 Italiano |
Our surnames |
Broili is a word of Celtic origin (Brogilos). In Friulano and Italian (Brolo) it denotes an enclosed place, a plot, generally speaking an area around a house. In Siaio there is a place that had this name since the Middle Age: this is what we can read in the testament of Giroldo q. Pietro da Siaio, written on 15.01.1349. In this testament the good man bequeaths to his church a garden situated in Siaio "ante broylis" (opposite to the broili). Later on, in different documents, we can find people names with the appellative "de Broili", or better, in the local language: "de Breili". Obviously these persons were part of the family living in this area and only later Broili became a surname. The Broili were a family of cramârs, as we can infer from some evidences of the beginning of the XVII century. In the year 1608, for example, a certain Leonardo Broili from Siaio, was summoned in Udine by the Father Inquisitor because he was charged, together with some fellow townsmen, with having not observed the precepts of the Church during the time he was in Germany. On 17.08.1607, "Appollonio De Cilia from Treppo, guarantor for Giovanni Del Broili from Siaio, tried to ask back the money (286 lire and 8 soldi) he had had to pay out on behalf of his defaulting protégé. Later on, Giovanni del Broili, in the name of De Cilia, had to mortgage in his turn the ‘domum suae propriae abitationis... campum et pratum vocatum Sot la Strade...". There were many cramârs mortgaging their property in order to scrape together the money required to buy something to sell in the Countries of Central Europe. Now, Giovanni was the forefather of the characters of the event we are going to narrate.
The Broili were at their top during the XVII and XVIII centuries with Pietro (1647-1736) and his sons: Giacomo (1678-1738), Giobatta (1689-1755), don Giovanni (1691-1760), Antonio (1693-1766) e Osualdo (1700-1759).
Today we still find the name of Pietro Broili engraved on the pillar of the "Maine di Palût" (near the "Bel Passeggio"): on it there are the letters P(ietro) D(i) B(roili) 1687, the same on the keystone of the house belonging to Moro Ferdinando: PDB 1710 and on the adjoining one called "dal Vescul": PDB 1729.
We find some more details in the testament of pre’ Giovanni Broili dated 05.01.1743 (3). In it the priest, after giving instructions for the funeral, adds: "I affirm that my father on May 23rd, 1726, during the division between us, 5 brothers, left me the right share with the sum of 1290 ducats. Item he left me 400 ducats to be drawn from the shop my brothers had in Treviso..."
Thus we get to know that the family had a shop in this town in Veneto region, while from the testament of his brother Giobatta, dated 18.04.1751, we hear about another shop in Trieste. But this one will be handed over on 21.05.1783 to a certain Gaetano Zannini. To the above mentioned brother, Giobatta, the priest leaves "... all the properties of Sottovia (below the road) on the other side of the Water, belonging to his mill as far as the siega Cortolezis. To my nephew Giovanni, son of my late brother Giacomo, I bequeath my silver watch, in memory of my name, the same as his...". Still today "Suvie" belongs to the descendants of this family and, next to the house of the last person with this surname, Broili Amabile of Pizziniti, there is the mill, now a hay-loft. The waters from riu Mauran used to feed many mills and the sawmill of Cortolezzis, situated near the lavadôr of Dortes. But where has this family ended up since, as already seen, in Treppo we can now find only Amabile? We remembered that Pietro had five sons:
- GIACOMO: he had five sons too, but was left only Maria who, married to a Nodale from Paluzza, emigrated in Germany.
- GIOBATTA: he had only one son, Giacomo, who, after having sold the shop in Trieste, retired in Siaio, leaving no descent.
- ANTONIO: he had seven sons who emigrated: Giacomo and Giobatta to Wurzburg and Gio.Antonio to Augsburg (Germany) and, as testified by Nikolaus Broili (born in 1915) who came to Siaio in 1938, it is there that still live some descendants. Osualdo Antonio died, as Capuchin friar, in the friary of Gemona, with the name of frà Ireneo da Siaio. Angelo emigrated to Trieste and Pietro carried on the activities in the shop in Treviso, he died in 1806.
- OSUALDO: he married Di Centa Mattea from Paluzza and there he went to live. He had 10 sons, among them the notary Pietro Antonio and Tomaso, who went back to Siaio in the house of "Cristil". He was the forefather of Amabile. Today also the Broili of Paluzza are extinct.
And what about the two beautiful houses in Breili built by grandpa Pietro? After the death of his sons, almost all the grandsons appear to be out of Italy. In Breili there was only Antonio`s daughter Maria (1737-1813), married to De Cillia Giobatta (1738-1770) nicknamed ’Birtimbergh’ because of his trades with Germany. In 1769 Giobatta bought from the Broili brothers-in-law the house that was property of De Cillia family till 1820, when there was the same situation as in 1769. Moro Paolo (1797-1848), married to De Cillia Maria, bought the house, moving in Breili the Moro family, still today owner of it. Paolo Moro, to be clear, was the grandfather of Pauli and Gjudite di Breili.
Today we only have the name of a zone and a street (via Breili, precisely) reminding us about this family that, like many others in our village, gave us an example of initiative and laboriousness.
Many thanks to Mrs. Amabile Broili who kept all the documents that allowed the historical reconstruction of this lineage.
don Tarcisio Puntel
