Etymology

Various similar and related etymological proposals exist for the origin of the name, yet all agree on its Celtic foundations.

The second element -dun has been recognized as a continuation of the Celtic *dhūno- ('oppidum, fortified hill, castle'), in use among the Carni Gauls that penetrated and populated the region of current Veneto and Friuli between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC, possibly as part of the great Celtic migration towards Pannonia and the Balkan regions. The variety of Celtic toponyms and hydronyms in the Pre-Alps suggests that the culture may have resisted in the region from the 4th century BC until complete Latinisation during the imperial era. Some of these assumed Celtic or Celticised oppida in the region have been proposed as locations of subsequent castles in the Middle Ages, including the Castello di Meduno.^[1][9][10]

For the first element of the name, it has been proposed that it may be derrived from either a Gaulish *mago ('great'), combnined into *Magodunum ('great/big fort'), or an Indo-European *medhu ('middle'), resulting in a Celto-Latin *Mediodunum ('in the middle of fortified heights'). Other scholars have suggested a compound *Mago-dunum ('fort on the plain') based on mago ('field'), as well as a Celto-Latin Medio-dunum ('that which stands or flows in the midst' of the hills/mountains) – the latter with clear reference to the river. Such an etymological origin is also found, for example, in the historical Meduana flumen, the current Mayenne river in France, with a derivative morpheme.^[11][12][13] The hydronym of the French Mayenne river also produced the de Mayenne family name – in some sources also attested as de Meduana and de Meduno – which is, however, unrelated to the Meduna/Meduno surnames of Italian origin, beyond the shared Celtic etymological root.^[14]

The Meduna river in its upper course.

The hypothesis and interpretation of the river Meduna being "in between mountains" is based on the fact that the torrent has its source in the Carnic Pre-Alps and generates two related town names along its course: Meduno,^[15][16] at its downstream outlet in the high plain, and Meduna as it flows into the Livenza river. On the upper course of the stream, there are also three villages called Tramonti (Tramonti di Sopra, Tramonti di Mezzo, Tramonti di Sotto), which would constitute a direct and proper translation of the Celtic counterpart, transmitted through Latin and Friulian (attested as Tramonz in 1182) into Italian, thus making it a linguistic synonym of the word Meduna/Meduno.^[10] However, this proposal has been contested since the second part of the hydronym/toponym Meduna/Meduno (-dun) does not have a generic meaning of "mountains" and the Latin appelative mons/montes has not inherited a second semantic value of "castle/castles" in Romance dialects.^[1]

A different etymological approach is based on the frequent hydronymic and oronymic transposition of theonyms in the Celtic cultural environment, thus assigning rivers and geographical features names of deities.^[1] An inscription from the Rhineland contains a dedication to the goddess Meduna, venerated by the local Celtic tribe of the Treveri. The small consecration altar (from Roman times) found in Bad Bertrich near a hot spring associates the goddess with the source of water.^[17][18] Another town in the vicinity of nearby Trier, Mettendorf (according to other sources nearby Möhn), traces its name back to the locality of Villa Medona recorded in the year 768.^[19][20][21] In Insular Celtic mythology, there is mention of a goddess Medb or Maeve (in Ireland) and Mèadh (in Wales) – based on which a Celtic theonym *Medwa (as warrior goddess) has been proposed as a basis for *Medw-una, therefore dedicating the Friulan river to a Celtic deity.^[1]

While linguistic traits were shared across the ancient Celtic tribes, a cult of any of these particular deities among the Gallic tribes of the eastern Alps has not been attested. Finally, other sources propose that the name can be derived from an ancient proper name Metonius or another Celtic divinity attested in insular Britain, Matun(i)us.^{[22][23][24][25]}

Localities of similar names of distinct origins include the settlement of Medun in Montenegro, the village of Medana in Slovenia, or the town of Modugno in Apulia, first mentioned as “de loco Medunio” in 1021 and deriving its toponym from the Latin Medunium ('in the middle' of Bitonto and Bari).^[26]

Earliest attestations

In the year 794, twenty years after Charlemagne defeated Desiderius, the last king of the Lombards, and established the March of Friuli under Frankish dominance, we find the rivers Meduna and Livenza documented for the first time in a charter issued by Charlemagne (“et post hunc fluvium Medunae et aqua Medunae defluit in Liquentiam”)  – six years before his coronation as Emperor of the Romans.^[3]

Ten years later, in 804, a charter settling property ownership between two clerics attests the locality of Matunianus, which is believed to be today's town of Meduna di Livenza. The charter is stored in the Archivio di Stato in Verona (Ospedale Civico, roll 5[A]^[27]).^[28][29][30]

