Part 24 (1/2)
FOOTNOTES:
[47] This name may be, not improbably, one of those that were brought over after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
[48] We also find the other form, Hlud, in Hludes beorh, Hlud's barrow, or grave.
[49] Some further remarks on this Frankish prefix will be found in the succeeding chapter on Italian names.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE GERMAN ORIGIN OF GREAT ITALIANS AS EVIDENCED IN THEIR NAMES.
The successive waves of German invasion that swept over Italy, leaving their record in the name of one of its fairest provinces, while they added a few German words to the language, left a much larger number of German patronymics in the names of its families. The Christian names borne by well-known Italians, such as _Alberto, Arnolfo, Bernardo, Carlo, Enrico, Federigo_ (Frederic), _Francesco, Leonardo, Luigi, Ludovico, Mainardo, Odoardo_ (Edward), _Ridolphi, Sinibaldo, Ugo_ (Hugo or Hugh), _Onofrio_ (Humphrey), all of German origin, sufficiently attest this to have been the case. And I think we shall be warranted in a.s.suming, as in the case of France, that if this be the case with Christian names, it cannot be essentially different with regard to surnames.
But inasmuch as I have not had the same opportunity of collating and examining the ma.s.s of Italian surnames that I have had in the case of those of France, I propose to shape the comparison into a rather different form, and, without departing from its etymological purpose, to endeavour to give it something of an ethnical interest as well. This admixture of German blood could not fail to have an influence--and, we can hardly doubt, an invigorating influence--upon the character of the softer and more receptive Italian race. It may not then be without interest--though we need not attach more importance to the result than it deserves--to endeavour to trace the result of that admixture in the names of ill.u.s.trious Italians. For it is somewhat remarkable how many of the men most distinguished in the council and in the field, in science, literature, and in art, bear names which testify to a German origin. And we are even able, in certain cases, to indicate with a fair amount of probability the particular race of Germans from whom these names may be taken to be derived. The rule laid down by Max Muller (_Science of Language_) that words in Italian beginning with _gua_, _gue_, _gui_, may be taken to be pretty certainly of German origin, holds good also of Italian names. Now this form of _gua_, _gue_, _gui_ represents the prefix of _g_ before _w_, which was a special characteristic of the Franks, as it is still of their descendants, the French, in such names as Guillaume (=Gwillaume) for Wilhelm or William. In some cases, though more rarely, this prefix of _g_, in accordance with a High German tendency, becomes a hard _c_ and is represented by _q_, as in _Queringi_ and perhaps _Quirini_. Such names then as _Gualdo_, _Guardi_, _Guido_, _Guicciardini_, _Guarnerius_, may be taken as certainly of German, and I think, more especially of Frankish origin.
To begin with the names of warriors, the list may well be headed by that of the old hero, _Garibaldi_. Garibald (_gar_, spear, and _bald_, bold) was a well-known Old German name, being borne, among others, by a Duke in Bavaria in the sixth century, by six bishops in the three centuries following, and, what is more to the purpose, by two Lombard kings in Italy. We ourselves have the name in its Saxon form (_gor_ for _gar_) as _Gorbold_ and _Corbould_ (O.G. Kerbald), and the French have it as _Gerbault_. ”Blind old _Dandalo_” may also be claimed as German; Dandalo, corresponding with an O.G. Dantulo, being formed as a diminutive from the Old German name Dando. I have elsewhere made the suggestion, which I venture here to reproduce, that _Bonaparte_ may also be a name of German origin, slightly changed to give it a seeming meaning in Italian. The case stands thus. Bonibert and Bonipert are found as Old Frankish names, respectively of the seventh and the ninth centuries. In that part of Italy which was overrun by the Franks, namely at Turin, is to be found the present Italian name _Boniperti_, which we can hardly doubt to be derived from the Old Frankish Bonipert. Now from this part of Italy came originally also the Bonapartes, and the question is simply this, May not the name _Bonaparte_ originate in an attempt to give something of an Italian meaning to this other name _Boniperti_, which would convey no sense to an Italian ear? The French still have the Old Frankish name as _Bompart_ (changing _n_ before a l.a.b.i.al into _m_, as they do in Edimbourg for Edinburgh); there was a vice-admiral of that name who proved his courage by engaging, though unsuccessfully, an English frigate of superior force. And we--or at any rate the Americans--have it in a Saxon form as _Bonbright_ (_Suffolk Surnames_).
