ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1483 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1483 ************************************ From: "Brian M. Scott" 16 May 1999 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You explained that it is not known where the Aldrevandin Group of glasses, dating from the late 13th and early 14th centuries, was made, the likely possibilities being Jerusalem, Venice (at the isle of Murano), and the German glass-making centres, especially Konstanz. You then asked whether the known makers' names <Aldrevandin>, <Petrus>, and <Bartolomeus> were evidence for or against any of these possibilities. The names <Petrus> and <Bartolomeus> are only moderately helpful. In German-speaking Switzerland the names <Petrus> and <Peter> were used by laity as early as the late 11th century. <Bartolomeus> came into use there a little later, but it is found (in a variety of slightly different spellings) amongst both ecclesiastics and laity during the 12th century. [1] Both <Petrus> and <Bartholomeus> undoubtedly go back to Roman times in Italy, but we can say for sure that both are found in Pisa in 1228, and <Piero> and <Bartolomeo> are among the ten most common men's names in early-15th century Florence. [2, 3] Thus, neither name points strongly toward either European site at the expense of the other. It is possible that they are evidence against the Jerusalem hypothesis. Except for the brief interval from 1229 to 1244, Jerusalem had been in Muslim hands since 1187. [4] The names <Petrus> and <Bartholomeus>, on the other hand, are strongly associated with the Christian tradition. But lacking a very detailed knowledge of Jerusalem culture c.1300, we cannot judge the strength of this argument. <Aldrevandin>, however, is another matter altogether: although our evidence is a little indirect, it points fairly clearly at Venice. The Italian surname <Aldobrandi> is of patronymic origin from the given name <Aldobrando>, which may conflate as many as three Germanic given names: <Aldeprand>, <Hildebrand>, and perhaps also <Adalbrand>. Since the variants of this surname include <Aldrovandi> and <Drovandi>, we may safely assume that <Aldrevandin> is similarly a variant of the diminutive form <Aldobrandini>, the surname of the famous 16th c. Florentine family. Since the modern surname <Aldrovandi> is especially common in Emilia, the region just south of Venezia Euganea, a medieval Venetian <Aldrevandin> seems quite likely. [5, 6] Further evidence for the possible comes from Venetian Crete, where we find <Betto Alevrandinus> 1375 and other similar variants of the same byname. [7] Despite its undoubted German origin, the name must be considered Italian. The suffix <-in> is definitely Romance, and the combination of metathesized /r/ and substitution of /v/ for /b/ is unusual enough to suggest a single location of origin, presumably in northern Italy. It seems very likely that the man in question was Italian; whether he actually worked at Venice rather than at, say, Konstanz of course cannot be determined from the onomastic evidence. Josh Mittleman supplied some of the evidence on which these conclusions are based. We hope that this letter has been helpful; if anything is unclear, please do not hesitate to write again. For the Academy, Brian M. Scott ===== References: [1] Socin, Adolf. Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch. Nach oberrheinischen Quellen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1903; Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966); pp. 66, 77. [2] Salvatori, Enrica. '4300 Citizens of Pisa Swear to Maintain the Alliance with Siena, Pistoia and Poggibonsi' (WWW: Richard Hacken, 1997). http://library.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/italia/pisani.html [3] Ferrante laVolpe. 'Men's names from Florence, 1427' (WWW: Self-published, 1996). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/ferrante/catasto [4] Barber, Richard. The Knight and Chivalry (New York: Harper & Row, 1982); p. 223. [5] De Felice, Emidio. Dizionario dei Cognomi Italiani (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1978); s.n. Aldobrandi. [6] Brechenmacher, Josef Karlmann. Etymologisches Woerterbuch der Deutschen Familiennamen (Limburg a. d. Lahn: C. A. Starke-Verlag, 1957-60); s.n. Albrand(t). [7] McKee, Sally. Wills from Late Medieval Venetian Crete 1312-1420. 3 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1998, ISBN 0884022455).