Popular History: the Baroness of Carini
Popular History: the Baroness of Carini
Property included in the Register of Intangible Heritage of Sicily (REIS)
The popular story of the Baroness of Carini originates from a chronicle of the sixteenth century, then historically existing facts and characters merge over time with folk tales and songs that have been handed down orally for centuries and have come down to us. The mystery of the murder of the young woman Laura or Caterina, Baroness of Carini, has always intrigued historians and scholars of popular culture and traditions (among these we remember Giuseppe Pitre, Salomone Marino, Luigi Natoli) so much so that, in 2010, the mayor of Carini has commissioned a team of criminologists of the International Crime Analysis Association to reopen the case but, once the investigation is over, the aura of mystery continues to cloud the story.
The bitter case of the Baroness of Carini "is a 1975 drama in 4 episodes written by Daniele D'Anza (1922-1984) and Lucio Mandarà (1923-2009) and directed by Daniele D'Anza
According to the first version of the legend (as well as the one that appears in the first editions of The Baroness of Carini, del Salomone Marino, 1870-73), the young woman, aged only 14, Caterina, daughter of Baron Vincenzo La Grua Talamanca di Carini, was killed by her father because she met secretly and against the will of the family with her cousin Ludovico Vernagallo . The baron, warned by a monk of his daughter's attendance, runs to the castle of Carini (where his daughter lived) to "defend honor". In the room of the castle the crime is committed: the baron strikes her twice, with the first he wounds the woman who falls to the ground, with the second he pierces her heart. It seems that the imprint of the bloody hand of the woman who tried to escape before receiving the fatal blow remained on the wall of the room where the murder was carried out.
Footprint-Baroness-Carini
In subsequent versions found by Salomone Marino and other scholars, Laura Lanza La Grua, daughter of Cesare Lanza Barone of Castania and Trabia and wife of the aforementioned Baron of Carini, was killed. The woman who was married at the age of 14 to a husband she did not love, attended Ludovico Vernagallo at a mature age. The lovers are surprised and Baron Cesare Lanza killed his daughter to defend the honor. It is unclear whether both lovers met death together.
It is also said that the ghost of Donna Laura who seeks revenge wanders around the castle of Carini. (extracted from the technical sheet prepared by the Sicily Region)
The place associated with the legend, the Castle of Carini is included in the register of places of myth and legends (Places of amorous legends) of the Sicily Region
Places listed in the LIM register of the Sicily Region (Places of Identity and Memory) :
- Carini Castle
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Technical sheet prepared by: Region of Sicily - Department of cultural heritage and Sicilian identity - CRicd: Regional center for inventory, cataloging and documentation and Sicilian regional film library
Intangible Heritage Register
N. Prog. 57
Well: Popular History: the Baroness of Carini
Book: REI - Book of expressions
Approval date: 05-12-2006
Category: Legend
Province: Palermo
Municipality: Carini
Chronological News
December 4, 1563: the Baroness of Carini dies.
This is the historical date linked to the fact that it revolves around the legend, reported in the "Palermitan Booklets" of the Marquis Maria Emanuele Villabianca (Palermo 1720 - therein 1802), taken in turn from the historical diaries of Filippo Paruta and from other documents consulted. The parish archive of Carini reports, as quoted by Vann'Anntò: «A of 4 December vij Indictionis 1563. The esteemed Donna Laura La Grua died. Sepeliosis a la matri ecclesia… ».
In the XNUMXth century, the legend of the terrible killing of the Baroness of Carini by her father, because she flirted with Ludovico Vernagallo, is heard in the form of singing, accompanied by the violin or guitar, by the Marquis of Villabianca himself.
1870 - 1873: the first editions written by S. Salomone Marino date back to these dates, trying to trap forever on paper the song that was handed down from mouth to mouth throughout Sicily through storytellers.
The 1914 edition follows, revised, with changes to the text, in the subsequent attempt by Salomone Marino to bring the sung legend closer to the historical fact documented by the archives and historians.
