The Italian Regency of Carnaro
Draft of a New Ordinance for the Free State of Fiume: 12 September 1919 [-] 12 September 1920.
By Gabriele D'Annunzio
The kneeling donor.
In the presence of my fellow citizens, I have never felt my heart so deeply moved, not even in the harshest hours of labor and danger, nor in the moments of the greatest deliberations, when the long heroic will of the people seemed, for a moment, to waver, obscured, and it seemed as though the perverse contagion was about to prevail over the spirit of sacrifice.
Whoever has followed me closely until today, whoever has looked at me with pure eyes, whoever has regarded my daily solitary pain with human compassion amidst so much tumult, whoever has understood my sadness and understood my joy, whoever has not measured my love, my effort, and my gift that cannot bear to be measured, now understands why my heart trembles.
On August 12, in this very place, crowded with people as it is tonight, I cried out: "I ask the city of life for an act of life."
No act of life is carried out without profound trembling. Even God, when He creates, trembles within; even the artisan, when he molds, trembles within, though his hand is steady, though his thumb is sure.
The people who give themselves their own rebirth in a higher form of life, in a superior order of liberty and justice, cannot but be stirred by an emotion as warm as inspiration.
On August 12, regretting that I was not with you in the open air under the constellation of the Good Cause, I said: Tonight the assembly is in a furnace. The greatest fire of Fiume is lit here.
But tonight, for the furnace to burn even more, each citizen, forgetting their doubts and their miseries, must throw in what they have of the best, what they possess of the most precious, like the pious Battista from Arbe when he cast his bell, like the eccentric Benvenuto when he cast his statue.
We are here to cast our bell, and we are here to cast our statue.
We are here to create a voice of liberty, and we are here to create a form of liberty: a voice of beauty and a form of beauty above the world forgetful of the high and eternal things, above the decrepit world destined to collapse and inexorably disintegrate.
The passion of Fiume will survive, transformed into splendor. The constancy of Fiume will survive, transfigured into brilliance.
Fifteen months ago, on Pentecost Sunday, I said: If this is the day of the Spirit and of the Flame, this is truly the day of Fiume, this is the solemnity of Fiume, which all Italians of whatever belief must celebrate in the church or outside the church, with a sacrifice of love or with an act of fervor, gathered together or alone.
Today is not Sunday; it is Monday: it is the day when work resumes, when the task begins. And it is the Pentecost of free Fiume.
He breathed on them and said to them: Receive the Spirit. This is the word from the Gospel of John.
Humbly, devoutly, before beginning the reading of the new statutes, I wish to be worthy of repeating to you, my brothers, my sisters: Receive the Spirit.
Twenty-one years ago, in an attempt at epic invention, misunderstood and scorned by that third Italy where the policeman was sweeping the wreaths of Trento and Trieste out of the Pantheon like objects of shame by royal order... twenty-one years ago, I gave this importunate wish: May the spirit of ancient communal liberties blow again upon the united and diverse Italy.
It was a wish, it was a premonition, and also a will, importunate.
So many years of faith, so many years of perseverance, so many years of waiting would deserve that the wish be fulfilled, that the premonition come true, that the will be realized. And it would be wonderfully beautiful if that Italian spirit were to blow from Fiume over Italy and over the world.
The cathedral rose airy from the communal tumult. The intellectual liberty of the world leaped from the purple blood of the Italian republics. The frankness, the discipline, the dignity, the grace of human labor arose from the legal institute of our Corporation.
That stupendous spirit, today renewing itself, is strengthened by the experiences of yesterday, gathers within itself the divinations of tomorrow, precedes the most eager, outruns the swiftest. It precedes, does not exceed. It outruns, does not overstep.
It knows harmony. It knows music.
Music, considered as a religious and social institution, is the last rubric of this Draft.
Did the people of Fiume not have, in their greatest hours, the fullness and unanimity of the choir?
Choral is our invocation, choral is our pain, choral is our hope.
How will the choir respond tonight to the lone voice? To the moved voice of the interpreter?
To have hoped greatly, to have willed greatly is enough for one who does not ask for even a leaf of oak or laurel for himself.
Listen. One day last winter, it happened that I encountered, on a deserted street, a poor man: one of those admirable and adorable poor, who, from their poverty, have made an Italian magnificence. I know them.
I stopped and, not without some hesitation, offered him what I had.
As he made the gesture to kiss my hand, I withdrew; and as he persisted in his humble gesture and I awkwardly recoiled, he hesitated and fell to his knees.
Then I too knelt before him. And we remained for a few moments, facing one another, both kneeling, like those donors depicted in the lower parts of votive tablets.
Who was the first to rise?
Not I. I felt I was the least worthy.
Thus, it would be appropriate for me to read these pages, which are nothing but a fraternal offering made with purity of heart. Thus, it would be fitting for us to commune in the Spirit, bowed "with the knees of the mind," as our father would say.
I will not be the first to rise, not even this time.
But, if we rise at the same time, taking each other's hands, we will have saved and exalted the soul, we will have saved and exalted the homeland in the firmament of the future and at the summit of liberty.
The Italian Regency of Carnaro.
Draft of a New Ordinance for the Free State of Fiume.
Of the Perpetual Popular Will.
