Louis Mendola - Sicilian Genealogy and Heraldry

Copyright 2013 Louis A. M. Mendola.

Published by Trinacria Editions, New York, an imprint of Officina Trinacria, Palermo, Italy.

This book may not be reproduced by any means whatsoever, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form beyond that copying permitted by the United States Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press, without written permission from the copyright holder.

The right of Louis Mendola to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988 (UK).

Material by C. Jacqueline Alio is used by permission. Some material contained herein was previously published by The Heraldry Society, London. Material from the Best of Sicily website 2005 Louis A. M. Mendola under U.S. Copyright Office Registration Number TX 6-181-912.

Photographs and illustrations are by the author.

Printed in the United States of America.

Electronic editions of this book are available in several formats.

ISBN 9780615796932

Library of Congress Control Number 2013937024

British Library CIP 016424475.

LEGAL NOTICE

Information and commentary contained in this book is not intended as legal advice. For specific legal matters, the reader is advised to consult a competent attorney in Italy.

Content presented herein is for information and study only, and no responsibility whatsoever for its use, application or interpretation is assumed by the author. Furthermore, the author assumes no responsibility or liability, legal or otherwise, for the presence or absence of specific information in Italy, on the internet, in this book or elsewhere, or for the state of its cataloguing or availability.

The author does not represent, nor is he employed by, the Italian government or any of the governments, agencies, institutions or persons mentioned in this book. Except where otherwise indicated, the opinions expressed in the following pages are those of the author.

PREFACE

Distinguished birth is a fine thing, declared Plutarch, but its advantage must be credited to ones ancestors.

Genealogy, family history, heraldry, feudalism, folk traditions, population genetics and a number of allied studies in the social sciences are related to each other by bonds spanning many centuries. Yet, like distant cousins, they have often dwelled in separate worlds. Until now. The time has come to bring them together.

This book is the beginning of that journey. Its a map to the discovery of ancestral histories, tracing the lines that form at least part of a cultural identity. The worlds most conquered island bears the indelible marks of a dozen peoples. There are Sicanian, Elymian and Greek temples, Punic walls, Roman amphitheatres, Byzantine mosaics and icons, Arab bridges and fortresses, Norman castles and palaces, German knightly chapels, Greek Orthodox churches, Catholicisms Benedictine abbeys, Aragonese and Catalan oratories, Europes oldest mikveh and the written thought bequeathed to us by each of these great civilisations.

Along the way, well shatter a few myths: The Landless Peasant, The Backward Island, The Italian Province. Well supplant them with facts: Most rural Sicilians living in the eighteenth century owned at least a small parcel of land. During its medieval Golden Age, Sicily was Europes wealthiest kingdom and the birthplace of a vernacular language whose beauty was praised by Dante. In the twelfth century, long before there was an Italy, Sicily was a multicultural society of Arabs, Byzantine Greeks, Normans, Lombards, Swabian Germans and the three great Abrahamic faiths a magical cultural diversity reflected in a tangible genetic heritage and, as weve seen, much more. To ignore this heterogeneous history is tantamount to a denial of reality.

The island has never been isolated. Sicily enjoys an assured place in the medieval study of Europe and the Mediterranean Normandy, England, Ireland, the Holy Roman Empire, the Byzantine, Fatimid, Aragonese and Spanish empires. While the majority of those researching genealogy and heraldry are interested in the histories of their own families, both fields are important elements in studies ranging from biography to architecture.

Genealogy and heraldry fit nicely into the flow of general history and cultural identity. The books listed in cover a range of topics pertaining to Sicilian heritage, but you need not be Sicilian to appreciate the islands polyglot history. Millions visit each year to discover it. In many ways, being Sicilian is a passion, a state of mind. A lover of Sicily and its culture is a Siculophile.

Nothing in these pages is meant to contest the concept of Italian national unity or to challenge Sicilys role as part of the unified Italy, a democratic republic since 1946, nor does it reflect Sicilianist or separatist views. But the identity of Sicily and Sicilians antedates any modern notion of Italian nationhood by many centuries. Long before the unification movement, Sicily had its own art, architecture, literature, language, cuisine, traditions and even its own breed of dog, the cirneco or Sicilian hound. Recognising its unique history, the last King of Italy declared the island Italys first autonomous region, a status not unlike that guaranteed by other European nations to regions such as Scotland, Bavaria and Catalonia. For a long time, Sicily had its own monarchy, and that is where our journey begins, for it is the corpus of records preserved in the Kingdom of Sicily that permits profound research today. The Italian nation state was founded only in 1861 the day before yesterday in terms of the islands history.

Yet a great deal of this books contents sets forth strategies that may be applied to research in Veneto, Lombardy, Piedmont and Tuscany as well as Sicily, particularly for records of the last two centuries.

This isnt a guide book, but well describe Sicilys most important medieval cathedral and the two principal royal palaces of the Middle Ages. Its not a complete course in Sicilian history and culture, but the reading list is a sufficient foundation for such a course. This book is a reference to be consulted.

A vestige of time, Sicilys multicultural patrimony is no secret, but the names, the lineages, the unique destinies that link us to it are waiting to be uncovered. Now that we have the map, lets set out to find the people and the places.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A man lives as long as he is remembered, says an old Russian proverb.

Posthumous recognition is due Prince Cyril Toumanoff, longtime professor of history at Georgetown University and High Historical Consultant of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta; John Brooke-Little, Norroy and Ulster King of Arms at the College of Arms; Marquis Achille di Lorenzo, Grand Chamberlain of the Royal House of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies; Jacques, Cardinal Martin, Prefect of the Pontifical Household; Charles, Lord Mowbray, Segrave and Stourton, Premier Baron of England. It has been said that a single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study; among these wise men one witnessed the Russian Revolution, one accompanied Umberto Nobile to the North Pole, and another performed exorcisms with Pope John Paul II.

Special thanks to Jacqueline Alio, an expert in Sicilian Judaic history, for allowing publication of her original research on the Jewish families of Palermo in Sicilys earliest baptismal records; her uncommon scholarship is much appreciated.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Nescire autem quid ante quam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum. Ciceros words are just as resonant in plain English: One who is ignorant of what happened before his birth will always be a child.

Be it agreed that we should learn from history, there remains much disagreement about the path to its revelation.