IOVANNI VOLPE.
(Vol. iii., p. 188.)
The Volpes were an ancient, noble Florentine family of the second class, some branches of which according to the usage of Florence, changed their name, and adopted that of Bigliotti. The object of the change was to remove the disqualification which attached to them, as nobles, of holding offices under the republic. In illustration of this singular practice, the following extracts may be cited:
"Le peuple nomma une commission pour corriger les statuts de la république, et réprimer par les lois l'insolence des nobles. Une ordonnance fameuse, connue sous le nom d'Ordinamenti della Giustizia, fut l'ouvrage de cette commission. Pour le maintien de la liberté et de la justice, elle sanctionna la jurisprudence la plus tyrannique, et la plus injuste. Trente-sept familles, les plus nobles et les plus respectables de Florence, furent exclus à jamais du priorat, sans qu'il leur fùt permis de recouvrer les droits de cité, en se faisant matriculer dans quelque corps de métier, ou en exerçant quelque profession.... Les membres de ces trente-sept familles furent désignés, même dans les lois, par les noms de grands et de magnats; et pour la première fois, on vit un titre d'honneur devenir nonseulement un fardeau onéreux, mais une punition."—Sismondi, Histoire des Républiques Italiennes, tom. iv. pp. 63-4.: Paris, 1826.
"The people, now sure of their triumph, relaxed the Ordinances of Justice, and, to make some distinction in favour of merit or innocence, effaced certain families from the list of the nobility. Five hundred and thirty persons were thus elevated, as we may call it, to the rank of commoners. As it was beyond the competence of the Republic of Florence to change a man's ancestors, this nominal alteration left all the real advantage of birth as they were, and was undoubtedly an enhancenent of dignity, though, in appearance, a very singular one. Conversely, several unpopular commoners were ennobled in order to disfranchise them. Nothing was more usual, in subsequent times, than such an arbitrary change of rank, as a penalty or a benefit. (Messer Antonio de Baldinaccio degli Adimari, tutto che fosse de più grandi e nobili, per grazia era misso tra 'l popolo.—Villani, xii. c. 108.) Those nobles who were rendered plebeian by favour, were obliged to change their name and arms."—Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 435-6.: London, 1834.
"In the history of Florentine families, a singular feature presents itself; by a practice peculiar to Italy, nay, it is believed to Florence, families, under certain circumstances, were compelled to change their arms and their surnames, the origin of which was as follows. After having long suffered the insolent factions of the great families to convulse the state, the middle classes, headed indeed by one of the nobles, by a determined movement, obtained the mastery. To organize their newly-acquired power, they instituted an office, the chief at Florence during the republican era, that of Gonfalonier of Justice; they formed a species of national guard from the whole body of the citizens, who were again subdivided into companies, under the command of other officers of inferior dignity, also styled Gonfaloniers (Bannarets). As soon as any noble committed violence within the walls of the city, likely to compromise the public peace, or disturb the quiet of the state, the great bell at the Palazzo Vecchio raised its alarum, the population flew to arms, and hastened to the spot, where the Gonfalonier of Justice speedily found himself in a position, not merely to put an end to the disturbance, but even to lay siege to the stout massive fortresses which formed the city residences of the insolent and refractory offenders to which they then withdrew. But the reforming party did not stop there; by the new constitution, which was then introduced, the ancient noble families, termed by cotemporary historians 'i grandi,' and explained to include those only which had ever been illustrated by the order of knighthood, were all placed under a severe system of civil restrictions, and their names were entered upon a roll called the Ordinances of Justice; the immediate effect was that, losing all political rights, they were placed in a most disadvantageous position before the law.
"By a remarkable species of democratic liberality, a man or a family might be emancipated from this position and rendered fit for office, born again as it were into a new political life, by renouncing their connections (consorteria) and changing their arms and surnames. They were then said to be made plebeian or popular (fatti di popolo). Niebuhr has noticed the analogy of such voluntary resignation of nobility to the 'transitio ad plebem' of the Romans.
