I dedicate the reproduction of Giordano’s book,
destined to the contemporary Ruffos,
to the dear memory of the unforgettable
Antonio della Scaletta and Lucilla della Floresta,
that stood by me with affection
while I made my researches
through archives and genealogies

INTRODUCTION

1.  The Man as seen at the Court  and in his time

Giordano Ruffo di Calabria, second son of Peter I (1118-1257), Count of Catanzaro and  Viceroy of Sicily and Calabria, was probably born in Tropea around 1213. His brothers were Ruggero (1209-1236), father of Count Peter II (1231-1309), Serio – also called Sigerio – Imperial Master Marshal, who signed as a witness, together with his nephew Fulcone (1232-1256/66), Frederick II’s testament. There was also one sister, Adriana, married to Count William of Borrello.

Beloved by the Emperor, he was honoured with the office of Master of the Knights. In 1240 he became lord of the castle of Cassino. He also was Lord of Val di Crati and Terra di Giordano – this latter bearing, in fact, his name. He must have died between 1253 and 1254, as his name can no longer be found in the time’s chronicles.

Another Giordano (Giordano II), who participated in the war between Pietro I and Manfredi (1255) was the son of Ruggero and Belladama, and therefore nephew of  “our” Giordano, who had no direct descendant and whose estate passed, at his death, to his father Peter I, who at the time was Grand Marshal of the Reign of Sicily, Governor of King Henry – still a child – and Vice Bailiff of Sicily and Calabria.

Giordano I was the author of a treatise of veterinary medicine (De Medicina Equorum), completed in 1250, that was much appreciated by  Emperor Frederick, himself the author of a valuable treatise on falconry (Ars Venandi cum Avibus or De Arte Venandi cum Avibus). Actually Giordano himself had actively cooperated to its writing.

Giordano I’s treatise, according to Del Prato, is one of the most ancient documents written in the Sicilian language. It starts with the following paragraph: “Incipit liber Manescalchiae. Nui Messere Iordano Russu de Calabria volimo insegnari a chelli chi avinu a nutricare cavalli secundu chi avimu imparatu nela Manestalla de lu Imperaturi Federicu chi avimu provatu e avimu complita questa opira ne lu nome de Deu e di Santu Aloi”, that is “We, Messere Giordano Ruffo of Calabria wish to teach those who have to breed horses, according to what we have learned in the stables of Emperor Frederick, we have tried and we have completed this work in the name of God and St. Aloysius”.

In his book “Pietro Ruffo di Calabria Conte di Catanzaro”, Vincenzo Ruffo della Floresta reports that one manuscript of this work, translated into French, can be found in the library of S.Giovanni in Carbonara , Naples; a second one in the Damiani Library in Venice; and a third one at the British National Library.

In the hope of being able to peruse at least one of these manuscripts, that were much spoken about, but that nobody ever claimed to have read, I made some reasearches that enabled me to obtain copies of the most reliable manuscripts available, belonging to public archives or private collections in Italy and abroad. The library called by mistake “Damiani” in the book by Vincenzo Ruffo is actually the Marciana National Library. The manuscript preserved there with the press-mark Lat. 7°, 24 (3677) belongs to the Giacomo Nani’s collection (XVIII Century). The veterinary doctor Hieronjmus Molin had it printed in Padua in 1818, translated into Latin. From a merely scientific point of view, this can be considered the most valuable edition known up today.

Five printed volumes can be found at the British Library, having two different origins. The first one is a translation from Latin into Italian by Friar Gabrielo Bruno, and it had three editions: Venice 1442, Venice 1554 and Brescia 1611. The second one only had two editions: Venice 1561 (published by Rutilio Borgominero) and Bologna 1561 (published by Giovanni De Rossi). A sixth printed volume in Latin belongs in the same library and is identical to the edition existing at the Marciana Library in Venice.