Fiume, a free Italian commune for centuries, by the unanimous vote of its citizens and through the legitimate voice of the National Council, declared freely its full and entire dedication to the motherland on October 30, 1918.
Its right is threefold, like the impenetrable armor of the Roman myth.
Fiume is the ultimate Italian guardian of the Giulian lands, the extreme stronghold of Latin culture, the last bearer of Dante’s legacy. Through her, from century to century, from event to event, from struggle to struggle, from passion to passion, the Carnaro of Dante remained Italian. From her, the spirits of Italianity radiated along the coasts and islands, from Volosca to Laurana, from Moschiena to Albona, from Veglia to Lussino, from Cherso to Arbe.
And this is her historical right.
Fiume, like the original Tarsatica placed against the southern head of the Liburnian Wall, rises and extends from the hills of the Giulian lands. Her dimension is fully included within that circle that tradition, history, and science confirm as the sacred boundary of Italy.
And this is her terrestrial right.
Fiume, with tenacious will, heroic in overcoming suffering, treachery, and violence of every kind, has for two years claimed the liberty to choose her destiny and her task, by virtue of that just principle declared to the peoples even by some of her own unjust adversaries.
And this is her human right.
Opposing her threefold right are the iniquity, greed, and foreign arrogance, against which a sorrowful Italy does not stand, allowing her own victory to be denied and annihilated.
Thus, the people of the free city of Fiume, always fixed on their Latin destiny and always intent on fulfilling their legitimate vote, decide to renew their ordinances according to the spirit of their new life, not limiting them to the territory that under the title of "Corpus separatum" was assigned to the Hungarian Crown, but offering them to the fraternal election of those Adriatic communities that wish to break the delays, to shake off the oppressive sadness, and to rise again in the name of the new Italy.
Thus, in the name of the new Italy, the people of Fiume, constituted in justice and liberty, swear to fight with all their strength, to the utmost, to defend against anyone the contiguity of their land to the motherland, as perpetual assertor and defender of the Alpine boundaries marked by God and Rome.
Of the Foundations.
I. The sovereign people of Fiume, making use of its sovereignty, which is neither assailable nor violable, makes the center of its free State its "Corpus separatum," with all its railways and its entire port.
But, just as it is firm in wanting to maintain the contiguity of its land to the motherland on the western side, it does not renounce a more just and secure eastern border, which will be determined by upcoming political events and agreements made with rural and maritime municipalities attracted by the free port regime and the broadness of the new statutes.
II. The Italian Regency of Carnaro is made up of the land of Fiume, the islands of ancient Venetian tradition, which by vote declare their adherence to its fortunes; and by all those affiliated communities that, through a sincere act of adhesion, can be welcomed according to the spirit of a specific prudential law.
III. The Italian Regency of Carnaro is a straightforward people's government — res populi — which is founded on the power of productive labor and is ordered according to the broadest and most varied forms of autonomy as it was understood and practiced during the four glorious centuries of our communal period.
IV. The Regency recognizes and confirms the sovereignty of all citizens, without distinction of gender, lineage, language, class, or religion.
But it expands, elevates, and supports above all other rights the rights of the producers; it abolishes or reduces the overbearing centrality of the constituted powers; it distributes the forces and offices, so that from the harmonious play of diversities, life becomes ever more vigorous and richer in the common good.
V. The Regency protects, defends, and preserves all liberties and all popular rights; it ensures internal order with discipline and justice;
it strives to lead back days and deeds toward that sense of virtuous joy, which must renew from within the people finally freed from a uniform regime of subjugation and lies;
it constantly strives to raise the dignity and prosperity of all citizens so that receiving citizenship may be considered by foreigners as a noble title and a great honor, as once living under Roman law was.
VI. All citizens of the State, of both sexes, are and feel equal before the new law.
The exercise of the rights recognized by the constitution cannot be diminished or suppressed in any way unless it is the result of a public judgment and a solemn condemnation.
VII. The fundamental freedoms of thought, press, assembly, and association are guaranteed to all citizens.
Every religious cult is admitted, respected, and may build its own temple;
but no citizen may invoke their creed and its rites to escape the fulfillment of duties prescribed by the living law.
The abuse of statutory liberties, when directed toward an unlawful purpose and when it disturbs the equilibrium of civil coexistence, can be punished by specific laws; but these must in no way lessen the perfect principle of these freedoms.
VIII. The statutes guarantee to all citizens, of both sexes:
- primary education in clear and healthy schools;
- physical education in well-equipped, open gyms;
- remunerated work with a minimum wage sufficient for a good living;
- assistance in sickness, disability, and involuntary unemployment;
- a retirement pension for old age;
- the use of legitimately acquired goods;
- the inviolability of the home;
- habeas corpus;
- compensation for damages in case of judicial error or abuse of power.
IX. The State does not recognize property as the absolute domain of a person over a thing but considers it the most useful of social functions.
No property can be reserved for the person as if it were a part of them; nor can it be lawful for such an owner to leave it inactive or manage it poorly, excluding all others.
The only legitimate title of ownership over any means of production and exchange is labor.
Only labor is the master of the substance made most fruitful and most profitable for the general economy.
X. The port, the station, and the railways included in the Fiuman territory are perpetual, uncontestable, and inalienable properties of the State.
