Tomasi di Lampedusa

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Tomasi di Lampedusa is the name of one of the most important noble families in Sicily .

history

Eleven “holy” family members in an 18th century painting, Giuseppe Maria as a cardinal in red costume

The legendary progenitor of the family is a Thomaso, called "the Leopard", general and commander of the imperial guard of the Byzantine emperor Tiberios I and husband of his daughter Irene. Evidence of the family can be found in Ancona between the 7th and 12th centuries , and in Siena from the 12th century .

Mario di Tomasi, born in Capua in 1558 , came to Palermo in the wake of Marcantonio Colonna , who had been appointed Viceroy of Sicily by Philip II . In 1583 he married the widow Francesca Caro d'Aragona († 1632), baroness of Montechiaro and Lampedusa , who brought large estates into the family estate, including the island of Lampedusa. Their legacy established the family's wealth. The son of Mario di Tomasi and Francesca Caro d'Aragona, Ferdinando Tomasi, died at the age of 18 in 1615. His uncle of the same name, Ferdinando Tomasi Caro (1559–1634), the younger brother of Ferdinando Tomasi, then continued the Line in the male trunk.

Under Ferdinando Tomasi Caro's sons, the twins Carlo Luca (1613–1675) and Giulio Vincenzo Tomasi (1613–1669), the family experienced a double, important rise: Carlo became Duke of Palma . Giulio received the title of Prince of Lampedusa . He became the progenitor of the Tomasi di Lampedusa family.

A feudal system prevailed in Sicily until the beginning of the 19th century ; the marriage within the Sicilian aristocracy, who had around 2,300 title holders at the end of the 18th century, increased the extensive latifundia of the families. Like the other families, the Tomasi lived in the island's capital, Palermo, and were active in diplomacy, politics and society.

Characteristic for the Tomasi family through all generations was their religiousness and their strong commitment to the Catholic Church.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896–1957), writer

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa , the penultimate Principe di Lampedusa, Duca di Palma and Baron di Montechiaro e Franconeri, describes in his only novel The Gattopardo , published posthumously in 1958, the economic and political decline of the family and the rise of the Sicilian bourgeoisie. The Tomasi di Lampedusa family became known to a worldwide audience through its filming as The Leopard by Count Luchino Visconti .

The noble family of the Tomasi di Lampedusa died out in 1962 in the male line with Giuseppe's uncle Pietro Paolo Tomasi, Marchese della Torretta (1873–1962), President of the Italian Senate from 1944 to 1946, who followed his nephew in 1957 as the last titular prince of Lampedusa and Duke of Palma .

The Palazzo Lampedusa , the city palace of the Tomasi di Lampedusa in Palermo (via Lampedusa 17), was destroyed by the US Air Force in a bomber attack on April 5, 1943.

The Tomasi di Lampedusa included, in addition to Alliata , Filangeri , Gravina , Lancia , Moncada , Notarbartolo , Paternò , Spucches , Stagno , Valguarnera and Ventimiglia to the great royal houses Sicily, sometimes called after the famous novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa The Panthers are called .

Known family members

  • Carlo Luca (1613–1675) founded the planned Baroque city of Palma in the same year on the basis of a “licentia populandi” (settlement authorization) granted by King Philip IV in 1637 . In 1638 the king then awarded him the title of Duke of Palma . Already in 1640 he took the title of duke and joined the Theatines at -Orden. He moved to Rome, devoted himself to theology and wrote numerous saints' lives as well as philosophical and theological writings.
  • Giulio Vincenzo Tomasi (1613–1669), Carlos' twin brother, took over when he chose religious life, his property and from then on carried his title Duke of Palma . In 1640 he married Rosalia Traina e Drago (1625–1692). In 1667 the regent Maria Anna awarded him the title of Prince of Lampedusa , named after the inheritance brought in by his father's sister-in-law. Giulio Vincenzo Tomasi, Duke of Palma and Prince of Lampedusa, retired in 1655 to a private monastery in his ducal palace. This step earned him the nickname il Duca Santo ("the holy duke"). His wife retired to a Benedictine monastery in 1661 . The four daughters of Giulio Tomasi and Rosalia Traina also all took the veil .
  • Giulios and Rosalia's second son (the first had died as an infant), Giuseppe Maria Tomasi (1649–1713) was the most important cleric in the family. He joined the Theatines and was made a cardinal in 1712. In 1986 Pope John Paul II canonized him.
  • Giulios and Rosalia's second son Ferdinando I. Tomasi (1651–1672) continued the line as the second prince of Lampedusa. Because of his piety he was called Il Principe Santo ("the holy prince").
  • Ferdinando II. Maria Tomasi (1697–1775), fourth prince of Lampedusa, settled the until then almost uninhabited island of Lampedusa.
  • His great-great-grandson Giulio IV. Tomasi (1815-1885), the eighth Prince of Lampedusa, sold the island of Lampedusa in 1839 to King Ferdinand II , who thereby preceded the British who wanted to build a naval base there. Feudalism was abolished in Sicily during his lifetime. Giulio IV. Tomasi, as Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, became the title character of the novel Il gattopardo by his great-grandson Giuseppe V. Tomasi di Lampedusa.
  • Giuseppe V. Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896–1957), see above.

coat of arms

Family coat of arms with bishop's hat and prince's crown

Blazon : The coat of arms shows in blue a gold crowned golden leopard , who strides up a green mountain of three .

  • Lampedusa Island (owned by the family from 1583 to 1839)

  • Ruin of the Palazzo Tomasi di Lampedusa in Palermo ( bombed in World War II )

literature

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa: I racconti. Nuova edizione rivista e accresciuta , edited by Nicoletta Polo. Feltrinelli, Milan 2015, p. 189.
  2. ↑ a b Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa: I racconti. Nuova edizione rivista e accresciuta , edited by Nicoletta Polo. Feltrinelli, Milan 2015, p. 190.
  3. ↑ Andreas Rossmann : Gods no longer smile here . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 3, 2017, p. 12.