Page 142 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

142 from Italy to the Canary Islands

The point is that – in the big picture of economic renewal after the
year 1000 – it was more convenient to dedicate oneself to trade rather
than demand duties from a vassalage made up of a few hundred families:
especially at a time in history when the Malocellos were taking on
increasingly important political functions within the Commune of Genoa.
This decision to exercise power within the Republic of Genoa explains
why the family transferred its own land (against adequate payment) in
favour of the city.
Nicola Russo, already quoted above, listed in around twenty pages of
his Sulle origini e la costituzione della “Potestatia Varaginis Cellarum
et Arbisolae” [On the origins and founding of the “Potestatia Varaginis
Cellarum et Arbisolae”] (1908) the individual transfers of property of each
of the four branches of the family in favour of the Maritime Republic; it
would however be of little use to list all the individual transfers of property,
which we could therefore summarise in chronological order as below:
1) in 1240, along with the abovementioned division between the four
branches of the family, the two brothers Giacomo and Bonifacio
(both the sons of Lanfranco Malocello) sold their own quarter to the
Commune of Rome;
2) in 1234, the two brothers Lodixio and Tommasino (whose grandfather
was Enrico Malocello) sold their share to Galeotto Doria;
3) in 1338, Albertino Malocello (grandson of Lanfranco “Lo Paza”) sold
part of his share to brothers Dorino and Raffaele Doria;
4) in 1340, the other Albertino Malocello (not to be confused with the
Albertino mentioned above, who was instead the son of his brother
Egidio) also sold his own share to the aforesaid Dorino Doria;
5) in 1341, Giovanni and Galeotto Malocello (whose great-grandfather
was Tommaso) sold their share to the abovementioned Dorino Doria;
6) the Giacomo Malocello branch lasted the longest in the territory of
Varazze, Celle and Albissola, as Francesco and Damiano Malocello
(father and son, i.e. Giacomo’s grandson and great grandson respectively)
only sold their share to Genoa in 1375;
7) in 1384, Antonio (brother of the above Francesco Malocello) sold his
share to Genoa, too;
8) in 1386/87. Ianono and Benedetto (they, too, the great grandsons of the
abovementioned great grandfather Giacomo) sold their land in Varazze
to Genoa;
9) and finally, Inofio and Michele (sons of Ottobono) sold their own share