The hydronym Meduna proper is further attested in the year 996 in a charter issued by Holy Roman Emperor Otto III – again, as the confluence of the Meduna and Livenza rivers (“et aqua Meduna fluit in Liquencia”).^[3]

Meduna and Meduno

The hydronym Meduna (La Midùna in Friulian) is grammatically feminine, which is a common trait of large rivers in both Friulian popular tradition as well as rustic dialects of Treviso and Belluno.^[31] In contrast, the town name of Meduno (Midun in Friulian) is grammatically masculine. It remains impossible to ascertain the temporal precedence of the two names.^[1] Some authors, however, suggest that the masculine name was originally applied to the entire area wedged between the mountains (Val Tramontina and Val Meduna), subsequently passed to the torrent and made feminine (as in numerous Friulian and Venetian cases) and only in more recent (post-Roman) times applied as a carryover toponym to the castle and town of Meduna – thus giving rise to Meduna as a surname from the 11th century onwards.^[10] The separate noble family of Meduno, similarly, is attested since the early 12th century until their extinction in 1514.

Italian and Latin historical records of the 10th to 17th centuries show a range of variations in notation of both names. Meduno appears as Medun, Medunium, Methun, Metuno, Metunium, Mituno,^[32] Midun, Midunum, and Midhuna [sic!].^[33] Similarly, the name Meduna can often be found in records as Metuna (mostly in Latin), Methuna, or Mettuna, Miduna.

Castello di Meduna

The castle of Meduna was built around the year 1000 on the initiative of the Patriarchs of Aquileia, probably on the foundations of a fortress that was several centuries older.^[34][35] The castle is considered as part of fortifications erected in response to the Hungarian raids of the preceding decades. When the castle was built, a branch of the Meduna river, after having collected the waters of the Fiume and the Sile, ran into the bed of the Sambellino. In this way the castle of Meduna was located between two large rivers: the Meduna and the Livenza.^[5]

1563 map of Friuli showing the location of the Meduna (Miduna) castle

The current palazzo del governo of “La Meduna” (or simply "Meduna", as the town was called until 1 September 1884, when the denomination “di Livenza” was formally adopted by royal decree n. 2578) is a fusion of what remains of the ancient castle with the palace of the Venetian Patricians Michiel dalla Meduna.^[35][36][37] The remains of the medieval castle are located on the south-east side, distinguished by the sawtooth cornice under the roof and by a series of windows with a Romanesque arch from the era.^[5]

Meduna was a fief of the Patriarchs of Aquileia who gave it as investiture to the Lords of Meduna and then to feudal lords. In 1204, the Municipality of Meduna entered the Parliament of Udine.^[4] The first document that explicitly mentions the castle of Meduna dates back to 1223.^[38] Other documents of the same year mention the Patriarch's house in Meduna and the church. The jurisdiction of Meduna (Methuna) in the thirteenth century included, among other, a locality listed as “Methuna la villa”.^[4][5]

Being a residential fiefdom and a gastaldia, the castle at Meduna was the seat of the feudal government, the residence of the feudal lord, it depended directly on the Patriarch and was administered by a patriarchal official called a gastaldo.^[5]

Meduna ancestral lineage

Shortly after the year 1000, the first noble family that was invested by the Patriarch of Aquileia with the fief settled in the castle. In accordance with the custom of the time, the family took its name from the land / the castle itself and was henceforth called “di Meduna”.^[4][5] The family, which belonged to the class of noble feudal lords of the church of Aquileia, was represented in the Friulian Parliament. Medieval chronicles sporadically mention members of the family since their adoption of the name.^[35][39][40]

The investiture of the fief continued to be renewed over the next centuries. Patriarch Bertoldo, as his predecessors, had granted the castle as a fief of residence to the homonymous family. Only when Gena di Meduna died without direct heirs, on 29 May 1289 the Patriarch Raimondo della Torre invested his relatives, the two brothers Emberaldo and Gabrio della Torre, with the fief.^[34][41]

Other branches of the family continued, and by the 14th century the Meduna family were the castellans once again. In 1326 the Meduna nobles made an agreement with the lords of Panigai and tried to sell the castle to the lord of the Treviso area, Rizzardo da Camino – who already owned Motta and had particular aims on Meduna throughout his life. However, the conspiracy was discovered and, guilty of felony, the conspirators (Floramonte, Lavinio, Varnero and Nicolò di Meduna) were banished by the Patriarch in 1327.^{[39][42][43][44][45][34][46][47][48][49]}

