esercito e città dall'unità agli anni trenta. tomo i - Sistema ...

190 ANTHONY L. CARDOZA
mi quasi d'un altro figlio mio , 16. In a somewhat more direct fashion, Marchese
Carlo Compans di Brichanteau - himself a former officer in the Cavalry
- did no t hesitate to use his substantial influence as a parliamentary deputy
to help his son, Lodovico, embark upon a career in the Cavalry at the turn
of the century 17.
The endogamous tendencies of the Piedmontese nobility ensured that
aristocratic social connections extended well beyond the immediate family.
Indeed, most titled officers from the region were linked and cross-linked
by a series of inter-familial relationships that provided an informai but highly
effective means of communication and mutuai assistance. A sample study
of the marriage patterns of thirty-eight prominent old military families between
1750 and 1914 is rather revealing in this respect. AH the families could
claim at least one marriage to another of the families; twenty-eight of them
were linked by from three to nine marriages to other families in the
group 18. The relationships formed by marriages within such a relatively
small social circle created the basis for a closely knit network in which many
of the men were related to one another as cousins, inlaws, etc. The host
of family ritual an d ceremonial gatherings as well as more casual encounters
in urban palaces or country houses ali afforded opportunities to exchange
news, discuss problems, and seek assistance 19.
Private schools and aristocratic gentlemen's clubs offered additional settings
in which social connections could be developed. The interaction
among aristocratic youths at the Collegio San Giuseppe, the Scuola Sociale,
and the Real Collegio Carlo Alberto reinforced and broadened alliances and
friendships established by marriage and family contact. These schools, which
had supplanted the Accademia Militare as the preferred educational institutions
of the Piedmontese nobility in the late nineteenth century, created a
web of friendships and comradeship among the students that often continued
and served them in their later lives. Thus, both Lodovico Compans di
16 Archivio di Stato, Torino (AST), Prima Sezione, Archivio De Genova di Pettinengo,
Busta 8, Fascicolo 2, letter to Generale Ignazio De Genova di Pettinengo, no date 1890.
17 AST, Sezioni Riunite, Archivio Compans di Brichanteau, Categoria 4, Busta 8 and
12. I8 Information on the marriages within the Piedmontese nobility is drawn from AN­
TONIO MANNO, Il patriziato subalpino. Notizie di fatto storiche genealogiche, feudali ed
araldiche, 26 vols. The first two volumes were published in Florence in 1895; the remaining
volumes are in typescript with the originai in the Biblioteca Reale di Torino and
carbon copies at the Biblioteca Nazionale and the AST.
19 For a more generai discussion of the importance of these informai networks, see
ABNER CoHEN, Two-Dimensional Man: An Essay on the Anthropology of Power and Symbolism
in Complex Society, Berkeley 1974, pp. 110-114.
AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN 191
Brichanteau at the Scuola Sociale in the mid-1880s and Ferdinando Morozzo
della Rocca at the Collegio San Giuseppe a decade later encountered
dozens of other boys from prestigious old military families who would accompany
them into the ranks of the officers corps in the ensuing years 20 •
Informai interaction among schoolmates continued after graduation within
the aristocratic confines of the Società del Whist. Founded in 1841 by Cavour
and thirty other Piedmontese nobles, the Whist had as its stated purpose,
" la riunione, in apposito locale, di persone di gentile educazione, le quali
ivi possano trattenersi colla conversazione, con giuochi permessi, e colla lettura
di libri e di giornali , 21 . Well into this century, membership remained
highly restrictive, limited for the most part to men from titled families.
Not surprisingly, most of the names of Piedmontese aristocratic officers in
the Annuari Militari also appear on the Elenchi generali dei soci of the
Società del Whist 22• The dining an d sitting rooms of the Whist offered an
ideai setting for titled officers to renew old friendships and acquaintances
as well as to make new contacts and connections.
The combination of intra-family ties, school friendships, and exclusive
club affiliations gave aristocratic officers privileged access to a wide range
of powerful figures in the military hierarchy, the politica! class, an d at court,
who could be mobilized on their behalf at crucial junctures in their careers.
Even the most cursory reading of his voluminous correspondence reveals
how Marchese Carlo Compans di Brichanteau, for instance, was was constantly
intervening on behalf of an army of relatives and sons of aristocratic
friends w ho w ere seeking some military appointment or assignment 23. It
is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of these mechanisms of informai influence
on career advancement. They were probably of little help to the
incompetent wastrel, no matter how exalted his famìly name and social connections.
Stili, an analysis of the career patterns of the twenty-nin:e
aristocratic youths who entered the Accademia Militare di Torino between
1861 and 1870 suggests that they were not without effect. Although this
group accounted for less than 4% of the cadets w ho passed through the
Accademia during that decade, fourteen generals and seven colonnels would
2o See AST, Archivio Compans, Cat. 4, B. 10, F. 3, "Alunni dell'Istituto Sociale di
Istruzione ed Educazione ... 1884-85 »; for Morozzo della Rocca, see AST, Archivio Broglia
di Castelborgone, B. 10, distribuzione dei premi, Collegio San Giuseppe, 1896-1902 .
21 Statuto della Società del Whist, Torino 1847.
22 See, for example, Società del Whist. Elenco generale dei socii 1878, Torino 1878,
and similar lists for the years 1897 and 1904.
23 See note 17.