he took part in several armed actions in North Africa (one of them, in January 1775, an expedition to relieve Melilla, besieged by bands of Barbary pirates). From 1777 to 1779, aboard the frigate Astrea, he took part in a voyage to the Philippines (out and back by way of the Cape of Good Hope). During that voyage he was promoted to frigate lieutenant (1778). He took part in several actions against the British in 1780, after which he was promoted to ship-of-the-line lieutenant.

In 1782 he was denounced before the Inquisition as a heretic, but he was neither imprisoned nor tried. That year he took part in the Great Siege of Gibraltar.

During 1783 and 1784, as second-in-command to the Commander of the frigate Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, he made a second voyage to the Philippines. From September 1786 to May 1788, in command of the frigate Astrea, he made a third voyage to the Philippines, commissioned by the Royal Company of the Philippines. This time it was a circumnavigation of the world.

The Malaspina Expedition

Main article: Malaspina Expedition
Map of Malaspina's route through the territories of the Spanish empire
Malaspina presented with gifts by women of Vavao. Pencil and ink drawing on laid paper attributed to Juan Ravenet, made during the Malaspina Expedition. Madrid, Museum of the Americas
Alejandro Malaspina, by José María Galván

In September 1788, together with José de Bustamante y Guerra, he proposed to the Spanish Government the organization of a political-scientific expedition in order to visit the Spanish possessions and other territories of America, Asia and Oceania. This voyage would become known as the Malaspina Expedition. The expedition sailed from Cádiz on July 30, 1789.

Return and fall from grace

On his return to Spain (September 21, 1794), Malaspina presented a report, Viaje político-científico alrededor del mundo (Political-Scientific Voyage around the World), which included a confidential political report, with critical observations of a political nature about the Spanish colonial institutions and in favor of granting broad autonomy to the Spanish American and Pacific colonies within a confederation of states linked through trade.

In September 1795, he sent his writings to the Spanish government, but it judged their publication inopportune in the political situation existing at the time. Disillusioned, Malaspina led a philosophical-literary controversy in the Madrid press about beauty in nature, while at the same time taking part in a conspiracy to bring down Manuel Godoy, which led to his arrest on November 23. After a dubious trial, on April 20, 1796 he was sentenced to ten years in prison in the Castle of San Antón in A Coruña. During his imprisonment, Malaspina wrote essays on aesthetics, economics and literature.

He did not serve the whole of his sentence, since at the end of 1802 he was released owing to pressure from Napoleon (at the urging of Francesco Melzi d'Eril) and deported to Italy. Malaspina left for his home town by way of Genoa, finally settling in Pontremoli, 10 km from Mulazzo, then part of the Kingdom of Etruria. There he became involved in local politics. In 1804 he moved to Milan. In December of that year, the government of the republic entrusted him with organizing the quarantine between the republic and the Kingdom of Etruria during an epidemic of yellow fever in Livorno. In 1805 he was appointed a member of the Council of State of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy (into which the Italian Republic had been transformed). In December 1806, he moved to the court of the Kingdom of Etruria in Florence, and was admitted to the Colombina Society.

Alejandro Malaspina died in Pontremoli, at that time part of the First French Empire, in 1810 of a heart attack.[1]

