Luigi Contarini
Luigi Filippo Contarini, nobleman of the Dukes of Castrofilippo, Marchese (Agrigento, 20 January 1841 - Agrigento, 8 December 1908), was an Italian businessman and politician. Of a family with ancient Venetian ancestry, related to the dynasty of the Venetian doges of the same name and ennobled at the end of the 18th century, a great and wealthy landowner, he was a municipal councillor and mayor of Agrigento, a board member of the Banco di Sicilia, a provincial councillor and a member of the provincial deputation. A deputy for four legislatures, he was appointed senator for life in 1905.
The Oltramarini or Schiavoni regiments (Italian: Reggimenti Oltramarini/Schiavoni) comprised the overseas infantry of the Republic of Venice. They were a Dalmatian infantry corps organized within the Venetian navy as the elite infantry. They especially stood out in the wars against the Ottoman Empire throughout the Venetian overseas possessions, but also for their service in Terraferma, the Venetian possessions in the hinterland of Venice in northern Italy. In addition, they performed the duties of the bodyguard, first of the provveditore, and later as the personal guard of the Doge himself. The Oltramarini were primarily filled from local people from the Venetian possessions on the eastern Adriatic coast, i.e. the Slavic (as well as Latin) catholic population from Dalmatia, the so-called Schiavoni, and later, to a lesser extent, members of other nations who came to these units were also recruited, i.e. Christian refugees and exiles from Venetian Albania and Greek countries under Venetian administration (Ionian duchy, Negroponte, Morea, Aegean duchy, Candia and Cyprus). The command was in Zara/Zadar, while in Venice on the Riva degli Schiavoni there was a recruitment center for the new generations, after which the waterfront itself got its name. In Venice, together with Dalmatian merchants and sailors, in 1451 they founded the Dalmatian Brotherhood or the Brotherhood of St. George and Tripuna (Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni), which was the
primary gathering place of the Dalmatian/Croatian population in Venice, and which is still active today. In 1675, officers of the Oltramarini and Cappelletti (Croatian cavalry regiments) in Zadar founded the brotherhood of St. Jeronimo in Zadar. They were led by local commanders. Officers were partly trained at military colleges throughout the Venetian Terraferma, and since 1740, officers have been trained at the Military College (Militar Collegio) in Zadar. The command language in the oltramarines was Dalmatian (lingua illirica). The soldiers called each other "brate" (brother in dalmatian/Croatian). The oltramarines were formed in eleven regiments/reggimenti which took the name of their colonel/kolunel (colonnello) who, by order of the provveditore, would collect volunteers for service, and was of their origin, e.g. Reggimento Bubich or Reggimento Medin. The regiment consisted of a large number of companies/kumpanije (compagnia), seven to nine, but never less than five. Each compagnia numbered an average of fifty to seventy soldiers and officers. Quite often, companies were organized ad hoc as separate units, and not as part of a larger regiment of several companies. During the war, selected banderies of the territorial units of the Cernide or Paesani units would be added to the companies, on the example of the Medin regiment, during Napoleon's invasion of Terraferma, number of soldiers per company increased from about 50 to as many as 120 soldiers, half of whom were Cernide. In peace, the corps numbered about 6,000 soldiers, and two cavalry regiments, about 600 horsemen (cappelletti) , during the war, the number rose to 9,000 to 10,000 soldiers. In addition to regiments, larger units were also organized, specifically two regiments under the command of a more experienced colonel/colonel were called brigades/brigata, they were used during the Morean War. During the Candian War, the oltramarini corps numbered as many as 17,000 soldiers.
