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Jennifer Mara DeSilva
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A Note on Names

Names are important. In early modern Rome names were often Latinized or Italianized, depending on the language of the document written. Printers were especially prone to Latinizing authors’ names in order to elevate reputation or maintain linguistic continuity. In the Office of Ceremonies, examples of such ‘literary’ names include Augustinus Patritius, Giovanni Broccardi, and Paridis Crassus. Depending on the scribe or author, sometimes names remained as the author heard them, in the original language or something close to it. This was particularly true for non-Italian individuals who worked in Rome. The mid-fifteenth-century ceremonialist from Burgos is a good example of the possible variations: Petrus Gundissalvi, Petrus de Burgos, Pedro Gonzalez de Burgos, and even Magistris Petro de Ferrera et Gundisalvo de Villa Diego. At times later historians changed first names to the versions common in the language in which they wrote or to make names sound more ‘authentic.’ Many English-language authors have cited the diary of John Burckhard and Mandell Creighton referenced Patrizzi’s work. The result is that members of the Office of Ceremonies appear in modern scholarship under many different names.

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