History of Calitri Book

The Developers and Readers of this Ancestry website are extremely fortunate that the History of Calitri book exists. Possibly, there are not many small villages in Italy that have such an exhaustive history recorded. The History of Calitri was written by Vito Acocella (1883-1968) and completed around 1930. Vito was a priest from Naples, Italy and had visited Calitri and seen the results of the 1910 earthquake that destroyed much of Calitri and many other villages and towns along the Apennines fault line.  At the time of his visit, he wondered and cared about the traditions and history of this lovely village being lost for all time. From that experience, Vito chartered himself the responsibility to write a history of Calitri in Italian. Calitri, being a small village with limited exposure to Italy and the world, the book had limited interest and a modest publishing.

It was through good fortune, that Ben Montalbano from Dunmore, Pennsylvania, discovered the book. Ben Montalbano is an American who took on the large task of translating Vito Acocella’s History of Calitri into English. He completed the project around 1980.  Ben’s heritage and ancestry is anchored in Calitri and other parts of Italy. Ben received college training to learn the Italian language. He decided that the translation of this book would be an excellent project to test his Italian translation expertise. He made an enormous  contribution by making the book accessible in English and thereby to the descendants of the Calitrani that immigrated to the United States.

All Calitrani are indebted to these two gentlemen, Vito Acocella and Ben Montalbano, for making it possible to read and research Calitri history from pre-historic times to the 1930’s. Ben has been extremely generous to provide unlimited use of the English translation on this Website.

If the Reader has an interest in the history and culture of Calitri, then a complete or a random reading of the History of Calitri will meet your needs. Following is the verbatim Table of Contents as it appears in the book.

  • There are twenty-seven chapters and a Preface and a total of over 300 pages in the English format presented.
  • The Table of Contents has detailed descriptions of the content for each chapter.
  • Consider browsing  the Table of Contents and then pursue your areas of interest.
  • One can  use either the approach of reading the entire book in sequence or moving around randomly from chapter to chapter and topics within chapters.
  • Website navigation opportunities are provided so the Reader can navigate to a particular chapter; go the next chapter; go back one chapter; scroll and read any number of chapters;  or return to the Table of Contents.
  • Enjoy following your interests and being enticed by the wide variety of topics.

Mario Toglia Introduction Translation Adaptation

Following is a citation and appreciation for an excellent translation and adaptation by Mario Toglia for the History of Calitri. Mario has been very generous with his time and support of many aspects of this Ancestry.

History of Calitri or Storia di Calitri by Vito Acocella

Published :  By Vito Acocella (1951: Naples, Casa Editirce Federico & Ardia)

Translation and adaptation by Mario Toglia

Vito Acocella is the author of a book that all of us of Calitrani descent should read. It wasn’t until after the first earthquake of this century in 1910 that he decided to preserve the legacy of his beloved hometown in written form. His research united numerous documents, archeological finds, and traditions which have withstood the elements of time. The book is called simply Storiadi Calitri. In it, Acocella takes our ancestral town from the first traces of Neolithic civilization, through the medieval and feudal periods, to the years of social awakening and finally to the World War I era. He mentions the many familiar surnames of our ancestors and they are all our ancestors because the history of this town is long, so long that all of us of Calitrani blood can – if we were to climb the family tree back far enough – eventually be able to call ourselves cugini.

In the very first chapters of his book, Acocella discusses the origin of Calitri. Inhabited over 2000 years ago, the toponym Aletriom – as Calitri was known then – first appeared in a 17 volume book entitled Geographia. The author was a Greek historian and geographer by the name of Strabo (64?B.C. – 23? A.D.), who gathered his information largely from his extensive trips. In his book, Strabo gives a detailed description of the peoples and countries of the Mediterranean world in the early first century A.D., noting the customs and religious practices of each society and even recording the distances from one town to another.

Aletriom was a mountain top town nestled in an Apennine region of southern Italy known as Samnium. the people of Aletriom were members of the Hirpini tribe, who together with three other eastern Italic tribes had formed a confederation in opposition to the increasingly powerful Romans. the people, known as Samnites, had fought numerous wars against the expansion of Rome and were finally defeated in 290 BC when they came under its rule. Titus Livy in his book Historia ab Urbe Condita makes note of how Hirpini people had wisely built their towns on the top of steep hills. the inaccessibility of a mountain top had always provided a natural and secure means of defense as well as an excellent watch tower.