It is granted—with a Free Port Decree—ample and free exercise of commerce, industry, and navigation to all foreigners as well as natives, with perfect parity of good treatment and immunity from greedy tariffs and harm to people and goods.
XI. A national bank of Carnaro, supervised by the Regency, is tasked with issuing paper money and performing every other credit operation.
A specific law will determine its methods and rules, distinguishing at the same time the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of the banks already operating in the territory and those that may be established.
XII. All citizens, of both sexes, have full freedom to choose and exercise industries, professions, arts, and trades.
Industries initiated and sustained by external powers, as well as any foreign enterprises, will find their regulations in a liberal law.
XIII. Three types of spirits and forces contribute to the organization, movement, and growth of the university:
- the Citizens
- the Corporations
- the Municipalities
XIV. There are three religious beliefs placed above all others in the university of the sworn Municipalities:
- Life is beautiful, and worthy of being lived severely and magnificently by a man remade entirely by freedom;
- The complete man is one who knows every day how to invent his own virtue to offer his brothers a new gift every day;
- Work, even the humblest, even the darkest, if well executed, tends toward beauty and adorns the world.
Of the Citizens.
XV. The following have rank and title of citizens in the Regency:
- all citizens currently registered in the free city of Fiume;
- all citizens belonging to other communities who request to become part of the new State and are welcomed into it;
- all those who, by public decree of the people, are privileged with citizenship;
- all those who, having requested legal citizenship, have obtained it by decree.
XVI. The citizens of the Regency are vested with all civil and political rights upon reaching the age of twenty.
Without distinction of gender, they become legitimate voters and eligible for all offices.
XVII. Citizens will be deprived of political rights by regular sentence if they are:
- convicted with a sentence of dishonor;
- rebels against military service for the defense of the territory;
- delinquent in the payment of taxes;
- incorrigible parasites living at the expense of the community, unless physically incapable of working due to illness or old age.
Of the Corporations.
XVIII. The State is the common will and the common effort of the people towards an ever-higher degree of material and spiritual vigor.
Only the diligent producers of common wealth and the diligent creators of common power are fully citizens in the republic, constituting with it a single operative substance, a single ascending completeness.
Whatever the type of labor provided, manual or intellectual, industrial or artistic, administrative or executive, all must, by obligation, be enrolled in one of the ten Corporations established, which take their form from the Commune's figure, but freely exercise their energy and freely determine their mutual obligations and provisions.
XIX. In the first Corporation are enrolled salaried workers from industry, agriculture, commerce, transport, as well as small artisans and small landowners who perform rural labor themselves or have few and occasional helpers.
The second Corporation gathers all those involved in the technical and administrative bodies of any private industrial and rural enterprise, excluding the owners of such enterprises.
The third brings together all those employed in commercial enterprises who are not manual workers; owners are also excluded from this category.
The fourth Corporation associates employers in industrial, agricultural, commercial, and transport enterprises when they are not merely owners or co-owners but—according to the spirit of the new statutes—wise and diligent managers and constant enhancers of the enterprise.
The fifth includes all public employees, both communal and state, of any rank.
The sixth encompasses the intellectual elite of the people: the studious youth and their teachers; the public school educators and students of higher institutions; sculptors, painters, decorators, architects, musicians, and all those who practice the fine arts, the performing arts, and the decorative arts.
The seventh includes all those who exercise free professions not covered in the previous categories.
The eighth is made up of cooperative societies of production, labor, and consumption, industrial and agricultural; it can only be represented by the administrators appointed to these societies.
The ninth encompasses all the people of the sea.
The tenth has no art, number, or vocation. Its fullness is awaited like that of the tenth Muse. It is reserved for the mysterious forces of the people in labor and ascension. It is almost a votive figure dedicated to the unknown genius, to the appearance of the newest man, to the ideal transfigurations of works and days, to the complete liberation of the spirit over the panting breath and the sweat of blood.
It is represented in the civic sanctuary by a burning lamp inscribed with an ancient Tuscan word from the era of the Communes, a beautiful allusion to a spiritualized form of human labor: fatica senza fatica (effort without effort).
XX. Every corporation exercises the right of a completed legal person, fully recognized by the State.
- It elects its own consuls;
- It manifests its will in its assemblies;
- It dictates its agreements, chapters, and conventions;
- It regulates its autonomy according to its wisdom and experience;
- It provides for its needs and increases its wealth by collecting from its members a financial contribution proportionate to wages, stipends, company profits, and professional earnings;
- It defends its class in every field and strives to increase its dignity;
- It strives to perfect the technique of the arts and crafts;
- It seeks to discipline labor by turning it toward models of modern beauty;
- It incorporates small workers to encourage and guide them to better trials;
- It consecrates the obligations of mutual aid;
- It determines provisions for sick or weakened companions;
- It invents its insignia, its emblems, its music, its songs, its prayers;
- It establishes its ceremonies and rites;
- It participates as magnificently as possible in the apparatus of common celebrations, anniversaries, terrestrial and maritime games;
- It venerates its dead, honors its elders, and celebrates its heroes.
XXI. The relations between the Regency and the Corporations, and between one Corporation and another, are regulated in the same way that the statutes define the dependencies between the central powers of the Regency and the sworn Communes, and between one Commune and another.
The members of each Corporation form a free electoral body to elect representatives to the Council of Provisors.
