Familie Ziller

The beginnings The ennobled notary Antonius Ziller from Seio

1.Chapter : The ennobeled Antonius Ziller from Seio

Starting point of our excursion into the past of the Ziller family is Antonio Ziller, notary in Seio.
Because of his merits in the peasants war 1525 u.1526 he was ennobeled from archbishop Bernardo from Cles in the year 1527and was awarded a family crest diploma.
With him his brothers Petrus and Nicolaus and his nephews Jacobus und Bartholomäus were awarded with the noble privilege.
Fonts:
-Tirolisch-Vorarlbergerischer Wappenschlüssel (Fischnaller)
-Archiv für Geschichte und Altertumskunde Band 4 Seite 179
both works are in the museum"Ferdinandeum"in Innsbruck.

Abb.1 "The Ziller family crest from the "Goldegg'schen Wappensammlung"
and the copy of the noble privilege of Antonio Ziller from the "Libri Feudali"
(Fief-books of Trento) Volume 11 Side 191 from the year 1527
Original in the statearchive in Trento. "

Antonio was resident in Seio, a little village near Sarnonico in the Val di Non. Presumably he was born at the end of the fifteenth century about 1470 and 1480 and he had two brothers, Petrus und Nicolaus. Their father was Johannes Ziller. This was documented in a contract, which was written by Antonio himself in the year 1513. The notary sign is also documented on this paper.

Abb.2.: The signature of Antonius notary from Seio out of a contract from the 1st. march 1513 Translation: Ego Anthonius fq (filius quondam) ser Johanis de Seio............
Me Antonius son of the former Ser (title reserved for notaries) Johannes from Seio

Abb.3.:The notary sign of Antonius

The document is out of the parish of Cles. I got a copy of it from Paolo Inama, whom I want to thank very much. Autorizz.Parrocchia Cles (TN) I-38023, 12.03.2003

According to Ausserer (author of the book "Der Adel des Nonsberges") the castle or house of the lords of Seio stood below the church on a little prominent plateau. Because Antonio was notary , we can assume, that he belonged to the lords of Seio, also in lack of other mentioned notaries from Seio.

About the castle of the lords of Seio Ausserer wrote:

"From the old castle of Seio, from the farmers called 'Castellazzo'
little is left;
The ring-wall, which could be clearly seen about ten years ago (the book of Ausserer was written about 1895), the fundaments and the whole ruin was considered as a quarry for the near Seio, and today only the name and a small group of stones in the middle of the courtyard indicates the locality, where the castle formerly stood."

Today, about hundret years later, you can only see a woody hill, which let us have an idea from the wonderful location of the castle of the lords of Seio.
About the inquiry to a resident farmer, if there is anything left from the castellazzo, the spontaneous answer was :"Niente".

Abb.4 Seio with the wooded hill on the right Abb.5 Ancient view of Seio

side , where the Castellazzo stood

Abb.6 and 7 Views on the plateau, where the castle stood.

The Lords of Seio were already mentioned in the exit of the 13th century in the pay of count Mainrad.
Also there are documents existing about ancestors of Antonio who allow to derive his origin with proper safety.
In a book of the author Negri " I Signori di Sant’Ippolito e di Clesio " on page 255 is mentioned:

" 2nd of February 1466 Hieronimus q. Antonio Ziller from Sejo was a notary. "

The following connection arises from it:
In 1466 Hieronimus was notary in Seio and is meant as a son of the "former" (q quondam) Antonius.
After the tradition to give the first-born son the name of the grandfather,we can suppose that Johannes the father of Antonio, the owner of the coat of arms, was the brother of the mentioned Hieronimus.
This particularly also because Antonius had probably three sons called Joannes,Hieronimus and Georgius, who continued the Ziller generations in Seio and Sanzeno.

So the notary's craft, which was far spread in the Nonsberg, was passed on in the family Ziller from generation to generation.
According to the authors Inama and Ausserer the notaries had their own special position and their office was also passed on.
Their title was "Ser" and they enjoyed high respect, because they were also added almost always to the aristocracy.

2.chapter:The Sanzeno line and her founder Georgius Ziller

Also another son of Antonius continued the notary's tradition . His name was Georgius. He founded with his first wife Catharina the Sanzeno line of the family Ziller. They had five children.
Antonius, Peter, Jacobus, Martinus u. Magdalena
After the death of Catharina who died certainly before 1569, he was married the second time with Juliana de Josii from Enno.They had, however, no more children.
Georgius built a house in Sanzeno in the middle of 16th century, which is mentioned and described in several special books of Gorfer and Bartolini as " Casa Zillera ".

( My special thank goes to the architect Fabio Bartolini, who helped me so much with his books and documents in researching this theme .)

Abb.3 Casa Zillera ( now Casa Giuliani ) in Sanzeno

Will be continued......

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