In a violent act of vendetta,^[46] the banished Meduna nobles, supported by the Caminesi, attacked the town of Meduna itself, causing considerable damage. The riots also affected neighbouring villages. The Meduna were later pardoned by the Patriarch but were no longer granted their ancient fiefdom.^{[35][50][45][51][52][53]}

Castello di Meduno

The castle of Meduno (Medun) was erected in 1136 under the jurisdiction and upon the wishes of the Bishop of Concordia on its homonymous hill.^[10] The name of the castle is attested in 1136 as "Medunum castrum", in a bull of Pope Urban III dated 1186 as "castellum de Meduno cum villa",^[91] and in 1191 as "gastaldia de Medurico (…) castro et villa Medunii" (with "Medurico" having been identified in the literature as a manurscript mistake).^[38][10][1] 

Having been damaged by an earthquake in 1776, the castle was abandoned, and its square stones were used as building material in the nearby village, including the parish church and its bell tower as well as surrounding houses.^[92][10]

The current town Meduno developed at the foot of the castle and is one of the oldest centres in the mountain and foothills area. Yet geographically and juridically the elevated Castello di Medun(o) and the Vila de Medun below remained distinct urban structures.^[10][93] As with the castello di Meduna and the town of Meduna (di Livenza) further downstream, the toponym of Meduno is related to the river connecting both castles.

Meduno ancestral lineage

The custody of the castle was entrusted to a ministerial family or dinestemanni – a Germanic term in the oldest available documents. The entrusted nobles, the Counts of Meduno, who lived in the castle and ruled it on behalf of the diocesan Church, were vassals of the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation and of the Church of Concordia.^[62] As such, the family was never present in the parliament, where the Bishop had representation for all his castles. However, they had to pay the See a war bounty.^{[10][62][93][94][95][96][38][33][97]}

In 1312, it is documented that the castellans of Meduno were freed by the Bishop of Concordia from the "ignoble ministry of catching and arresting the thieves" they were bound by the debt of their fiefdom. They achieved this through the eloquence of their associate Thomas, thus erasing this stain from the house of Meduno.^[46]

The lords of Meduno had the right to install the Bishops of Concordia (1318: “The horse of the bishop of Concordia is due to the lords of Meduno on the day of his death, because they are the ones who place him in the bishopric”).^[98][95][46]

In 1318, the counts of Meduno fought a violent war to gain primacy over the rival Maniaco (Maniago) family. A year later, Walterus, Thomasius and Franciscus di Meduno made peace with the lords of Maniaco.^{[1][46][99][64]}

In 1363, the castle suffered considerable damage after being attacked by the lords of Spilimbergo, Strassoldo, Prata, Polcenigo and Urusbergo, who had sided with Rudolph, Duke of Austria, against Patriarch Lodovico della Torre. During the bitter conflicts which beleaguered Friuli under Patriarchal rule, the lords of Meduno frequently took the side of the counts of Cividale.^{[100][101][102]}

In the 1380s, the nobles of Meduno unsuccessfully sided with the Udinesi against Patriarch Philip of Alençon and Lord of Padua Francesco da Carrara, heralding their gradual decline and division within the family: Giovanni, son of Odorico di Meduno, along with his brothers and associates, rebelled and killed Giacomuzzo and Tomasutto di Meduno. In 1389 the Bishop forcefully took possession of the castle, while Giovanni resorted to an alliance with Cividale, obtaining 300 gold ducats from the community in 1392.^[97]

Passed as investiture for 700 gold ducats to the Valentinis family in 1413 by the Bishop of Concordia Enrico di Strassoldo,^[53] through a series of alliances and acquisitions the castle returned to the counts of Meduno: On 13 December 1448, Bishop Battista dal Legname once again conferred the investiture of the castle and subject lands and villas to the lords of Meduno – Nicolò, son of Candido, and Antonio, son of Gaspare – for 1300 gold ducats. The family also received the privilege of jurisdiction of the entire lordship in times of vacancy of the See. The castle remained, albeit between various events, in the possession of the Meduno family until 15 September 1514 when the last lord of Medun, Melchiore di Meduno, assigned all assets and rights to his adopted sister's son, Vincenzo Furlano, son of Piero Antonio de Colossis of S. Vito, marking the extinction of the di Meduno lineage and subsequent transfer of the territory under direct administration by the Republic of Venice.^{[100][101][102][41][103][97]}

