Borromeo

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Princely coat of arms of the Borromeo family with the motto "humylitas"

Borromeo is the name of an old Italian noble family that originally came from the area of Rome . In San Miniato it belonged to the wealthy bourgeois merchant families at the end of the 13th century. Around 1370 it emigrated to Milan and established a banking business there with branches in Venice and Florence. By marriage with the ducal house of the Visconti ruling in Milan , the bankers made great fortune. In 1406 the Milanese line of Borromeo expired, the name and inheritance passed through the female line to the old patrician family Vitaliani from Padua . These rose in Milan under the adopted name Borromeo to one of the most important banking families of the 15th century.

Around 1440 the Borromeo acquired two castles on Lake Maggiore and in 1445 were raised to the rank of count. Between 1447 and 1450 they supported the Sforza family in their struggle to succeed the Visconti. For centuries they exercised the rule of Milan on Lake Maggiore, where they still own important castles today. The Borromeo had been Counts of Arona since 1445 , the head of the family since 1623 Marchese di Angera and since 1916 Principe di Angera.

history

The Elder House Borromeo appears in a document at the end of the 13th century, originally came from the area of ​​Rome and then became prosperous in San Miniato , where his relatives were called Buon Romei . Due to the fighting between Ghibellines and Guelphs , in the course of which Filippo di Lazzaro Borromei was executed in 1370, his sons Borromeo and Giovanni moved to Milan, where they started a banking business . Members of the family soon ran branches in Venice and Florence. In the 14th century they bought property in Peschiera near Milan. Filippo Buonromei married Talda di Tenda, daughter of Wilhelm Lascaris di Ventimiglia , Count of Tenda, whose sister Beatrice di Tenda was married to Filippo Maria Visconti , Duke of Milan .

The Palazzo Borromeo in Milan
Angera Castle (family property since 1449)

Filippo Buonromei's daughter, Margherita Borromeo († 1429), married Giacobino Vitaliani († 1409) from Padua , whose son Vitaliano Vitaliani (1390–1449) was adopted in 1406 by his uncle Giovanni Borromeo, a wealthy merchant and banker without male descendants Borromeo took over the name and founded the Younger House Borromeo . The Vitaliani can be traced back to a patrician from Padua, Giovanni dei Vitaliani, in the 11th century; from about 1100 they were lords of Bosco, Bojone and Sant'Angelo. Vitaliano Borromeo successfully continued his uncle's commercial activities, including bank branches in Burgos and Barcelona, ​​and settled in Milan, where he enjoyed the goodwill of his uncle, Duke Filippo Maria Visconti. In 1418 he became its chamberlain. The duke procured various fiefs in the area around Lake Maggiore , namely in 1439 the castle of Arona , with whose possession the title of count was connected, which Vitaliano received from the duke in 1445. Vitaliano Borromeo also bought Angera Castle from the Visconti in 1449 . Since then, the family's core property has been on Lake Maggiore with the two castles as its focus. (The castle Rocca Borromea di Arona was demolished in 1800 by order of Napoleon , the castle Rocca Borromea di Angera is still owned by the family today.)

In 1437 Vitaliano Borromeo († 1449) built a new castle on the old family estate in Peschiera Borromeo near Milan, from which Francesco I. Sforza besieged Milan in 1450. In 1461 he raised Vitaliano's son Filippo Borromeo (1419–1464), now Duke of Milan, to Count of Peschiera. Filippo extended the banking business to Bruges and London; the Borromei banking house was continued until at least 1455. Around 1520 Ludovico Borromeo had a small castle built on an island in Lake Maggiore , the Rocca Vitaliana as part of the Castelli di Cannero , a defense system against the Confederates . Giberto II Borromeo († 1558), regent on Lake Maggiore, married Margherita Medici di Marignano, sister of Pope Pius IV. One of her sons was Charles Borromeo (1538–1584), who was later canonized Archbishop and Cardinal of Milan.

The so-called Borromean Islands are part of the family property in the area around Lake Maggiore, in some cases to this day . The Isola Madre is the largest of the four islands known held for their English-style gardens. From 1501 Lancilotto Borromeo had a mansion built on the island, which Renato I. Borromeo expanded into a palace complex in the Renaissance style from 1580 . On Isola Bella , named after Countess Isabella Borromeo, Vitaliano Borromeo built a summer palace between 1650 and 1671. Cardinal Giberto III. (1615-1672) and Vitaliano VI. (1620–1690) continued to build on the facilities. Carlo IV (1657–1734) had the terraced gardens completed, which were finally inaugurated in 1671. The two palaces are still owned by the family today.

Status surveys

Vitaliano Vitaliani, adopted Borromeo (* 1390; † 1449), was made Count of Arona in 1445 .

