Joseph Zerboni di Sposetti

In 1796, he wrote to the governor of Silesia a letter in which he set forth the absurdity of granting to the nobility exalted privileges through right of birth. Knowledge of the letter reaching Frederick William III, he was imprisoned for three years on a charge of high treason. When his case was brought to trial he was freed, with no political disability, and later received various official appointments.

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• Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Zerboni di Sposetti, Joseph" . Encyclopedia Americana.

• Colmar Grünhagen (1900). "Joseph Zerboni di Sposetti" . Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 45. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 89–94.
• "Zerboni di Sposetti". Allgemeine deutsche Real-Encyclopädie für die gebildeten Stände (in German). Brockhaus. 1824. pp. 873–874. This source gives an excerpt of the offending letter, and says F. W. II ordered him to prison.
• "Zur Genealogie und familiengeschichte der Zerboni di Sposetti". Biographisches lexikon des kaiserthums Oesterreich (in German). K. K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerie. 1890. pp. 333–334. This gives the year of his birth as 1866.