Giacomo Maria Brignole

Giacomo Maria Brignole Sale (1724 – 1801) was the 176th and 184th Doge of the Republic of Genoa, respectively from 1779 to 1781 and from 1795 to 1797. He was the last doge in the history of the Republic, and the only one elected twice, a unique case in the history of that Republic for the biennial election doges. After Brignole's dogeship the Genoese state and the office were abolished.

Life as the Doge of the Republic

First term The coronation ceremony was held on 13 September 1779 inside the Church of Santi Ambrogio and Andrea, since the Palazzo Ducale's hall of the Grand Council was not accessible due to the fire of 1777, and subsequent reconstruction work. The first term of Doge Brignole was marked by a virulent smallpox epidemic which quickly spread throughout the Republic and by the numerous incursions of the Barbary pirates along the coasts of Liguria. A fortunate expedition against the raiders, mounted by Gerolamo Durazzo, Brignole's brother-in-law, allowed Captain Giovanni De Marchi to kidnap several Xebecs off Bordighera. taking more than fifty.

Brignole left office on 4 March 1781, entering the junta of the Borders and then that of the Jurisdiction; from 1788 to 1796 he was the principal state inquisitor and in this capacity he managed to approve, at the end of 1790, a new stricter regulation of censorship.

Second term In a climate now surreal and close to decline, Giacomo Maria Brignole was elected on 17 November 1795 once again as Genoese doge, a unique fact in the secular history of the Republic of Genoa. For the difficult moment, he refused any kind of celebration and the consequent coronation ceremony.

With Napoleon increasingly at the western gates of the Republic of Genoa, the policy of Doge Brignole was based entirely on the neutrality of the Genoese state—not joining the Austro-Sardinia coalition against France. The situation began to precipitate for the customs government with the increasingly victorious Napoleonic battles that inevitably sparked the first "followers" among the noble representatives and the Genoese people. The same representative of France residing in Genoa, Guillaume-Charles Faipoult, had direct orders from Napoleon to follow events in the capital of the republic. In May 1797, arrests of some Jacobin rioters followed, which caused unrest in the city and divided the minds of the Genoese in favor or against the ever-growing Napoleonic power.

The Palazzo Gio Carlo Brignole in Genoa was his property until 1798.