To the consuls of the Corporations and their insignia is due the first place in public ceremonies.
Of the Communes.
XXII. The ancient normative power is restored for all Communes, which is the full right of autonomy: the particular right to make their own laws within the circle of universal law.
They exercise, in and for themselves, all powers that the Constitution does not assign to the legislative, executive, and judicial offices of the Regency.
XXIII. Each Commune is given the widest authority to form a unified body of municipal laws, derived variously from its own customs, nature, transmitted energy, and new consciousness.
However, each Commune must request approval for its statutes from the Regency, which grants it:
- when these statutes contain nothing openly or covertly contrary to the spirit of the Constitution;
- when these statutes have been approved and accepted, voted on by the people, and can be reformed or amended by the will of the clear majority of citizens.
XXIV. The Communes are recognized with the right to enter into agreements, practice settlements, and conclude treaties among themselves in matters of legislation and administration.
But they are obligated to submit them to the examination of the central Executive Power.
If the Power considers such agreements, settlements, or treaties to be contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, it recommends them for the unappealable judgment of the Court of Reason.
If the Court declares them illegitimate and invalid, the Executive Power of the Regency proceeds to break them and dissolve them.
XXV. When the internal order of a Commune is disturbed by factions, by abuses, by conspiracies, or by any other form of violence and treachery,
when the integrity and dignity of a Commune are threatened or harmed by another prevaricating Commune,
the Executive Power of the Regency intervenes as a mediator and peacemaker,
if requested by the agreed-upon communal authorities,
or if requested by one-third of the citizens exercising political rights in that place.
XXVI. The Communes are specifically responsible for founding primary education according to the standards established by the State School Council;
- appointing communal judges;
- establishing and maintaining communal police;
- imposing taxes;
- contracting loans within the territory of the Regency or even outside the territory, but with the Government’s guarantee, which is only granted in cases of manifest necessity.
Of the Legislative Power.
XXVII. The legislative power is exercised by two elected bodies:
- the Council of the Best (Consiglio degli Ottimi)
- the Council of Provisors (Consiglio dei Provvisori).
XXVIII. The Council of the Best is elected through direct and secret universal suffrage by all citizens of the Regency who have reached the age of twenty and possess political rights.
Every voting citizen of the Regency may be elected to the Council of the Best.
XXIX. The Best serve in office for three years.
They are elected at the rate of one for every thousand voters; however, their number may not be fewer than thirty.
All voters form a single electoral body.
The election is conducted through universal suffrage and proportional representation.
XXX. The Council of the Best has the ordinary legislative power in dealing with:
- Criminal and Civil Codes,
- Police,
- National Defense,
- Public and Secondary Education,
- Fine Arts,
- Relations between the State and the Communes.
The Council of the Best generally meets only once a year, in October, with notably concise brevity.
XXXI. The Council of Provisors consists of sixty members elected through universal and secret suffrage with proportional representation.
Ten Provisors are elected by industrial workers and land laborers;
ten by the people of the sea;
ten by employers;
five by agricultural and industrial technicians;
five by employees of private companies;
five by teachers of public schools, students of higher schools, and other members of the sixth Corporation;
five by free professionals;
five by public employees;
five by cooperative societies of production, labor, and consumption.
XXXII. The Provisors serve in office for two years.
They are not eligible unless they belong to the Corporation they represent.
XXXIII. The Council of Provisors typically meets twice a year, in May and November, using a laconic style in debate.
It has the ordinary legislative power in dealing with:
- Commercial and Maritime Codes;
- Regulations governing continuous labor;
- Transport;
- Public Works;
- Trade, Customs, Tariffs, and related matters;
- Technical and Professional Education;
- Industries and Banks;
- Arts and Crafts.
XXXIV. The Council of the Best and the Council of Provisors meet once a year as a single body, at the beginning of December, forming a large national Council under the title of the Arengo of Carnaro.
The Arengo discusses and deliberates on:
- Relations with other States;
- Finance and Treasury;
- Higher Education;
- The amendable Constitution;
- Expanded liberties.
Of the Executive Power.
XXXV. The executive power of the Regency is exercised by seven Rectors, each elected respectively by the National Assembly, the Council of the Best, and the Council of Provisors.
The Rector of Foreign Affairs, the Rector of Finance and Treasury, and the Rector of Public Education are elected by the National Assembly.
The Rector of Internal Affairs and Justice, and the Rector of National Defense are elected by the Council of the Best.
The Council of Provisors elects the Rector of Public Economy and the Rector of Labor.
The Rector of Foreign Affairs assumes the title of First Rector and represents the Regency to other States — primus inter pares.
XXXVI. The office of the seven Rectors is stable and continuous. It deliberates on everything that does not concern routine administration. The First Rector regulates debate and has the deciding vote in case of a tie.
The Rectors are elected for one year and are not re-eligible except for one additional term.
However, after a one-year interval, they can be reappointed.
XXXVII. Participate in the judicial power:
- The Good Men
- The Labor Judges
- The Toga Judges
- The Judges of the Misdeeds
- The Court of Reason
XXXVIII. The Good Men, elected by popular trust from all voters of the various municipalities in proportion to their number, judge civil and commercial disputes up to the value of five thousand liras and sentence crimes punishable by imprisonment for a duration of no more than one year.
