Neighbors, in-laws and a Brunello name
Of all the families of Montalcino, the Padelletti crossed the Tamanti’s path most often: as neighbors on the same streets, as fellow officers of the sanctuary of the Madonna del Soccorso, and in marriages that joined them to the Begni, the Brigidi, the Paccagnini, the Colombini and, in the twentieth century, to the Tamanti themselves. This page follows the family through the storybook’s chapter; the Colombini line has its own page, The Colombini Connection.
Giovanni Padelletti and Agnese Grassi
The documented line begins with Giovanni Padelletti, who died on 17 April 1801 aged eighty-five, and his wife Agnese Grassi, who died in 1799. Their sons included Raffaello (about 1767–1833), a merchant and landowner who sat on the district council in 1812 and married Angela Valeri of Santa Fiora; Giuseppe, a tanner; and the priest Angelo Maria Padelletti, who died at Montalcino on 29 November 1854, aged ninety-one.
Raffaello’s children: three families joined
Raffaello and Angela’s children carried the Padelletti into the town’s other houses. Arcangelo married Onesta (Virginia) Begni in 1824, which made their son Enrico a first cousin of Clementina Begni Tamanti (see The Begni). Caterina married Dr. Federigo Brigidi in 1837. Dr. Anacleto Padelletti (1809–1892), a physician, married first Antonia Purghi and then Caterina Brigidi, daughter of Dr. Domenico, so that the Padelletti and the Brigidi intermarried in two successive generations (see The Brigidi).
Cav. Enrico Padelletti, mayor of Montalcino
Enrico Celso Giovanni Padelletti was born on 3 March 1825, the son of Arcangelo and Onesta Begni. As a young man he sang as an amateur in Donizetti’s Gemma di Vergy at Montalcino in 1852; he became a lawyer, the schools’ delegate for the district by 1868, and by royal decree of 11 December 1873 the town’s sindaco for 1874–76. In June 1874 he was made a knight of the Crown of Italy, and in January 1878 he represented Montalcino at the funeral of King Victor Emmanuel II. He sat on the provincial council of Siena in the 1880s and died on 14 May 1887.
On 22 July 1848 Enrico married Silvia Paccagnini, the granddaughter of the master builder Angelo Paccagnini, who raised the cathedral bell tower, and of Giustina Brigidi, the sister of Tullio Scrivani’s ancestor Alessandro Brigidi (see The Paccagnini). Their first daughter, Adelina Maria, died in infancy; Ida was born in 1856; and Adele, born on 13 July 1851, was very probably the Adele Padelletti who married Avv. Orazio Brigidi in 1872, the third Brigidi–Padelletti marriage. Silvia outlived Enrico and died on 17 October 1900.
The notary’s family and the Colombini
Dr. Anacleto’s son Raffaello, a notary, married Elisa Gianneschi in 1864 and, as a widower, his first cousin Ester Brigidi in 1881. His daughter Elina married Prof. Pio Colombini in 1891, and their son Avv. Giovanni Colombini married Giuliana Tamanti in 1930, joining the Tamanti land of Il Casato to the Colombini of the Fattoria dei Barbi. Another daughter, Amelia, married Piero Mattei Gentili, the son of Fidalma Tamanti.
Guido and Hilda: a scholar from Berlin
Guido Padelletti, born at Livorno in 1843, the son of the lawyer Pier Francesco Padelletti and Angela Piccinetti, became a scholar of Roman law who studied in Berlin and Heidelberg. In 1870 he married Hermine Mathilde (Hilda) Zumpt, daughter of the Berlin philologist August Wilhelm Zumpt, and when he died at Montosoli in 1878 she stayed in Montalcino with their children Carlo and Sofia. After Sofia died in 1889, aged twelve, the town’s infant school took her name, the Asilo “Sofia Padelletti”. Hilda was the sole owner of the steam mill and electric works that lit the town’s loggia in 1909, run by her son Dr. Carlo Padelletti (1871–1957), a physician, a lawyer and one of the most enterprising men of the town.
Why the Padelletti matter
The Padelletti date their land to 1571, and their name survives on Brunello today. Their story shows how a handful of landowning families of Montalcino, the Padelletti, the Begni, the Brigidi, the Paccagnini and the Tamanti, were bound together over two centuries by marriage, office and neighborhood.
Sources
- Montalcino civil registers on the Portale Antenati (births, marriages and deaths, 1809–1900), as cited in the storybook
- Gazzetta Ufficiale (1873–76); Nicolosi’s register of the provincial councillors of Siena; Il Pirata (1852)
- Berlin Cathedral registers (Zumpt–Padelletti marriage, 1870); Il Progresso (Montalcino), 1894–1912
- FamilySearch Family Tree (Brigidi–Padelletti marriages), to be checked against the registers
This page is drawn from the Palazzo Tamanti storybook (version 2.48, October 2026), chapter “The Padelletti: neighbors, in-laws and a Brunello name”, where every fact carries a full archival reference. All connected families · Back to the Tamanti family history.