www.maltagenealogy.com is dedicated to celebrating and reassessing the history of the Maltese People.   December 2010   Two Apap Bologna families.

 

Two Apap Bologna families

 

Although the Apap Bologna family is usually regarded as one family, in fact there are two separate origins. One from the Marchese Filippo Apap’s marriage to Maria Teresa Sceberras, the other from the same Marchese Filippo but from his second marriage to her sister Maria Francesca. Many of today’s noble families of Malta are descended from one or the other of these two marriages.

 

The Apap Bologna family claims nobility through the patri-lineal lines of the Marquises Apap di Gnien is-Sultan and through the maternal lines of the Sceberras which came to hold an old monetary fief through its marriage to the Monbron family, and who also claimed through the Barons Testaferrata di Cicciano and the Counts Perdicomati Bologna della Catena.

 

There is nothing in the text of the 1792 grant of Marchese di Gnien is-Sultan to support the observation made by a report dated 1878 that the title was "was always looked upon as descendible only to the first-born male in the primogenial line of the original grantee."

 

By a general legislation of the 17 March 1795 enacted by Grand Master Rohan-Polduc, holders of titles of nobility were made to rank for the purposes of precedence in appointment to municipal offices ('giurati') according to their dates of creation and all the other new creations came to be ranked after the older. The legislation clarified that actual possession of the Maltese fief was not required to enjoy the title. (Holders of foreign titles could enjoy this precedence only if they effected due registration.) At the same time, equal precedence for the same purposes was accorded to the holder of Maltese titles and any descendant from such holder provided he was descended in the male to male line, if he lives on rent of his own property, and this only if his intermediate ancestors had also lived on such rent.

 

Therefore the marchesi Apap di Gnien is-Sultan were now ranked after the older baroni.

 

An attempt to change this rule of precedence to favour the new counts and marquises was defeated by Lord Granville on the 19 May 1886 who ruled that in view of the considerable opposition and the small support which the proposal received, “I have to request that you will inform the Committee of Privileges that I am not prepared to reconsider the decision of Grand Master Rohan.”

 

The use of the titles of "Most Illustrious" and "Noble" was criminalised in 1725 and the Grand Masters relaxed this rule in favour of only some families. Of all the various enactments between 1725 and 1798 it appears that none favoured any member of the Apap family to be styled "Most Illustrious" or "Noble". However, on the 18 June 1884, the Committee of Privileges of the Maltese Nobility requested the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, for permission to allow each 'titolato' the use of the style and title of 'The Most Noble' explaining that “during the Government of the Order of St. John each and every Titolato in Malta was allowed the style and title of Most Noble or Most Illustrious”. At first this request was resisted by the British Authorities, not because the claim was misleading, but because British law allowed only Princes of the English Blood Royal use the title of “Most Illustrious”.

 

Not wanting to offend what was wrongly perceived as a Maltese custom, a compromise was reached and on the 23 February 1886, Lord Glanville instructed Governor Simmons that:- “I am also to desire you to give directions for the resuming the practice of according to the ‘Titolati’ in all public and official documents and in all communications from officers of the Government their customary titles of ‘Illustrissimo e Nobile’ or the ‘Most Noble’ as suggested in your despatch of the 7th of December, as there can be no good reason for withholding a courtesy the discontinuance of which has been felt to be a grievance.”

 

Therefore the holder of the title of Marchese di Gnien is-Sultan became entitled to the style “The Most Noble”.

 

The mother of Felice (junior) was born Testaferrata de Noto and her father Daniele, a Marquis and Hereditary Knight of the Holy Roman Empire, was reconfirmed in the title of Patrician of Messina.

 

Although the surname should read ‘Apap Sceberras-Monbron Testaferrata Perdicomati-Bologna’ the families have been long established with the more convenient ‘Apap-Bologna’.

 

Further subdivisions of this family have occurred since the surnames were first combined in the 19^th century, notably the branch claiming succession to the title of Count Gatt di Beberrua and the other which holds the erstwhile fief of Djar el Bniet et Bucana, previously invested as a Barony in favour of the D’Amico family.

 

Some branches of the Sant Fournier, de Piro and Galea are also descended from this family.