"This practice of changing arms and surnames originated from the Ordinances of Justice promulgated about that time, which expressly requires this as a condition to the enjoyment by any of the old families of popular rights. It gave rise to great varieties of surnames and armorial bearings in different branches of the same house. But it has nevertheless been noted that in all these mutations it was still the endeavour of the parties to retain as much as possible of the ancient ensigns and appellations, so that traces of descent and connexion might not in the progress of years be altogether obliterated. Thus the Cavalcanti took the name of Cavallereschi, the Tornaquinci that of Tornabuoni. Sometimes they obtained the object by a play upon the name itself thus; at other times by making a patronymic of the Christian name of the first or some other favourite ancestor; thus a branch of the Bardi assumed the name of Gualterotti, and a branch of the Pazzi that of Accorri. Sometimes they took their new name from a place or circumstance calculated to preserve the memory of their origin; thus the Agolanti designated themselves Fiesolani, the Bostichi from the antiquity of their stock, Buonantichi. In mutation of arms a similar object was borne in mind. Thus the Buondelmonti simply added to their ancient bearings a mountain az. and a cross gu. The Baccelli, who were a branch of the Mazzinghi, replaced the three perpendicular clubs, the ancient ensigns of the family, by two placed in the form of a cross.
"As the object of these provisions was to discriminate for the future those of the ancient families who had acceded to the principles of the popular institutions from their more haughty kindred, who remained true to the defence of their feudal and aristocratical pretensions, the change either of arms or surname was not required if the whole family became converts to the new doctrines; for then there was no need of discrimination, and the law was not framed out of any dislike merely to particular ensigns, but only to the principles and opinions which they had up to a certain time been understood to represent."—Mazzinghi.
The identity of the Volpes and Bigliottis is attested by ancient sepulchral monuments of the family in Santo Spirito at Florence. To mark the ancient origin, they retained or assumed the fox (volpe) as their arms. Borghini, in his Discorsi (Florence, 1584-5), mentions the family as an instance of the name giving rise to the arms, and mentions Sandro Biglotti, 1339, as the first who assumed the fox as his ensigns. The distinction and influence enjoyed at Florence by the family is indicated by its having contributed ten Gonfaloniers of Justice to the republic; an office corresponding in rank with those of Doge of Venice
and Doge of Genoa. Details of several branches of the family will be found in Saggi Istorici D'Antichità Toscane di Lorenzo Cantini: Firenze, 1798.
Among the junta of twenty noblemen of Venice, chosen in 1355, on the discovery of the conspiracy of Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice, we find the name of "Ser Niccolò Volpe":—
"Questi [que' del Consiglio de' Dieci] elessero tra loro una Giunta, nella notte, ridotti quasi sul romper del giorno, di venti nobili di Vinezia de' migliori, de' piu savii, e de' piu antichi, per consultare, non pero che mettessero pallottola."—Vitæ Ducum Venetorum,—though the title is in Latin, the work is in Italian,—published in Muratori's Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, tom. xii. p. 634.
The following particulars are extracted from the Biographie Universelle:—
"Ivo. Biliotti, d'une famille patricienne de Florence (qui avoit fourni dix Gonfaloniers de Justice à cette république, et placé ses armes sur les monnaies de l'état), fut un des derniers défenseurs de la liberté de sa patrie, et un des meilleurs capitaines de son temps. En 1529, il defendit le fort de Spello, en Toscane, contre les troupes liguées du pape et de l'Empereur Charles Quint. Il obligea le prince d'Orange, qui les commandait, à se retirer, et se distingua aussi au siége de Florence. Il passa au service de Francois Ier, roi de France, avec de Gondi et Pierre de Strozzi, ses parents, et fut tué au siége de Dieppe. Une partie de la famille Biliotti, proscrite par les Médicis, se refugia à Avignon et dans le comtat Venaissin, vers la fin du 15e siècle. Le 29 juillet, 1794, le chef de cette maison, Joseph Joachim, Marquis de Biliotti, chevalier de St. Louis, âgé de soixante-dix ans, aussi distingué par ses vertus que par sa naissance, fut la dernière victime du tribunal révolutionnaire d'Orange, qui fut suspendu le lendemain de sa mort."
