Relatively Speaking

In 1970, I started working in a travel agency in central London.

My wife, who at the time was employed by different travel operators located in Tottenham Court Road, had spotted a vacancy for a junior accounts clerk in the aforementioned establishment and suggested I apply for the post.

Though adequately numerate, I wasn't familiar with Luca Pacioli's double-entry bookkeeping but I took the plunge, thinking 'nothing ventured, nothing gained'.

My knowledge of the Italian language (perfect) and English (imperfect but improving) were what got me the job, as being bilingual or multilingual was one of therequirements.

The company provided comprehensive services, booking scheduled and charter flights, hotel reservations, car rentals, planning itineraries and assistance with documentation like visas and passport renewal.

The accounts department was above the ground floor. It was a small office whose occupants were the supervisor, a senior clerk, and me.

Although a separate unit from the front desk, it was made clear that at busy times, if the demands on the booking agents were overwhelming or in the case of staff absences, it would be all hands to the pump and everyone expected to give support.

It didn't take long to learn the ropes, and soon I was behind the counter dispensing travellers' cheques or foreign currency.

One day, a distraught client, after having booked and paid fo ra holiday to Italy, realised that his passport had expired the previous day and needed to be promptly renewed.

“Can you do miracles?”, he anxioudly asked and showed me the document.

The surname on it was the same as mine and I told him so.

“By Jove”, he exclaimed, “can it possibly be that we are related?”

It was a remote possibilty but, having ascertained that he lived in Buenios Aires and I in London, and we didnn't seem to have any relatives in common, we dismissed the idea.

I managed to get him a Fast Track passport renewal and he was delighted.

For me, apart from the satisfaction of having accomplished a worthwhile act, that random encounter engendered in me the desire of finding out about my ancestors.

Thinking of producing a family tree appeared to be a forlorn hope with over 300,000 records with the surname Pagano, including births, deaths and immigration documents.

In those days, with limited resources, lack of investigative skill and a shortage of family connections, made such a task virtually impossible for me. Nevertheles I was always on the lokout for any mention of our patronym.

In the Encycloprdia Britanica I came across  the name of Mario Pagano, executed by hanging in Naples in the year 1799.

I thought that I had found a black sheep of the family but further reading revealed that he was not a notorious criminal but a notable individual who had incurred the wrath of Ferdinand IV of the House of Bourbon who was in control of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily.

Mario Pagano (8 December 1748 – 29 October 1799) was an Italian jurist, author, thinker, and the founder of the Neapolitan school of law. He is regarded as one of the most influental Enlightenment thinkers. A moderate reformist, he is seen as a forerunner of Italian unification. 

So, what was the cause of this upright citizen's transgression?

In 1794 he had defended thre alleged conspirators against Ferdinand IV. After they were found guilty and sentenced to death, Pagano was divested of his professorship,   expelled from the kingdom in 1796 but three years laterr he returned to Naples where  he drafted the constitution of the short-lived Neapolitan Republic, a document considered to be the precursor of the modern constitutional court.

He and other intellectuals, noble and bourgeosie, supported by French revolutionary troops established the Parthenopean Republic after King Ferdinand IV fled.

While some championed the cause, it lacked the endorsement of the general populace, manipulated by anti revulationary forces, and opposed militarily by a papal armyand the English fleet under the command of Horatio Nelson.

The revolt was quicly suppressed and the Bourbon restoration resulted in brutal reprisals.

Pagano and leading co-conspirators paid the pric with their life while others were imprisoned, exiled or fled. 

I don't know if this martyr for the cause of Italian liberty was a relative of mine but I can imadine that he was.

This tragic story has stuck in my mind ever since I first read it, especially as its main protagoist bore my father'name.