Rather more difficult than relating the facts concerning Mossotti's escape is to understand the reasons that stand behind it. Was Mossotti lucky enough to get ill just a few days before the order to question him came to Brera, or is there more to it? Why did Mossotti decide not to go to the police (after all it was not an official arrest but an interrogation) but to fly from the state, thus giving the impression of being guilty? How did he manage to pass the borders with an expired passport? Why did he come back again to pick up a few books and clothes, thus risking being caught? All these questions could be explained if Mossotti was a member of the Adelphi Society, but even today it is uncertain whether he was or not.
There is evidence for and against his affiliation to the society. The fact
that the above questions would be easily answered if Mossotti had been a
member of the society is one. Furthermore in M8 and M9 it is reported that
Pecchio actually admitted him to the Society. The Government had this
information from Castiglia, inquired by the Austrian Police, who told them
that Ambrogio Berchet (who escaped to England) had spoken to him about Pecchio
accepting Mossotti into the Society. On the other hand, in his Memoirs of
a prisoner of state
Andryane reports that, as far as
he knew, Mossotti was perfectly innocent of such an accusation. Moreover, the
obituaries depict him as man who was interested in science more than politics,
and who lacked the aggressiveness and the strong faith in ideals that are
necessary to make up a conspirator. As after his escape Mossotti did not
concern himself with political matters until very much later (he was nominated
senator of the Kingdom after the unification), and given also that Andryane
would presumably not have had any reason to lie in his Memoirs, which
were written nearly 15 years after this affair, one could suppose that
Mossotti was not a member of the society. One more evidence of this can be
found in M11, where the ambassador of Lombardy in Piedmont writes to the
Government of Milan saying that Mossotti is known as an honest man, and there
is no rumour about any political crime. It is therefore necessary to justify
the pieces of evidence that stand against his innocence.
First of all, even assuming that Mossotti was not actually a member of the
Perfect Masters, he certainly simpathised with some of their ideas and had
friendly relationships with some of them. It is certain, by confession of
Andryane himself, that he had talked to Mossotti at least in three different
occasions: once in the restaurant Viellard, once in the salotto of
Didina Calderara, and once in the observatory, where Mossotti had shown
Andryane the instruments. Andryane denied,
however, to have talked about politics with Mossotti. As Andryane arrived in
Milan on 26 December 1822 and was arrested on 18 January 1823, Mossotti had
evidently become a friend of Andryane. Even though it may seem unlikely that
Mossotti's illness came in the nick of time for him not to get caught, it is
not impossible altogether: he fell ill, he took some time off in order to
recover his health in his family house near Novara, and when he came back to
the observatory he found the letter inviting him to go to the tribunal. As
Andryane had been arrested two months before, it is more probable that the
news of his arrest had reached Mossotti. During the Austrian occupation in
Lombardy, a delation was sometimes all it was needed to be condemned, so he
quickly (and perhaps wisely) decided that it would have been safer to quit his
job rather than getting tangled in the police's affairs (the Spielberg
prison was then infamous only a little less than concentration camps were
during World War II). He left Milan hoping that his passport, although only
valid for the Christmas period, would gain him freedom in Piedmont. From
Novara he then sent letters to Brera saying that he would take some more time
off. The friend of Mossotti that went to Brera to speak with the astronomers
towards the end of March had probably been sent to see whether it was safe for
Mossotti to return. De Cesaris must have told him it would have been better if
he did not come back, and so Mossotti decided to leave Italy altogether.
The astronomers of Brera helped Mossotti as much as it was possible without
appearing guilty of treason. Carlini and Oriani seemingly advised Mossotti to
stay out of Milan, while de Cesaris, who as the director of the observatory
had the duty to correspond with the Government, did not write in his reports
any more than it was strictly necessary to let the Government understand that
the astronomers were completely ignorant of what Mossotti had done, where he
was, or what he was up to. In the library of Brera observatory I found the
rough copies of some official letters that de Cesaris sent to the Government
concerning this matter, and the letters that had finally been sent to the
Government contain less details than the rough copies.
It is also necessary to explain the infamous piece of paper referred to in M8, M9 and M14 that Andryane had among his papers when they were seized, on which there were written the names of Mossotti and of other Italian people. This paper was perhaps the main cause of the Government's interest towards Mossotti: the delation of Castiglia that Mossotti was affiliated to the society, mentioned in M8, had been considered indicial but not decisive by the Government, on the basis that Castiglia was referring informations about which he was highly uncertain.
Andryane had met Buonarroti in Geneva at the beginning of 1821, and
immediately felt a strong admiration for him. From his memoirs of the
time it is possible to infer
that Buonarroti must have had a very dominant personality, and a very strong
wish for power. Andryane was initiated
to the Adelphi Society on 10 October 1821. Andryane's first missions were in
South-Eastern France, and they all went astray. Coming back from those
missions, Andryane began to feel that the secret societies did not represent
the way to democracy and freedom, and although he did not leave the Adelphia,
he stopped being an activist and told his views to Buonarroti. At length
Buonarroti felt that Andryane was a disadvantage to the society, so he gave
him leave to quit it, begging him to make him a last favour in accepting a
last mission in Italy. In order to convince him, Buonarroti introduced to
Andryane some Italian exiles just escaped from Italy. Seeing the conditions
of these people, Andryane decided to take the mission. This was organized in a
series of meetings with Buonarroti, Andryane and the Italian exiles at the
end of 1822. The mission began, as it has already been said, on 26 December
1822, and ended miserably on 18 January 1823, because the Governor of Milan
had inexplicably developed a suspicion against Andryane. He was searched and
an unusual (for the kind of mission he was taking) amount of compromising
papers were found in his bag. From Andryane's memoirs, we know that Andryane
was definitely against bringing so many compromising papers with him, but that
time and time again Buonarroti replied to him that they were absolutely
essential. Also, it is worth considering that even after the seizing all those
papers, which consisted in professions of faith, statutes of the society,
secret codes and keys to break them, and letters to a number of
people, the Adelphi society was not destroyed, and
seemingly not even weakened; of the compromised people, some were innocent,
some were only suspected but not proven guilty (like Mossotti), and the guilty
ones did not have high rank in the Adelphia. In my opinion, the whole business
had been set up by Buonarroti in order to frame Andryane (he was of the
opinion that secret societies had extinguished their role in history) and put
him in a position where he could not have harmed the Adelphia. He sent him on
an impossible mission, his bags full of compromising papers, and then he made
sure the authorities knew what he was up to. Unfortunately this meant that a
few innocent people had to suffer some of the consequences of this, in
particular Mossotti. In fact Andryane says in his Memoirs of a prisoner
of state that the piece of paper with the name of
Mossotti written on had been put in his bag by one of the Italian exiles with
whom he organized his mission.