Cavalcanti (Dictionary) - long
Francisco Antonio Doria
This family originated in Brazil with Filippo Cavalcanti, from Florence, who settled in Pernambuco (Northeastern Brazil) around 1560 and married there Catarina de Albuquerque, daughter of Jerônimo de Albuquerque and of his Native wife Maria do Arcoverde, a.k.a. Muyrá-Ybi, said to be the daughter of a *cacique* (chieftain). Those descended from them bear the name Cavalcanti de Albuquerque. (The Albuquerques have royal ancestry through female lines, despite the fact that they are agnatically minor nobles originally called Gomide; see my post on them.)
Several great families are descended (through female lines) from this marriage: I can mention the Pires de Carvalho e Albuquerque family from Bahia (Brazil), the wealthiest and most powerful family in that region in the late 18th century and 19th century - they were very active in the independence movement; or the line that starts withe the marquess of Cavalcanti (Spanish title), a line that mingles up with the European nobility.
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The point is: who was Filippo Cavalcanti? In his 1591 deposition to the inquisitor Furtado de Mendonça he declares himself the son of `João' [Giovanni] Cavalcanti and `Genebra' [Ginevra] Mannelli, `da governança da terra,' literally, from Florence's government, which might either refer to the fact that several Cavalcantis were top-ranking officers in the Florentine dukedom, or to their very distant relation to the reigning Medici grand-dukes (see below). Filippo Cavalcanti then adds information that allows us to conclude that he was born in 1528 - or near that date, due to the vagueness people calculated their own ages.
I have two Florentine documents on Filippo Cavalcanti, which were kindly sent to me by the Archivio di Stato at Firenze in 1995. I'll transcribe (and translate) the relevant portions of first one:
Ho distesa la l'ra [lettera] testimoniale della nobilità di Filippo Cavalcanti, il quale desidera à pie di essa mettere l'arme di casa sua, et della madre, per potere con questo merito, por quanto io creda, ottenere una croce dal Rè di Portogallo...
I present the certificate of the nobility of Filippo Cavalcanti, who wants placed at its bottom the arms of both his family and his mother's, to be able to obtain a cross [a decoration] from the King of Portugal, as far as I know...
(This is a short note sent by Secretary Francesco Vinta to Duke Cosimo de' Medici; date is August 25, 1558.)
Then comes the main document, a formal nobility certificate in Latin:
...Fhamilia Caualcantum in hac nra Florentina Ciuitate' pariter et Familia Mannelo[rum] singulari nobilitate ac splendore refulgent [...] Quos inter Johannem Caualcantem Philippi Caualcantis patrem precipue enumeramus, qui in hae Ciuitate' legens Genepram Mannellam iam pridem clarissimam duxit uxorem, et predictum Philippum ex ea legitimo matrimonio suscepit filium...
Sparing you some of the pomposities of the text,
... Both the Cavalcanti and Mannelli families are of equal standing and nobility at Florence ... and among them we note the well-known Giovanni Cavalcanti, who married in this city [of Florence] Ginevra Mannelli, also an outstanding lady, and had son Filippo out of legitimate marriage...
We know some of the immediate ancestry of Filippo Cavalcanti (Arch. Stato, Fondo Mannelli Galilei Ricardi, 481, Registro d'uomini e donne Cavalcanti - Registry of some Cavalcanti men and ladies. Year - ? - 1521).
Ginevra di Francesco di Lionardo Mannelli, donna di Giovanni di Lorenzo di Filippo Cavalcanti.
Ginevra, daughter of Francesco Mannelli, and gdaughter of Lionardo Mannelli, wife of Giovanni Cavalcanti, son of Lorenzo Cavalcanti and gson of Filippo Cavalcanti.
Up to this point, everything is clear and documented. We can add three more references that allow us to precisely pinpoint this Filippo Cavalcanti:
- Filippo Sassetti, _Lettere..._, ed. Ettore Marcucci, Firenze, 1855, pp. 122-123. (I translate and summarize)
Filippo Cavalcanti finds himself in Portugal. He is the brother of Guido and of Schiatta, and is a man of great authority and great wealth; deals with sugar...
