SERRADIFALCO [Sicilian: SERRADIFARCU] was written by Giuseppe Testa in 1990, the 350th anniversary of the founding of the town.  Below is a partial translation.  Some parts of the original Italian are shown, in blue, with translation.  Where Latin footnotes were used, they are shown in red without translation.  Blank pages are omitted, therefore page numbers are not always continuous.  More will be added soon.  [Editorial comments by me are shown in this way.]

      For sending this treasure of a book, thanks to Giuseppe Micciché, great-great-grandson of Gaetano Coniglio and Maria Carmela Calabrese, who were my grandparents.  ~ Angelo F. Coniglio

a cura dell’Amministrazione Comunale
MCMXC

(edited by the Town Administration)
1990

10

       After innumerable difficulties of every kind, finally, today I can say that the historical picture of Serradifalco, from its origin to our day, is completed in all its essential parts.
       The work has been long, but the satisfaction remains of having contributed by placing one small pebble into the structure of the knowledge of this Town.
       From it, other searches will be able to spring, other relations, in order to uncover, as years pass, a more and more complete picture.
       The difficulties began at the start: to put order to many, varied and isolated items, and to propose a serious, scientific, sure vision, based only and exclusively on documentation: from the real property and feudal fiefs (the Moncada, Graffeo, Lo Faso) to several social, economic, religious, and political events, happening over the course of three and a half centuries, imbedded in the Sicilian panorama, and on that vaster national and European stage.
       My greater satisfaction comes from having received as never before a sensitive, careful, spontaneous and cordial collaboration from so many Serrafalcan citizens, agencies, institutions, and associations, that it is very difficult to list them all.
       But I cannot do less than to list in this long directory Mayor prof. Michele Territo with all the Councilmen, who have put their confidence in me, to see an ancient aspiration realized; the Communal Secretary geom. Vincenzo Mazzara and all the Employees of the Municipal Offices; the archpriest Galante; the directors of the Institute of San Giuseppe and the College of Maria; the Gentlemen Salvatore Petix, Agostino Aquilina , Camilla Licalsi, Filippo Genco ...
       Moreover, Dr. Claudio Torrisi with the Civil employees and Employees of the Archives of State of Caltanissetta; The Employees of the Archives of State of Palermo, of the Communal Libraries of Caltanissetta and Palermo; of the Library of the Sicilian Region, Palermo; of the Diocesan Administration of Agrigento; prof. Rosa Scaglione Guccione, General Secretary, and prof. Massimo Ganci, President of the Sicilian Society for the History of Birthplace Palermo; Dr. the Grazi Fallico Burgarella, Supervisor of the Archives of State of Sicily; the Gentlemen Franco Sedia and Orazio Rotondo of the Papal chancery of the Civil Court of Caltanissetta ...
       And finally, I must complete this list with my Wife, and my sons Claudio and Ivano. Without their collaboration I would have never carried this history to fulfillment.

Campofranco, November 1990
                                                                                                                                                            G. T.

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SIGLE ED ABBREVIAZIONE PIU` COMUNI
USATE NEL CORSO DEL LAVORO

RICERCHE ICONOGRAFICHE

Le fotografie moderne sono di Angelo Gallo, Salvatore Middione, Giuseppe Di Francesco, Giuseppe Testa, Pubblifoto, Archivio di Stato di Caltanissetta e di Palermo; varie fotocopie.
Di quelle antiche sopnosciamo l’autore e lo studio fotographico.

 ICONOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

15

CHAPTER I

ARCHAEOLOLOGY OF THE TERRITORY

          <<Ogni sette anni, a mezzanotte in punto, nella piazzetta vicino alla sorgente “la testa di l'acqua“, si svolge una magica fiera. Chi vuole assistervi deve salire su un gran masso che sorge sull'acqua, prima dei ventiquattro rintocchi, e vedrà come per incanto illuminarsi tutta la piazzetta come se fosse pieno giorno. Vedrà quindi una gran quantità di buoi, di pecore, capre, e vicino prender posto i rivenditori di arnesi di lavoro, per i campi, per le officine, per gli usi comuni.
          E vedrà anche rivenditori di frutta come mele, melarance, melagrane. Tutti si affollano ma nessuno compra, nessuno vende. Se si riesce per prima a comprare anche un solo frutto spigna la fiera e diviene ricco, perche il frutto e un masso tutto d'oro zecchino.
          Questa fiera avviene ogni sette anni>>¹.
         Similmante alla <<fiera di mezzanotte>>, vi sono tante altr leggende e tradizioni di Serradifalco, che narrano di ant chi abitatori, grandi re siculi sicani greci o romani, immense ricchezze do melagrani d’oro, rubini e ptetre preziose sotterrate e sparse tra le contrade di Serradifalco.
          Potremmo continuare, ma il nostro cammino volge in tutt’altro campo lontano da fantasie, dove fillerfillerfillerfiller

.         ¹S.D. Di Raimondi, in SICANIA, anno 1, No. 6, 1 dicembre 1913, pag. 211 <<La fiera di mezzanotte>> (Serradifalco).

