{"id":1865,"date":"2020-04-13T10:36:44","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T14:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/?page_id=1865"},"modified":"2023-07-27T15:07:12","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T19:07:12","slug":"from-whence-gastaldo","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ragastal\/what-every-geoscientist-needs-is-a-good-travel-agent\/from-whence-gastaldo\/","title":{"rendered":"From whence Gastaldo?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family name, Gastaldo, is not common in Italy nor is it found throughout the country.  Merriam-Webster’s definition is that of  the representative of a Medieval Italian king particularly in Lombardi, northern Italy.<\/span><\/span>  The gastald<\/em>, a paid official,  was in charge of some part of the royal domain having civil, martial, and judicial powers. A 643 CE edict (Edictum Rothari) <\/i>gave the gastalds<\/em> civil authority in the cities and were held as “secular lords”  in the countryside (if one can trust Wikipedia and there isn’t very much here or elsewhere online). By the 9th<\/sup> Century, the official’s role became administrative and this function remained into the 13th<\/sup> Century where the gastaldo<\/em> was used to designate one who assumed a leading position in a guild. And, in Milan, the institution of gastaldi<\/i> remained a part of the cathedral chapter until the middle of the 15th<\/sup> Century, the end of the Middle Ages.<\/p>\n

In the Venetian Republic, the name is associated with the guilds of ferry men and gondoliers as early as the 14th<\/sup> Century. As early as 1407, the Grand Master of the Lodge was called, as in the ancient Lombard Lodges, Gastaldo <\/i>(Scott, Leader, 1899, The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a Great Masonic Guild,<\/em> Charles Scribner’s Sons). The following is a synthesis from Horatio F. Brown’s (1904) book entitled Life on the Lagoons: La Traghetti<\/em><\/a>“.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Transportation in Venice was, and continues to be, by boat. The most recognizable water transport being the gondolas but the ferries, known as traghetti<\/em>, cross the Grand Canal and the Giudecca. There were as many as sixteen traghetti<\/em> operating in the city.<\/p>\n

Each traghetto<\/em> is a guild, or corporation, with its own set of rules and structure. The oldest of these remaining mariegole<\/em> dates from 1344 CE, but the same officers under the same titles continued into the 20th<\/sup> Century. Each religious guild of ferry men or gondoliers, called a scuola<\/em>, was protected by a patron saint associated with the church on their island or location. Not only did a scuola<\/em> provide financial donations to their church, they helped the poor and sick, and assisted in burial of the dead, as part of their duties. The last duty of the scuola<\/em> was to keep order among its members and guarantee their good conduct, while protecting the organization’s interests. Oversight of these responsibilities was the responsibility of the Gastaldo.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Each school followed the same structure as the traghetti<\/em> and elected their officers on a yearly basis. The chief officer, the gastaldo<\/em>, was the official representative of the school and held responsible by the Government for member behavior and finances. The gastaldo<\/em> presided at meetings, kept the organization\u2019s accounts (along with two compagni<\/em> [councillors] and the scrivano<\/em> [secretary]), and disbursed funds. Each year a new gastaldo<\/em> was elected and a gondolier could be re-elected after a three-year hiatus. In the 16th<\/sup> Century, expanded duties of the office included responsible for payment of all of the taxes owed by his traghetto <\/em>and, thereafter, the position became \u201conerous.\u201d These conditions changed the administrative structure of the guild.<\/p>\n

A five member bancali<\/em> (executive committee) became the norm, with the gastaldo<\/em> assisted by two compagni<\/em> and two sindici<\/em>. Expanded duties were delegated to six deacons and deaconeses, under whom non-official members of the school were placed. Their responsibilities included attending to the sick, making funeral arrangements, and answering for the subscriptions and taxes of their respective companies to the gastaldo<\/em>. As gondolier’s ribald-and-scandalous disorder erupted in the traghetti<\/em> during the 16th<\/sup> Century, known as the age of the bravi<\/em>, the gastaldi<\/em> were caught not being able to control their membership and balancing the demands placed upon them from the Venetian government to maintain fraternal order. The gastaldi<\/em> were held responsible for the conduct of their members, fined and punished. Nevertheless, these officers were incapable of restoring order to their respective traghetti<\/em>. By the beginning of the 17th<\/sup> Century, the Venetian government stepped in to revolutionize the character of the traghetti<\/em>, including the loss of property and the guild’s \u201cliberties.\u201d No longer were the granting of gondolier licenses the right of the traghetti<\/em>, but now these rights were transferred to the Venetian state.<\/p>\n

Thereafter, the corporate life of the traghetti<\/em> was closed by the Venetian government. The scuola<\/em> survived until the end of the Republic in 1797 but no longer serves the same functions as it did hundreds of years previously. And as of the early 20th<\/sup> Century, the traghetti<\/em> was still governed by its gastaldo<\/em> and bancali<\/em>. City administrative correspondence and functions handled by the gastaldo<\/em> appear to have remained undiminished since the 14th<\/sup> Century.<\/p>\n

A very few other references to the family name, besides obituaries, include:<\/p>\n