Patriot and soldier of garibaldi

Born in Forli in 1849, Fratti was with Garibaldi at Mentana (1867) and Dijon (1870).

As soon as news reached him in 1897 of the insurrection of Crete against Turkey and of the intention of the Athens government to help the insurgents, he told them, before the Garibaldi volunteers left, that he would join them as soon as he was free from the electoral struggle, because at that time general elections were being prepared in Italy, in which he was elected deputy of Forli.

He was the depositary of Guglielmo Oberdan's will, which he handed over to him before he voted to sacrifice himself.
He graduated in law and was a writer and poet. After having published articles in various newspapers and having also been the director of "Il Dovere di Roma", he founded the Rivista Popolare. In the 1970s he was vice-president of the Giuseppe Mazzini Club in Forlì.
Fratti was one of the protagonists of several Congresses of the Covenant of Brotherhood between the workers' societies, having already joined its steering committee in 1882.

In 1884 he rushed to Naples to help the city hit by cholera.

He was elected deputy of Forlì from 1892 to 1895, and again in 1897, always opposing Crispi's politics.

In 1897 he took part as a volunteer in Ricciotti Garibaldi's retinue in the Greek-Turkish war on the side of the Greeks, being killed during a clash between Greeks and Ottomans in the village of Domokos in Thessaly.

His body was moved to Forlì in 1902 to rest in the Pantheon of the city cemetery.
Le poète Giovanni Pascoli dedicated to him the ode « Ad Antonio Fratti ».

The photographic studio Gian Battista Canè dedicated a picture on card, like a "santino", to his memory. The picture of Fratti at the top of this page is taken from that card.

(source: Wikipedia)