On the legend of Arduino and Oria de Volta

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Francisco Antonio Doria

On the legend of Arduino and Oria de Volta

Legg inn av Francisco Antonio Doria » 03 mai 2005 14:31:59

This post sits between ancient genealogy and medieval
genealogy, perhaps closer to medieval genealogy.

There is a fact concerning Italian genealogy: but for
a small group of families, you have no reliable
genealogies before the 11th century - beginning with
the cloudy origins of the royal house of Savoy. This
is probably due to the ascent of a new ruling class of
obscure origins - some of its members were of knightly
order, some of them were out of an early mercantile
class. But there are members of this `new' ruling
class that can be suspected to belong to obscure
branches of top-ranking nobility.

(That phenomenon, I must add, also seems to have
happened in Portugal, were the new class of
infanzones, infanções, in the 11th century, can almost
always be traced to the great comital families of the
9th-10th century, and some of those to the early
Asturian dynasties.)

I'm not an expert on early Italian genealogy, and
therefore my contribution must be taken with due care.
But of course such great families such as the
Obertenghi, Aleramici and Arduinic or Arduini, which
ruled portions of Northern Italy, have assuredly left
descendants, and not necessarily of humble or obscure
status. This assumption is the centerpiece of my
argument here.

The legend of Arduino and Oria de Volta - the legend
of the Doria origins - is attested not earlier than
the 13th century; the name Ardoino/Arduino is
surprisngly unusual in the Doria pedigree, and I can
only see it attested in the 15th century. The Arduino
and Oria legend however became a family icon in the
16th century, when it is registered in written
genealogies and in an anomymous paiting commissioned
for the Palazzo del Principe in Genoa.

It's nearly a fairy tale: there was in Genoa in the
11th century a widow of the della Volta family - a
family of feudal but obscure origins - who had two
daughters. Then once upon a time a knight who was on a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land knocked at the widow's
door; he was ill and needed care. His nurse was the
younger daughter, Auria or Oria (or Orietta) della
Volta; they fell in love, he married the girl and they
had three children, Pietro, Robaldo and Ansaldo.
Ansaldo in turn had two children, Genuardo and Oberto;
Pietro or Robaldo had another child, Martino.

Martino and Genuardo are attested in a 1110 document
which is briefly quoted by several sources; they are
said to be ``de filiis Auriae,'' of the children of
Auria/Oria. So, one may believe that there was one
Oria two generations before. Family name is a
matronymic: de Oria, d'Oria.

Now Cesare Patrignani was kind enough to send me a
19th century genealogical study of the
Ardoini/Arduinici. The Doria legend connects the
knight who sired the Doria to the viscounts of
Narbonne: he is called Arduino di Narbonne. However
there is no Arduino among the members of the Narbonne
family - only Aymérics (I owe Christian Settipani and
Cesare Patrignani for data on the Narbonne dynasty).
However there is a plethora of Ardoini - in the
Ardoini dynasty.

They ruled the region of Torino, just north to Genoa,
and their landholdings extended until Albenga, later a
Doria fief. They come to the historical stage in the
9th century as Counts of Auriate (!) - cf. the name
Auria/Oria. Their onomastics is very close to that of
the early Doria: there are several Robaldos, among
allies and clients - a descendant from one Alineo, who
is said to be a client, perhaps a relative, of the
first Ardoino. There are two brothers, Martino and
Oberto, in the 11th century; one lady Anselda - cf.
Ansaldo among the Dorias; one Anselmo.

So, I think it's quite likely that the legend has some
historical basis. I would very tentatively reconstruct
it as follows:

- one Ardoino of the Ardoini family sired bastard
children by Oria de Volta. This explains their use of
a matronymic.

I also carefully consider the possibility that the de
Volta or della Volta family (still extant) descends
from another branch of the Counts of Auriate. That
would explain the name Auria, and would make the Oria
and Ardoino affair as an ``accident'' between cousins.


Which is the most likely Arduino? For the time-frame
of the Doria legend - mid 11th century - I suspect
Ardoino ``Ardizzone,'' dec. 1069. He was married to
Gerberga, a member of the Aleramici family, and left
issue.

(A final note: my Doria ancestor in Portugal in 1556
was an Aleramo Doria - so it is possible that there
were many intermarriages between the early Doria and
late Aleramici. And there are pieces in Doria
collections celebrating the Arduinici - so this
hypothesis I now raise is not a novelty, I guess.)

fa

PS: Recall that Branca Doria, the family ogre, is a
``gateway ancestor'' to many people - millions of
individuals, I must add - in Western Europe.





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