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Alfonso Ceccarelli

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alfonso Ceccarelli
Born1532
DiedJuly 9, 1583
Rome, Italy
Cause of deathexecution by decapitation
Occupations
  • physician
  • genealogist
RelativesOdoardo Ceccarelli (grandson)

Alfonso Ceccarelli (1532-1583) was an Italian physician and genealogist. He authored many false genealogical studies. He was sued, arrested, tortured and beheaded for forging wills and other legal documents.

Early life

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Alfonso Ceccarelli was born in 1532 in Città di Castello, Italy.[1] His father was a notary.[1]

Career

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Ceccarelli was a physician and genealogist.[1] He started practising medicine in 1569.[1] Meanwhile, he specialized in writing local histories, highlighting the prominence of whichever family hired him to do so.[1] For example, when he was hired by the Podiani family, he wrote a study about prominent members of this family in the town of Rieti.[1]

Ceccarelli authored a false version of Chronicae Gualdenses, a lost medieval text about Umbria, and used it as a source for his own studies.[1]

Ceccarelli was the author of De familiis illustribus Italiæ ac de earum origine under the pseudonym of Fanusio Campano.[2] The genealogical study suggested the House of Grimaldi descended from Normandy, which was false.[2]

Ceccarelli forged wills and other legal documents.[1] He was sued, arrested and tortured.[1]

Death and legacy

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Ceccarelli was beheaded for his crimes on July 9, 1583, in Rome, Italy.[1]

In the seventeenth century, Ceccarelli's research was used as a source by Charles de Venasque-Ferriol, a Monegasque courtier who authored Genealogica et Historica Grimaldœ Gentis arbor in 1647 with the aim of linking the House of Grimaldi to the French royal family.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bohler, Danièle; Magnien-Simonin, Catherine (2005). Ecritures de l'histoire (XIVe - XVIe siècle): actes du colloque du Centre Montaigne, Bordeaux, 19-21 septembre 2002. Geneva, Switzerland: Librairie Droz. pp. 219–222. ISBN 9782600010115. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c Fouilleron, Thomas (2013). "Français par le livre. Les princes de Monaco et l'incroyable longévité d'une généalogie fabuleuse (XVIIe-XIXe siècle)". Revue historique. 3 (667): 601–636. doi:10.3917/rhis.133.0601. Retrieved December 22, 2015 – via Cairn.info.
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