Abstract
Names and surnames are of eminent effectiveness in political competition, and hence they are crucial in narratives dedicated to politicians. This paper examines two biographies of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the first published by Giuseppe Guerzoni in the year of Garibaldi’s death (1882), the second, instead, published more than 130 years later, by the French author, Pierre Milza. Besides his Christian name Joseph Marie, the Italian national hero was given many surnames, such as Peppino and Bardo. In the course of his adventurous life, he himself used several pseudonyms (Cleombroto, Borel, etc). Milza’s designations of Garibaldi are mostly antonomasias, particularly le héros and le Niçois, but also le condottiere, le guérillero, le corsaire, le Général, le chef. Moreover, Milza evaluates idolizing epithets taken from nineteenthcentury writings, like Cincinnato, and invectives against Garibaldi. Whereas Guerzoni emphasizes the ‘poetic’ aspects of Garibaldi’s struggle for a united Italy, naming him «apostolo armato», and creating in this way a constitutive myth aimed at consolidating the newborn, thus still fragile nation, Milza shows the origin, development and repercussions of the legends that arose round the figure of Garibaldi.