Archaeology of the Territory

          "Every seven years, at midnight on the dot, in the little plaza close to the fountain, 'the head of water', a magical fair unfolds. Those who are careful to observe must go up on a large rock that rises above the water, before the clock strikes twenty-four times, and they will see, as though by enchantment, a light illuminating all the plaza as if it were broad daylight. They will see there a large number of cattle, of sheep, and goats, and near the corral, vendors of work implements, for the fields, workshops, and common uses.
          And they will also see vendors of fruit like apples, oranges, and pomegranates. Everyone crowds around, but nobody buys, no one sells. If someone succeeds in buying even a single fruit, the festival lights go out, the fair ends, and he becomes rich, because the fruit is a heap of gold coins.
          This festival appears every seven years "¹.
          Like the “midnight fair”, there are many other legends and traditions of Serradifalco, which tell of ancient inhabitants, great kings of the Siculi, Sicani, Greeks or Romans, immense riches of golden pomegranates, rubies and precious stones, buried and spread throughout the streets of Serradifalco.
          We could continue, but our walk turns to another field entirely, far from fantasies, where fillerfillerillerfiller

         ¹S.D. Di Raimondi, in SICANIA, vol. 1, no. 6, 1 December 1913, p. 211 "The midnight fair" (Serradifalco).

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archaelogy is not confused with the supernatural, and where ancient and remote reality is confirmed by visible and infallible documentation.
          Our voyage takes us to the research of royalty, and of the historical record of the town, and not to the ‘head of water’ but elsewhere, in the footsteps of a great researcher, Antonio Salinas, who in 1883 wrote thusly in his Archaeological Excursions in Sicily, regarding our village:
          “On this road from Serradifalco leading to the sulfur mine of Grotta d’acqua (the Grotto of water), before joining with the ‘Zagaredda casina’, are seen crypts and ruined sepulchral chambers, also containing crypts.”²
          And that is the lone testimony, unfortunately, of a remote epoch, immeasurable, suffused in mystery and wrapped in a haze.
          Biagio Pace wrote no more, in his work Art and Civilization of Ancient Sicily; he repeated the information, without any addition: “…the indicated crypts near Serradifalco not far from the sulfur mine of Grotta d’acqua (from feudal times) are from the Christian epoch”³. [English editor’s note: Pace appears to be wrong; some of the tombs are from prehistoric Siculan or Sicanian times.]
          Domenico Lo Faso himself, Duke of Serradifalco, the great archaeologist, writer and author of various scientific works, from whom we expected some specific and interesting words, reports not a single recollection of the land and the feudal fief of his ancestors.
          Only in 1917, Siculus (who was most certainly Salvatore Raccuglia) made a thorough investigation and a detailed description, which was published in SICANIA, with many notes revised in March of that year, and begins in this way⁴;

“Siculan sites in Sicily.
Grotta d’Acqua
When leaving Caltanissetta by rail towards Canicatti, between San Cataldo and Serradifalco, and exactly midway between the first and second tunnel, a little beyond signal box 143, on the vista to the left you see a group of houses, on the flank of a small stream, and standing above them a small mountain falling almost vertically, and whose face is all spread with holes, some rectangular, like glass windows, others semicircular, more or less widened, like the mouths of ovens, excavated in the rock.
          The place is called the Cave of Water after a natural grotto from which issues a spring that is

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channeled into a fountain built beside a country lane, possibly the remnant of an ancient trail; and the mountain is called Grotta d’acqua, and what’s more this name belongs to all of an ancient feudal district, that extends for many kilometers to the south and east, and it is given to the lands, and to the assets and buildings that spring up there”.

          The holes that open in the mountain are entrances to small caverns of a Siculan necropolis, excavated by men, whose village could be found on the plateau that overlooks the mountain.
          The caves have the shape of ovens, with a flat floor and walls that rise curving, until they actually form a hemispherical vault. They resemble tombs of the second age of the Siculans, prominent in 800 BC, at the time of the first population of Sicily, by Siculans or Sicanians.
         At the lower slopes of the mountain are two larger caves, one called the Cave of the Fates, the other with traces of crypts, by now ruined, that bring to mind a small catacomb.
          There is nothing to say what was the history of the village, which built the necropolis, and every trace is lost, even its name of old.
          Archaeologists, writers, historians, geographers, all ignore the ancient epoch of these caves. Neither is there anyone who speaks of the other feudal fiefs or of the territory of Serradifalco.
          Rodano, who was well informed on the antique works of Gela, Butera, Mazzarino, Sutera, Riesi and Pietraperzia, modern cities born in the ancient epoch with the names of Terranova, of Omphace, Mactorion, Sotjr, Altariba and Caulonia, doesn’t even wink at Serradifalco in his work⁵.
          Nor are records or information brought out by Amico or Villabianca, even up to today’s Ernesto De Miro, in his singular “Archaeology of the Nissene”, or Vincezo La Rosa…
          We have gone to the Government Department responsible for archaeological excavations in Agrigento, but among the numerous reports, which consider excavations of Butera, Mussomeli, Santa Caterina, Milena, Monte Desusino, and Costa di Mandorle, there does not exist one report with the name of our village.
          It is rumored, as often happens in Sicilian villages rich in history, of fortuitous archaeological finds in the surrounding territory. But if they haven’t been discovered officially and excavated by the Government Department, a face will not be able to be given to the shadows, nor will they be changed to firm declarations.