The Contarini is one of the founding families of Venice and one of the oldest families of the Italian Nobility. In total eight Doges to the Republic of Venice emerged from this family, as well as 44 Procurators of San Marco, numerous ambassadors, diplomats and other notables. Among the ruling families of the republic, they held the most seats in the Great Council of Venice from the period before the Serrata del Maggior Consiglio when Councillors were elected annually to the end of the republic in 1797. The Contarini claimed to be of Roman origin through their patrilineal descendance of the Aurelii Cottae, a branch of the Roman family Aurelia, and traditionally trace their lineage back to Gaius Aurelius Cotta, consul of the Roman Republic in 252 BC and 248 BC. The House of Contarini is one of the twelve founding families of the Venetian Republic, the apostolic families, and were and remain through extended family consanguinity present in the Veneto's population, represented in over twenty auxiliary and cadet noble branches that include ranks currently among European sovereign, royal and aristocratic descendants. 853 AD marks the first officially verified documentation of the Contarini in the Republic of Venice, with Andrea Contarini named in the testament of Orso Partecipazio, son of Giovanni I Participazio. According to manuscripts in the Biblioteca Marciana and the family archives the Contarini claim direct descent of the Roman gens
Aurelii Cottae through Publius Aurelius Cotta, son of Marcus Aurelius Cotta (consul in 74 BC and maternal uncle of Julius Caesar), who transferred his family to Padua. His grandson, Lucius Aurelius Cotta was elected prefect of the Reno; the area around the Reno near Bologna. His first and second son and his male grandchildren continued in this position and added the cognomen Reno, becoming Cotta Reno or Cottareno. The last person to register Cottareno was Marcus Aurelius Cottareno in Padua in 290 AD and subsequently the family name was written as Contareno, or Contarini in Venetian (both the Latin and Venetian denomination of the family name have been used interchangeably since). In 338 AD Marcus Aurelius Contareno (or Marco Aurelio Contarini in Venetian), prefect of Concordia under Constantine I, was the first Contarini to permanently move his residence to the Venetian area. In 425 another Marcus Aurelius Contarini took part in the third Consular Triumvirate of Rialto, following the invasions of the Goths under Alaric I, who from 402 pillaged the rich provinces of Istria and Venetia and sacked Rome in 410. From the outset the affairs of the early exiles in the islands of the Venetian lagoon were managed by Roman Consuls elected at Padua, including the Contarini. Following the invasion by the Huns of Attila in 452 and the destruction of the large Roman cities of Padua and Aquileia, the islands became a more permanent refuge for the swelling number of exiles. In 466 the exiles decided upon a form of self-government through the annual election of Tribunes, who ultimately in 539 came under Byzantine rule through the Exarch of Ravenna, forming a loose association of islands with its capital in Eraclea. According to tradition, in 697 under the guidance of the Patriarch of Grado, twelve Tribunes ruling the Byzantine district of Venice elected the first Doge in Eraclea, forming the independent Republic of Venice. One of these Tribunes was Marcus Aurelius Contarini.[3] Twentieth century studies, however, cast doubt on the historicity of the first Doge Paolo Luccio Anafesto and his successor Doge Marcello Tegalliano, suggesting that only following the murder of the Byzantine viceroy Paul Exarch of Ravenna, did the inhabitants of the islands chose their first Doge, Orso Ipato from Eraclea. Whoever was historically the first, the Contarini family has since the earliest Venetian chronicles been associated with the birth of the Republic and election of the first Doge. They formed part of the 'duodecim nobiliorum proles Venetiarum' (or the 'twelve noblest families of Venice') and the 12 apostolic families, the oldest of the 247 patrician families in the Great Council following the Serrata of 1297. As the first inhabitants in the lagoon came from what were provinces of Rome in the 5th century, the Rialto initially being governed by a Consular Triumvirate elected at Padua and subsequently by Tribunes who were elected from among the most prominent members in their former Roman communes, it is not uncommon among the oldest Venetian patrician families to find Roman ancestry (e.g. Quirini descended from gens Sulpicii Quirini, Marcello descended from gens Claudii Marcelli), families who often kept their praenomina traditions and preserved their genealogy. The older branch Aurelli Cottae of the gens Aurelia came to prominence with the election of Gaius Aurelius Cotta as consul in 252 BC and again in 248 BC during the First Punic War and by the time Publius Aurelius Cotta moved to Padua four of his patrilineal ancestors, including his father, had achieved consulship in the Roman Republic. In the Republic of Venice in 1043 Domenico I was elected and became the first Doge in the family Contarini. By 1797, when the last Doge was forced to abdicate, the family had produced eight Doges of their own - the greatest number of Doges in one family. The Contarini count as well 44 Procurators of San Marco, the second most prestigious life appointment after that of the Doge, plus various important ambassadors, diplomats, cardinals and navy commanders among them (in the famous Battle of Lepanto no less than 6 ships were commanded by Contarini).
Awards: Collar and sash of the Order of Saint Mark (Ordine di San Marco), stars of the Order of the Crown of Italy (Ordine della Corona d'Italia) and the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro).
