Filippo Buonarotti and the Sublimes Maitres Parfaits

Filippo Buonarotti was born in 1761 to a wealthy family in Pisa in modern day Italy. After attending the University of Pisa, Buonarotti became a lawyer and studied the Enlightenment extensively. Moved by the French Revolution of 1789, Buonarotti left for Corsica to practice law and gained an official post with the Corsican government. Despite his wealthy lineage and his sheltered experiences in higher education, Buonarotti was moved by the plight of the Corsican peasantry and befriended Jacobins like Robespierre, whom convinced the young Italian to become an egalitarian communist. This friendship led to Buonarotti’s zealous attachment to the Jacobin Revolution of 1793 and a new life as a revolutionary.

As part of Robespierre’s inner circle, Buonarotti was given a role as national commissioner in the Maritime Alps. His leadership over the French, Swiss, and Italians in this role was not to his liking, however, as his attempts at spreading the Jacobin Revolution outside the bounds of France failed after several tries. Along with Gracchus Babeuf, Buonarotti was imprisoned in 1798 by the Thermedorians. Buonarotti was not a friend of Babeuf’s, but was pro-Robespierre and was fully committed to Babeuf’s Conspiracy of Equals. After Babeuf’s execution, Buonarotti took on the role of the underground revolutionary prophet, writing extensively and attempting to organize from his prison cell. While he was beaten and interrogated in his prison cell, Buonarotti was able to organize the Sublimes Maitres Parfaits, a Masonic organization that began to exert influence on a new generation of revolutionaries by the 1810s.

The Sublimes were opposed to the dominant forces of conservatism that permeated the European ruling elite, much similar to the revolutionary forces in France at the end of the 18th century. Buonarotti wanted to establish a “New Jerusalem,” an idea for a society based on popular sovereignty, defensive strength, and communistic governance. The Sublimes only allowed in Free Masons to ensure the security of Buonarotti’s idea and used both Masonic organizations and the Italian Carbonari as sources of information and organization. When this organization kicked off in 1809, their revolutionary politics and exceptional organization frightened conservative leaders in Europe and they attempted to capture the leaders of Sublimes Maitres Parfaits. However, they were unsuccessful for fourteen years until Buonarotti’s lieutenant Alexander Adryane was caught with sensitive documents from the revolutionary inner sanctum.

Mikhail Bakunin referred to Buonarotti as “the greatest conspirator of the 19th century” and his influenced lived long after his death in 1837. While the Sublimes were found out and shut down in 1823, Buonarotti wrote a history of the organization in 1830 and even attempted to bring the group to the United Netherlands in 1824, calling it the Monde. This group was looked to for inspiration by revolutionaries in France during the July Monarchy and the revolution of 1848 in France. Buonarotti, while a significant thinker in his own right, is far better known as a professional revolutionary, moving from cause to cause in order to spread his ideas of equality and communism.