ITALY - VENICE - Lot 362

ITALY - VENICE Provisional government of Venice 1848-1849 INDIPENDENZA ITALIANA. Winged lion on a pedestal inscribed XI AGOSTO MDCCCXLVIII. R/. ★ALLENZA DEI POPOLI LIBERI★. Center, 5 LIRE in an oak wreath. Edge inscribed DIO PREMIERA' LA COSTANZA. ♦ Pag 178 5 Lire silver 1848 Venice (25.00 g) A very fine example. On August 11, 1848, the Republic of San Marco was proclaimed anew in Venice by Daniele Manin. Manin was a lawyer with republican and anti-Austrian ideas. In 1847, he took part in the Republican Congress, where he drafted a petition bringing together all the grievances of the Venetian population against the Austrian occupiers, and sent it to Vienna. He was imprisoned in January 1848. The Venetian revolution of March, which drove the Austrians out of the city - which became the Republic of San Marco - freed him, and Manin became one of the leaders of the new Venetian state until July 1848, alongside Niccolò Tommaseo.