         ⁵ LEONARDO RODANO, Sulle città che furano nella Provincia di Caltanissetta, Caltanissetta, 1859.

         ⁵ LEONARDO RODANO, On the Cities that existed in the Province of Caltanissetta, Caltanissetta, 1859.

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          Equally vague and uncertain is the placing in Serradifalco of the Castle of Minsiario and the hamlet of Minzel, given by King Frederic II to bishop Ursone, in consideration for services received from the church of Agrigento.
          “To Minsciar, eighteen miles through the plain and between the mountains of Girgenti”.
          Minsiario was determined by Amari to be in Sant’Angelo Muxaro, or Montedoro. Salvatore Raccuglia, in SICANIA, proposed and insisted that it was in Serradifalco⁶.
          “This castle”, writes Raccuglia, “is at the peak of a steep mountain; the inhabited area around it is cultivated, has much land for planting, and is rich in agricultural products. From Serradifalco to Al Quatta [Canicatti] is about half a day, ten miles”.

         ⁶ La Sicilia nel 1154 di ‘Ibn ‘Idris, di SALVATORE RACCUGLIA, in SICANIA, n. 49, anno V, 1917, n. 8, pag. 43.
MICHELE AMARI, Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, Catania 1933, I vol., pag. 480, n. 2. 
PAOLO COLLURA, Le più antiche carte dell’Archivio Capitolare di Agrigento (1092-1282), Palermo 1960, pagg. 97-98, nota 1.

         ⁶ The Sicily of ‘Ibn ‘Idris in 1154, by SALVATORE RACCUGLIA, in SICANIA, no. 49, vol. V, 1917, no. 8, p. 43.
MICHELE AMARI, History of the Moslems of Sicily, Catania 1933, vol. I, p. 480, no. 2.
PAOLO COLLURA, The oldest papers of the Capitular Archives of Agrigento (1092-1282), Palermo 1960, pp. 97-98, note 1.

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CHAPTER II

THE LAND OF THE HAWK - THE FEUDAL LORDS
(… - 1086 - 1617)

          After the ancient and archaeological age, the name of Serradifalco⁷ still had not been used for the lands of this feudal fief.

25

In Sicilian serra also signifies a single mountain, but steep and ronchioso, and so appears in many composites: Munsirratu, Serra di lu rimitu, etc.".
The same report is also given by DU CANGE, Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, VI. Band, 1954, p. 439. 
          ⁸ BARTOLOMEO MUSCIA, Sicilia Nobilis, Palermo, 1692
GIOVAN LUCA BARBERI, Capibrevi, Palermo, 1879, f. 379, 380, 381.

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the jurisdiction of the Earldom of Caltanissetta, but he did not know when.  Like the rest, Arnico⁹ wrote: -- “I don’t know in which year it passed to the Earldom of Caltanissetta”.
          Serradifalco, Salacio, Grotta dell’acqua, Tarbuna, and Salina, as well as Naro, Sutera, Mussomeli, Delia, Fontanafredda and other lands in the valley of Mazzara, along with the seigniories of Caccamo and Gagliano, comprised the jurisdiction of the Earldom of Caltanisetta, rich with acres and square miles of land, and dominions with flocks and pastures in a jumble of confused and contradictory records.
          Then, little by little, slowly, names and designations come out; of districts, of territories, of parcels of land, and farms and estates, on which civil and criminal jurisdictions begin, and where Baronial Law is imposed.
          On March 20 1296 his Serene Highness King Frederic II of Aragon, on the day of his coronation, among many Countships created on that happy occasion, granted the title of Count of Caltanissetta to Pietro Lanza, grandson of the Chief Justice of the Kingdom. In 1396, Eleanor of Aragon, descendant of Lanza, was invested as Countess. 
          In 1405, Caltanissetta and its vast territory were owned by the Regio Demanio [Royal Domain].
          Soon thereafter, King Martin granted those territories to Sanchio Roiz of Lihori, Grand Admiral of the Kingdom, who, on June 25 1407, in exchange for the city and lands of Augusta, gave them to Matteo Alagona-Moncada^A II, with their jurisdiction to him and his heirs in perpetuity.
          Guglielmo Alagona-Moncada was the first Count of the territories, along with the seigniories of Pietrarossa, Salinas, the Land of Cammarata, and the fiefs of Pietra d’Amico and Motta Sant’Agata, Castronovo . . . . 
          There followed a series of Moncadas: Matteo, Guglielmo, Antonio, and Giovanni Tommaso; and the Land often passed from the hands of one to another with quarrels, inheritances, transactions, etc. And these conflicts are not surprising, because the Moncadas were one of the most powerful Families of the Kingdom of Sicily.