[Letter to Baccio Valori, Lisbon, Oct. 10, 1578]. - Assuredly this wasn't the Baccio Valori beheaded at Cosimo de' Medici's order at the Bargello in 1537.
- Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, British Museum, _21_, PI, number 475:
November 19, 1546, 38 Henry VIII, Filippo, Guido and Schiatta Cavalcanti from Florence are granted the right to deal with jewels, weapons, ..., at London.
- Bodleian Library, Oxford (I don't have the complete reference), letter of augmentation of the Cavalcanti coat of arms granted to Giovanni Cavalcanti by King Henry VIII, Feb. 5, 1521.
Adds a chevron azure charged with two fleurs de lys or and a lion rampant of the same in between to the Cavalcanti arms - argent, semé de croisettes de gueules.
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So, we have a branch of the Cavalcanti family that settles in London in 1521 - more likely before it. Giovanni Cavalcanti should be well connected, sort of, in court in order to be granted that augmentation to his coat of arms. His three children pursue family business in London, and Filippo goes to Portugal and then to Brazil in order to expand family fortunes, which he successfully does.
(To be continued.)
Matthew Harley
Francisco Antonio Doria wrote:
<.......>
> The point is: who was Filippo Cavalcanti? In his 1591 deposition to the inquisitor Furtado de Mendonça he declares himself the son of `João' [Giovanni] Cavalcanti and `Genebra' [Ginevra] Mannelli, `da governança da terra,' literally, from Florence's government, which might either refer to the fact that several Cavalcantis were top-ranking officers in the Florentine dukedom, or to their very distant relation to the reigning Medici grand-dukes (see below).
There is a reference to a Giovanni Cavalcanti in Fachard, Denis,
Consulte e pratiche della Repubblica Fiorentina, 1498-1505 ; prefazione
di Gennaro Sasso, 2 vols. Imprint, Genève : Droz, 1993. The index says
he was a "membro della pratica". He is quoted as speaking in Council
debates on a number of occasions between 1498 and 1501. A Ludovico
Cavalcanti is mentioned once in October 1499. There are quite a few
Mannellis mentioned. [This was during the period of the Republic when
the Medici were out].
A Giovanni Cavalcanti is also mentioned on page 97 of Masters, Roger,
D., Fortune is a River - Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli’s
Magnificant Dream to Change the Course of Florentine History, The Free
Press, 1998. But the reference is to 1440 - so he may be an ancestor of
the later Giovanni.
A Jacopo Cavalcanti is mentioned in Butters, H. C., Governors and
Government in Early Sixteenth-Century Florence 1502-1519, Clarendon,
Oxford, 1985, pages 305/6. He was arrested in 1519 for putting on an
anti-Medici [they were back in power since 1512] demonstration at a
dinner party for friends.
It might be that some of the anti-Medici Cavalcanti fled Florence.
Matt Harley
Matthew Harley
Francisco Antonio Doria wrote:
<......>
> The point is: who was Filippo Cavalcanti? In his 1591 deposition to the inquisitor Furtado de Mendonça he declares himself the son of `João' [Giovanni] Cavalcanti and `Genebra' [Ginevra] Mannelli, `da governança da terra,' literally, from Florence's government, which might either refer to the fact that several Cavalcantis were top-ranking officers in the Florentine dukedom, or to their very distant relation to the reigning Medici grand-dukes (see below).
There is a reference to a Giovanni Cavalcanti in Fachard, Denis,
Consulte e pratiche della Repubblica Fiorentina, 1498-1505 ; prefazione
di Gennaro Sasso, 2 vols. Imprint, Genève : Droz, 1993. The index says
he was a "membro della pratica". He is quoted as speaking in Council
debates on a number of occasions between 1498 and 1501. A Ludovico
Cavalcanti is mentioned once in October 1499. There are quite a few
Mannellis mentioned. [This was during the period of the Republic when
the Medici were out].