And very appropriate, if we were to translate it, would be the meaning--_bona_, a slayer, and _bert_ or _pert_, ill.u.s.trious.
The two distinguished families of the _Adimari_ at Florence and of the _Grimaldi_ at Genoa both give evidence of German descent in their names (O.G. Adimar and Grimwald); as regards the latter indeed it is to be traced historically, though the position of the present representative, as ruler of the princ.i.p.ality of Monaco and recipient of its doubtful gains, is perhaps hardly in accordance with the higher traditions of his family. The name, _Alphonso_, of a Duke of Ferrara in the middle ages, was one given also by the Germans to a still more ill.u.s.trious lineage in Spain. Alphonso is a contraction of the O.G. Adalfuns (_adal_, n.o.ble, _funs_, eager). The Saxon form of _funs_ being _fus_, it seems to me that our name _Adolphus_ may be properly Adel-fus, and not a latinization of Adolph. German also are the names of the two great rival factions of the _Guelphs_ and the _Ghibellines_, Guelph being a Frankish form of Welf or Welp, Eng. whelp, and the Ghibellines deriving from an Old German name Gibilin, traced by Mone to a Burgundian origin. Thus the Guelphs, given originally by Germany to Italy, were afterwards transplanted again to Germany, and thence to England, to rule far above all factions. And again, we find the Bonaparte, whose ancestor was expelled from Italy as a Ghibelline, come forward to pursue on a grander scale his hereditary feud with the Guelphs.
In the names of scholars and men of science the German element is very strongly represented. We find _Accolti_ (O.G. Achiolt for Agiovald[50]), _Alamanni_ (O.G. Alaman), _Algarotti_ (O.G. Algar for Adelgar), _Ansaldi_ (O.G. Ansald for Ansovald), _Audifredi_ (O.G. Audifred), _Bertrandi_ (O.G. Bertrand), _Gualdo_ (O.G. Waldo), _Giraldi_ (O.G.
Girald), _Gosselini_ (O.G. Gosselin), _Guicciardini_ (O.G. Wichard), _Lanzi_ (O.G. Lanzi), _Lamberti_ (O.G. Lambert for Landbert), _Manfredi_ (O.G. Manfred), _Maraldi_ (O.G. Marald), _Odevico_ (O.G. Ottwic for Audewic), _Orlandi_ (O.G. Arland for Hariland), _Raimondi_ (O.G.
Raimund), _Rolandini_ (O.G. Roland for Rodland), _Roberti_ (O.G. Robert for Rodbert), _Sacchi_ (O.G. Sacco), _Quirini_ (O.G. Guerin, Werin). We may add to the list the name of the historian _Sismondi_ (Sigismund), who, though born at Geneva, must, I apprehend, have been of Italian origin. The name in its uncontracted form, _Sigismondi_, is also found in Italy.
Among the names of distinguished explorers and discoverers, we have _Americus_ (O.G. Emrich), who gave his name to America, and _Belzoni_ (O.G. Belzo). German are also the names of the Pope _Aldobrandini_ (O.G.
Aldebrand), and of the philanthropist _Odeschalchi_ (O.G. Odalschalch), whose name, if translated, would be the appropriate one of ”Servant of his country.”
The painters are not quite so strongly represented as the men of letters and science, the two princ.i.p.al names being those of _Lionardo_ (O.G.