Bibliography

  • Sánchez Arteaga, Juanma. Lo bello en la naturaleza. Alejandro Malaspina : estética, filosofía natural y blancura en el ocaso de la Ilustración (1795-1803). Madrid: CSIC, 2022, 613 pp.
  • Sánchez Arteaga, Juanma. De las tertulias a la conspiración: la disputa por la belleza y las amistades peligrosas de Alejandro Malaspina en Madrid. Asclepio, Revista de Historia de la Medicina y de la Ciencia 73(2), July–December 2021, pp. 570-583.
  • Pedro Navarro Floria; Sergio Alfredo Sciglitano "Ripensando l´Impero spagnolo: Alessandro Malaspina e la politica illuministica in Patagonia" Rivista Scienza & Politica. Vol 17, No. 32. 2005. Bologna. Italy.
  • Sagredo Baeza, Rafael; González Leiva, José Ignacio, "La Expedición Malaspina en la Frontera Austral del Imperio Español", Editorial Universitaria, Santiago, Chile, 2004. 939 pp.
  • Pimentel Igea, Juan; "Viajeros Científicos", Novatores collection, Ed. Nívola, Madrid, 2001. 140 pp.
  • Mariana Cuesta Domingo, "Espinosa y Tello y su viaje complementario al de Malaspina," in Paz Martín Ferrero (ed.), Actas del simposium CCL aniversario nacimiento de Joseph Celestino Mutis, Cádiz, Diputación Provincial de Cádiz, 1986, pp.197-204.
  • Mª Dolores Higueras Rodríguez, Diario General del Viaje Corbeta Atrevida por José Bustamante y Guerra, Museo Naval Ministerio de Defensa La Expedición Malaspina, 1789-1794, Volume IX, Madrid and Barcelona, Lunwerg Editores, 1999.
  • Victoria Ibáñez, Trabajos Científicos y Correspondencia de Tadeo Haenke, Museo Naval and Ministerio de Defensa, La Expedición Malaspina, 1789-1794, Volume IV, Madrid and Barcelona, Lunwerg Editores, 1992.
  • Robin Inglis (ed.), Spain and the North Pacific Coast, Vancouver Maritime Museum Society, 1992.
  • Robin Inglis, "Successors and rivals to Cook: the French and the Spaniards", in Glyndwr Williams (ed.), Captain Cook: Explorations and Assessments, Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 2004, pp.161-178.
  • Robert J. King, "Puerto del Pendulo, Doubtful Sound: la visita de la expedición Malaspina a Nueva Zelanda en busca de la verdadera forma de la tierra", Asclepio: Revista de Historia de la Medicina y de la Ciencia, vol.62, no.1, 2010, pp.209-224.
  • Mª Dolores Higueras Rodríguez, Catálogo crítico de los documentos de la Expedición Malaspina en el Museo Naval, volumes I, II and III, Madrid, Museo Naval, 1989-1994.
  • Carmen Sotos Serrano, "Nuevas obras de Fernando Brambila en Londres", Homenaje al Profesor Hernández Perera, Madrid, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1992, pp.453-8.
  • Carmen Sotos Serrano, Los Pintores de la Expedición de Alejandro Malaspina, Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, 1982.
  • Dario Manfredi, "Adam J. Krusenstern y la primera edición del viaje de Malaspina. San Petersburgo (1824-1827)", Derroteros de la Mar del Sur, (Lima), Year 8, no.8, 2000, pp.65-82.
  • Dario Manfredi, Italiano in Spagna, Spagnolo in Italia: Alessandro Malaspina (1754-1810) e la più importante spedizione scientifica marittima del Secolo dei Luni, Torino, Nuova Eri Edizioni Rai, 1992.
  • Dario Manfredi, "Sulla Prima Edizione del Viaggio di Malaspina S. Pietroburgo, 1824-1827", Giovanni Caboto e le Vie dell'Atlantico settentrionale, Atti del Convegno Internazionale de Studi, Rome, September 29 – October 1, 1997, Genova-Brigati, Centro italiano per gli Studi storico-geografici, 1999, pp.485-159.
  • Dario Manfredi, Alessandro Malaspina e Fabio Ala Ponzone: Lettere dal Vecchio e Nuovo Mondo (1788-1803), Bologna, il Mulino, 1999.
