IACOPI DISCENDENZE E STORIA

Etymology and Florentine nobility

Ancient and noble families of the countryside and the city of Florence who had heraldic distinctions and privileges in the past and who played a prestigious role in the history of the city of Florence.

The surname Iàcopi or Jàcopi would derive its origin from the genitive of Iàcopo or Jàcopo (James) (from the Greek Iàkobus or Iàkobos = James) in turn derived from the name of the Jewish patriarch Jacob (brother of Esau and son of Isaac and Rebecca) through subsequent modifications. Jacob, in Hebrew Ya'aqob (Yahaqòb), - resulting, according to Emidio de Felice, from the union of YAH, an abbreviation of Yahweh (God), and probably 'QB (to protect), with the meaning of "protected by God" (for others - see Garzanti Dictionary - means "He who adheres or rises up") - gave rise in the Greek language to two different forms of the same name, differentiated by the accent:

• initially Iakòb, from which the Latin Iacòb or Iacòbus (Jacob);
• later (Greek-Byzantine tradition) Iàkobos, from which the Latin Iàcobus (Jacobo or Jàcobo). This Christian name was therefore established in Italy in the early Middle Ages with a double Latin (Iacòbus) and Greek-Byzantine (Iàkobos) tradition and from this the current forms were determined, different in accent and phonetics, according to the different adaptations. The current JACOB therefore derives from Iacòbus, while from the Greek-Byzantine Iàkobos (Jacobo or Jàcobo) derive instead, preserving the accent and adapting the letter "b" to "m" or "p", the current forms of Jàcopo or Giàcopo and Jàcomo or Giacomo.

But in this specific case in Florence in the Middle Ages the name Iacopo. is also linked to the cult of S. Iacopino, has also given rise to those of Lapo, a hypocoristic derivation of Iacopo, to that of Coppo, derived in turn Giacòppo or Jacòppo, which, in turn, may have given rise to the surname of the Iacoppi.

The use of surnames, already widely used by the Romans, under the scheme of tria nomina (Name, Gens and Nickname) was practically lost with the decline of the Roman Empire, to come back into vogue in illustrious families, or of noble lineage, around 1000 - 1100, while for the common people the unwritten, but used, rule of the name, followed by the patronymic, or the nickname or the place of origin and all this was enough to distinguish one family group from another. It is only towards the end of the 1200s that some families begin to be designated only by their surname but it will be from the 1300s and the beginning of the 1400s that surnames begin to assert themselves again even among the "common people" and their use was a peculiar feature of the costume of the Florentines. This was partly related to the practice of periodic ballots and the extraction of candidates for public offices. Individuals, whose relatives of closer paternal ancestry had previously been ascribed to the offices, could be admitted to the ballots as "beneficiaries", while the latest arrivals were voted separately. The families (families) settled in the group of those in charge of the offices generally had a surname, although it took a few generations to mature a real stable surname. In the case of the IACOPI/JACOBI the surname is stabilized in Pistoia in the second half of the 1200s and in Florence from the beginning of the 1300s, taking into account that they would derive from the IACOPI/JACOBI of Pistoia, who, due to the offices held and their influence in the city, already possessed a stabilized surname at the beginning of the 1300s. In any case, in the 1427 Land Registry, in Florence, only 36% of the heads of families reported are listed with their surnames, but in the records of the "Archivio delle Tratte" as many as 84% of the men enrolled in the Three Major Councils had a surname, compared to 64% of men enrolled in the offices of the Guilds (those elected to the Minor Guilds were less likely to have a surname than those drawn from the Major Guilds). All individuals were however indicated by patronymics (sometimes with three degrees of paternal ancestry: father, grandfather, great-grandfather), but some of them did not have a surname. People with the same surname generally had a blood relationship, albeit distant, and were all mostly scrutinized in the same neighborhood and banner (although some individual, or a family branch, could also change their neighborhood and the banner). Ultimately, as far as the Iacopi / Jacobi are concerned, it is proven that they already had a consolidated surname in Pistoia from the end of the 1200s and the first official document attesting to this surname in Florence dates back to 1300, then made official in the Florentine Land Registry of 1427.

