ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2465 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2465 ************************************ From: Lisa and Ken Theriot 4 Mar 2002 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether the name would be appropriate for a woman living in the Piedmont region of Savoy between 1500 and 1600. More specifically, you were looking for a name appropriate for a woman whose mother was brought to Italy from the Gulf of Guinea and sold as a servant to a family of French extraction. Here is the information we have found. In your period, Savoy was home to a number of different languages. For the first half of the 16th century, Savoy was occupied by the King of France, so French would likely have been the foremost language. In 1559, the Dukes of Savoy regained control of the duchy and moved the capital to Turin; this probably marked an increase in the importance of the Italian language, though French was still widely used [1]. The dialect known as "Savoyard" is classified as a Franco-Provenc,al language, which means it is not exactly like either French or Provenc,al, the two main languages spoken in northern and southern France, respectively [2]. Between the several "main" languages and the number of less important dialects, the linguistic history of Savoy is very complex; names probably came from many linguistic roots and were probably recorded in several forms depending on the language being used. Since we have little data on names specific to Savoy, most of the following commentary will deal with names in the two most prominent languages, French and Italian. is a modern form of the name which we find recorded as in 14th century Venice and in various forms in 15th century Florence [3, 4]. We found a record in Genoa of a slave named in 1392 [5]. In France, we find recorded in 1292 and 1423, so we are confident that the name was in use [6, 7]. We are unsure, however, whether a 16th century woman would have used the medieval form or something closer to the modern form [8]. Some form of the name is certainly plausible for a woman in 16th century Savoy. She might even use several different forms depending on the language she was speaking or writing. You mentioned that though your mother was a slave, after her death you were raised as a member of the family. Ordinarily, the Academy doesn't comment on persona stories, but in your case, it affects the sort of byname we recommend for you. We found the following information [9]: The Italian Renaissance was also the period that Europeans rediscovered slavery. The market in human slave labor in southern Europe began as early as the 12th century?.The slavery that they practiced was not yet racial slavery: most slaves sold in Italy were Muslims from Spain, North Africa, Crete, the Balkans, and the Ottoman Empire. There was a trickle of black slaves into Spain, Portugal, and Italy, but they were only a very small minority. Almost all the slaves in Italy were domestic servants and most wealthy in most cities had at least one. When a slave was acquired, the owner acquired full rights, including the right to sell and "enjoy," that slave. For the most part, the slaves were incorporated into the household and their children were always born free. In many cases when a slaveowner produced a child with a slave, the slaveowner would raise the child as a legitimate child. Most slaves in Italy were known by their first name alone. Your mother might have been known that way, or by a descriptive byname which identified her race or ethnic origin. We find a woman named who was freed in Genoa in 1186. Some slaves are known by their nationality; we find record of 'Greek' who went before a notary in Genoa in 1381. A slave's country of origin was routinely listed on any bill of sale; a list of terms used to identify slave ethnicity includes Moor, Saracen, Hungarian, Bosnian, Serb, Abkhazian, Circassian, Mingrel, Canary Islander, and Guinean [3]. Unfortunately, we have no period examples of these documents, so we can't say how "Guinean" might have been recorded. We found nothing like in our Italian name sources [10]. By the middle of the 15th century, more African slaves came to the Italian slave markets from sub-Saharan areas; these slaves were usually called Ethiopians [3]. We have no period examples of this byname, but we find several modern surname forms, including , , and [11]. A woman known as 'Maria the Ethiopian' would likely be recorded as , using the feminine form of the Italian adjective . Freed slaves apparently did sometimes take the name of the family who had owned them; in 1381 a freed slave identified himself as "Niccolo Vayrolo da Camogli, once the slave of Antonio Vayrolo da Camogli" [3]. If that approach interests you, you could choose any surname appropriate to your period. We have no definite slave name data for France. We find the following people recorded as foreigners in northern France, though we do not know if they were slaves [12]: Johannes Le Negre, nationis Guenyie, 1539 Johannes Nygier, 1544 Petrus Le Negre, ortus ex partibuz extraneis, 1545 Johannes Niger, 1552 Petrus Neger, ex partibus extraneus, 1553 Maria Negra, ex partibus