          ⁹ VITO AMICO, Topographic dictionary of Sicily, translated from the Latin and annotated by Gioacchino Di Marzo, distinguished clerk of the Royal Palatine Chapel, Palermo, 1856, two volumes, p. 496.
         ¹⁰ FRANCESCO MARIA GAETANI-EMANUELE, MARQUIS of VILLABIANCA (now and then simply VILLABIANCA), Of Noble Sicily, Palermo, 1759, p. 81;
GIOVANNI MULE BERTOLO, Caltanissetta in the times that were and in the times that are, Caltanissetta, 1906, p. 183.

       ^A [The Italian naming convention, especially for nobles, is to give the father's surname first, followed by "and (mother's surname)", thus Matteo, whose mother's surname was Alagona and whose father's was Moncada, would be Matteo Moncada ed Alagona.   In translating, I have used the English convention of giving the mother's surname first in a hyphenated surname for the child.]

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          “Just think of it,” writes Alfredo Li Vecchi, “that half the island [of Sicily] was under that dominion.” In western Sicily, one Seigniory was made up of Palermo, Biancavilla, Adernò, and other minor centers; in eastern Sicily, one domain began with the Earldom of Collesano and extended with a band of unending land and fiefs all the way to Caltanissetta.
          Family of ancient nobility, honored by supreme assignments, rich with great states, with seigniories inferior to no one. It recalled the time of Charlemagne¹¹.
          Courageous, valorous in war, on their family crest they had a black lion with red pickets around it in a field of gold. It was changed when, in the war against the Moors, during a scarcity of provisions a Guglielmo Raimondo [the First, of the Moncada House] brought seven loaves of bread to King Giacomo of Aragon. The Sovereign gave six to his Barons, and divided one with Moncada. Since then the new coat of arms comprised seven golden loaves, six whole and sound, and one divided in two, on a field of red¹².
           In 1470 it is said that the Earldom of Caltanissetta was invested in Giovanni Tommaso Moncada, who was the son of Count Guglielmo Raimondo and Giovanna Sanseverino. He was a masterful man, a lover of fine literature, who took Raimondetta Ventimiglia for his wife. He was President of the Kingdom in 1475, Chief Justice of Sicily and Grand Chamberlain of the Kingdom of Naples¹³. He died on June 1, 1501.
          And with Giovanni Tommaso Moncada, Gentleman of the Parliament of King Giovanni, Governor General of arms in the city of Agosta, Viceroy, Grand Chamberlain of the Kingdom, Grand Chief Justice, Lord of his noble House and Count of Caltanissetta, begins the official story of the Land of the Mountain of the Hawk, in the dominion and jurisdiction of the Earldom of Caltanissetta.
          “Serra di Falco was a fief of Tommaso of Moncada, from whom it was transferred”, writes Villabianca¹⁴.   Barbieri¹⁵, putting some order to the feudal fiefs  and their proprietors, writes about fillerfillerfillerfillerfillerfillerfillerfiller

      ¹¹ ALFREDO LI VECCHI, Caltanisetta feudale, Caltanissetta-Roma, 1975, pag. 7;
FILADELFO MUGNOS, Teatro genologico delle Famiglie nobili titolate feudatarie ed antiche nobili del fidelissimo Regno di Sicilia, viventi ed estinte, Bologna, 1978, vol. II, pag. 173.
      ¹² Idem, pag. 182.
      ¹³ MUGNOS, Teatro, cit., pag. 179;
BARBERI, Capibrevi, cit., III,   ff. 379, 380, 381;
VILLABIANCA, Della Sicilia, cit., II, Libro V,  f. 93 e vol. IV f. 42.
      ¹⁴ VILLABIANCA, Della Sicilia, cit. II, Libro II, pag. 134.
      ¹⁵ BARBIERI, Capibrevi, cit. III, p. 379, 380.

      ¹¹ ALFREDO LI VECCHI, Feudal Caltanissetta, Caltanissetta-Rome, 1975, p. 7;
FILADELFO MUGNOS, Genealogic exposition of the titled feudal noble Families, living and extinct, and ancient nobles of the Kingdom of Sicily, Bologna, 1978, vol. II, p. 173.
      ¹² Idem, p. 182.
      ¹³ MUGNOS, Exposition, cit., p. 179;
BARBERI, Capibrevi, cit., III,  ff. 379, 380, 381;
VILLABIANCA, Of Sicily, cit., II, Libro V,  f. 93 e vol. IV f. 42.
      ¹⁴ VILLABIANCA, Of Sicily, cit. II, Libro II, pag. 134.
      ¹⁵ BARBIERI, Capibrevi, cit. III, p. 379, 380.