Surnames often derived, as already pointed out above, from patronymics (Alberti da Alberto, Capponi da Cappone, Ridolfi da Ridolfo, Iacopi da Iacopo, Donati da Donato, Firidolfi da Figli di Ridolfo, Figiovanni da Figli di Giovanni, Ferrentini by Ferrante, and so on), with an illustrious personage for some reason who came to name his descendants, although this procedure was not always so automatic. The Capponi, for example, who first gained access to the Priory in 1287, adopted a stable surname only in the middle of the fourteenth century. However, in this particular case, the genealogical relationship between the family members was perfectly clear, despite the fact that the original documents had identified some of them with the patronymic or with the surname "Del Cappone",

Surnames sometimes derived from places of origin. Striking examples are the Da Ghiacceto or Diacceto, the Da Panzano, the Da Terrazzano, the Quaratesi, the Del or Da Montale, the Dell'Antella and the Da Uzzano. Finally, sometimes families hesitated between one surname and another. This is the well-known case of a branch of the Tornaquinci family ("magnates" and therefore excluded from offices), who recycled themselves into "commoners" to obtain eligibility and changed, as we will see, their name to "Tornabuoni".

A few notes on the nobility in Florence..

In Florence, the city par excellence commercial, the city's nobility and its official recognition follow a particular path, as the beginning of its definitive systematization, in some respects arbitrary and criticized, dates back to 1600 under the Government of the Grand Duchy of the Medici. In fact, in the city of the lily, alongside the magnate families, urbanized or forced to move to the city by the power of the city municipality, there are a series of families who, as a result of their commercial activities, reach a certain affluence and local influence, starting to participate, permanently or sporadically, in the management of the city's power. The members of the latter, in particular, tended to achieve at first the dignity of "Knight or Miles", a stereotyped medieval symbol of the condition of nobleman and then with the progressive economic and social affirmation in the city the title of "Dominus", which unequivocally placed their holders among the leaders of the city. In practice, the title of Dominus constituted an official recognition of the economic power of the family and their influence in the social fabric of the city and, in practical terms, Dominus, at that time, meant that the person holding the title could, for economic possibilities, contribute to the defense of the city, paying, for the duration of the campaign, at least one horse for the "cavallata"", the minimum unit of the Florentine cavalry (linked to Miles' condition).

As the development of the Municipality of Florence progressed, two precise groups of power were therefore formed within it, that of the Magnati or Baroni and that of the Popolani, whose struggle for the upper hand ended towards the end of the 1200s with the victory of the latter and the exclusion of the Magnates from the power of the city (i.e., in general, the great Ghibelline and consular families). In any case, when the problem of defining a noble class arose in Florence, the only possible criteria for identifying it remained those of considering noble, for the past history of the city, those who had ancestors who had held consular offices or the highest republican magistrates. In the end, at the time of the Medici, it was decided to refer only to the criterion of the Magistracies of the Republic (especially those of the Signoria), using, for this purpose, the compilations of the various Priors, who had noted, over time, the list of the various personalities elected to city offices.

Hence the need to create a list (as reliable as possible, given the differences between one Priorist and another) of the individuals of the families who had exercised important offices during the Republican period. The compilation of such a work was all the more heartfelt, because it would have formed the basis for the proofs of nobility (provanze) for admission to the Order of St. Stephen of Tuscany.

This task was entrusted to Bernardo Benvenuti, who had to copy and revise the lists on the basis of the compilations of the various official Priorists or scholars, carried out up to that moment, in order to build a new and definitive one. The main source to be used by Benvenuti was indicated in the "Florentine Priorista" by Francesco Segaloni of 1625 (State Archives of Florence, ASF, Filza 226).

The undertaking entrusted to Benvenuti was long and complex, so much so that, on his death in 1708, the work was continued by Lorenzo Maria Mariani, who completed his activity with the last volume, printed in 1722.

Naturally, the criterion chosen, as the basis of Mariani's work, excluded from the recognition of the nobility the magnate families, which, as a result of the Ordinances of Justice, had been deprived of the right to participate in the ballots of the highest republican magistracies and also excluded the great Ghibelline families, as well as the consular families. Ultimately, a choice that came, in fact, to erase Florentine history before 1281.

In 1737, after the extinction of the Medici dynasty, the Lotringen or Lorraine dynasty came to power in Florence.

Some time later, Grand Duke Francesco Stefano of Lorraine, with the law of 31 July 1750, issued in Vienna and published in Florence on 1 October of that year, regulated all matters of nobility and citizenship in Florence.

In fact, the State Archives of Florence (Laws and Notices Volume IV) preserve the printed text of the "Law for the Regulation of Nobility and Citizenship", published in Florence on 1 October 1750 and the annexed "Instruction to the deputies on the description of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany".

