Francesco de Balzorano

Overview

Count Francesco («Franz», once «François») de Balzorano, a rich young Neapolitan nobleman whom Marie knows by sight at the Naples Skating and from the stories told about him in March 1877; the hero of the love story of Giselle van Baeker, whom he married in August 1877. Mon Journal t.10 index: «Balzorano (Franz, comte de)»; t.11 index: «Balzorano (Francesco comte) : 6, 13, 219». Kernberger (2013, glossary): «Balzorano, Count Francesco de». The name is also printed «Balsorano» (Neapolitan family Lefebvre di Balsorano); Marie writes it Balzorano, Balsorano (075.0094) and Balzarono (079.0511).

Family and character (as Marie reports it)

• A «jeune Napolitain ami de Massa», already mentioned at Nice in June 1876 (062.0814, 1876-06-30).
• «riche Napolitain» (069.0113); «Balzorano est fils de la princesse d'Augri, parent des premières familles, chéri de tous» (069.0542; so spelled by Marie; the name «Augri» is unverified); of the Bourbon camp («du camp bourbonien»), so that he could not be presented to the King by his own side; at the carnival he threw thousands of bonbonnières at the King (presumably Victor Emmanuel II), who had him presented. His elder brother «n'était pas grand chose» (069.0543); he is the second brother, like Larderel.
• «le plus mauvais sujet de Naples, se conduit comme un ange depuis cet amour» (069.0542). «Beau à faire frémir» (069.0524), but «au bras de Balzorano qui est laid» (the Piccolelis on his arm, 070.0127, 1877-04-05).
• His mother, the countess de Balzorano, refused the match («Peut-on ajouter foi aux paroles d'un gamin ?», 069.0114) until Giselle's «scène de l'église» won her over (069.0536, 069.0540); his father the count then made enquiries and «se refâcha» (069.0540).
• Marie: «Si Balzorano n'était pas fou de sa bien-aimée, je deviendrais amoureuse de lui» (069.0496).
• Married Giselle about the end of August 1877: «Le comte Francesco de Balzorano a enfin épousé Giselle» (075.0023, 1877-09-28, Paris).

References in Diary

062.0814; 069.0113-0114, 069.0286-0287, 069.0496, 069.0524, 069.0536-0543; 070.0127; 071.0113; 075.0023-0024, 075.0094; 079.0511. Probably the same man (or a relative) is the «Conte F. Lefebvre di Balsorano» among the judges of the course in the printed Naples race programme of 14 April 1877 (070.0613).