Ventimiglia family

The Ventimiglia were a noble family of Liguria. Descendants of the family held positions and titles of nobility in Sicily in Medieval times and later.[1]

Coat of Arms of Ventimiglia di Geraci.

Origin

Arms of Lascaris at the Ventimiglia palace, Nice, France

The Ventimiglia family originated from Cono/Corrado Count of Ventimiglia (10th-11th century), son of Count Cono, likely Count palatine of Vienne, Isère (an Alemannian-Franconian Conradines).

Lascaris di Ventimiglia

Another branch, the Lascaris (di Ventimiglia) Conti di Tenda, is descended in female line from the Laskaris of the Empire of Nicaea through the marriage in 1261 of Guglielmo Pietro I, Conte di Ventimiglia, Signore de Tenda (d. 1282) with Eudokia Laskarina (1248–1311), daughter of Emperor Theodore II Laskaris and his wife Princess Elena of Bulgaria.[2]

Members of the family

• Giovanni I Ventimiglia (1383–1475), eighth count of Geraci (from 1405); Marquess of Geraci from 1436; also Lord of Castelbuono, Tusa, Gangi, San Mauro (San Mauro Castelverde), Pollina, Caronia (from 1412), Cefalù, Sciacca, Termini Imerese, Count of Montesarchio, Bitonto, Casamassima, Serracapriola, Castellamare di Stabia, Orta Nova and Magliano, Baron of Ciminna..., Grande Ammiraglio del Regno (Grand Admiral of Sicily Kingdom), Viceré di Sicilia, (Viceroy of Sicily), 1430–1432, Governatore del Regno di Napoli (Governor of Naples Kingdom), 1435, Viceroy of Duchy Athens and Neopatria, 1444, Regent of Naples Kingdom, 1460, Captain General of the Church, 1445 and 1455.[3]

Castle of Castelbuono, near Palermo

• Giovanni II Ventimiglia, marquis of Geraci (1559–1619), lord of Castelbuono, Gangi, Pollina, Pettineo and San Mauro, was acting Viceroy of Sicily from 1595 to 1598.[4]

• Salvatore Ventimiglia (d. Palermo, April 1797), Bishop of Catania, son of the 3rd Princes of Belmonte

Stately "Osterio Magno", at Cefalù, chief town of sicilian dominion of Ventimiglia lineage. Built in the 13th century by count Enrico II Ventimiglia, general vicarious of Manfred, King of Sicily.

See also

• Ventimiglia (disambiguation)

References

1. Ventimìglia (in Italian). Enciclopedia on line (in Italian). Roma: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed July 2019.
2. The History of the Col de Tenda, W.A.B. Coolidge, The English Historical Review, Vol. XXXI, ed. Reginald Lane Poole, (Longmans, Green and Co., 1916), 202.
3. Maria Antonietta Russo, Giovanni I Ventimiglia: un uomo al servizio della monarchia, "Archivio Storico Siciliano", s. 4., 34-35 (2008-2009), p. 43-93.
4. Grazia Fallico (2000) Geraci, Giovanni Ventimiglia, marchese di (in Italian). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, volume 53. Roma: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed July 2019.

Further reading

• "Histoire généalogique de la maison de Vintimille" (in French).