Still in the first century AD, the name of our ancestors is mentioned in a 37 book masterpiece, Historia naturalis, considered the pinnacle of ancient encyclopedias. the author was the Roman Pliny the Elder (23AD – 79AD) who in Book III listed the Aletrini together with all the subjects of the Roman Empire. In this extensive work, the community is referred to as Aletrium.

It wasn’t until 1140 that the spelling Caletrum appeared for the first time on a diplomatic feudal document known as il Catalogo dei baroni. It came as no surprise to linguists that the spelling of the town had changed. The Roman Empire had fallen in 476 AD and with the subsequent invasion of various barbarian hordes, the classical Latin language had slowly been changed into new spoken languages. Acocella, in his book, discusses at length the various linguistic reasons for the changes in pronunciation and spelling from Aletriom to Calitri.

Although the name of our ancestral town is first mentioned in the book Geographia, Acocella firmly believes that Calitri had existed centuries before as a community. the first known name, Aletriom consisted of two parts: the prefix ale + the generic suffix tri (om). According to linguists the meaning of ale is not known, but the suffix tri(om) means locality, site, district. The suffix tri(om) was characteristic of Etruscan toponyms such as Cervetri, Sutri, Arcetri, Giannutri. However, Acocella mentions other communities elsewhere in Italy that ended in the suffix –tri and that were not inhabited by the Etruscans. He concludes that Calitri and all those towns ending in –tri had existed prior to the emergence of the Etruscan civilization on the Italian peninsula in the 8th Century BC. He uses as his argument the fact that the names of rivers, mountains and other toponyms basically remain the same and are adopted into the spoken language of the various waves of people who come in and conquer and occupy the land. The Etruscans had to have borrowed this ending tri(om) from a pre-existing society.

Yet, Acocella is not content in letting us think that Calitri might have been “founded” by the preceding civilization. Archeologists, he mentions, had discovered many Stone Age artifacts in the nearby natural caves of the Upper Ofanto River valley. And he reminds the reader that the local herdsmen and shepherds, forgoing the local dress of the epoch, had always worn animal hides and sheepskins much like the first inhabitants of Calitri. As far as Acocella was concerned, Calitri can trace its origin and settlement to these first inhabitants – our prehistoric ancestors.

History of Calitri Preface

Following is the verbatim Preface of the History of Calitri, written by Vito Acocella on June 15,1950. It provides context and insights into how he came about writing this book. His efforts included research, compiling, revising, editing and enhancing previous efforts at writing the history of this small village. For those with more than a casual interest in Calitri, the book is an extraordinary adventure to be read in its entirety or selectively. 

The preface to History of Calitri as written by Vito Acocella.

Preface           

The historical monographs that were published about Ancient Calitri (1921), Medieval Calitri (1921), and Modern and Present Day Calitri (1926) and that have been out of print for many years, are presented here in a single volume.  These monographs have undergone revisions stemming from either a critical examination of the material or from a rewriting during the narration.  Above all, this book reflects a more organized and concise arrangement of the material.  In this work, I did not believe it suitable to insert, in their entirety, documents such as reference material — both edited and unedited — as I did in the first edition.  Instead, I used only passages from these documents – either in the text or as footnotes – whenever they were required either for clarity or because of their importance in the narration.

It was among the ruins of the castle, after the earthquake of June 7, 1910, that I first conceived the idea to research the history of our people and to reconstruct – in a critical manner – the historical events that took place both in Calitri and in the High Irpinia, which has its own physiognomy and history, a history that is on a par with the other regions of Italy.  With long study and great love – and I say this without boasting – I gathered the scattered pages of published and unpublished documents, of archeological fragments, and of traditions that — having been handed down to us — stand up to historical analysis.

The study of the spirit of the Irpinian people of the High Ofanto and the demonstration of how this spirit is etched into the uninterrupted life of many centuries have increasingly persuaded me that — as Carducci[1] writes – «to make our national history true and complete, it is first necessary for us to reconstruct the historical details and to collect or finish collecting all the documents of our Comuni[2], each of which was an individual state. »

Therefore, with this work, I really believe that I have contributed both to the historical knowledge of our nation loco – the area in which we were born – and to the self-respect of my fellow citizens, who love to reread the book of the life lived by our fathers and who love to listen again to their voices and to see again the laughter and tears that result from their sometimes happy and sometimes sad experiences.