A Giovanni Cavalcanti is also mention on page 97 of Masters, Roger, D.,
Fortune is a River - Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli’s
Magnificant Dream to Change the Course of Florentine History, The Free
Press,1998. But the reference is to 1440 - so he may be an ancestor of
the later Giovanni.
A Jacopo Cavalcanti is mentioned in Butters, H. C., Governors and
Government in Early Sixteenth-Century Florence 1502-1519, Clarendon,
Oxford, 1985, pages 305/6. He was arrested in 1519 for putting on an
anti-Medici [they were back in power since 1512] demonstration at a
dinner party for friends.
It might be that some of the anti-Medici Cavalcanti (incl. Giovanni)
fled Florence.
Matt Harley
Matthew Harley
Francisco Antonio Doria wrote:
> The point is: who was Filippo Cavalcanti?
There are 29 Cavalcantis in the 1427 Catasta:
http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/catasto/overview.html
There is a Iacopo, son of Filippo who was in the wool business and looks
rich. As such he would be a candidate to be "head" of the Cavalcanti
family at the time (1427) and possibly an ancestor of your Giovanni and
Filippo.
Matt Harley
Francisco Antonio Doria
Oh, thanks a lot. that's really useful. I'll check it.
All the best, chico
Francisco Antonio Doria
>http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/catasto/overview.html
Thanks a lot for it, Matthew. I've already downloaded everything on the
Cavalcanti and Acciaioli.
Best, chico
Matthew Harley
Francisco Antonio Doria wrote:
<snip>
> The point is: who was Filippo Cavalcanti? In his 1591 deposition to the inquisitor Furtado de Mendonça he declares himself the son of `João' [Giovanni] Cavalcanti....
See Perrens F.T. "Histoire de Florence depuis la domination des Médicis
jusqu'à la chute de la République (1434-1531), Paris, Quantin,
1888-1890.
In Vol II page 76 Giovanni Cavalcanti was one of those selected to form
with Savanarola, an embassy to the French king Charles VIII then at Pisa
in November 1494. Giovanni Cavalcanti is described as a man of letters,
a student of Ficino and a member of the Platonic Academy.
In 1527 Mainardo Cavalcanti was involved in an anti-Medici demonstration
and Perrens says he was accompanied "by his son, a charming young man
with his tongue stuck well out". Mainardo is described as a former
Medici supporter who turned.
A Bartolommeo Cavalcanti is mentioned as a deputy ambassador to the
French King in 1529. He was sent to Clement VII in Rome in August 1530.
I find no evidence of family links between Giovanni, Mainardo and
Barholommeo
Matt Harley
Francisco Antonio Doria
>See Perrens F.T. "Histoire de Florence depuis la domination des MÈdicis
>jusqu'ý la chute de la RÈpublique (1434-1531), Paris, Quantin,
>1888-1890.
>
>In Vol II page 76 Giovanni Cavalcanti was one of those selected to form
>with Savanarola, an embassy to the French king Charles VIII then at Pisa
>in November 1494. Giovanni Cavalcanti is described as a man of letters,
>a student of Ficino and a member of the Platonic Academy.
First, let me thank you very much for your constant, insistent, if I may say so, help. Then - this isn't Filippo's father, as Filippo was born in 1528, his parents were married (according to the document found by Gino Corti) in 1521. The one you refer to was the humanist, born in the mid 1400s, rather early, I must say, as a former student of Ficino's.
Filippo's sure line is: Filippo di Giovanni di Lorenzo di Filippo. My conjecture is that this last Filippo was the homonymous son of Antonio di [Giam]battista, erroneously given as the Cavalcanti ancestor for the Portuguese/Brazilian line in almost all Portuguese genealogies.
I'll post a query to another group, or perhaps send a letter to the Archivio di Stato di Firenze to get the microfilms on this genealogy of the Cavalcantis.
Thanks again. All the best, Chico