 His final years saw an intense publishing activity, including his study, written in French, , as well as a collaboration with Adam Mickiewicz on "La Tribune des Peuples".Stricken by tuberculosis, impoverished, and constantly moving between various locations in France and the Italian Peninsula, he died in Palermo (in the Two Sicilies) at 33 years of age.Bălcescu never married, though he and his lover Alexandra Florescu had a son, Bonifaciu Florescu (1848–1899), who became a professor of French language and literature.