Napoli, June 15, 1950           V.A.          Vito Acocella

History of Calitri Table of Contents Overview

Following is a verbatim  list of the twenty seven chapters of the  History of Calitri. The chapters are identified in Roman Numerals, as was done in the original version. Consider reading the entire Table of Contents as an approach to becoming informed as to what is in the book and how it is organized and what may be of interest.

Consider that the book is about 369 pages. The integrity of the page numbers has been maintained because of the manner in which footnotes are included for each page.

In order to read all or part of the History of Calitri

  • Review the Table of Contents. It contains the detailed Chapter descriptions for the 27 Chapters and the Appendix
  • Select from the Table of Contents or the Appendix, what is of personal interest to the Reader.
  • Click on the bolded title of the Chapter Description or the Appendix and you are navigated to the beginning or top of the chapter.  Note: Not to the topic in the chapter that was clicked on, but the top of the chapter.
  • When reading any Chapter there are options to
    • Read that Chapter completely
    • Scroll through the chapter
    • Navigate to the next Chapter
    • Navigate to the top of the Chapter
    • Navigate to the previous Chapter
    • Navigate back to the Table of Contents
    • Navigate back to the Home Page

The page numbers from the original History of Calitri are shown in the Table of Contents that follows, because the book has been literally copied.  The page numbers are  not used and are of no significance in navigating through the Table of Contents or the actual history.

Scroll and Click on the Chapter Name and Number for the Chapter you want to read.