  • Dario Manfredi, "Sugli Studi e sulle Navigazioni 'minori' di Alessandro Malaspina", Cronaca e Storia di Val di Magra, XVI-XVII, 1987-1988, p.159.
  • Dario Manfredi, Il Viaggio Attorno al Mondo di Malaspina con la Fregata di S.M.C.«Astrea», 1786-1788, La Spezia, Memorie della Accademia Lunigianese di Scienze, 1988.
  • Carlo Ferrari / Dario Manfredi, Dallo "Zibaldone Ferrari" nuovi elementi sulle letture di Alessandro Malaspina (1796-1810) Estratto dall'"Archivio Storico per le Province Parmensi". Quarta serie, vol. XL - Anno 1988.
  • Luis Rafael Martínez-Cañavate, Trabajos Astronómicos, Geodésicos e Hidrográficos, Museo Naval and Ministerio de Defensa, La Expedición Malaspina, 1789-1794, Volume VI, Madrid and Barcelona, Lunwerg Editores, 1994.
  • Félix Muñoz Garmendia, Diario y Trabajos Botánicos de Luis Neé, Museo Naval and Ministerio de Defensa, La Expedición Malaspina, 1789-1794, Volume III, Madrid and Barcelona, Lunwerg Editores, 1992.
  • Antonio Orozco Acuaviva (ed.), La Expedición Malaspina (1789-1794), Bicentenario de la Salida de Cádiz, Cádiz, Real Academia Hispano-Americana, 1989. In the contribution to this work by Pablo Anton Sole, "Los Padrones de Cumplimiento Pascual de la Expedición Malaspina: 1790-1794", pp.173-238, the names of all of the 450 personnel who took part in the several stages of the expedition are listed.
  • Antonio Orozco Acuaviva et al. (eds.), Malaspina y Bustamante '94: II Jornadas Internacionales Conmemorativas del regreso de la Expedición a Cádiz, 1794-1994, Madrid, Rústica, 1996.
  • Mercedes Palau Baquero & Antonio Orozco Acuaviva (eds.), Malaspina '92: I Jornadas Internacionales - Madrid, Cádiz, La Coruña. 17-25 de septiembre de 1992, Cádiz, Real Academia Hispano-Americana, 1994.
  • "Malaspina, viaje alrededor del mundo", National Geographic España, November and December 2001, January, March, April and May 2002.
  • Juan Pimentel Igea, Examines Políticos, Museo Naval and Ministerio de Defensa, La Expedición Malaspina, 1789-1794, Volume VII, Barcelona, Lunwerg Editores, 1996.
  • Blanca Saiz, Bibliografía sobre Alejandro Malaspina y acerca de la expedición Malaspina y de los marinos y científicos que en ella participaron, Ediciones El Museo Universal, Madrid, 1992.
  • Blanca Sáiz (ed.), Malaspina '93: Alessandro Malaspina e la sua spedizione scientifica (1789-1794). Atti del Congresso Internazionale, nel bicentenario della massima impresa di Alessandro Malaspina, tenutosi a Mulazzo, Castiglione del Terziere e Lerici dal 24 al 26 settembre 1993, Mulazzo, Centro di Studi Malaspiniani, 1995.
  • Emilio Soler Pascual, La Conspiración Malaspina, 1795-1796, Alicante, Instituto de Cultura "Juan Gil Albert", 1965 (Diputación Provincial, Col. Ensayo y Investigación: 32).
  • Emilio Soler Pascual and Asociación Cultural Dionisio Alcalá-Galiano, Trafalgar y Alcalá Galiano: jornadas internacionales, Cabra, 17 al 23 de octubre de 2005, Madrid, Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional, 2006, Series: Ciencias y humanismo.
  • Museo Naval and Ministerio de Defensa, La Expedición Malaspina, 1789-1794, Barcelona, Lunwerg, volumes 1-9, (1996). Dr. Eduardo Estrella, Historical study, transcription and notes of the original texts for the book Expedición Malaspina. Preliminary work, Juan Pimentel Igea. Documentary appendix, Dolores Higueras Rodríguez.

References

  1. ↑ "Gazzetta Universale, No.33, 24 Aprile 1810, pag.2" (in italiano). Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
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