XXXIX. The Labor Judges judge singular disputes between salaried workers and employers, between wage earners and employers.
They constitute a panel of judges appointed by the Corporations that elect the Council of Provisors.
In this proportion:
- Two from industrial workers and land laborers;
- Two from sailors;
- Two from employers;
- One from technical industrial and agricultural professionals;
- One from free professionals;
- One from those employed in the administration of private companies;
- One from public employees;
- One from teachers, students of higher institutions, and other associates of the sixth Corporation;
- One from cooperative societies of production, labor, and consumption.
The Labor Judges have the authority to divide into sections their colleagues to expedite judgments, striving for swift and light justice.
The rejoined sections hold appellate jurisdiction.
XL. The Toga Judges judge all civil, commercial, and criminal matters in which the Good Men and the Labor Judges do not have jurisdiction, except those belonging to the Judges of the Misdeeds.
They constitute the Appellate Court for the sentences of the Good Men.
They are chosen by the Court of Reason from candidates among law graduates.
XLI. Seven sworn citizens, assisted by two substitutes and presided over by a Toga Judge, form the Court of Misdeeds, which judges all political crimes and all those misdeeds punishable by imprisonment for a period longer than three years.
XLII. Elected by the National Council, the Court of Reason is composed of five full members and two substitutes.
Of the full members, at least three, and of the substitutes, at least one, must be chosen from law graduates.
The Court of Reason judges:
- Acts and decrees issued by the Legislative and Executive Powers, to ascertain their compliance with the Constitution;
- Every statutory conflict between the Legislative Power and the Executive Power, between the Regency and the Communes, between Commune and Commune, between the Regency and the Corporations, between the Regency and private citizens, between the Communes and the Corporations, between Communes and private citizens;
- Cases of high treason against the Regency by citizens participating in the Legislative and Executive Powers;
- Offenses against the law of nations;
- Civil disputes between the Regency and the Communes, between Commune and Commune;
- Transgressions committed by participants of the Powers;
- Questions regarding citizenship and statelessness;
- Jurisdictional disputes among the various judicial magistrates.
The Court of Reason reviews sentences in the last instance and appoints Toga Judges through competition.
Citizens appointed to the Court of Reason are prohibited from holding any other office, whether in the same municipality or another.
They cannot practice a profession or trade for the duration of their term.
Of the Commander
XLIII. When the Regency is in extreme danger and sees its safety in the devoted will of a single individual, who knows how to rally and lead all the forces of the people to battle and victory, the National Council, solemnly gathered in the Arengo, may appoint by vocal vote the Commander and grant him the supreme power without appeal. The Council determines the more or less brief duration of the empire, not forgetting that in the Roman Republic the dictatorship lasted six months.
XLIV. The Commander, for the duration of the empire, assumes all political and military powers, both legislative and executive. The participants in the Executive Power assume positions of secretaries and commissioners alongside him.
XLV. Upon the expiration of the empire, the National Council convenes and deliberates whether to reconfirm the Commander in his position, or to replace him with another citizen, or to depose him, or even to banish him.
XLVI. Any citizen endowed with political rights, whether or not they are participants in the powers of the Regency, may be elected to the supreme office.
Of National Defense
XLVII. In the Italian Regency of Carnaro, all citizens, of both sexes, from the age of seventeen to the age of fifty-five, are obligated to military service for the defense of the land.
Once the selection is made, able-bodied men serve in the land and sea forces, less able men and strong women serve in ambulances, hospitals, administrations, weapons factories, and in every other auxiliary work, according to each person's aptitude and skill.
XLVIII. To all citizens who, during military service, have contracted an incurable illness, and to their families in need, substantial aid from the State is due.
The State adopts the children of citizens who have gloriously fallen in defense of the land, helps their relatives if they are in distress, and entrusts the names of the dead to the memory of future generations.
XLIX. In times of peace and security, the Regency does not maintain a standing army; but the entire nation remains armed, in ways prescribed by the appropriate law, and trains its land and sea forces with wise restraint.
Strict service is limited to periods of training and cases of imminent war or danger.
During periods of training and in case of war, the citizen does not lose any of their civil and political rights; and may exercise them when compatible with the needs of active discipline.
Of Public Education
L. For every people of noble origin, culture is the most luminous of long weapons.
For the Adriatic people, century after century forced into a relentless struggle against the uncultured usurper, it is more than a weapon: it is an indomitable power like law and faith.
For the people of Fiume, at the very moment of their rebirth to freedom, it becomes the most effective tool of health and fortune against the foreign treachery that has constrained them for centuries.
Culture is the fragrance against corruption.
Culture is the strength against deformation.
On Dante's Carnaro, the cult of Dante's language is precisely the respect and guardianship of what was always considered in all times as the most precious treasure of the people, the highest testimony of their original nobility, the supreme index of their moral dominion.
Moral dominion is the warlike need of the new State. The exaltation of the beautiful human ideas arises from its will to victory.
While it completes its unity, while it conquers its freedom, while it establishes its justice, the new State must, above all, set itself the goal of defending and preserving, of supporting its unity, its freedom, its justice in the realm of the spirit.
Rome must be present here in its culture. Italy must be present here in its culture.
The Roman rhythm, the fateful rhythm of fulfillment, must bring back on the consular roads the other restless race that deludes itself into thinking it can erase the great vestiges and falsify the great history.