Leonhard) and of _Guido_. Guido is one of the Frankish forms to which I have before alluded, and is formed by the prefix of _g_ to the name Wido or Wito,--it was not an uncommon name among the Old Franks, and is found at present among the French as _Videau, Viteau_, and _Guide_. The ill-omened name of the a.s.sa.s.sin _Guiteau_ I take to be from the same origin, and to be of French extraction. So also may be our own name _Widow_, which corresponds with a Wido of about the twelfth or thirteenth century in the _Liber Vitae_. There is another Italian name, _Guidubaldi_, that of a Duke of Urbino, in the middle ages, formed on the same stem with the addition of _bald_, bold, and corresponding with a Frankish Guidobald. The word concerned seems to be most probably Goth.
_vidus_, O.H.G. _witu_, wood, used in a poetical sense for weapon.[51]
Other names of painters are _Baldi_ (O.G. Baldo), _Baldovin_(_etti_) (O.G. Baldwin), _Anselmi_ (O.G. Anshelm), _Ansuini_ (O.G. Answin), _Aldighiero_ (O.G. Aldegar), _Algardi_ (O.G. Alagart), _Alberti_ (O.G.
Albert for Adalbert), _Alloisi_ (O.G. Alois = Alwis), _Ghiberti_ (O.G.
Gibert), _Gherardini_ (O.G. Gerard), _Gennari_ (O.G. Genear), _Ghirlandaio_ (O.G. Gerland), _Tibaldi_ (O.G. Tiebald for Theudobald).
Also _Guardi_, another of the Frankish forms before referred to, representing an O.G. Wardi, and the same name as Eng. _Ward_, for which we find a corresponding A.S. Weard.
Of those eminent in the sister art of music, we have _Castoldi_ (O.G.
Castald for Castwald), and _Frescobaldi_. This last name does not figure in Foerstemann's list, but we can hardly doubt its German origin, _bald_ being a typical German ending, while Fresc, as a Teutonic name, is found in the Fresc(ingas), early Saxon settlers in England, another instance of the common tie which binds all Teutonic names together. We may add to the list, as the name of a living composer, _Guglielmo_ = Wilhelm or William. Among those who were accessory to music as instrument-makers, we have _Stradivarius_ and _Guarnerius_ (O.G. Guarner for Warinhar) corresponding with our own names _Warriner_ and _Warner_, and present French names _Ouarnier_ and _Guernier_. It will not be out of keeping with what we should expect if we find the German element develop itself in the conception rather than in the execution of music, and in the combination of science and patience which led to the success of the old instrument-makers.
But it is in the names of immortal singers that we find the German element most conspicuously represented. Dante himself bears a name which, though not in itself German, may yet have been given to Italy by the Germans, while as to his second t.i.tle, _Alighieri_, there seems hardly any doubt of its German origin.[52] Dante is a contraction of _Durante_, which seems to be derived most naturally from Latin _durans_, and it might seem something of a paradox to suppose a Latin race to be indebted to the Germans for a Latin name. And yet I think that there are some grounds for supposing it to be a name adopted by the early Frankish converts to Christianity, and by them transmitted to the Italians. For we find Durant, Durand, and Durann as not uncommon German names, apparently Frankish, in the eighth and the ninth centuries. And we find the word moreover made up into a German compound as Durandomar (_mar_, famous). The French have moreover at present, derived we may presume from their Frankish ancestors, another name, _Durandard_, similarly formed (_hard_, fortis). Now this is precisely the same principle as that on which the early Frankish converts, as we find from the _Pol. Irm._ and the _Pol. Rem._, used to form many of their names, taking a word of Christian import from the Latin or otherwise, and mixing it up with the Old German compounds to which they had been accustomed. Thus, for an example, we find that a woman called Electa, which we can hardly doubt means ”elect,” gives to her son the name of Electard, a similar compound to Durandard. There seems then, on the whole, a fair amount of probability for this suggestion, which would moreover sufficiently account for the manner in which the name is common to France, Italy, Germany, and England. The French have it as _Durand_, _Durant_, and _Durandeau_ (besides _Durandard_ already noted); the Italians as _Durante_, _Duranto_, and _Durandi_; the Germans as _Durand_ and _Dorand_; and we ourselves as _Durand_ and _Durant_. Our names came to us no doubt through the Normans,--there is a Durand in the _Roll of Battle Abbey_, and it is not till after this period that we find it as an English name.