Angelo and Alessandro Borrini

Angelo Borrini, son of Francesco Maria and Piera Pieri, was born in Lucca in 1805. The family engaged a French tutor for him who could be both strict and liberal in his attitude. As a student at the University of Pisa, he showed a strong propensity for the natural sciences and graduated in medicine, specialising in ophthalmology. It was as a doctor and ophthalmologist that he treated the Duke of Lucca who was suffering from a form of chronic ophthalmia. In this capacity, he followed the Duke, Carlo Ludovico of Bourbon, on his many journeys throughout Europe: Paris, Vienna, the cities of Belgium, Leipzig, Dresden where he met his wife Carolina Kredyck, the daughter of Polish exiles. In the villa which the Borrini family had bought in Sant’Andrea di Compito in 1817, Angelo, together with his brother Alessandro, embarked in 1830 on two fileds of activity: the scientific cultivation of camellias and of liberal political ideas in opposition to the authoritarian regimes dominant at that time in Italy and in Europe. The villa was home to a Carbonari association with republican views known as the “Liberal Company” and had a secret printing press on which a periodical called the “Serchio Gazette” was produced; at its masthead, it had Mazzini’s motto “Persecute your persecutors with the truth. Write”. According to popular tradition, the same Giuseppe Mazzini was a guest at the Borrini villa.

The camellias also played their part in the Italian Risorgimento (the cultivar “Oscar” white, variegated with red together with the green of the leaves provided a visual representation of the national colours). As a symbol of patriotic identity, the camellias reinforced the sense of belonging through the names often given to those considered the most beautiful: La Carbonara; Francesco Ferruccio; 22 March (the glorious final day of the Five Days of Milan); La Bella Romana; Roma Risorta…