Meli-Lupi

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Lupi's coat of arms

Meli-Lupi is the name of an Italian noble family that has flourished to this day and , as a princely house, belongs to the high nobility .

history

Castle of Meli-Lupi in Soragna

The Lupi family ( Italian "the wolves" ) had ruled Soragna in the province of Parma in Emilia-Romagna since 1198 . In 1347 they were made margraves by the Roman-German King Charles IV . The family provided Podestàs in numerous cities in northern and central Italy. With the annexation of Parma by the Duchy of Milan under the Visconti in the 14th century, the Lupi were temporarily expelled from Soragna. The burial place of Lupi is the Oratorio di San Giorgio church in Padua , built by Raimondino Lupi in 1377 .

Marchese Diofebo Lupi set in 1513 the son of his sister Caterina, Giampaolo I. Meli (1508-1539), as his heir. The Meli family comes from Cremona and was admitted to the patriciate of the Republic of Venice since 1499 . By the imperial diploma of Charles V , granted at Mantua on October 24, 1513, Giampaolo Meli was enfeoffed with the Margraviate of Soragna and accepted into the nobility of Imperial Italy (as part of the Holy Roman Empire ) under the name of Meli-Lupi .

On August 4, 1709, Emperor Joseph I raised the Marchese Giampaolo Maria Meli Lupi to hereditary prince (with the title Your Highness ). After his death in 1729, the title passed to his brother Niccolò and his descendants with imperial confirmation from 1731. Today's head of the family is Don Diofebo VI. Meli-Lupi, Principe di Soragna , who also owns the castle in Soragna .

coat of arms

Meli-Lupi coat of arms at Soragna Castle

Giampaolo I. Meli (1508–1539) was permitted by the imperial diploma of Charles V of October 24, 1513 to adopt the Lupi coat of arms (black wolf with red claws and red tongue on a silver shield) and to place the imperial eagle over it. The princely coat of arms from 1709 combined the coats of arms of Lupi and Meli (1st field of the imperial eagle, 2nd field in silver a jumping deer (Meli), 3rd field of Lupi's coat of arms, 4th field three red diagonal stripes on a golden background as a symbol of the Patricians of Venice).

Known family members

  • Bonifacio Lupi (Soragna 1316 - Padua 1390), Condottiere
  • Raimondo Lupi (1409–1484), lawyer and diplomat
  • Gianfilippo Meli, advisor to Francesco Sforza
  • Gianbattista I. Meli-Lupi († 1543), Condottiere and 1st Marchese di Soragna
  • Gianpaolo Meli Lupi (1506–1543), Condottiere and 2nd Marchese di Soragna
  • Diofebo II. Meli Lupi (1532–1591), Condottiere and 3rd Marchese di Soragna
  • Giampaolo III. Meli Lupi (1571–1649), 3rd Marchese di Soragna, condottiere in the service of Alessandro Farnese (1545–1592)
  • Diofebo III. Meli Lupi (1601–1681), Condottiere and 5th Marchese di Soragna, writer
  • Giampaolo Maria Meli Lupi, 1709 1st Prince of Soragna
  • Niccolò Meli Lupi (1666–1748), 2nd Prince of Soragna

literature

  • Michele Basle Crispo: L'Ordine Costantiniano di San Giorgio. Storia, stemmi e cavalieri. Ordine Costantiniano, Parma 2002, ISBN 88-87372-27-6 .

Web links