²⁸

our fief in his annotations of origin¹⁶.
           We have not yet had the time to make a point of the situation in which the fief of Serra di Falco was sold by Count Giovanni Tommaso Moncada, with an agreement of repurchase (jus luendi [right of redemption]) to Nicolò Barresio, according to the notice by Giovanni Perdicaro, Notary, 7 January 1493, index XII, for the price of 2,500 florins.
            Meanwhile, the other two fiefs, Tarbuna and Salina, were sold with same right of redemption to Michele La Farina for 500 ounces¹⁷ [of gold].

          ¹⁶ TARBUNA, SALINA, SERRADIFALCO FEUDA
       Feuda Tarbuna et la Salina, ac Serradifalco noncupata, in Valle Mazarie posite, pro ut asseritur de membris sunt et pertinencijs Comitatus Calatanixecte, ex quibus dictum feudum la Serradifalco per quondama Ioannem Thomasium de Montecatheno, olim ipsius Comitatus Comitem et Adernionis, quondam Nicholao de Baresio pro certo precio, puplico mediante contractu manu Notarij Ioannis de Perdicaro, VII^o Ianuarij XII^a Indicionis 1493 celebrato, prima facievenditum fuit. Qui Nicholaus de Baresio de eodem feudo la Serradifalco ad ipsomet Ioanne Thomasio de Montecatheno Comite, tune in Regno Preside, XXIII^o Decembris XIII^a Indicionis 1494 investituram, in Regie Cancellerie dicti anni libro in cartis 695 notatam obtinuit.
         ¹⁷ BARBIERI, Capibrevi, cit. III, pag. 380 e 381.

                                                                                   TARBUNA ET SALINA
      Feudum vero Tarbuna cum dicta Salina per eundem Comitem Ioannem Thomasium quondam. Michaeli La Farina pro certo precio, carta gracie reddimendi mediante, venditum etiam fuit. Que quidem precia summam unciarum quingentarum ceperunt, convertendarunt nihilominus insatisfacionern precij juris luendi terre Paternionis; quod jus luendi ab ipso Comite loanne Thomasio emptum extitit, siculi in actis dieti Notarij Ioannis de Perdicaro continetur.
      Postmodum autem idem comes Ioannes Thomasius, jus luendi ipsorum feudorum Tarbune, Saline et Serradifalco quondam, Anthonino Rizono Regio Secretario suisque imperpetuurrì heredibus, carta gracie reddimendi mediante, pro precio unciarum XX, Vice Regia licencia preeunte, puplico mediante contractu manu Notarij Dominici de Leo VII^o Augusti XV^a Indicionis 1497 celebrato, vendidit. Quem vendicionis contractum, cum illius inserto tenore, Ioannes de La Nuca, tunc Regni pro Rex, eidem Anthonio Rizono juxta formam investiture dicti Cornitatus Calatanixecte natura, et forma feudi in aliquo non mutata, servicio militari ed juribus Curie ac alterius semper salvis; ejus cum Vice Regia provisione data Panhormi XXVIIII^o Decembris prime Indicionis 1497, et in Regie Cancellerie dicti anni libro in cartis 202 notata, acceptavit et confirmavit.
      Cuius vendicionis virtute, idem Anthonius de Rizono de feudis eisdem possessionem adeptus extitit; nálominus de illis investiiuram, pro ut moris et, capere non curavit, immo ipsa sola confirmacione Vice Regia se letari tantum voluit.
      Mortuo tandem dicto Anthonio Rizono, sibi in dictis feudis Tarbuna, la Salina et Serradifalco successit Ioannes Georgius de Rizono ejus filius legitimus et naturalis ac primogenitus, qui de feudis eisdem investituram, in Regie Cancellerie libro anni in cartis 247 notatam, reportavit.
      Deficiente postremo dicto Comite Ioanne Thomasio de Montecatheno, sibi in codem comitatu Adernionis, Calatanixecte ed alijs successit Gulielmus Raymundus de Montacatheno ejus filius unicus legitimus et naturalis; qui feuda antedicta redemit, et illa postmodum Ioanni Aloysio de Septimo legum doctori, carta gracia reddimendi mediante, pro precio unciarum... previo contractu puplico

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            Who this Nicolò was, we don’t know, but we have very many references to De Barresio or Barresi¹⁸.
            As far as the two fiefs Tarbuna and Salina, occasionally attached to our Serradifalco during this page of history, we report that they were sold to [Michele] La Farina, of a Portuguese family, and we have had occasion to hear of this, since Michele was a son of Nicolò La Farina and Domenica Salomone, sister of Francesco Salomone, from Sutera, one of the thirteen knights of the Challenge of Barletta.
             Barresi and La Farina, after four years, were forced to give up the fiefs, since Royal Secretary Antonino Rizono aquired the “jus luendi” from Count Giovanni Tommaso Moncada, and on August 7, 1497 purchased the three identified fiefs from the Viceroy [Moncada] for himself and his heirs in perpetuity¹⁹.

