The House of Carissimi (formerly Caresini; Latin: de Caresinis) is an Italian noble dynasty of Venetian origin whose earliest documented prominence was in the service of the Republic of Venice. Its founder was a notary, diplomat and chronicler called Rafaino Caresini (c. 1314–1390),who became Grand Chancellor of Venice in 1365 and was admitted to the Venetian patriciate in 1381 after contributing 500 gold ducats during the War of Chioggia. As such he became part of what is called the 'Case nuovissime'.
Rafaino's son Giovanni died in the late 15th century and his other brother had died shortly before. As such, the direct continuous line of succession died with him and didn't carry on to a grandson. The house nevertheless continued collaterally when a cousin succeeded to the family's place in the Great Council, and the surname later evolved in time to become Carissimi. The family is recorded repeatedly in the Annuario della Nobiltà Italiana: in its XXXI edition, part IV, volume III, page 550 and part V, volume IV, page 256; and in its XXXIII edition, part II, volume I, page 1575, under “Carissimi (e Carissimo)”.; ;
This family subsequently moved away from Venice and became well established in Parma, where Angelo Carissimi, a famous relative, was a canon of the basilica and a member of the Accademia degli Innominati. A later member, Alessandro Carissimi, was Bishop of Castro from 1621 until 1631, an orator associated with the Farnese court and a close spiritual companion of Francesca Farnese, a noble woman from the House of Farnese. Further marriages connected the house with the Crivelli, the Maggiora–Vergano, Loredan and Pallavicini families. Through the union with the Maggiora–Vergano family, the Carissimi also inherited the titles of Count of Refrancore and Co-Lord of Magliano.
In the 17th century, the marriage of Camilla Carissimi to Ranuzio Pallavicino, Marquis of Tabiano, created the cadet line conventionally known as Pallavicino Carissimi. Their descendants included Francesco Maria and the marquis Giulio Lucrezio Pallavicino Carissimi, all who were active in Parma.
Name and origins
The earliest securely documented form of the name is Caresini. Rafaino appears in Latin sources under forms including Raphainus, Raphaynus and Raphael de Caresinis. The family's origin was Cremonese rather than Vicentine: Rafaino's father, Enrico di Alberto, was a notary and landowner of the neighbourhood of San Fabiano in Cremona, while a later tradition assigning the family to Vicenza was rejected by Antonio Carile as unfounded.
The form Carissimi was a modernization of the Caresini name which was used by the cousins of Rafaino. The entries in the Annuario della Nobiltà Italiana, including “Carissimi (e Carissimo)”, preserve the later forms of the name without concrete mention of the ancient surname due to the Annuario only collating information of the families inscribed in the Libro d'Oro of the Kingdom of Italy.
Rafaino Carissimi
Early life and entry into Venetian service
Rafaino was born in 1314, the son of Enrico di Alberto. He was old enough to act as an imperial notary by 14 June 1334, when he described himself in his first recorded text as notarius sacri Palatii. The Caresini were both clients and business partners of the wealthy Paduan banker Enrico Scrovegni. When Scrovegni was exiled, Rafaino and his father followed their him to Venice, where in 1334 they lived in the district of San Maurizio, most likely in Scrovegni's residence. Rafaino, as a notary, drew up Enrico Scrovegni's will in March 1336 and later spent periods at Padua at the behest of Scrovegni's sons. This time spent in Padua may be a reason for Rafaino's hostility to the Carraresi, the ruling house of Padua, an attitude visible both in his diplomacy and in his historical writing.
Rafaino returned to Venice in 1341 and entered the ducal chancery. He was appointed notary to the Council of Forty in 1343, became a ducal scribe by June 1344 and, by 1349, ranked third among the chancery's 21 notaries.
Diplomatic career
Rafaino's rise was mainly thanks to the help of leading Venetian patricians, in particular the Dandolo family. His duties tended to be intertwined in diplomacy, Venetian finance and in guaranteeing the security of its trade routes. His main operations were:
In 1348 he accompanied envoys connected with Louis I of Hungary to Naples, and in 1350 he was sent to Mastino II della Scala at Verona to acknowledge the latter's mediation between Venice and Hungary. In 1351 he opened peace negotiations with the Visconti at Milan. The negotiations ended in the peace signed by Grand Chancellor Benintendi de' Ravegnani on 1 June 1355. This was quite possibly the most impressive of his diplomatic contributions. As notary to the Venetian embassy to Pope Innocent VI in 1353, he delivered 18,000 gold ducats as Venice's contribution to equipping 18 galleys for the war against Genoa. In 1354 he was sent to congratulate Francesco I da Carrara on his appointment as captain-general of the league against Milan. Between 1356 and 1360 he undertook repeated missions to Genoa concerning commercial disputes, the integrity of the Venetian gold ducat and a proposed coalition to assist the Byzantine Empire against the Ottomans. In 1361 he negotiated at Avignon for the renewal of papal permission allowing Venetian merchants to sail to Alexandria. The concession cost the Signoria 9,000 florins. A mission to the court of Aragon in 1362 was unsuccessful, but subsequent missions took him again to Padua, Genoa, Milan and Avignon.