In the land of the Latin species, in the land stirred by the Latin plow, the other race will be shaped sooner or later by the creative spirit of Latinity, which is nothing but a disciplined harmony of all those forces that contribute to the formation of the free man.
Here the free man is formed.
And here the kingdom of the spirit is prepared, even in the effort of labor and the bitterness of trafficking.
For this reason, the Italian Regency of Carnaro places at the summit of its laws the culture of the people; it founds its patrimony on the heritage of great Latin culture.
LI. A free university is established in the city of Fiume, housed in a vast building capable of containing every possible increase in studies and scholars, governed by its own statutes as a Corporation.
A School of Fine Arts, a School of Decorative Arts, and a School of Music are established in the city of Fiume, based on the abolition of all magistral vice and prejudice, conducted with the sincerest and boldest spirit of research into novelty, directed by an acumen capable of purifying them from the clutter of the poorly endowed and of discerning the good from the best, and to support the best in the discovery of themselves and new relations between difficult material and human sentiment.
LII. The Council of the Best is responsible for organizing the secondary schools; the Council of Provisors is responsible for organizing the technical and vocational schools; the National Council is responsible for organizing Higher Studies.
In all the schools of all the Communes, the teaching of the Italian language holds a privileged place.
In secondary schools, the teaching of different idioms spoken throughout the Italian Regency of Carnaro is mandatory.
Primary education is given in the language spoken by the majority of the inhabitants of each Commune and in the language spoken by the minority in parallel courses.
If any Commune attempts to avoid the obligation to institute such courses, the Regency exercises its right to provide for it, burdening the Commune with the expense.
LIII. A school council determines the order and method of primary education, which is obligatory in the schools of all Communes.
The teaching of choral singing, based on the motifs of the most ingenuous peasant poetry, and the teaching of decoration, based on examples of the freshest rustic art, have the first place.
The Council is composed of a representative from each Commune, two representatives from the secondary schools, two from the technical and vocational schools, two from the higher institutions, elected by teachers and students, two from the School of Music, two from the School of Decorative Arts.
LIV. On the clear walls of airy schools, there are no emblems of religion or partisan figures.
Public schools welcome the followers of all religious confessions, believers of all faiths, and those who can live without altar and without God.
Freedom of conscience is perfectly respected. And each can make their silent prayer.
But those sober inscriptions recur on the walls, stirring the soul, and, like the themes of a heroic symphony, repeated, never lose their power of enchantment.
But those grand images of masterpieces that, with the utmost lyrical power, interpret the eternal aspiration and the perpetual supplication of men recur on the walls.
On Statutory Reform
LV. Every seven years, the Grand National Council meets in an extraordinary assembly for the reform of the Constitution.
But the Constitution can be reformed at any time
when requested by a third of the citizens with the right to vote.
The power to propose amendments to the text of the Constitution is granted to
the members of the National Council,
the representatives of the Communes,
the Court of Reason,
the Corporations.
On the Right of Initiative
LVI. All citizens belonging to electoral bodies have the right to initiate legislative proposals concerning matters reserved for the work of either Council, respectively.
However, the initiative is not valid unless at least one-fourth of the electorate, for one or the other Council, promotes and supports it.
On Popular Reproval
LVII. All the laws enacted by the two legislative bodies can be subjected to the reproval of public consent or dissent when such reproval is requested by a number of voters equal to at least one-fourth of the citizens with voting rights.
On the Right of Petition
LVIII. All citizens have the right to petition the legislative bodies that were rightfully elected by them.
On Incompatibility
LIX. No citizen may exercise more than one power nor participate in two legislative bodies at the same time.
On Revocation
LX. Any citizen may be removed from the office they hold,
if they lose political rights by a sentence confirmed by the Court of Reason,
or if the revocation is imposed by an outright vote of more than half of those registered in the electoral body.
On Responsibility
LXI. All participants in power and all public officials of the Regency are criminally and civilly liable for any harm caused to the State, the Commune, the Corporation, or the individual citizen due to their transgressions, whether by abuse, neglect, cowardice, or incompetence.
On Remuneration
LXII. All public officials appointed under the statutes and placed within the new order receive fair compensation; the amount is determined each year by a law passed by the National Council.
Of the Edilità (Public Works)
LXIII. In the Regency, a college of Edili is instituted, elected with discernment among men of pure taste, exquisite skill, and most recent education.
More than Roman edilità, the college revives those "officials of the city's decoration" who in our Quattrocento composed a street or a square with the same musical sense guiding them in the apparatus of republican pomp or in a carnivalesque representation.
It presides over the decorum of civic life, ensuring the safety, decency, and health of public buildings and private homes, preventing the defacement of streets with improper or poorly placed factories. It organizes civic festivals on land and sea with sober elegance, recalling those forefathers of ours who needed nothing more than soft light, a light garland, and the art of movement and human assembly to perform miracles of joy. It persuades workers that decorating homes with humble signs of folk art is a pious act, and that there is a religious sentiment in the human mystery and deep nature, reflected in the simplest marks passed down from generation to generation, inscribed or painted in the cradle, loom, spindle, chest, or yoke.
