Giuseppe Manno was born in Alghero on March 17, 1786. First officer of the Secretariat of State, Private Secretary to Charles Felix, Adviser to the Crown and Supreme Council of Sardinia, President of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy and of the Supreme Court of Cassation. In addition to his political and administrative commitments, Manno was also engaged in his work as a historian: between 1825 and 1827 he published the four volumes of the History of Sardinia, a work that enabled the author to gain authority and prestige among Sardinian intellectuals and to become the model for younger generations of scholars. The decision to erect a monument in his honor came about a month after his death on January 25, 1868. The Alghero City Council decided to have a marble plaque affixed to the house where he was born, to name one of the main city streets after him, and to promote a public subscription for the erection of a monument in “perpetual honor.”