Giovanni Battista Bugatti

Mastro Titta
Mastro Titta
	Mastro Titta offering snuff to a condemned prisoner before carrying out an execution. From a 19th-century woodcut.
Born	6 February 1779; Mangolia, Ancona, Marche, Italy
Died	18 June 1869 (aged 90); Senigallia, Ancona, Marche, Italy
Title	Official Executioner for the Papal States
Term	22 March 1796 – 17 August 1864; (68 years, 148 days)

Giovanni Battista Bugatti (1779–1869) was the official executioner for the Papal States from 1796 to 1864. He was the longest-serving executioner in the States and was nicknamed Mastro Titta, a Roman corruption of maestro di giustizia, or master of justice.[1] At the age of 85, he was retired by Pope Pius IX with a monthly pension of 30 scudi.

Mastro Titta holding the head of an executed woman

Biography

Bugatti's career in charge of executions lasted 68 years and began when he was 17 years old, on March 22, 1796; and lasted until 1864. Up until 1810, the method of execution was beheading by axe, hanging or mallet. The French introduced the use of the guillotine, which was continued after the Papal States regained their sovereignty (first beheading by guillotine under papal reign: 1816) until the last executions. Over the 68 years he worked as official executioner, Bugatti carried out a total of 514 executions, an average of 7 per year (in his notebook, Bugatti noted 516 names of executed but two prisoners are subtracted, one because he was shot and the other because he was hanged and quartered by the adjutant).

Bugatti is described as being short and portly, and always well dressed. He frequented the church Santa Maria in Traspontina. He was married but had no children. When not carrying out his official duties, Bugatti and his wife sold painted umbrellas and other souvenirs to tourists. He referred to his executions as justices and the condemned as patients.

He could not leave the Trastevere neighbourhood unless on official business. Officially this was for his own protection, in case relatives of those he had executed decided to take revenge against him. Unofficially it was probably due to superstition regarding his part-time job. On his crossing the bridge, the residents of Rome were alerted that an execution was about to take place and people would gather to witness the popular event.

One of his executions, carried out on 8 March 1845, was described by Charles Dickens in his work Pictures from Italy (1846).

His blood-stained clothes, axes and guillotines are on display at the Museum of Criminology at Via del Gonfalone. The guillotine is of a very peculiar build, with straight blade and V-shaped neck-piece.

Notes

Allen, John L., Jr. "He executed justice – papal execution Giovanni Battista Bugatti's life and work" (National Catholic Reporter, 14 September 2001).

References

He executed justice. Retrieved 11 April 2005
Mastro Titta. Retrieved 14 July 2005.
Passage from Pictures From Italy at the Wayback Machine (archived 26 December 2007). Retrieved 14 July 2005.
When Mastro Titta Crossed the Bridge

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[allen-1] Allen, John L., Jr. "He executed justice – papal execution Giovanni Battista Bugatti's life and work" (National Catholic Reporter, 14 September 2001).