Cesaro (Rome, 1876)

Overview

«Cesaro», one of the young men of the Caccia-Club set in Rome in spring 1876, always named in a list with the others of «la barcaccia»: «Il n'y avait ni Pandola, ni Cesaro, ni Z...zuchini» (057.0103, 10 April 1876); «mon ennemi Belmonte, Pandola, Cesaro» (057.0185); to Pietro Antonelli, «je vous laisse à votre club, à vos amis, à Zucchini, à Cesaro» (059.0534). Marie blames him, with Zucchini and Torlonia, for leading Pietro astray: «Je voudrais bien que Zucchini et Cesaro le dévergondassent de nouveau» (059.0644); «Torlonia, Cesaro et Zucchini l'avaient entièrement perdu» (059.0886); «Je vous ai bien dit que Cesaro et Antonio le dévergonderaient» (060.0021).

He is not Zucchini. In February 1876 Marie had used the name for the man she took for «le duc Cesaro qui a ses brigands en Sicile» (054.0133); on 2 March she corrects herself: «Celui que je nommais Cesaro n'est pas plus Cesaro que moi, c'est le marquis ou le comte Zucchini» (055.0026). The February «Cesaro» passages (054.0133 to 054.0506) therefore mean Zucchini. From April she names the two side by side, so this «Cesaro» is someone else. The Mon Journal t.7 index makes the same split: «Zucchini (comte Antonio) [Cesaro] : 63, 70-72, 75, 87, 90, …» (the February pages) and a separate «Cesaro (M.) : 217, 241, 248, 279, 317, 326, 347» (5 April to 7 May 1876); t.8 has «Cesaro : 23» (060.0021).

Identity uncertain

We are not sure who this is. Marie's first phrase, «le duc Cesaro qui a ses brigands en Sicile», points at the dukes of Cesarò, a Sicilian branch of the Colonna with estates at Cesarò in the province of Messina and a palace in Rome. In 1876 the title was held by Calogero Gabriele Colonna, duke of Cesarò, who had divided his father Giovanni Antonio Colonna Filangeri's estate with his brother after the father's death in 1869 (Archivio Colonna di Cesarò, inventory, Soprintendenza archivistica della Sicilia); his son Giovanni Antonio Colonna di Cesarò, the later minister, was born in Rome in 1878 (Wikipedia). Whether the «Cesaro» of April–May 1876 is that duke, a relative, or a man Marie kept calling by the borrowed name is not settled: she gives no first name or title after February, and we found no list of the 1876 Caccia-Club members. Sources checked: carnets 054–060, the t.7 and t.8 indexes, web searches (2026-10-22). If you can identify this person, we would be glad to hear from you.

References in Diary

• 1876-03-31 (056.0268, named with Zucchini); 1876-04-05 (056.0422); 1876-04-10 (057.0103); 1876-04-12 (057.0185); 1876-04-20 (059.0004, list of names); 1876-04-27 (059.0534); 1876-04-30 (059.0644); 1876-05-07 (059.0886); 1876-05-10 (060.0021)

Sources

• Mon Journal t.7 (L'Âge d'Homme), index «Cesaro», «Zucchini»; t.8 index «Cesaro».
• Archivio Colonna di Cesarò, inventory (Soprintendenza archivistica della Sicilia).
• Wikipedia EN, Giovanni Antonio Colonna di Cesarò.