The reading of these texts allowed me to detect a mistake – unconceivable for cultured men as I presume Friar Gabrielo Bruno and Giovanni De Rossi have been . Such mistake, existing in three editions, Venice 1554, Brescia 1611 and Padua 1818, consists in having confused the person of Emperor Frederick II with that of his ancestor Frederick I Barbarossa. In the 1818 latin edition, published by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Padua University, this error was actually pointed out  by the editor. The reason why I mention this mistake is only that it allowed me to conclude that all three different volumes, printed in different times by different publishers, are referable to the latin manuscript, the one translated into Italian in 1492 by Gabriele Bruno and dedicated to Count Zoano Brandolino, a Venetian military commander.

At the end of this book a sonnet by this same Gabriele Bruno is reported, in which he refers to “messer Jordano Calavrese” and his book on horse-care. Such sonnet concludes the Venetian edition of 1554, printed for Gioanne Padoano’s heirs. The other two editions (Venice and Bologna 1561) refer to a manuscript, belonging, at the time, to a Messer Bartholomeo Canobio. Giovanni De Rossi wrote on his volume. “I desired to print this book in the same language as used by the Author”. However, not even this version of the book by “Messere Jordano di Calavria” seems to me the original one: I am rather inclined to suppose that the treatise was originally written in Latin – the same language used in Frederick II’s treatise on falconry – and then translated into vernacular Italian to allow its diffusion in less cultured environments, such as that of the stables. In the various editions, moreover, the original text was clearly tampered with: whole chapters were omitted, or additions were made of hardly any scientific value. In fact the treatise by Giordano has been for many centuries the only reference book for anybody who wrote on the subject, and it can be safely supposed that authors and publishers - which have been numerous in Italy and abroad – have often added or deleted to the original text, and sometimes even published the treatise or parts thereof under their own name, without quoting the source.

Recently, during my stay at Villa Cicero as a guest of Donna Lucilla Ruffo della Floresta, I was able to peruse an ancient treatise on horse care, composed by three works: one by the Neapolitan Federico Grisone, published in 1561, one by different authors published in 1559, and the third by Giordano Ruffo, which is the one reproduced here.

I was not aware of the existence of this book, however I was not surprised to find it in the library of the direct descendants of Duke Vincenzo Ruffo della Floresta, who has been the most accuraate and most reliable researcher in the history and genealogy of his own ancestry.

The Venetian edition of 1561, although altered and uncomplete, seems to me the most suitable to be proposed to the Ruffo descendants still living in this millennium’s end; the same millennium at the beginning of which Giordano and others of his name, following the tracks left in history by other Ruffos in three thousand years (“haec familia quinquaginta principes habuit et cum eis magnam multitudinem discendentium ad numerum termilium” – Ritonio, XV Century) kept  illustrious the name of the “gens Rufa”, known as “Magna Domus” by the contemporaries, a name that had a great part in the history of Calabria and Sicily.

2.  The lineage

As historians and genealogists, in writing about the Ruffos that lived in the XII Century, have in all times created some confusion by reporting incorrect information, I deem it worthwhile to draft a correct sketch about some of the knights of  this family:

Giordano Ruffo di Calabria + Agnese Ruffo

b. 1188  Pietro (I)  +  Guida

+1257            1209

b.1213 Giordano I**       b. 1214 Serio***

+1253

b.1209 Ruggero + Belladama b.1212

Giordano II

b. 1234

+ 1255 

****b. 1231 Fulcone I + Margherita di Pavia

(+ 1256-1266?) 1253

I would add that Giordano I’s elder brother, Ruggero*, “Preside” of the Reign of Sicily (1235), died before his father, while the youngest brother, Serio***, Imperial Master Marshal , did not have any male children.

His nephew Giordano II (son of Ruggero and Belladama, whose family name in unknown), distinguished himself in the war against Manfredi; he was taken prisoner in 1255, and, despite the promise to spare his life and restore him in his possessions, he was clubbed to death during his imprisonment.

