VLAVEST

Venice , the Balla d'Oro and the Prove di Eta

Introduction

To complete the Balla d'Oro we made use of the documents itself we find in the Progetto Divenire , we combined this with the list of marriages which one can find in a digital version but this version is alas incomplete as there are serious gaps in the second part of online source : Avogaria de Comun , Matrimoni patrizi per nome di donna . Here the family Vendramin is entirely missing as is the first part of the marriages of females from Ca Venier . Concerning the family Valier one page is missing in this digital version.

But we used the Barbaro nozze index as we shall call it in future to make the Balla d'Oro more understandable , especially in case of the testators which one finds in each probation.

As far the Balla d'Oro itself we roughly followed the division in 4 parts. But for Balla d'Oro I one has the problem of the great Contarini - family where a substantial part of Balla d'Oro II should in fact been incorporated in Balla d'Oro I . There seems to be some errors in the binding .

About the Ca Valier there is no mention at all in Balla d'Oro I we find this family with 7 registrations in the Estimo of 1379 and 7 marriages with male offspring in Balla d'Oro II , there is either a loss which happened in the binding or a miss in the digital version .

From 1430 on the first name of the mother is usually mentioned but her family-name is absent in a lot of probations. Mostly the family of the mother can be identified in later probations but sometimes we used the Barbaro - nozze index which of course increases the chance of errors in the present draft.

Bala d'Oro I starts in 1410 , the first probations give the first name of the candidate , the name of his father and the name of the sponsor. We used the Barbaro - nozze index to complete the families who have male offspring and have used this as the base for the alfabetical order in which we will upload the probations.

Family-names are based on the Barbaro-nozze listings , thus we use Barbarigo instead of Barbadico , Cocco instead of Caucho etc. as used in the Balla d'Oro but this is no matter for serious concern.

Family-names of the mother are particurarly tricky when the mother is a widow , a lot of widows but not all take the family-name of the deceased husband.  We tried to avoid using the family-name of the mother is she is a widow.

Another problem is when families appear in 2 distinct parts of the Balla d'Oro . Then we united the families starting from the first mention of a probation for this particular family.

As one can be sure there are mistakes here we mention the carta on which the probations are written thus visitors can check the original text.

A further check on the worth of the Balla d'Oro was done with a review of so-called Prove di Eta . We find complete years from 1430 till 1435 and from 1445 till 1465 , they tend to confirm the probations , for a critical view of the Prove di Eta see below.

Of course we extensively used the rulersofvenice.org website , indispensable for the Balla d'Oro II , III and IV , for Balla d'Oro I the help its of no great use . Furthermore , if there was a discrepancy between the Barbaro - nozze list and the text in the probations we consulted rulersofvenice.org to decide which version to use.