It endeavors to restore to the people the love of the beautiful line and fine color in everyday objects, showing them what our ancient people knew how to create with a light geometric pattern—a star, a flower, a heart, a snake, a dove upon a jug, a jar, a chest, a bench, a tray, or a chest.
It strives to demonstrate to the people why and how the spirit of ancient communal liberties manifested not only in lines, reliefs, and stone joints, but also in the human imprint placed on the animated and powerful tool.
Finally, convinced that a people cannot have what it deserves without architecture that matches the robustness of its bones and the nobility of its forehead, it encourages entrepreneurs and builders to understand how new materials—iron, glass, and cement—should be elevated into harmonious life in the innovations of new architecture.
Of Music
LXIV. In the Italian Regency of Carnaro, music is a religious and social institution. Every thousand years, every two thousand years, from the depths of the people, a hymn rises and perpetuates itself.
A great people is not only one that creates its god in its own image but also one that creates its hymn for its god.
If every rebirth of a noble people is a lyrical effort, if every unanimous sentiment and creation is a lyrical power, if every new order is a lyrical order in the vigorous and impetuous sense of the word, then music, considered as a ritual language, is the exalter of the act of life, of the work of life.
Doesn't it seem that great music announces to the multitude, intent and anxious, the coming reign of the spirit?
The reign of the human spirit has not yet begun.
"When the working matter replaces the arms of man, then the spirit will begin to glimpse the dawn of its liberty," said an Adriatic man, a Dalmatian man: the blind seer of Sebenico.
As the crowing of the rooster excites the dawn, music excites the dawn, that dawn: excitat auroram.
Meanwhile, in the instruments of labor and play, in the roaring machines that also obey the exact rhythm like poetry, music finds its movements and fullness.
From its pauses, the silence of the tenth Corporation is formed.
LXV. Choral bodies and instrumental bodies are established in all the municipalities of the Regency with state support.
In the city of Fiume, the college of builders is tasked with constructing a rotunda capable of holding at least ten thousand listeners, equipped with comfortable seating for the people and a vast pit for the orchestra and choir.
The grand choral and orchestral celebrations are "completely free," as the fathers of the church said about the graces of God.
Words added by the Commander after reading the Statutes.
In the free Italian Commune, the statutory formula of popular deliberation was:
Statutum et ordinatum est. It is decreed and ordained.
The citizen swore, the magistrate swore:
Iuro ego. I swear it.
If we were truly in the Arengo, it would suffice for each person to extend their hand and shout their oath.
We are not in the Arengo. We are in the restless and diverse city.
We will fight: and perhaps we will return to deceive and tear ourselves apart.
But remember, for your peace, that the Commander can be deposed and banished.
And, for your peace, be sure that the Commander cannot leave except by a path of light and that he cannot fail to reach his set goal.
Long live the new Italy!
THE FEAST OF ALL THE FLAMES
August 31, 1920.
ARDOR – ARDIRE
The gathering of Legionaries at the Fenice Theatre, at 11 o’clock yesterday morning, surpassed all others in ardor and splendor, from Ronchi’s September until this eve of the September of liberty.
It is impossible to imagine a more vibrant human matter, a more vivid sparkle in the eyes, a more open illumination of faces, a more intense outburst of elation, a more generous chorus of devotion and dedication.
Others have already enumerated all the faculties and virtues that arise from that most singular breath called "fiumanesimo." But yesterday morning, we saw the miracle of youth transformed into flames: true and proper flames.
It is known that the Italian Army of Fiume is the Army of Flames, in the sense that the Arditi give this denomination; and it is known that even here the green Flames of the serene Alpini and the yellow Flames of the sagacious Financier rivaled in daring and ardor with the black and crimson flames.
But yesterday morning was not about uniforms more or less open. The colors didn’t matter. There was only one dominant color: the glow of embers. And with each cadence of the Commander, the embers flared into flame. Thus, someone remembered the old refrain of Donato Velluti: "But we rise from the embers and re-enter the fire." And others recalled that principle from a speech by Gabriele d'Annunzio, delivered in September 1919: “Coming to you is like entering the fire, it’s like penetrating the burning furnace, it’s like breathing the spirit of the flame, without being burned, without being consumed."
Ardore-Ardire is but one word, it is a single mystical essence like Rome-Amor. In one of your commemorative medals, the soldier charging is depicted enveloped in flames, non-combustible like the Salamander of legend, with a bomb in each hand.
It is no wonder that, after a year of unusual patience and anxious waiting, after a year of hard bread and bare feet, it is no wonder that this youth burns brighter.
The Signs
To appear before the Legionaries, the Commander passed through a forest of banners and standards. There were the banners and standards of all battalions and all companies; and all these signs, brought by tradition or offered in gratitude, had never seemed so alive and so commanding.
These had to be the Roman Eagles, and such had to be the Eagle Bearers. Certain sayings of Tacitus came to mind, from a very Italian Tacitus, the Tacitus of Bernardo Davanzati: “Around the Eagle was the struggle... With the Eagle was the Victory...”
The Flowers and the Star
When the immense clamor, which seemed to tear the walls and ceiling, was stilled, when the frantic succession of the great ‘alalà’ (cheers) finally stopped, the Commander began to speak with a slight tremor in his voice, thus:
"Comrades, I have never felt so vividly and freshly the grace of flowers as I did last night, here, in this very place.”