The moving story is still known today, told, sung, set to music by the Sicilian people and even beyond the Strait.
Description
The popular story of the Baroness of Carini originates from a chronicle of the sixteenth century, then historically existing facts and characters merge over time with folk tales and songs that have been handed down orally for centuries and have come down to us. The mystery of the murder of the young woman Laura or Caterina, Baroness of Carini, has always intrigued historians and scholars of popular culture and traditions (among these we remember Giuseppe Pitre, Salomone Marino, Luigi Natoli) so much so that, in 2010, the mayor of Carini has commissioned a team of criminologists of the International Crime Analysis Association to reopen the case but, once the investigation is over, the aura of mystery continues to cloud the story.
According to the first version of the legend (as well as the one that appears in the first editions of The Baroness of Carini, del Salomone Marino, 1870-73), the young woman, only 14 years old, Caterina, daughter of Baron Vincenzo La Grua Talamanca di Carini, is killed by her father because she met secretly and against the will of the family with her cousin Ludovico Vernagallo . The baron, warned by a monk of his daughter's attendance, runs to the castle of Carini (where his daughter lived) to "defend honor". In the room of the castle the crime is committed: the baron strikes her twice, with the first he wounds the woman who falls to the ground, with the second he pierces her heart. It seems that the imprint of the bloody hand of the woman who tried to escape before receiving the fatal blow remained on the wall of the room where the murder was carried out. In subsequent versions found by Salomone Marino and other scholars, Laura Lanza La Grua, daughter of Cesare Lanza Barone of Castania and Trabia and wife of the aforementioned Baron of Carini, was killed. The woman who was married at the age of 14 to a husband she did not love, attended Ludovico Vernagallo at a mature age. The lovers are surprised and Baron Cesare Lanza killed his daughter to defend the honor. It is unclear whether both lovers met death together. In popular songs handed down by storytellers, only the patricide and the consequent despair of the lover after learning the sad news is highlighted. The legend still persists today, the burial place of the Baroness is unknown, but it is said to be in an underground crypt of the Church of Carini, or perhaps she is the beautiful woman sculpted on the sarcophagus of the church of San Mamiliano, in Palermo. It is also said that the ghost of Donna Laura who seeks revenge wanders around the castle of Carini. How many obscure points of the legend are and how many coincide with historical facts, it doesn't matter. It is however "the most varied, the most perfect, the most sublime of legends", as the Marine Solomon defines it. Sicily guarded this story over the centuries and made it its popular song, in Sicilian octaves with alternating rhyme (ABAB), which still makes it known today and is the result of numerous interpretations and variations. The pride of the Sicilian land, for Salomone Marino, is precisely that of being "the only one who keeps tradition and history in her songs".
Bibliography
Pitre, Giuseppe. 1871. Sicilian folk songs. Palermo: Luigi Pedone-Lauriel Publisher.
1975 The Baroness of Carini: tradition and poetry. Curated by Aurelio Rigoli. Palermo: Flaccovio S. Flaccovio Publisher, Palermo;
Salvatore Salomone-Marino. 1980 The Baroness of Carini, Palermo: The Vespers. Rest. anast. of the ed. of 1870.
1868 The history of Sicilian folk songs (essay extracted from the magazine La Sicilia, year III, n. 47), Tipografia di Michele Amenta, Palermo;
On the story of the Baroness of Carini. New Sicilian Ephemerides of Sciences, Letters to Arts 2 (1870).
Vannt'Antò. 1958 The Baroness of Carini: popular history of the sixteenth century. Messina: D'Anna Publishing House.
Discography
AURELIUS RIGOLI, The Baroness of Carini, SF Flaccovio Editore, Palermo (45 rpm vinyl, Cricd Nastroteca Sound Archive)
Note
Author Technical sheet for the Sicilian region: Mariangela Riggio
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