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Albergo (family)

An Albergo (Alberghi in plural) was a term used during the Renaissance to indicate an organizational structure in which several families linked by blood or a common interest banded together. The different families derived economic, political, or military support from each other. They usually lived near each other and attended the same churches.

Alberghi developed among noble families in Genoa during the 13th and 14th centuries in response to economic difficulty and financial strife. Alberghi are first mentioned in 1383 by Giorgio Stella and Agostino Giustiniani on the occasion of the crowning of John of Lusignan as King of Cyprus by the Doge Leonardo Montaldo. Neither mentions the number of alberghi, though one 15th century source says there are 35 and a later source says there were 74 by the year 1414. The 28 alberghi that formed this new ruling class included the Cybo, Doria, Fieschi, Giustiniani, Grimaldi, Imperiale, Pallavicino, and Spinola families.

Alberghi mainly developed in Piedmont and Liguria. Alberghi are also mentioned as having formed in Chieri, Asti, Savigliano, and Borgo San Sepolcro; and to a lesser extent in Milan, Torino, and Moncalieri. By the 15th century, merchants and artisans were also forming alberghi, but this only affected a few of the more powerful families. Even freed slaves joined alberghi. Sometimes, these alberghi bonded together several branches of the same family. At other times, unrelated families with common interests banded together, typically taking a common surname. An example of the latter is the Giustiniani, which was composed of shareholders of a company formed to colonize the Greek island of Chios.

In 1528, after ousting the French and restoring Genoese independence, Andrea Doria reformed the constitution of the Republic of Genoa, attempting to unite the ‘nobili’ and ‘popularii’ factions into a single ruling class as formally recognized alberghi. Before this, alberghi had been strictly private institutions. This plan provided more political stability than before, but the old divisions reappeared. The alberghi were abolished in 1576 and noble families assumed their original surnames.

In Renaissance Venice, the term albergo originally referred to the building in which a Scuola Grande confraternity met. The term later applied only to a small meeting room within the building.

Today, albergo is the Italian word for a hotel.

Usage examples of "albergo".

Al grande Albergo della Luna il campanello chiamava a raccolta i commensali alla gran tavola rotonda.

Richard Greenleaf was, he succeeded in leaving a message that Signer Richard Greenleaf could be found at the Albergo Inghilterra, in case the police wanted to speak to him.

You should stay at this albergo, Bona in esse and in posse Are dispensed by Joseph Rossi.

Next morning we proceeded to Turin, and on Wednesday got here, in the middle of the last night of the Congress Carnival -- rowing up the Canal to our Albergo through a dazzling blaze of lights and throng of boats, -- there being, if we are told truly, 50,000 strangers in the city.

Fortunately there is little changed here: my old Albergo, -- ruinous with earthquake -- is down and done with -- but few novelties are observable -- except the regrettable one that the silk industry has been transported elsewhere -- to Cornuda and other places nearer the main railway.

On rare occasions one or other of us had sight of the Cavaliere Aquamorta, who maintained the same magnificence at the Albergo del Sole, and was reputed to be making large sums with his faro-bank.

When I came to look at my third basket, judge my dismay to find that it was addressed to the Cavaliere Aquamorta, at the Albergo del Sole.

On his way back, at the Albergo La Luna, in Venice, he met an elderly Russian lady in whose company he spent most of his time there.

The Albergo della Colombina was a great disappointment, for there was nothing there that could be eaten.

Luzzara has also a great tower, which I had seen in the distance from Dosalo, and the only albergo in the place gives you an excellent Italian dinner.

As I looked from the albergo I could see a gradation of colours, from the purple red to the deepest of sea blue, rising like an immense tent from the dark green of the trees and the fields, here and there dotted with little white houses, with their red roofs, while in front the Luzzara Tower rose majestically in the twilight.

At the Albergo Monte Gazza, they were assured, there would be a meal ready for them, in spite of the late hour.

In the dingy little dining-room of the Albergo Monte Gazza, a mountain inn miles from anywhere, situation arduous for walkers and pointless for cars, tariff humanely adjusted to the purses of the penniless, his poise and finish made him a grotesque.

The guests at the Albergo Monte Gazza peered at one another over dinner through a gradually deepening gloom, enlivened by occasional lurches towards complete darkness.

Peter and Phyllida were gone, it became very quiet in and about the Albergo Monte Gazza.