The other nephew, Fulcone I – who will be the founder of the second-born lineage of the Ruffos of Calabria, successively Counts of Sinopoli and Princes of Scilla – was also known as a poet of the Sicilian School;  he also fought in the same war and, from his castles of Bovalino and of Santa Cristina, he resisted Manfredi’s troops even after the Parliament of 1256, during which Pietro (I) Ruffo was declared  a  traitor and deprived of all his offices and his possessions.

Also Giordano I** did not have direct descendants, and at his death his estate passed, under the name of “estate of the quondam Giordano”, to his father, the Count Peter (I), who at the time was Grand Marshal of the Reign of Sicily, Tutor of King Henry and Vice Bailiff of Sicily and Calabria.

3.      Giordano’s Treatise: “Delle Mascaltie del Cavallo”

The treatise written by Giordano Ruffo di Calabria – published, as we saw, in 1251, a few months after the death of Emperor Frederick II – was in various times translated into different languages, even in Hebrew, and was considered for several centuries as a safe reference by veterinary medicine practitioners.

The origin of such treatise is quite interesting. From the reading of the text it can be inferred that the Emperor himself cooperated to this work with advice and additions. Frederick’s love for natural science was certainly a great advantage for Giordano and helped him in many ways. It is easy to imagine that Giordano had contacts with the messengers that Frederick used to send in every part of the world known at the time in order to increase, compare and complete his scientific knowledge about horses. To such messengers, while Giordano was preparing his treatise, the Emperor would entrust messages and questions addressed to the best known naturalists of the day, thus obtaining precious pieces of information, of which Giordano could take advantage. In his book, in fact, information and advice can be found about horses which are absolutely new for his time.

-         instructions about horse shoeing can be found, a practice totally unknown to his contemporaries

-      alterations of the hoofs are discussed, whether due to illness or to injures caused by fatigue, by lack of skill of the stablemen, by defects of posture of the animal, by congenital malformation, etc. etc.

-      remarks and suggestions can be read, which are, for the most part, still valuable today

Even the accurate psychological analysis he makes of the horse sounds quite modern, and the same can be said about the method he suggests to stablemen to correctly tame the animal. Through such method it is possible and easy to obtain cooperation from an adult horse.

Also the bit, though necessary, must be used with great thoughtfulness in order to avoid that “the horse’s mouth is ravaged”. To make the horse accept the bit more willingly, he observes that in some cases it could be convenient to extract the four canine teeth.

Like to Emperor’s treatise “De Arte Venandi cum Avibus”, Giordano’s work is also divided into six books:

1.                        Reproduction and birth of the horse

2.               Capture and art of taming

3.               Grooming and training

4.               Temper of the horse and disorder it may be subject to. Criteria to judge its beauty.

5.                  Natural and accidental sickness

6.               Therapies and most suitable remedies to treat deseases.

The structure of the book is strictly scientifical. Symptoms and deseases are described; aetiology is discussed, that is the causes that may have originated a desease are listed; and, last, the diagnosis is formulated and discussed. Even pathogenetic information is given.Therapy is constituted by magistral preparations described in single prescriptions, which, for the time, is something absolutely new. Such preparations are galenic medicines from the animal, vegetal or mineral realm, until recently still largely used in medicine and described by the official pharmacopoeia.

Many such remedies, transmitted by word of mouth through many generations, are still used in our days. To confirm the scientific contents and value of the work, suffice it to remark the absolute absence of magical pratices or formulae, of propitiatory pratices, of possible influence of the stars and planets or of pseudo-religious superstitions.

From Giordano Ruffo’s studies a new horse is actually born, capable of running undamaged on any type of ground: and this is a charcteristc that was felt as necessary in the military field as well as in the field of communication and transport.

The first acknowledgement of the merits acquired by Giordano came from Emperor Frederick, who conceded to the Ruffos to add to their coat of arms a crest constituted by the figure which in heraldry is defined as a natural new-born horse.