Cardinal Federico Borromeo († 1631) was appointed Marchese di Angera by King Philip IV of Spain in 1623 , hereditary in Primogenitur .

Renato II. Borromeo , Conte di Arona († 1685), had with Giulia Arese the son Carlo Borromeo , Viceroy of Naples , who was nicknamed Arese around 1700.

Count Giberto Borromeo Arese received an Italian renewal of the title Marchese di Angera (Primogenitur) in 1896 . In 1916 the same, Giberto Borromeo Arese, Marchese di Angera, Conte di Arona, received a similar renewal for the title Principe di Angera, the diploma for this was issued in 1917.

The later born carried the family name Borromeo with the predicate Don or Donna , the male the addition Conte di Arona .

Possessions

Clerical Careers

Saint Charles Borromeo (Carlo Borromeo), Cardinal (1538–1584)

Seven cardinals emerged from the family who were primarily committed to the moral renewal of the Roman Catholic Church .

Two cardinals from the Borromeo family are considered important:

  • Cardinal Federico Borromeo (1564–1631) found it difficult to follow in the footsteps of his famous cousin. As a teenager he planned to enter a monastery , which both his family and his cousin Carlo Borromeo were able to prevent. As an influential secular clergyman, he should protect the interests of the family. For Cardinal, he was of Sixtus V appointed. Within the Curia he was one of the reform cardinals. The appointment by Clement VIII. To the Archbishop of Milan , where his now deceased cousin had worked so successfully, Federico Borromeo considered rejected because he did not feel the succession of his cousin grown. After he accepted it anyway, he founded the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan , to which an artist academy and a collection of paintings that can still be viewed today are attached. Alessandro Manzoni set him a literary monument in his novel " I promessi sposi ".

Other cardinals:

coat of arms

Humilitas , the crowned coat of arms of the Borromeo family on Isola Madre in Lake Maggiore (1858)

The large, princely coat of arms of the Borromeo dynasty, as can be seen in the nobility diploma of 1917 on the occasion of a recognition or renewal of the title Principe di Angera in 1916 : square , with heart shield , curved side panels, shield head and shield base ; in field 1 in red a golden crown placed diagonally to the left, 2 in silver diagonally left two red-tied braids placed crosswise, 3 in blue three (1, 2) intertwined red-stone rings ( Borromean rings ), 4 in red an ancient silver horse reins placed diagonally on the right; The front side panel: in the red field, studded with golden sparks, an upright silver unicorn, around the neck an ancient golden crown , tied with a fluttering silver band at the back, at the top left a golden, silver oval, covered with a blue snake, spitting out a natural-colored boy ( Visconti snake; field because of the title Conte di Arona); rear side panel: split, in front in red a golden camel resting in a golden basket, on the back a bush of alternating silver and blue ostrich feathers growing out of an ancient golden crown (image of Vitaliano Borromeo, † 1449); divided at the back, above a gold-crowned black eagle ( imperial eagle ; party mark of the Ghibellines ), below a black flight in silver (sometimes mistakenly represented as an eagle); Heart shield: split, in front divided by Eisenhütlein and green five times diagonally to the right ( family coat of arms Vitaliani), in the back divided by red and green five times and covered with a silver diagonal right bar (family coat of arms Borromeo); Head of shield: in silver the word "Humilitas" in black Gothic script , above it a five-pointed golden crown ( coat of arms motto ), shield base: in silver a green lemon branch with golden fruit lying in bars. All around a hermel- lined red coat of arms flowing down from a sixteen (nine)-pointed crown ; above two helmets with silver-blue-green blankets , on the right one growing from a golden basket a silver column with a golden base and capital, wound around by a green snake with a winged human head, which rests on the capital; on the left helmet the camel as in the shield.

Other important family members

Carlo IV Borromeo (1657–1734), viceroy of Naples

See also

Web links

The Borromeo camel, pictorial motto by Vitaliano Borromeo, at the Palazzo Borromeo in Milan
Commons : Borromeo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Adelslexikon Volume II, Volume 58 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag , Limburg (Lahn) 1974, p. 21 f.
  2. ↑ The Borromei Bank Research Project ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.queenmaryhistoricalresearch.org
  3. ↑ Beatrice is the tragic heroine of the opera Beatrice di Tenda by Vincenzo Bellini .
  4. ^ Family tables of the Vitaliani and Borromeo
  5. ↑ The Borromei Bank Research Project ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.queenmaryhistoricalresearch.org
  6. ↑ The Borromean Rings, The Borromeo Family Crest (website about the Borromeo family crest) ( Memento from June 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ Website of the Borromeo family with family coat of arms