Feudal investiture of Meduna

After the Venetian conquest of Friuli and the end of the Patriarchate of Aquilea in 1420, the gastaldia of Meduna was confiscated by the tax authorities and became subject to the Republic of Venice (the “Serenissima”) on 29 May 1420, which subsequently reassigned it to varoious capitani from other noble families for administration.^[4] 

During the rule of the Venetian Republic in Friuli, noble families invested (as capitani, per carati) with the jurisdiction of the castle and community of Meduna, would often attach a toponymic predicate of (conti, signori, or consignori) di/dalla Meduna to their name and adopt and integrate heraldic elements of Meduna in their respective coats of arms.^[35]

For example, on 22 May 1455, Meduna was assigned to the patrician Michiel family of Venice – henceforth called Michiel dalla Meduna, which (unlike the earlier patriarchal stewards) maintained control of the fiefdom through inheritance until around 1700.^[35]

Families that were invested with the jurisdiction of the castello and the gastaldia of Meduna include the following:^[34][121]

These families are not to be confused with the original (di) Meduna family that carries the toponym as their surname and established various branches descending from the ancestral lineage.

Pordenone branch

In the 15th century, some members of the Meduna family had moved north from their ancestral feud and became one of the most prominent and historically most recorded branches of the Meduna family under the Venetian Republic. They were the noble Meduna di Pordenone – established in this town since around 1500, they owned a palazzo at today's Corso Vittorio Emanuele II n. 17, the altar of S. Maria, a sepulchre, and several tombstones at the Cathedral of San Marco, as well as a seat in the city council of Pordenone. In the 16th century, this branch was still linked to properties in the ancestral feud of Meduna.^[117]

Many men of this branch were members of the clergy (as well as Franciscans of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual) during the 16th and 17th centuries – including the Reformation period, which quickly collapsed in Italy at the beginning of the 17th century.

During the trial of Claudio Rorario in 1591, Giovanni Battista Meduna of Pordenone, who associated closely with the Mantica and the Rorario families, testified before the Inquisition as a witness about the Mantica-Rorario heretical circle.^[122][123] The Mantica and Rorario families both also had their palazzos at Corso Vittorio Emanuele II.^[124]

The presence of members of the Meduna family in Motta di Livenza (e.g. Bartolomeo Meduna) and Udine (e.g. Stefano Meduna) is directly linked to the Pordenone branch. The Pordenone branch is reported to have died out at the end of the 1600s, although individuals with noble titles and the name Meduna are recorded in Pordenone still in the 18th century.^[117]

Venetian branch

Notable members of the family that lived and worked in Venice during the era of the Risorgimento were the architect Giovanni Battista Meduna (1800-1886) and his brother, engineer Tommaso Meduna (1798-1880), sons of carpenter and window maker Andrea Meduna.^{[167][168][169][170]}

Meduna family tombstone, San Michele Cemetery, Venice

Giovanni Battista Meduna is buried at the San Michele Cemetery along with his wife Maria Viola (1805-1866) and their two sons Leopoldo (1837-1855) and Cesare Meduna (1841-1906), ending this particular lineage.

Treviso-Castelcucco branch

Another branch of the family moved south-west from their ancestral feud to Treviso, where they became citizens – attested as early as in the first decades of the 14th century (see historical mentions). This time coincides with the conspiracy attempt of the castellans of Meduna to sell the castle to Rizzardo da Camino, lord of the Treviso area, resulting in their banishment from the Meduna fief in 1327.

The arrival of members of the Treviso branch in nearby Castelcucco is reported in the first decades of the 16th century. The Meduna of Castelcucco (as well as neighboring Asolo and surrounding areas) owned a mansion below the one of the Montini family along the Via Lungo Muson.

Villa Perusini (Meduna), Castelcucco

A splendid example of eighteenth-century artchitecture, the mansion passed from the Meduna to the Malafatti family, and in 1739 to the Perusini d'Asolo. In 1801, Naopoleon Bonaparte stayed at the villa, known today as Villa Perusini. The property subsequently passed to monsignore Pietro Basso, then the Pivetta family, then to cavaliere Lucio Pinarello at the beginning of the 20th century, subsequently to the Filippins and finally to Mr. Andreatta. For many years it was the residence of the famous writer Sergio Saviane, who died in 2001. The villa was once adorned with many surrounding gardens with fountains and water jets, which had been lost over the years. The small church of San Francesco is connected to the villa via a covered passage.^{[171][172][173]}

In 1776, the Meduna family also obtained from the Dall'Armi family the church of San Gaetano (dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries), together with its altarpiece, along the main road in Castelcucco. It, too, passed to the Perusini in 1805, to the noble Colbertaldo family in 1875, then again to the nobles of Meduna, and then to the Colferai. In 1936, the church was sold to Antonio Signor, who subsequently donated it to the parish of Castelcucco.^{[174][175][176]}

Melissaeus priests

A family of Utraquist Hussite priests appears in the second half of the 16th century in North and Central Bohemia: Jakub Melissaeus Krtský (1554–1599), Václav Melissaeus Krtský (1540–1578), and Václav Melissaeus Lounský (c. 1573–1631).

