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Surnames

Search documents by the surnames codified through time and present in the sources.

Since in this period the formation of last names, above all but not exclusively in the artisan classes, was an ongoing process, patronymics, nicknames or provenances sometimes appear in course of transformation into designators of family lineage. In Latin texts ambiguities may also arise with a series of patronymics, of which the third has sometimes been indexed as a surname, according to the importance of the person's role or the activity recorded.

When the place of provenance becomes the principal indication of the identity of a family clan, surnames such a da Uzzano, da Filicaia, or da Rabatta are formed; in contrast to predominant modern usage, these appear in the surname indices under the place and not under "da". Likewise the preposition which normally precedes the family names of great houses such as dei Medici and degli Albizi, is dropped in the indexing; the articulated preposition is, on the other hand, retained for certain surnames of which it forms an integral part, such as Della Badessa and Del Giudice.

As for surnames derived from nicknames, such as those describing an activity that came to characterize the whole family, an interesting example is Della Robbia, an appellation derived from the family's original connection with the dyeing of wool which continued to define three generations of sculptors, the first being represented by the young Luca, who in the period covered by this project carved a marble organ loft for one of the cathedral's pipe organs.

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