While at Avignon in 1365, Rafaino learned that he had been chosen to succeed Benintendi de' Ravegnani as Grand Chancellor. He returned to Venice that July and held the office until he became elected into the Grand Council as no patrician could be the Grand Chancellor. The grand chancellorship was the highest office open to a non-patrician citizen and the Chancellor became one of the main foreign policy makers for the Republic.
War of Chioggia and admission to the patriciate
Due to his old age, Rafaino did not participate in the fighting of the War of Chioggia (1378–1381). He instead contributed 500 gold ducats to the Venetian war effort. In recognition of his service and financial support, he was admitted to the Venetian nobility in 1381, this led to the Carissimi being ennobled for the first time The year 1381 is therefore conventionally treated as the foundation of the Carissimi as a Venetian house and later noble dynasty, rather than the beginning of the family itself. This is also partly due to the lack of documents from the 14th century regarding the family.
The family's Venetian arms, as reported in the Libro d'Oro, are blazoned Or, three pallets azure (Italian: d'oro, a tre pali d'azzurro).
Chronicle and historical reputation
Alongside his official work, Rafaino wrote a Latin chronicle of Venetian affairs from 1343 to 1388. He presented it as a continuation of the Chronica brevis of Doge Andrea Dandolo, under whom his chancery career had begun. The work developed in stages: its first substantial nucleus concerned the wars with Padua and Genoa, including the War of Chioggia; earlier events from 1343 onward were then prefixed, and accounts of events between 1384 and 1388 were added in Latin and in a shorter vernacular form.
The chronicle is valued as an important near-contemporary record, although its political partiality—especially Rafaino's hostility to Francesco da Carrara—is conspicuous. Carile records 19 surviving manuscripts belonging to several textual families. A 14th-century Venetian-language manuscript in the Biblioteca Marciana (MS It. VII, 770) contains a miniature of Rafaino kneeling before Doge Antonio Venier and presenting his work.
Marriages, children and death
Rafaino married first Caterina, who died after 19 October 1382. Their son died young, while their daughter married the physician Giovanni Balastro. By his second wife, Beatrice, Rafaino had two sons: Pietro, who married Elisabetta Loredan, and Giovanni. These marriages connected the founder's immediate household with the professional elite of Venice and, through Elisabetta, with the patrician Loredan family.
Rafaino's last known public act was dated 2 October 1389, and the final note written in his own hand is dated 29 August 1390. He died in Venice on 9 September 1390, leaving investments in the Republic's compulsory loans (imprestiti) and rental property in both Venice and Cremona.
Succession and collateral continuation
Neither Pietro nor Rafaino's grandson Giovanni left descendants, and the direct branch ended in the early 15th century. The house continued through a collateral cousin who succeeded to the Caresini place in the Great Council. His descendants adopted the spelling Carissimi and perpetuated the family in Venice and, subsequently, in Parma.
The succession was collateral rather than descent from one of Rafaino's sons. It connects the medieval Caresini of Venice with the early modern Carissimi of Parma and the Papal States. The published entries are found in the XXXI edition of the Annuario, part IV, volume III, page 550 and part V, volume IV, page 256—the latter location appearing twice in the online index—and in the XXXIII edition, part II, volume I, page 1575.
Parma branch and the Farnese court
A Carissimi branch was present in Parma by the later 16th century. Angelo Carissimi, a canon of Parma Cathedral, belonged to the Accademia degli Innominati, the city's leading literary academy, founded in 1574. The academy drew together members of Parma's noble, ecclesiastical and professional elites and was closely connected to the government and cultural patronage of the Farnese dukes. Its members included Duke Ottavio Farnese and his grandson Ranuccio I, as well as prominent writers and courtiers. Angelo's membership therefore places him within the ecclesiastical and cultural networks of Farnese Parma, although it does not by itself demonstrate a blood relationship to the ducal house.
A marriage between a member of the Parma branch and a member of the Crivelli family created a kinship between the two houses. Together with Angelo Carissimi's position in the cathedral chapter and the Innominati, the alliance placed the Parma Carissimi firmly within the city's ecclesiastical, noble and courtly networks.
Factional and ecclesiastical networks
The Carissimi are documented in Parma well before the establishment of the Farnese duchy. During the 15th century they belonged to the squadra rossa, the urban faction associated with the Rossi family. Letizia Arcangeli identifies the Garimberti, Baiardi, Carissimi, Centoni and Anselmi as the principal agnatic groups represented within the faction. During the conflict of 1482–1483, Ilario Carissimi was both a member of the communal council and chancellor to Guido de' Rossi. In a letter written at Calestano on 6 March 1483, Ilario proposed that Guido employ “due fanti di Marra” (“two infantrymen from Marra”), whom a Rossi partisan had recommended as trustworthy.
Marco Gentile's study of Parma's factional system likewise places the Carissimi among the principal families of the squadra rossa, together with the Baiardi and Garimberti. His analysis of surviving communal council lists shows that all three families were repeatedly represented in civic government.
The family's Rossi allegiance is also documented by the anonymous contemporary Cronica gestorum. During the anti-Rossi violence of 2 March 1477, the house of Bartolomeo Carissimi in the parish of San Biagio was among the properties attacked and looted. The same account lists the house of Giovanni Battista Garimberti and those of several other Rossi partisans among the targets.