Table of Contents

  1. CHAPTER I Traces of life in the Neolithic age: examination of the archeological material. –     the Tyrrhenian place name Aletriom and its etomology. The Aletrini in the historic testimony of Pliny. – Homonymities. Page   7
  2. CHAPTER II The town of the Aletrini; constructive and survival technique of a place name. – Abundance of archeological material – Examination of passage of Livio [Livy] – Phonetic alteration of Aletrium. Page 16
  3. CHAPTER III Calitri in the gastaldato of Conza, during the Lombard domination.  – Moving of the body of the bishop Saint Canion. – Examination of the tradition in the local place name. – Historic investigation of Canion and his martyrdom.  Iconography
  4. CHAPTER IV The Normans – Roberto il Guiscardo the cunning – New political – social elements in Norman legislation. The cenobio of S. Maria dei Santi. – Gionata of Balvano, first feudatorio. – Raone di Balvano, – Calitri in the imperial state property of Federico II.    Page   35
  5. CHAPTER V Angevin Domination – The fief of Calitri is assigned to Galeotto di Fleury – His son Giovani Galeotto succeeds him: his rapacity against the population – Mattia Gesualdo, new feudatorio – our Università and its tax burdens – Boundary disputes and disputes concerning usi civici. Page 40                                                      
  6. CHAPTER VI Roberto d’Angiò. – Mattia II Gesualdo. –  Queen Giovanna I and the invasion of the kingdom. – Sacking and abandoning of Castiglione and of other casali. Page 49                                                           
  7. CHAPTER VII Luigi III Gesualdo and his inconstant political conduct.  –  Confiscation of the fief – Feudal income – Political struggles and events. – Calitri, assigned to Troiano Caracciolo. – Restoration of the fief to Luigi Gesualdo Page 56
  8. CHAPTER VIII In the second half of the 1400.  – The churches –The Municipal Statutes – Outstanding citizens for jobs and public offices – Convent of San Sebastian, its decline and abandonment. Page 63
  9. CHAPTER IX — The Spanish domination and the Gesualdo family –– Calitri is declared camera riservata – Carlo Gesualdo and Maria D’Avalos – Secular Chapels – reconstruction of the mother church – legal dispute between the Clergy and the Comune – Foundation of the Monastary of SS most holy Anunziata – the professions and the families in the sixteenth century and in the first decades of the seventeenth century. Page 70
  10. CHAPTER X Internal life in the sixteenth century – The fuochi [hearths, families] – Debts contracted by the Comune – Bloody reaction of a treasurer – The fiscali [direct taxes] and the enumeration of the fuochi – Heinous crimes- Famine and extreme poverty. Page 80       
  11. CHAPTER XI Enfeoffment of the Ludovisi house. – Sale of the fief to Francesco Mirelli – description of the castle as it was in the last twenty years of the seventeenth century – Calitri, walled Terra with four gates. Page 86
  12. CHAPTER XII The earthquakes of 1688 and 1692 – another earth calamity in 1694 – Total collapse of the castle and death of the whole Mirelli family – Serious damage to the habitations and numerous victims in the population. Page 92
  13. CHAPTER XIII Epidemic – Construction of the church of the Immaculate Conception – Economic and social conditions of the population – Feudal income – the right of toll at the step of the Taverna – Fight for the enfranchisement of prohibited rights.
  14. CHAPTER XIV Fight with Pescopagano for the reciprocity in usi civici. – the Catasto onciario [land registry using the once the accounting unit.] – the Comune quarrels with the commendatory abbot of S. Maria in Elce for the usi civici. – Peaceful popular rebellion and division of some Difese. Page  108
  15. CHAPTER XV Vile brigandage in the territory of Calitri: Angelo Duca, nicknamed Angiolillo. – The Vito Errico band – The Calitri band – the earthquake of 1805.  Page 115    
  16. CHAPTER XVI The Partenopean Neapolitan Republic and the borbonic reaction: 1799 in Calitri.  – The French decade and the reforms. – Abolition of feudalism – The feudal commission and the fights with the ex-baron – Reform of the finances of the Commune. Page 120
  17. CHAPTER XVII The Carbonari and the reasons for the insurrection of 1820 -The barricades of the ’48 in Naples – revolt in Calitri – The bourbon reaction – Savage murders: Ninetta. – Epidemic and construction of the cemetery outside of the Comune. Page 129
  18. CHAPTER XVIII Earliest stages of the kingdom of Italy. – Carmine Donatelli (Crocco) and the pseudo-political brigandage. – Solemn entrance of Crocco and his band into Calitri. – Responsibility.
  19. CHAPTER XIX The brigands assail Calitri. – Heroic behavior of the population. – The capture and execution by firing squad of the brigands. – Emotional scene of a mother to save her son. – the Catalan Borjes. Page 157
  20. CHAPTER XX Brigantage in 1862. – Tenente G. Negri. – The attack of Piano della Cerzolla and in the I Piani district. – Heroic behavior of the soldiers. – Aiding and abetting and the state of siege. Page 166
  21. CHAPTER XXI Brigandage in 1863. – Maria Di Maio, victim because of the defense of her honor. – The attack of Carcatondo in its details.  – The Pica Law and the severe sanctions against the accessories and after-the-fact and protectors. Page 179
  22. CHAPTER XXII Heartless reprisals against the Del Buono brothers. – Capture and execution of the Bandit Cozza. – Pilata – Crocco leaves our district. – General Pallavicini in command of the forces of suppression. – End of the brigandage. Page 185
  23. CHAPTER XXIII Internal life of Calitri from 1865 to 1890: conditions of the social classes – The clergy – Suppression of the Benedictine monastery – Institutions of beneficence – Blood tribute in the colonial wars. Page 193
  24. CHAPTER XXIV The famine and the work of the mayor Don Pasquale Berrilli – fierce opposition to the political candidacy of Fr. De Sanctis – Transoceanic Emigration: its causes and development – the musical concert- its renown and decay. Page 205
  25. CHAPTER XXV Popular uprising because of the division of the Spineto. The last descendants of the House of Mirelli and their economic decline – Description of the chiesa-madre and the caused determining its demolition. Page 220
  26. CHAPTER XXVI Bisaccia provincial road/Ficcochia bridge – Cooperative road for Cairano and popular revolt – The Avellino railroad – Rochetta S. Antonio – spur of the Pugliese Aqueduct – First World War. Page 234
  27. CHAPTER XXVII Illustrious and deserving Citizens: bio/bibliographical notes – The archpriests/curates from May 1473 to our day.

APPENDIX

The abbey and village of S. Maria in Elce, in the territory of Calitri

I. Origin and first development – Page 291

II. Prestige and Economic Flourishing – Page 296

III. The abbey and the village under the Gesualdo – Page 303

IV. Destruction of the village – Page 308

V. Between the seventh and eighth century – Page 316

VI. In the present – Page 321

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