ARCHIVE RESEARCH
Galactus Translations offers consultancy for activities of research and consultation of documents conserved in the State Archives and private archives.
Our collaborators can perform the research requested by the client either online or, if possible, visiting personally the institutions that conserve the documentation concerned.
At present, we can provide research services with personal attendance in Milan, Bologna, Modena, Rome, Palermo and Messina. Abroad, our correspondents can carry out research directly in the archives of Wellcome Centre,the British Library and the Warburg Institute.
Other projects carried out by Galactus
Image: Maria Stelladoro, Santa Febronia Vergine e martire sotto Diocleziano, ed. Velar
Research on Saint Febronia: the name and the miracle
For some two years, Galactus coordinated the work of a team of palaeographers and archivists at the State Archive of Palermo, the Vatican Apostolic Archive and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. The object of the research was to discover testimonies to the so-called Miracle of Saint Febronia at Patti (Messina) and to confirm the link between Saint Febronia, venerated in Patti, and Saint Trofimena, venerated in Minori (Salerno).
On 25 th June 1500, according to tradition, the Saint stopped the plague at Patti. On the 24 th , eighty people had died. On the 25 th , no one died.
Since then a Holy Mass has been celebrated every year on 25 th June. Our glottologists’ researches have also thrown new light on the link between Trofimèna and Febronia, whose hagionym derives, in fact, from Trophinam > Trephoniam > Frephoniam (transferring the aspirate to the beginning of the word), finally becoming Febroniam (dissimilation of the aspirate and transfer of the phoneme /r/) = St. Febronia.
The House of Este di San Martino in Rio: from Emilia to Lombardy
Our research in the archives of the Biblioteca Trivulziana of Milan aimed to investigate certain events involving the noble branch of the celebrated House of Este. This powerful and cultured family left numerous documentary traces that have still not been entirely explored. Our palaeographers, in response to a commission from a client who has been studying the subject for many years, have consulted numerous archival units, subsequently transcribing several letters and documents relating to the family.
They consulted, in particular, the “Fondo Belgioioso, Corrispondenza della marchesa Giustina Trivulzio d’Este amministratrice e vedova 1569-1570”, in order to seek answers to some of the client’s questions.
For example:
Ercole d’Este: place of burial, confirmation of the dates of birth and death
Sigismondo II d’Este: place of funeral
Filippo d’Este: confirmation of year of birth
Francesco Filippo d’Este: what happened after 1720
Our research and investigations are currently ongoing.
Image: On 20th June 1550, Isabella Trivulza Borromea wrote with much affection to Giustina Trivulcia da Este in Milano, congratulating her on the birth of a son.