In Volume 15 of the same collection, dated 14 June 1793, there is a notification of the fact that, since the relative registers have been completed, the rules for their use and updating have also been established. In fact, with this law of 1750 the concepts of nobleman and citizen of Florence were mainly specified. In fact, it establishes, "to remove any doubt about the state of persons, and clearly distinguish the true nobles among our faithful subjects", the first true legal definition of nobility in Tuscany: "We recognize - Nobil essere - all those who possess, or have possessed noble fiefs, and all those who are admitted to the Noble Orders, or have obtained the Nobility by our diplomas or those of our predecessors, and finally most of those who have enjoyed, or are likely to enjoy at present the first, and most distinguished honor of the Noble Cities their homelands". The law, drawn up at the end of a lively political debate which, around Emanuele de Richecourt and Pompeo Neri, had seen the main protagonists of the Lorraine Regency face each other since 1745, even if it did not create a true Tuscan nobility and in Florence, it profoundly modified its bases and functions. The same law established two groups, or "classes": the "noble patricians", or the "Patriciate", which grouped together the families who could prove the continuity of their nobility for at least two hundred years and the simple "Nobles". In this context, it respected the long tradition of republican Florence, adding to it two centuries of princely or monarchical rule. If the Florentine nobleman remained first and foremost the heir of a family, whose ancestor had held, before the Reform of 1532, the office of Prior, he could also descend from the beneficiary of a grand-ducal decision, such as the appointment to the Senate of the 48, the attribution of a title of nobility or the authorization to found a Commandery of the Order of St. Stephen. But, in practice, the law also introduced a double rupture. On the one hand, undoubtedly the main aspect, nobility now became an exclusive prerogative of the prince: "The acquisition of nobility for all future times will depend on our supreme will, and of Our successors Grand Dukes [...]. So that whenever it pleases us, and our successors, to decorate any person of the Nobility, our Secretary of State must immediately send the diploma, have it registered in the Watchful Book of Privileges." On the other hand, the nobility was no longer a nuanced whole, well known to contemporaries - who on several occasions had unofficially drawn up lists - and above all poorly defined on the margins. The law, in effect, organized a "public description" of the nobility through a "Deputation of the nobility", which was to draw up "original registers of the nobility's patrimony", which quickly became the "Golden Books of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany".

These registers now constituted the only proof of the nobility of the families, since "all our other faithful subjects not described in these registers we declare not to be, nor should they be considered Nobles, notwithstanding any Sentence, Privilege, Enjoyment of Honor, and custom, that may be claimed to be attached".

Ultimately, for the first time, the Florentine "nobility" became a legitimate group, defined and described, in effect, through the totality of its families rather than its members. On 6 December 1756, i.e. 12 days after the publication of the notification until September 1752, 414 heads of noble families in Florence testified and paid the 7 lire tax provided for by the Deputation; 378 of these (or 93%) will do so shortly before the legal deadline of December 31, 1751, without however rushing to fulfill this obligation. That the Florentine nobles expressed some reticence in this regard is amply proven by the fact that only 86 taxes (21% of the total) were levied during the month of December 1751 and that 51 of these were paid in the last three days of the same month.

In the years 1750-52, 267 families were registered in the Golden Book of Florence in the class of the Patriciate, for those of ancient origin and in that of the Nobility for the more modern families. For ancient families, the proof of nobility is more often constituted by the first appointment as Prior of the Arts, in the republican period, a fact that contributes to raising many difficulties: in fact, the institutions prior to the "Ordinances of Justice" are not taken into consideration; thus the families of the Magnates, who were expelled from Florence at the end of the 13th century and during the 14th and who - as has recently been demonstrated by the study by C. Klapisch Zuber - have been reinstated in fact, almost in their entirety and at the latest during the 15th century, they risk being underestimated or being attributed a much more recent nobility (22 in this specific case). This fact of not having considered participation in municipal power as the only criterion of belonging to the urban aristocracies, has been criticized since the 16th century also by the historian Vincenzo Borghini. Despite everything, the Golden Book and its version of reduced seniority of the Florentine nobility describes a social group rooted in a distant past, which has not been touched, over the centuries, by profound social mobility.