The Theatre was filled with people, filled with popular anxiety, too cramped for such a crowd; and my Legionaries were absent.
They were absent but represented by a multitude of flowers, by a vast offering of flowers, by an immeasurable glory of warrior flowers, worth more to me than all the mural and military crowns.
Every flower evoked the barrel of a rifle. And it was thought that every Legionary had taken from the barrel of the rifle his flower, as in our beautiful morning marches of spring, to offer it.
Certainly, flowers live. Flowers are living creatures like the hand that gathers them with gentleness. And the flowers of Fiume love steel, they love to marry the weapon.
But last night the life of your flowers seemed almost preternatural to me. They breathed like a young battalion in prayer. They exuded that affectionate emotion that sometimes broke my voice.
It was all your youth, it was all your gentleness around me. It was all your novelty around the new thing I was about to reveal. And the black ribbon of the Assaulters, and the green ribbon of the Alpini, and the red ribbon of the Cavalieri di Piemonte Reale, and the white ribbon of the Queen's Fusiliers, and the scarlet ribbon of the Wolves of Giovanni Randaccio, and the blue ribbon of the Dalmatians, and the cherry-red ribbon of the Grenadiers of Ronchi, and the violet, yellow, and crimson ribbon of the Fiuman Legion, and the green, white, and red ribbon of the Eighth Assault Regiment, and all the other tricolored ribbons of Fiume and Italy, all your speaking colors, kept repeating to me the word of resolute loyalty: “One for all, all for one! You with us, we with you!"
Lifted by a unanimous leap, with the attitude and gesture of those about to launch themselves, the Legionaries multiplied the word in their cry, they seemed to throw it beyond their own impatience, like those white discs that preceded the assault on the Karst hills.
"Ah, my sons, my comrades, how shall I thank you?" The verse of an ancient Tuscan poet returned to my memory, which has the tone of a folksong, the tone of one of your improvised songs:
Kindness is everywhere, so is prowess
Just as the sky is everywhere, so is the star.
Now let us look at our star. It is always at the summit of the sky. It is without declination, without sunset. And we are, and we will be, fixed in it."
It is so high that not only the waters of the Carnaro reflect it. The more distant seas reflect it: the deeper oceans refract its light.
When I offer any of you the golden five-pointed star as a reward or gift, I engrave in the gold: Proxima semper. You know this Latin better than I do. Always near.
Our star is within our hearts and at the summit of our firmament: it is near and far.
But from now on, I want to change the motto. I want to take for you the motto of a bishop of Aquileia, of that Aquileia where the first of our dead is worshipped. He was a Venetian of the Barbaro lineage. And on the star, he inscribed: *Volentes: volenti*. You also know this Latin better than I do.
I take my star from my heart and give it to you with this one word: Volentes.
You are all the willing and the powerful of the new Italy.
The Legionnaires leap to their feet once more with a single impulse. It is marvelous to see such strength of movement contained in such a confined space. And it is terrifying to imagine the impact of that assault, launched by that voice against the obstacle.
The Roman Brick
Resuming his speech, the Commander says that he gathered the Legionnaires to show them their own work: a work that was truly prepared by them, Michelangelically sketched by them, and that he has brought to a clear form.
"Like the imprint on the Roman brick, your imprint as builders, o Legionnaires, is on this brief book."
This is not the first time I have called you builders, called you architects. This is not the first time I have told you that today no one else is more worthy than you of the old title of Legionnaires. Like you, the Legionnaires of Rome were fighters and builders. They left behind them, across rivers and through marshes, the arches of bridges and stone slabs to mark their path. In the middle of a fortified field, they built a martial city; and in every relief, one could feel the prominence of the consular brow.
In the middle of this fortified field, we have laid the foundations of a city of life, a brand-new city. And we have dressed the stones and squared the beams for robust construction.
Here, in this brief book, is the design of your architecture, the outline of your building.
You have placed your hands on these pages. These pages are yours. Humbly, I imagine that your spirit has written them with an eagle's quill, cut and sharpened by the edge of your short sword, by the edge of that sword which is girded by two branches of laurel and oak as your emblem.
Is it not you, my comrades in arms and soul, is it not you who, mingling with the honest people, in the freedom of the forum, have released wise love from the hardest and most miserable hearts?
He who has one eye has seen for all other eyes; and all other eyes have seen for that one eye alone. And he who is everyone's companion has made countless companions in his likeness. And the name of companion has been renewed like a sprout that blossoms and leaves; it has been made innocent again; it has once again become the sweetest and strongest word in the human language, a word of communion and a word of courage, a bond of the moment and a seal of eternity.
And I, who, during the war, was shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow with the infantryman in the trench; I, who in the submarine, in the torpedo boat, in the armed motorboat was shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow with the sailor; I, who in the flying cockpit was shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow with the aviator, had never felt so deeply the humanity of this word "companion" as here in Fiume.
And even today, after a year of communal life, after having eaten rancio with you so many times, seated on the same bench or on the ground, after having shared with you bread and salt, after having marched with your same pace, after having sung your songs with you; even today, after having felt you live in me for so long, blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh, soul of my soul, even today I cannot call you companions without my heart trembling.
The voice is so moved that it touches all hearts. Love answers love, in a long affectionate cry. All hands are stretched out, all faces are transfigured.
Free and new.