The only particulars of Iovanni Volpe furnished by the Gwerclas MSS. are given in the annexed pedigree. The marriage of his daughter Frances with my ancestor, Richard Hughes of Gwerclas, arose from the latter (before his accession to the family estates and representation, consequent on the decease without issue—February 6, 18 James I., 1620-1—of his elder brother, Humffrey Hughes, Esq., of Gwerclas, Baron of Cymmer-yn-Edeirnion, High Sheriff of Merionethshire in 1618) having been secretary of the princely Cliffords, Earls of Cumberland, to whom Iovanni Volpe had been physician. There can be little doubt that Iovanni was descended from a branch of the Italian Volpes which had retained the ancient name; a supposition confirmed by the tradition of my family, and by the fact of the fox being assigned to his daughter Frances as her arms, in an emblazoned genealogy of the house of Gwerclas compiled in 1650 by the most accurate and eminent of Welsh antiquaries, Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt, Esq.
I may add, that among the Gwerclas pictures are portraits of Richard Hughes and Frances; the latter exhibiting in features an complexion the unmistakeable impress of Italian lineage.
William Hughes.
Twyford, Hants, March 18. 1851.
WILLIAM WOLPE. ===
Arms, Vert a fox |
courant, proper. |
|
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|
JOHN WOLPE, aliter VULP, "An Italian === ---- ----, "Descended
doctor; was ffamous in Queene Eliza- | of the ffamily of the Monn-
beth's tyme, went with George Erle | taynes in Yorkshire, who
of Cumberland most of his sea | keepe the name this daye
voyages, and was with him at the | [1622.]."
takeing of Portorico, in the Indies." |
|
+------------+
|
RICHARD EVERS (1st) === FRANCES, "Sole === (2nd) RICHARD HUGHES, Esq., of
"Of the ffamily of | daughter." Died | Gwerclas, co. Merioneth, Baron of
Evers of Coventry." | 29 June, 1636, | Cymmer-yn-Edeirnion. Married
| circa æt. 50. | 2 Nov. 1601. Died 21 March, 1641,
| | circa æt. 80.
| |
+----------------+ +----------------------+
| |
MARTHA, "Only daughter." === RICHARD LLOYD HUMFFREY HUGHES, Esq. of Gwerclas,
Born 25 January, 1599. | of Vaerdre [in Baron of Cymmer-yn-Edeirnion, son
Married, 27 June, 1616. /|\ Edeirnion, co. and heir. High Sheriff of Merioneth-
Merioneth]. shire in 1670. Born 14 Aug. 1605.
"Had issue sonnes and daughters, now [19 April, Buried at Llangar in Edeirnion,
1622] liveing." 4 May, 1682. ---
|
/|\
Giovanni Volpe or Master Wolfe (Vol. iii., p. 188.).—This person was certainly never "physician to Queen Elizabeth," but he may have received from her Majesty the appointment of apothecary, as he did from her successor. On New-Year's day, 1605-6, John Vulp presented to the king "a box of Indian plums," receiving in return 7 oz. di. di. qr. of gilt plate; he is then named the last of five apothecaries who paid their votive offerings to royalty. (Nichols's Progresses, &c. of King James I., vol. i. p. 597.) In 1617 he had risen to be the king's principal apothecary, and by the name of John Wolfgango Rumlero received "for his fee by the year 40 li.," as appears by the abstract of his Majesty's revenue attached to the pamphlet entitled Time brought to Light by Time. From the name here given him, it may be conjectured that he was rather from Germany than Italy. However, he also went by the plain English name of Master Wolfe.
He is thus alluded to in the epilogue to Ben Jonson's Masque of the Metamorphosed Gipsies, when it was performed at Windsor in September, 1621:—
"But, lest it prove like wonder to the sight
To see a gipsy, as an Æthiop, white,
Know that what dy'd our faces was an ointment
Made and laid on by Master Woolfe's appointment,
The Count Lycanthropos."
As he was a man of such prominence in his profession, probably many other notices of him might be collected if duly "noted" as they occur.
J. G. N.