manu dicti Notarij Dominici de Leo Panhormite, XXVIIII^o Iulij 1501 celebrato, iterum vendidit.
       Cujus vírtute idem Ioannes Aloysius de feudis predictis a quondam Ioannes de La Nuga, tunc Regni pro Rege, ultimo Augusti 111^a Indicionis 1501 investiturani, in Regie Cancellerie libro anni 1501 in cartis 591 notatam, nactus fuit.
       In presentiarum autern, anno 1513 decurrente, feuda ipsa Tarbuna et Salina ac Serradifalco per prefaturn loannern Aloysium de Septimo possidentur, que anno quolibet reddunt...

FRANCESCO SAN MARTINO DE SPUCCHES (d'ora in poi solo DE SPUCCHES), La storia dei feudi e dei titoli nobiliari di Sicilia, dalla loro origine ai nostri giorni, Palermo, 1924; quadro 1024, pag. 367. ASPA, R. CANCELLERIA, anno 1494, f. 695.
FRANCESCO PECCHIENEDA, Ragioni apro della reintegrazione della Città di Caltanissetta al Sacro Regio Demanio del Regno di Sicilia, umiliate alla Maestà del Re N.S., Napoli, 1756, pag. CLVII:
                          1493 Il feudo di Trabuna, con la Salina
                          ed il feudo di Serra di Falco
                          furono venduti dal
                          Conte Gian Tommaso di Moneada con il patto di ricompra
                          per lo prezzo di fiorini 2500, e non essendo tali feudí, che (a ventesima parte
                          almeno di Caltanissetta, dovea
                          allora valere tutto lo stato
                          almeno fiorini 50 000,
                          anzi dovea assai più valere, conciosiacosacché
                          i sopradetti feudi erano allora
                          quasi inutili, siccome quelli, che i più
                          remoti erano della Città sudetta.
      ¹⁸ MUGNOS, Teatro cit., 1 vol., f. 117;
VILLABIANCA, Della Sicilia, cit. II, vol. 3, pag. 295.
      ¹⁹ DE SPUCCHES, Storia dei feudi, cit. e BARBIERI, Capibrevi, cit., R. Cancelleria, ASPA, libro 1499, f. 247.

FRANCESCO SAN MARTINO DE SPUCCHES (now and then simply DE SPUCCHES), The History of the fiefs and noble titles of Sicily, from their beginnings to our day, Palermo, 1924; chart 1024, p. 367. ASPA, ROYAL CHANCELLERY vol. 1494, f. 695.
FRANCESCO PECCHIENEDA, Explaining reasons for the reintegration of the City of Caltanissetta with the Holy Royal Domain of the Kingdom of Sicily, humble before the Majesty of the King, Our Lord., Naples, 1756, p. 157:
                          In 1493 the fief of Trabuna, with that of Salina
                          and the fief of Serra di Falco
                          were sold by the
                          Count Gian Tommaso of Moncada with a re-purchase agreement
                          for the price of 2,500 florins, and those fiefs were less than one-twentieth part of
                          Caltanissetta, while the whole group was valued at least at 50,000 florins,
                          but a much higher value could not be given, recognizing that
                          the aforesaid fiefs were nearly useless, since they were so remote from the City named above.
      ¹⁸ MUGNOS, Expositions, cit., 1 vol., f. 117;
VILLABIANCA, Of Sicily cit. II, vol. 3, pag. 295.
      ¹⁹ DE SPUCCHES, History of the Fedal Lands cit. and BARBIERI, Capibrevi, cit., Royal Chancellery, ASPA, book 1499, p 247.

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       On the death of Antonino Rizono, he was succeeded by Giovanni Giorgio, his first-born son, who was invested with the fiefs in 1499.
       And the Rizono family, of whom we have no records, like meteors, vanished from the history of our Land without leaving a single trace.
       The fiefs returned instead to the Moncadas, with Guglielmo Raimondo, who, succeeding his father, took the investiture of Adernò and Caltanissetta in 1501²⁰, and re-purchased the three fiefs from Rizono. His need for funds, continual and impelling, forced him to sell them to Giovanni Luigi di Settimo²¹, doctor of law, always with the same right of re-purchase.
       But only the fief of Serra del Falco, detached from the original group of three, was sold to Antonino La Rocca, a member of the Aragon and Catalan House of Nobles, descended in Sicily since 1300²².
       At first, our feudal lords were without holdings, but they acquired one fief after another, in order to have a noble title.
       Meanwhile Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada, who had sold our fief, was succeeded by Antonio Moncada-Moncada, Francesco Moncada de Luna (who redeemed the fief of Serra del Falco), Cesare, and then Francesco and Antonio. This last Antonio Moncada-Aragona, born in 1591, was a Grandee of Spain and husband of Giovanna Lacerda, daughter of the Duke of Medinaceli. On October 25, 1600 [eight years old???!!!], after having redeemed the fief of our Land, he invested himself of all the others, on the death of Filippo I and the succession to the throne of Filippo II²³.
       Prince Antonio was the last feudal lord of the House of Moncada to own our districts, even though we might ask how the the fief of Serra del Falco (with its uniquely singular name) could be represented by Moncada, who was twice a Grandee of Spain, Prince of Paternò, Duke of Montalto and of Bivona, Count of Adernò, Count of Caltabellotta, of Sclafani and of Motta Santa Anastasia, Baron of Centorbi, of Pietrasoprana, Caltavuturo, Malpasso, and of Biancavilla and many other lands, and of innumerable baronies and fiefs which were lost, sold, and reacquired in a cycle of sale and re-purchase without end.

