The history of our family is several centuries old.  It is quite interesting, and makes us very proud of our ancestry.  The story of Costantino Iaccino, from whom five generations have now passed is as follows:

The Misfortune and Poetry of Costantino Jaccino

The  origins of the family of Costantino Jaccino,  are  very remote, and its original nobility is much discussed; in the 11th century,  though, it had the glory of giving birth to  the Abbot Joachim, whose fame as a guiding light of his time and one of the great  spirits of humanity has remained firm for over 800  years. Lacking  precise documentation for that period, the  first  documents  we have, show that the members of the Jaccino (or Jaccini or Giacchini)  family  were among  the  greatest  supporters  of Charles of Angio for the throne of Naples in 1382. For  unknown reasons,  the family is not mentioned during the  following  century,  when the struggle between the houses of Angio and  Aragon, turned Cosenza into a place of carnage; and Calabria was  defeated.  Only in 1490, do we find a certain Giovanni  Gioacchino,  a medical  doctor, who moves from Celico to Cosenza, where he  very soon  marries into a noble family of the town. His son  Vincenzo died  in 1560, and was the Leader of the Nobles. From that  time on,  the  family  is easily traced through  notary  documents  of Celico and Cosenza.

Towards the end of the 1700's, Don Pietro Jaccino, a man  of great  learning,  and an able poet, was pastor of the  church  of Saint Michael, in Celico, and is famous in the family for having hidden himself, when nominated bishop, so that he would not  have to leave his town and his church. He had restored and  decorated the  church, calling Cristoforo Pantanna to paint the ceiling  of the central nave and sanctuary, as well as the walls surrounding the main altar.

Bruno, a nephew of Don Pietro, was an ingenious man and well versed  in the sciences. On 5 January 1817, he and  Rosalba Valente  gave birth to Costantino. Having received an abacus  and learned  the  alphabet at home, he was sent to  the  seminary  of Cosenza  to  prepare himself for the  ecclesiastical  life.  The rules and the silence of the seminary, contrasted painfully  with the  life  he had lived up to then, in the grand piazzas  of  the town.  He soon made his discomfort known. Though he was  not  a restless  sort  -- and the rest of his life  demonstrates  it  -- everything  around him seemed to push him away from the  type  of life  to  which his studies were leading him. To  aggravate  the situation, at this time, there began a back ailment, which was to stay  with him for the rest of his life. Both superiors and  his father  sought  to correct him; punishments  followed,  but  they served only to push him towards his first disobedience -- he left school.  For  his  father, Bruno, who was  both  inflexible  and closed, this was a very serious act. Having exhausted all  arguments, he led his son back to the path, which had been chosen for him. While he no longer trusted his son, he decided to wait  and see,  maintaining  some  hope. He very soon  learned,  that  his instincts had been wrong; Costantino made a final break with  the seminary, and then his father did the same with him. Not even  a mother's intercession could move Bruno from the decision he  had made. Costantino was already finding refuge in poetry, with  the secret hope of finding, in it, some comfort in his most unfortunate situation.

After a time in menial work, he decided to seek some work in which he could gain independence for himself and create a family. He  began  working in the Chancery of the Commune of  Celico,  but soon  had  an opportunity for greater and  immediate  gains.  He dropped  his  work as a notary, and became a  judicial  official. This  job  allowed him to distance himself from his  father,  who still  hounded  him, and to achieve that  economic  independence, which was necessary for an eventual family. His father never was able to accept the fact that he had left the road of the ecclesiastical  life,  and that he was now involved in a work  that  ran contrary to his principles, and did not measure up to his  social condition.

Costantino  was  sent to Rose, where he  shortly  married  a young  woman of the Zinging family. Knowing that the  final  act had been accomplished, Costantino's father banished him from  the family.

Never  again did Costantino set foot in his father's  house; neither  when he served in the prefecture of Celico, nor when  he lived in his home town, while serving in the prefecture of  near-by Spezzano Grande.

While  trying to flee from the influence of his  family,  in effect  his family situation controlled his entire life; to  calm his  bitter  spirit, he attempted to distance  himself  from  the family home, going to Cosenza, Rogliano and Aprigliano.  Eventually, though, love of his home town brought him back to  confront his great sorrows.

In  the meantime, the family grew, its needs  increased  and there  was need of even greater work. But as much as he  worked, he gained little. Notwithstanding the difficulties in the  family,  and  the lack of financial means, he managed  to  write,  at least  infrequently. And this, even when misfortune hit him  most directly;  one  of his daughters became insane,  and  for  thirty years, he suffered the pain and the mortification of her presence in the house, since he did not wish to send her away to be  cared for.

No misfortune ever served to make him forget his  resentment towards his father, who continued to work against him right up to the  last. The obstinacy of his father weighed heavily  on  the unfortunate  poet,  and his verses reflected the  situation.  He sought  refuge  in his verses from his  constant  bad  treatment. Fortunately, his brothers repaired some of the damage done by his father, by offering a piece of land and some money. It should be remembered,  that  the love of his brothers was not due  only  to ties of blood; it was rooted in a common attachment to the existing form of government.

All  of them gave open expression to their political  views, which  they  put into action. In the period of  '48,  they  used their  influence to reduce the damages to their town,  which  was eventually  to  run  red with the blood of the  Bourbons.  As  a result of this activity, Costantino's brother Luigi, in 1860, was deprived of his office as Keeper of the Register.

The  continual adversities of Costantino, which  would  have destroyed  the  goodwill of many others, only produced in  him  a greater level of need in research, in understanding and in  goodwill,  which  sought  to overcome every  obstacle  with  seraphic gentleness.

Costantino  Jaccino's entire life is based  on  unhappiness. But  if  he was often buffeted by various  needs,  he  remained always  an idealist. Accattatis wrote of him: "He loved  poetry, his  homeland and his family -- three holy affections that  bring with  them,  posthumous  reward,  glory  and  living   punishment, misery."

He published only two collections of verses. La chitarra  de li  guai (The Guitar of the Bad Times), in 1894, and La  zampugna dulurusa  e  lu testamentu di Carnalevare  (no  translation),  in 1897.  The unedited material is much greater and deserves to  be known and admired.

Costantino died on 9 October in Spezzano Grande in 1897.

Cca dorme Custantinu lu scuntientu chi intra na rosa de spine  se inchiju; peniau sempre e peniau allu vientu e peniannu e  sudannu moriu.

LONARDO LAGAROE