Lippomano

THE PATRICIAN FROM NEGROPONT

In the north chapel of the Dominican priory church of Negropont (Ayia Paraskevi of Chalkis), set into the left side of the north wall, is an inscription reading:

HIC IACET NOBILIS ET EGR
EGIUS VIR DOMINUS PETRUS
LIPPAMANO NEC NON HONORA
BILIS CONSILARIUS NIGRIPO(n)
TIS A VENETORUM DUCALI
DOMINIO CONSITUTUS
QUI AB HOC SECULO MIGRA
VIT IO(ve)DI SUB ANNIS MCCC
LXXXXVIII DIE SEPTIMO
MENSIS SEPTENBRIS [?]SUORUM
HEREDUM

Here lies the noble and
distinguished lord, Pietro
Lippamano, who was also
appointed Consiliarius of Negropont by the
Ducal Government.
He passed from this world
on Thursday, in the year 1398,
on the seventh of
September. (Put up at the expense?)
of his heirs.

The text is quite clear. There are explicit suspensions over the O at the end of line 4, and over IODI in line 7. No one seems previously to have read the IO ligature before DI in line 8 and the DI has consistently been misinterpreted as a contraction for DOMINI.

Th. Theocharis, “Ἡ ξυλόστεγος Βασιλικὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Παρασκευῆς Χαλκίδος.” Ἀρχεῖον Εὐβοϊκῶν Μελετῶν, 6 (1960), 152, seems to have been the only scholar to read the sign before SUORUM in line 8, but his other readings are so defective that we must mistrust his plausible expansion of this sign to EXPENSIS.

S. Lambros gave the best early account of this inscription in “Πέτρος Λιππαμάνος, ὁ σύμβουλος Χαλκίδος.” Νέος Ἑλληνομνήμων, 7 (1910) 314--16, but he assumed that it showed only that Lippamano belonged to a restricted local elite in Negropont. It does far more than that. It declares him a nobilis, not a title used lightly by Venetians, and gives him the coat of arms of the Venetian senatorial family, Lippamano. Pietro Lippamano was, in fact, the founder of this family, through his election to the Grand Council on 4 September, 1381.

The story of the Lippamano family can be found in two short versions in Marco Barbaro, Arbori de'Patritii Veneti, V. 18, folio 269 (facsimiles in the Reading Room of ASV). Pietro was the son of Nicolò, who was the son, or perhaps the more distant descendant, of a Jew converted to Christianity. Neither Nicolò nor Pietro counted for very much in Negropont until Pietro discovered an immense treasure buried on his property, which he took with him to Venice. In Venice, he and his family made themselves significantly useful during the war of Chioggia, and Pietro Lippamano was one of thirty elected to the Great Council as a reward for outstanding service. (R. Predelli. I Libri Commemoriali della Republica di Venezia, Regest. T. III, p. 150# 95.)

Pietro was aging by then, and requested almost immediately to pass on to his heir, Giovanni, whatever obligation had been assigned to him. This transfer was approved by a vote of 62 for and 31 against. Pietro then returned to Negropont. The Venetian government apparently took the opportunity of saving themselves the expense of sending out a young consiliarius to work with the bailo of Negropont, and sent Pietro home with the title Consiliarius Nigroponti, in which he or his descendants seem to have taken as much pride as in the far more significant distinction of being a nobilis. The title, Consiliarius, is specifically noted as being granted by the Venetian Ducal Government.

Pietro Lippamano died in the night hours of Thursday 1397. The stone reads 1398, but the Julian date of Thursday, 7 September is not possible in that year, and is correct for 1397 (a modern calendar would cite this either as Thursday, 6 September or Friday, 7 September but, in mediaeval Venice, the day of the month changed at night- fall on Thursday, while Friday did not begin until the following daybreak). He has the honor of being the only known person buried inside the Dominican church which, in Negropont, seems to have held to the early Dominican preference not to permit such burials. His descendants in Venice remained prosperous, and one branch married into the Querini. Late 19th and early 20th century dictionaries of Venetian nobility have tried to erase the memory of the family's origins in Negropont, but Barbaro is quite unequivocal on the matter.

According to the genealogy in Barbaro, Pietro's son, Giovanni (Zuanne), had no male offspring, and he may not have lived long after his elevation to the Grand Council. Another son, Marco, had a full and distinguished career, which is outlined in Margaret L. King, Venetian Humanism in an age of Patrician Dominance. (Princeton, 1986) 389-90. King has suggested a birth date of 1390 for Marco, but that is probably too late, although not impossible. Since Pietro seems to have asked to be relieved of his duties as a patrician and to have left Venice owing to infirmities of old age, Marco's birthdate is likely to have been closer to 1380. Marco was dead by 1447, as shown in the will of his daughter-in-law, Cecilia, wife of Francesco fu Marco dated 19 June, 1447. Other children of Pietro were Marin, Maffeo, and Nicolo. It is difficult to be sure of the order of seniority from Barbaro's genealogical tree.