         ²⁰ ASPA, Royal Chancellery, vol. 1501, V, f. 144.
         ²¹ "At present", writes Giovann Luca Barberi, in Capibrevi cit., "in 1513 we find the three fiefs under De Septimo".
"The Noble House of Pisa", writes AGOSTINO INVEGES, (Nobiliario, Palermo, 1651, f. 125), in f. 125, "in their stay in Sicily owned fiefs and seigniories. The son of Nicolò, Baron of Guarratana, for his grand doctrine was made Master Logician of the Royal Property and Regent in the Royal Chancellery of Aragon. He died December 29, 1522".
There are other records of the Noble House in IGNAZIO GATTUSO, Fitalia, i Settimo e Campofelice, Palermo, 1975.
         ²² The names are in ASPA, Royal Conservatory, vol. 1542, f. 503 and 1557, f. 79.
         ²³ ASPA, Royal Conservatory, book Investiture, 1600-1620, f. 39 r.

³¹

---

       Pechenada, in 1700, accused these Lords of paupering the Earldom of Caltanasetta with their profiteering sales of the fiefs. For the period he considers, in fact, Don Antonio Moncada, son of Guglielmo [the Sixth], between 1525 and 1533 had sold the fief of Gallidauri, and others, to Antonello di Caruso, Baron of Spaccaforno²⁴.
       Don Cesare Pignatelli-Moncada, in 1570, had ceded other fiefs²⁵ and the same was done by Don Francesco Moncado Luna, who in 1571 had sold the fiefs of Grotta Rossa and Deliella to Don Luigi Lo Puzzo, but had re-purchased those of Turretta, Bifara, Chiusa Vecchia, and Marcato D’Arrrigo.
       Don Antonio Moncada-Aragona, Duke of Montalto, in 1614 sold five fiefs, and in 1617 (after Gallidauro, Deliella, Grasta, Gebbia Rossa and Graziano) on another occasion turned over a triad of our fiefs, Serra del Falco, Salaco and Grutta dell’acqua, to Don Francesco Graffeo for 19,737 ounces [of gold], and another three combined lands with a large number of comuni (communal areas) to the Principality of Fiume Salato, for 90 aratate^B.
       In short, concludes Pechenada, defender of Caltanissetta, the denari and florins [cash flows] were always to the advantage of the Moncadas. It had been just a beautiful deal, to have changed the city of Caltanissetta into the House of Moncada - "the widespread, diverse Earldom of Caltanissetta for the lonely Earldom of Agosta!"²⁶. And Cancila²⁷ concludes that this great prodigality, characteristic of the Moncadas, of building enormous palaces at Palermo and elsewhere, by spending on luxuries, fillerfiller

       ²⁴ He had sold the fiefs of Marcato della Serra, Antinello, Musto Muxaro, Mustesini, Marcato d'Arrigo, the Turretta, Xitilichabili, the Chiusa Vecchia, Murtijantinu, and the Bifara, and around 1560 the Grutta dell'acqua, to Giovanni Vito Grimaldi, and to Don Pietro Marchifava the right of re-purchase: in 1520 the fief of Gruttarussa to Francesco Farfaglia..
        ²⁵ In 1570 the fiefs of Grasta and Gebbia Rossa to Ippolito Lucchesi.
        ²⁶ A notable Fief, and other Lands of the Territory of Caltanisetta..

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       Did he never comprehend that, among his vast properties, there was a fief with a curious name that evoked game, wild animals, and prey? Was he never with his retinue on this, our land, with the hawk on his gloved right hand and his vassal falconers ready to seize the catch? It begs the question, but we can give no answer.