extraneis, 1553 Jehan Morian de la Guynee, 1560 The various forms of and mean 'black' or 'the black'. means 'dark like a Moor' [8]. By your period, most surnames in Italy and France were inherited just as they are today; however, if your mother had no byname, there would have been no name to inherit. Even if she had been known by a name that identified her as "from Guinea", that might not have been applied to you, since you were not from Guinea. You might have inherited a name like the French or Italian that identified your race, or you might have used the family name. If you had been adopted and were being raised by the family, we believe that you would have the family name. You specified that the family raising you was of French descent; in that case, they would likely have a French name. If you are particularly interested in a name appropriate for the Piedmont region, you might be interested in this website: Blasonario Piemontese http://www.geocities.com/blasonariopiemontese/ This is a list of family names and arms from Piemonte. Many of the coats are post-1600, and many of the names may be as well, but it is the best list we have that is specific to the region. You will note that names are of both Italian and French origin; for example, the list includes a family named as well as a different family named . If you find any names here that appeal to you, and you would like more information on them, please write again. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Arval Benicoeur, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Avraham haRofeh, Blaise de Cormeilles, Juliana la Caminante de Navarra, Maridonna Benvenuti, Talan Gwynek, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Ursula Georges, Will Dekne, and Zenobia Naphtali. For the Academy, Adelaide de Beaumont 4 March 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References: [1] "Savoy, house of ", The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. http://www.bartleby.com/65/sa/Savoy-ho.html The article states, "The expansion of Switzerland and the Italian Wars resulted in the temporary disintegration of the duchy. The Swiss took the lower Valais (1475) and Vaud (1536); Geneva became independent (1533); and the rest of the duchy was occupied (1536) by Francis I of France. In 1559, however, Duke Emmanuel Philibert, called Ironhead, obtained the restoration of his duchy-except the larger part of the Swiss conquests-under the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. Emmanuel Philibert made Turin his capital, thus shifting the center of his duchy from France to Italy. The language and tone of the court, however, remained French until the late 18th cent." [2] Walker, Henriette, _French Inside Out_, trans. By Peter Fawcett (New York: Routledge, 1994), pp. 103-5. [3] Arval Benicoeur and Talan Gwynek, "Fourteenth Century Venetian Personal Names" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1999). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/venice14/ [4] Arval Benicoeur, "Feminine Given Names from the Online Catasto of Florence of 1427" (WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/arval/catasto The Florentine data includes several variants: , , and . [5] Epstein, Stephen A., _Speaking of Slavery: Color, Ethnicity, and Human Bondage in Italy_, Cornell University, 2001, pp. 27, 89, 92, 112, 128, 132, 170, 172, 185, 188. Other slaves are recorded as follows: Martino de Maurocastro, 1314 (Maurocastro is a city on the Black Sea) Nicolo Greco de Salonika, 1314 (Indicating both nationality and place of origin) Matteo Brunetto, a Saracen, 1329 Margherita de Rosia, 1409 Fymia de Rosa, 1314 [6] Colm Dubh, "An Index to the Given Names in the 1292 Census of Paris", Proceedings of the Known World Heraldic Symposium 1996 (SCA: Montgomery, Alabama; WWW: SCA, Inc., 1997). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/paris.html [7] Favier, Jean. Les Contribuables parisiens a la fin de la guerre de Cent Ans, les roles d'impot de 1421, 1423 et 1438. (Geneve, Paris, Droz, 1970.) [8] Dauzat, Albert, _Dictionnaire Etymologique des Noms de Famille et Prenoms de France_ (Paris: Libraire Larousse, 1987), s.nn. Christine, Negre, More. [9] Hooker, Richard, "Early Italian Renaissance", Washington State University, 1996. http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/REN/BACK.HTM [10] De Felice, Emidio, _Dizionario dei cognomi italiani_ (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1978), s.n. Ghini. is the nearest-sounding surname we found, but it derives from a given name and is unrelated to the Guinea coast. [11] Caracausi, Girolamo, _Dizionario Onomastico della Sicilia_, 1994, Palermo. Vol. II, s.nn. De Mauro, Etiopi, Etiopia, and Saraceno. We found the following period examples of bynames that might be based on ethnicity: Saracenum (Latin record), 1554 'Saracen' Saracenus, 1293 de Mauro, 1283 'Moor' [12] Buron, Gildas, "Le peuplement et la population du pays gue/randais a\ la fin du Moyen A^ge et au de/but des temps modernes: l'apport de l'onomastique" by Gildas Buron, in "Onomastique et Histoire, Onomastique Litte/raire" ed. Pierre-Henri Billy & Jacques Chaurand, Publications de l'Universite/ de Provence, 1998.