Ultimately, to use the words of Jean Boutier (An urban nobility. Aspects of the social morphology of the Florentine nobility), "This law not only did not heal the defects of the "Medici law", but rather worsened it, linking membership to the nobility also to patrimonial criteria: those who were below a certain patrimonial threshold could not belong to the nobility, whatever the merits of their ancestors". All this pushes Giuseppe Maria Mecatti (Genealogical History of the Nobility and Citizenship of Florence) "The printer to the reader

Because, in force of a certain promulgated law, which is not long ago in Florence, in which the nobility and Florentine citizenship are disposed, and it is concluded, that only those who will have ten florins in tenth will be admitted to citizenship; and those who are ancient, but that they will at present have six florins in tithe; and those who do not have these six florins in spite of their antiquity, and their hitherto enjoyed honors, will be taken out of the said purses, and will be united with the plebs, and with the vulgar; and various other laws are also given to divide the nobility into two classes: Because (I say) in force of this Law it may happen that many noble and citizen houses for lack of fortune, either are no longer so, or are not so in that degree, which really belonged to them, through their true nobility and antiquity, so that with the passage of time, promulgated, that this new law may be lost of their memories; a certain Florentine National friend of mine, fearing, that such an accident is not to happen to him; because he is not too well equipped with fortune goods; believing that he is benefiting other of his nationals, who will perhaps find themselves in the same case as him; having with him various Historical Genealogical information, both published and unpublished, he shared them with me; and since these seem to me to be good, so that the rank and condition of all the Families may remain in the memory of posterity, to which, before the said Law was executed, no one has ever been able to oppose their Nobility, and Civilization, which, for lack of faculties, and of substance, it seems strange, that they now have to lose; I wanted to give birth to them with my prints. By virtue of these, therefore, it appears who the most or least nobles really are, and at what time, and in what manner they have attained nobles.

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Thus those families will be able to console themselves who will see themselves noticed in this Priorist, if they are now decayed, and lack fortune; while the whole world will do them justice, that although poor, they are nevertheless noble and ancient, and consequently worthy of all consideration; since in the opinion of the wisest the only riches are these, who constitute the noble and great families.

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According to the list compiled by Mariani (1722) the following were nobles:

Acciajuoli, Alamanni, Albergotti, Alberti, Albizzi, Aldana, Aldobrandini, Alessandri, Almeni, Altoviti, Ambra, Ambrogi, Dell'Ancisa, Andreini, Anforti, Ansaldi, Anselmi, Antinori, Arrighi, Arrighetti, Asini, Assirelli, Astudilo, Attavanti, Alessandri Cilibi, Da Bagnano, Bagnesi, Bandinelli, Bardi, Bardelli, Barducci, Baroncini, Bartoli Agorai, Bartoli Filippi, Bartolini Salimbeni, Bartolini Baldelli, Bartolommei, Del Beccuto, Del Bene, Del Benino, Benedetti, Benricevi, Bentivogli, Benvenuti, Betti, Berardi, Biffoli, Biliotti, Bini, Bocchineri, Bonsi, Succhielli, Del Borgo, Borghi, Borgherini, Borboni del Monte, Bracci, Bruni, Brunaccini, Bucetti, Buini, Buondelmonti, Buonguglielmi, Buonaccorsi, Buonaccorsi Pinadori, Buonarruoti, Buonaventuri, Buontalenti, Berardesca, Del Caccia, Caccini, Cambi, Cambi del Bali, Caniggiani, Cantucci, Capitani, Capponi, Carcherelli, Carducci, Carlini, Carnesecchi, Castelli, Castellani, Da Castiglione, Cattani, Cavalcanti, Cecchini, Cecchini del Lion d'Oro, Ceffini, Da Cepperello, Cerbini Buonaccorsi, Cerchi, Cerretani, Cicciaporci, Del Chiaro, Chiavacci, Cocchi Donati, Comi, Cini, Compagni, Comparini, Coppoli, Corbinelli, Corboli, Corsi, Corsini, Cortigiani, Covoni, Dati (Bencivenni, Capirossi), Davanzati, Dazzi, Dini, Dondori, Doni, Durazzini, D'Elci, Fabbreschi, Fabbrini, Falcucci, Falconieri, Fantoni Angiolotti (Giotti, Del Pace), Fedini, Federighi, Feroni, Fiaschi, Da Filicaja, Fiorini, Firidolfi da Panzano, Forti, Forzoni Accolti, Franceschi; Frescobaldi, Gabburri, Gaddi, Gaetani, Galilei, Galli, Ganucci, Del Garbo, Gatteschi, Geppi, Gerini, Gherardi, Gherardini di Pistoia, Gherardini (Nephews), Della Gherardesca, Giacomini, Gianni, Gianfigliazzi, Ginori, Giraldi, Girolami, Giugni, Giunti, Modesti, Gondi, Gori (Ciampelli), Grazzini, Grifoni, Guadagni, Guasconi, Guerrini, Guicciardini, Guidarrighi, Guidetti, Guiducci, Guasconti, Incontri, Landi, Lanfredini, Lancieri, Lapi, Larioni, Lenzoni, Libri, Lippi, Lorini, Lorenzi, Lupicini, Lucattini, Machiavelli, Macinghi, Macciagnini, Del Maestro, Malaspini, Malegonnelle, Mancini, Manetti, Mannelli, Marchi, Marsili, Marsuppini, Martelli, Martellini del Falcone, Martellini della Cervia, Marmi, Martini, Martini di Guccio, Marucelli, Marzichi, Marzimedici (Marzi), Marchionni, Masetti, Mazzei, Mazzinghi, Medici, Da Meleto, Mendes, Mercati, Miccieri, Michelozzi, Milanesi, Minerbetti, Mini, Migliorucci, Miniati, Da Montauto, De conti di Montauto, Montalvi, Montemagni, Morelli, Del Monte, Mori Ubaldini, (Aldobrandinelli), Mozzi, Del Mazza, Naldini, Nardi Pieruzzi, Narvaez Saavedra, Nelli, Del Nente, Nerli, Neri, Neretti, Neroni, Del Nero, Niccolini, Nobili, Nomi, Orlandi, Orlandini, Paganelli, Palmieri, Panciatichi, Pandolfini, Panichi, Panzanini, Paolini, Pasquali, Passerini, Pazzi, Papi, Pecori, Pelli, Pepi, Peruzzi, Pitti, Pollini, Popoleschi, Portigiani, Portinari, Poltri, Pucci, del Pugliese, Pierucci, Quaratesi, Da Rabatta, Rassinelli, Della Rena, Della Rena di Messer Pace, Ricasoli, Riccardi, Ricci, Del Riccio, Ricciardi, Ridolfi di piazza, Ridolfi di ponte, Rigogli, Rilli, Rimbotti, Rinaldi, Rinuccini, Risaliti, Roffia, Da Romena, Ronconi, Rondinelli, Rossi, Rossi da Bergamo, Del Rosso, Del Rosso vajai, Rosselli, Rucellai, Ruoti, Da Ruota, Ruspoli, Sacchetti, Sacchettini, Salvatici, Salviati, Salvini, Samminiati, Sassi, Scalandroni, Scarlatti, Schiateschi, Segni, Del Sera, Serristori, Serzelli, Sesti, Settimanni, Signorini, Seminetti, Sirigatti, Soderini, Soldani, Benzi, Da Sommaja, Spigliati, Spinafalconi, Spinelli, di Spinello, Stendardi, Stiozzi, Strozzi, Suares, Taddei, Talenti, Tamburini, Tebaldi, Tempi, Teri, Ticci, Tolomei, Tornaquinci, Torrigiani, Del Tovaglia, Tucci, Del Turco, Ubaldini, Vecchietti, Venturi, Vernacci, Del Vernaccia, Verrazzano, Vespucci, Vettori, Ughi, Ugolini, Uguccioni, Vieri, Del Vigna, Vitelli, Viviani, Usimbardi, Ximenes, Zati, Zefferini . To these Mecatti adds the following: Adami, Adimari, Ardinghelli, Baldigiani, Bargigli, Giovagnuoli, Guidi, Masi, Mormorai, Neri di Pompeo, Pappagalli, Salvatici, Tanucci, Velluti, Ulivi, also adding that: "All this is the series of Families,some of which have risen to nobility, and others have fallen into decadence, as is the case with all things that are transient and mortal. But whoever, however, can prove that he is of any of the above-mentioned families, there is no doubt that he can be considered noble, while the government of the republic has finally been among his ancestors. Nor can poverty in which someone may have fallen oppose him such an honor, riches being goods of fortune, and of chance, and poverty an evil, which gives birth to misfortune; so that those who suffer from poverty are not to blame for it most of the time; since human forces can hardly repair it".

Ultimately, this is the basic rule, imposed a posteriori, of the Florentine nobility, but in the aforementioned lists all the families are still missing, which, despite possessing the titles in 1752, had either emigrated from Florence or no longer had, at the time, the economic requirements necessary to be declared "Nobles" according to this law.