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CHAPTER III

THE PASSAGE OF THE GRIFFIN
(1617-1640)

       Nel capitolo precedente abbiamo visto che, nonostante la potenza o le cariche e le onorificenze, le condizioni della Casa Moncada e della Contea di Caltanissetta erano preoccupanti. Sui loro stati gravava annualmente un numero enorme di creditori per migliaia di onze a causa di arretri, di soggiogazioni, assegni, vitalizi, ecc.
       Alla data del 1639, 97 creditori vantavano 20310 onze, per l'importo annuale di onze 9473 sugli Stati di Paternò, Adernò, Caltanissetta ed altri. E tra questi, la Famiglia dei Graffeo attendeva dagli inizi del secolo il soddisfacimento del suo credito²⁸.
          Il 18 settembre 1607 il Barone Francesco Graffeo fu Girolamo aveva prestato 16000 onze al Principe D. Cesare Moncada ed alla moglie D. Maria d'Aragona. La Regia Gran Corte dopo due anni aveva inviato una «interlocutoria circa la soluzione di denaro»²⁹ contro gli eredi Paternò (il Principe, la

       ^a GRIFEO, GIUSEPPE, nella corrispondenza personale con CONIGLIO, ANGELO il 10 giugno 2006.  L'ortografia corretta è GRIFEO, come confermato dal grifone sul stemma della famiglia. "Graffeo" è un errore di ortografia che è stato perpetuato dai periodi medioevali.

       ²⁸ GIUSEPPE TRICOLI, La Deputazione degli Stati e la crisi del Baronaggio Siciliano, Palermo, 1966, pag. 69, 71; 
ANTONINO MARRONE, Bivona città feudale, Caltanissetta, 1987, pag. 286. Vedi inoltre la relazione «Fatto sopra la compra di feghi di Serra di Falco, lo Salacio et Grutta di l'acqua» in ASPP, Volume A, ff. 255, 259.
       ²⁹ ASPA, Archivio Serradifalco, vol. 3, f. 32.

The House of Graffeo^a acquires the fiefs of Serradifalco
1617-1640

       In the preceding chapter we have seen that in spite of their power, strength, and positions of honor, the conditions of the House of Moncada and the Earldom of Caltanissetta were worrisome. Every year, upon those states, lay the exceedingly heavy burden of an enormity of creditors, for thousands of ounces [of gold], due to arrears, accounts payable, unpaid drafts, liens, annuities, etc.
       In the year 1639, 97 creditors were due 20,310 ounces for the annual amount of 9,473 ounces on the states of Paternò, Adernò, Caltanissetta and others. And among these, the House of Graffeo had waited since the start of the century for the satisfaction of credit extended then²⁸.
       On September 18, 1607, Baron Francesco Graffeo, son of the late Girolamo, had loaned 16,000 ounces to the Prince Don Cesare Moncada and to his wife Donna Maria d'Aragona. The Royal Supreme Court after two years had sent an "interlocutory about the solution of the debt"²⁹ against

the heirs of Paternò (the Prince, the Princess, Don Cesare and Don Giovanni), without obtaining a cent.
       Ten years later another attempt was made, when on May 6, 1617³⁰ Don Francesco Graffeo brought action against the Moncadas and all their assets, singly and jointly.
       Further, on May 17, 1617 another action dunned Don Antonio Paternò-Moncada for an amount which was increased because of accrued and unpaid interest, up to 17,337.4.5³¹ ounces.
       But Don Antonio this time decided to pay, with the usual expediency of selling some fiefs, with the right of re-purchase, on June 6, 1617. This time he traded the three fiefs of Serra del Falco, Salacio and Grutta dell’acqua³², for 19,337.4.4 ounces.
       And from this bill of sale, finally, we can see the details and extent of the characteristics and attributes regarding the three fiefs:

        ³⁰ Idem, ff. 138, 139.
        ³¹ Idem, ff. 138, 139, 17 maggio 1617.
       ³² «Et non habente dicto Duce et Principe Don Antonio modum et formam solvendi dicto Francisco pecunias per ipsum Ducern et Principem dicto Francisco pro causis ... » pensò di « ... dare vendere et alienare ut supra infrascriptas baronias et pheuda videlicet:
baroniam et feudum di Serra di Falco per prezzo di onze 8.903.20
baroniam et feudum de lo Salacio per prezzo di onze 4.500
baroniam et feudum de la Grutta di l'acqua per prezzo di onze 6.333.10
de membris et pertinentiis ... »
per il totale di onze 19 737
Il Contratto di vendita dei feudi ... «da D. Antonio d'Aragona e Moncada a favore di D. Francesco
Graffeo, Marchese di Regiovanni ... » si trova in ASPA, Archivio Serradifalco, vol. 3^o, ff. 150-205;
copia di esso in ASCL, Atto rogato dal Notaro GABRIELE IMPERIALE di Caltanissetta, vol 961
(1615-1617) ff. 285-289.
Testimoni dell'atto furono il 6 giugno 1617, Don Frabrizio Monserrato, D. Geronimo Jarubruno, Geronimo Salazar, Aurelío Lo Sciglio, Michele Mazzone.

Nel prezzo erano incluse onze 17 337.4.4. ed onze 877.6 per la metà della ragione della decima e tarii spettante al Duca di Montalto, che Graffeo si obbligò di pagare, ed onze 1522.24 per le quali il Graffeo soggiogò onze 91.11.1 di rendita sopra i suoi beni.
                                           &