Their surname "Melissaeus" is an onomastic latinisation (common in scholarly and clerical circles of the time) of the name Meduna resulting from the Ancient Greek Melisseus (Μελισσεύς), based on the local interpretation of the name being related to honey (med in Czech) or Melissa (lemon balm, meduňka in Czech). Several modern Czech sources revert to the non-Latin version and refer to the Melissaeus priests explicitly as Meduna.^{[210][211][212][213][214][215][216][217]}

East-Bohemian branch

When the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the Habsburg Empire begann to reassert their power and sought to re-Catholicize the Protestant-leaning Lands of the Bohemian Crown. In order to determine where best to focus their proselytizing efforts of the Counter-Reformation, a detailed census was needed. To this end, Patents were issued in February and June of 1651 that directed the Bohemian Estates to record the names and religious denominations of all persons within their dominions on standardized forms, referred to as the List of Subjects According to Their Faith (serfs register).^[218]

Of the 19 regions of Bohemia covered in the List of Subjects, a family of the name Meduna is mentioned only the Seč estate in the East-Bohemian Chrudim District.^[219] The estate was owned in 1651 by Emanuele de Couriers, who inherited it from his father François de Couriers, a French nobleman by origin and an officer of the imperial Habsburg army. He bought Seč (in 1628) and other estates cheaply from confiscations following the Battle of White Mountain, after the previous owners who participated in the Bohemian Revolt were forced into exile.The dominions of Seč and Nasavrky (purchased by de Couriers in 1623) were among the least religiously united territories, with the share of non-Catholics exceeding 80%.^[220]

Since the 17th century, this region developed as the historical epicenter of the Meduna family in the Czech lands, and to this day the name remains most prevalent in Chrudim District. Several existing branches of the Meduna family in Austria as well as the United States trace back their lineages to the East-Bohemian branch.^[6][223]

In 1654, the Crown ordered a record of all taxable subjects (property-owning population) in Bohema, known as the Berní rula.^[224] In addition to members of the Meduna family on the Seč estate recorded three years earlier, the Berní rula mentions a Jakub Meduna from Vltava region and a Václav Meduna of Prague.^[225][226]

A certain Iacobus Meduna Borovinus (from Havlíčkův Brod) was enrolled at Prague's Charles University between 1560 and 1582. In 1611, a certain Jakub Meduna from Přibyslav in Havlíčkův Brod District is listed as a resident of Prague.^[230][231]

On 21 May 1643, Jan Duchoslav Karafilát bequeathed his house on Žatecká (Kaprov) street Nr. 42 in Prague to his wife Kateřina Barbora. After his passing, the widow married Václav Meduna, chamberlain at the tabulas regni, and on 17 September 1646 she transferred the house to him. The confession registers from the parish of St. Valentine in the Old Town of Prague – compiled during the re-Catholization period of the Czech lands – list Václav to be 42 years old, and his wife Kateřina 46, both Catholic.^{[232][233][234]}

Meduna von Riedburg

One notable family descending from the East-Bohemian branch were the Meduna von Riedburg, who trace back their title of nobility to Johann Meduna von Riedburg. Descendants of this family today live in Germany and Brazil, where they emigrated at the beginning of the 20th century.^[6]

South-Moravian branch

The proliferation of the name Meduna in South Moravia begins with Šimon Medoňa († 1698), land owner in Drnovice, Blansko District, in the 1650s. He is recorded not only in the Moravian Lánové rejstříky (1657)^[235] – a source comparable to the Bohemian Berní rula, but also in the Moravské a Slezské Urbáře (1677)^[236] and in the first local church books.^[237]

The surname of his lineage and descendants has most commonly been transcribed as Meduňa/Medoňa, resulting from palatal consonants in Moravian dialects (e.g. the word day analogously morphs from den in Czech to deň in Moravian). As the only recorded Meduna of his generation in this region, he is the progenitor of the South-Moravian branch of the Meduna family. His two sons Georg (Jiřík) and Jakob (Jakub) Meduňa established family lines that exist until this day, with descendant branches most prominent in Austria, the United States and Brazil.^{[238][239][6]}