Il Casato was the largest single estate of the Filandro branch of the Tamanti, and it is the one with the longest afterlife. In the survey of about 1820 the brothers Ermenegildo and Dr Antonio Tamanti, sons of Filandro, owned it jointly. A century later it belonged to Giuliana Tamanti Colombini, and today it is Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s Fattoria del Casato. Stefano Cinelli Colombini calls it “the centerpiece of the Tamanti lands” (correspondence with the owner, August 2026).
The Sparampaglia section
The cadastre does not use the name Casato as a heading. The estate lies in the section named after the locality of Sparampaglia, section A′, which is sometimes transcribed as “A1” in the research notes. Its owner table opens with “Ermenegildo e Antonio Tamanti di Filandro.” The register then carries their ownership from parcel to parcel, either by naming them again or with “Detto” (“the same”). (See the Tavole indicative, Tomo II p. 82, p. 83, p. 84, p. 85, p. 86, p. 88, p. 89, p. 90, p. 91, p. 93 and p. 94.)
Ninety-eight parcels
Brian Pasch’s parcel-by-parcel reconstruction assigns 98 parcel numbers at Il Casato to the brothers, in the blocks 70–99, 105, 112–117, 126–127, 163, 168–191, 193–199, 202–208, 210–216, 219–222 and 225–233. The wider survey of the section, which runs from parcel 70 to 233, counts about 120 parcels under their name. The research has not yet reconciled the two figures. The 98-parcel figure is the one tied to specific, checked entries. No hectare total has yet been worked out for either.
The research map above outlines the reconstructed Tamanti parcel groups around the farm marked “Casato Pod.” (podere Casato). It is a working map, to be read alongside the owner table rather than as independent proof of ownership. The next step is to georeference it and compare it with the modern estate. Parcel shapes have changed since 1820, and the historic footprint cannot be assumed to match today’s boundaries.
A working estate
The key entry is parcel 83, recorded as Casa Colonica e Stalla: a farmhouse and stable, where the farming family lived and kept its animals. The entries around it show a mixed economy. Parcel 70 is seminativo (arable), 73 is vigneto (vineyard), 81 and 84 are arable, 105 is bosco (woodland), 112 is vineyard, and 183 and 233 are woods.
The full survey of the section adds more. Across the Sparampaglia entries it reports a mill with its millrace, four farmhouses, a kiln, vines and pasture. Exactly which of these buildings fall within the 98 reconstructed parcels still needs to be checked against the register.
The same brothers in town
Ermenegildo and Antonio were also joint owners of Casa Tamanti in town, parcels 568–571 (see Town houses), and the 1841 census lists both as proprietari. Antonio was born on 10 January 1810 (birth act, original on Antenati), so if the owner entry dates from 1820 he was only ten. The entry could date from as late as the mid-1830s, and the Campione will settle that. The survey gives no hint of how the brothers came to own the estate, whether by inheritance from Filandro or otherwise.
What is still open
- How far back Tamanti ownership of Casato goes. Donatella Cinelli Colombini says the estate belonged to her ancestors by 1592 but does not name that family as the Tamanti.
- The legal succession from the 1820 brothers to Giuliana Tamanti Colombini, which the Campione and its transfer entries (volture) should reveal.
The family and wine story of Casato is told in Il Casato and Fattoria dei Barbi, part of the Colombini connection.
Sources on this page
- Catasto Generale della Toscana, Montalcino, Tavole indicative, Sparampaglia (section A′), Tomo II pp. 82–86, 88–91, 93–94 (CASTORE; linked above)
- Brian Pasch, Il Casato parcel reconstruction and outlined cadastral map (map), and survey of the Montalcino owner tables (September 2026)
- Birth of Antonio Tamanti, 10 January 1810, Nati reg. 61, act 3 (scan; Antenati)
- Luisa Scrivani, c.1835 urban cadastral reconstruction (correspondence, 28 August 2026), and Era il 1841 a Montalcino (Effigi, 2017)
- Stefano Cinelli Colombini, correspondence with the owner, August 2026
- Donatella Cinelli Colombini, “Donatella Talks About Her Two Wineries” (2023)