Meduna
13% live in the South Moravian Region, a key settlement area during the Habsburg Empire en route to today's territory of Austria.
[6][7][8] Notable people with the surname include: Various similar and related etymological proposals exist for the origin of the name, yet all agree on its Celtic foundations.
The variety of Celtic toponyms and hydronyms in the Pre-Alps suggests that the culture may have resisted in the region from the 4th century BC until complete Latinisation during the imperial era.
Some of these assumed Celtic or Celticised oppida in the region have been proposed as locations of subsequent castles in the Middle Ages, including the Castello di Meduno.
[1][9][10] For the first element of the name, it has been proposed that it may be derived from either a Gaulish *mago ('great'), combnined into *Magodunum ('great/big fort'), or an Indo-European *medhu ('middle'), resulting in a Celto-Latin *Mediodunum ('in the middle of fortified heights').
Other scholars have suggested a compound *Mago-dunum ('fort on the plain') based on mago ('field'), as well as a Celto-Latin Medio-dunum ('that which stands or flows in the midst' of the hills/mountains) – the latter with clear reference to the river.
[1] A different etymological approach is based on the frequent hydronymic and oronymic transposition of theonyms in the Celtic cultural environment, thus assigning rivers and geographical features names of deities.
The small consecration altar (from Roman times) found in Bad Bertrich near a hot spring associates the goddess with the source of water.
[22][23][24][25] Localities of similar names of distinct origins include the settlement of Medun in Montenegro, the village of Medana in Slovenia, or the town of Modugno in Apulia, first mentioned as “de loco Medunio” in 1021 and deriving its toponym from the Latin Medunium ('in the middle' of Bitonto and Bari).
[3] Ten years later, in 804, a charter settling property ownership between two clerics attests the locality of Matunianus, which is believed to be today's town of Meduna di Livenza.
[38] The remains of the medieval castle are located on the south-east side, distinguished by the sawtooth cornice under the roof and by a series of windows with a Romanesque arch from the era.
However, the conspiracy was discovered and, guilty of felony, the conspirators (Floramonte, Lavinio, Varnero and Nicolò di Meduna) were banished by the Patriarch in 1327.
[39][10][1] Having been damaged by an earthquake in 1776, the castle was abandoned, and its square stones were used as building material in the nearby village, including the parish church and its bell tower as well as surrounding houses.
[10][63][94][95][96][97][39][33][98] In 1312, it is documented that the castellans of Meduno were freed by the Bishop of Concordia from the "ignoble ministry of catching and arresting the thieves" they were bound by the debt of their fiefdom.
[1][47][100][65] In 1363, the castle suffered considerable damage after being attacked by the lords of Spilimbergo, Strassoldo [it], Prata, Polcenigo and Urusbergo, who had sided with Rudolph, Duke of Austria, against Patriarch Lodovico della Torre.
[98] Passed as investiture for 700 gold ducats to the Valentinis family in 1413 by the Bishop of Concordia Enrico di Strassoldo,[54] through a series of alliances and acquisitions the castle returned to the counts of Meduno: On 13 December 1448, Bishop Battista dal Legname [it] once again conferred the investiture of the castle and subject lands and villas to the lords of Meduno – Nicolò, son of Candido, and Antonio, son of Gaspare – for 1300 gold ducats.
After the Venetian conquest of Friuli and the end of the Patriarchate of Aquilea in 1420, the gastaldia of Meduna was confiscated by the tax authorities and became subject to the Republic of Venice (the “Serenissima”) on 29 May 1420, which subsequently reassigned it to varoious capitani from other noble families for administration.
Another branch of the family moved south-west from their ancestral feud to Treviso, where they became citizens – attested as early as in the first decades of the 14th century (see historical mentions).
A certain Mixo (Mikeš, Niklaš) called Meduna and his brother Swathon (Svatoň, Šwach) bought a feudal estate (manor) from Hron of Bohuslavice.
Meduna as a definitve hereditary surname first appears in the 16th century in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, at a time when the Protestant Reformation heralded the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the early modern period in Europe.
[206][207][208][209][210][211][212][213][214] When the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the Habsburg Empire begann to reassert their power and sought to re-Catholicize the Protestant-leaning Lands of the Bohemian Crown.
To this end, Patents were issued in February and June of 1651 that directed the Bohemian Estates to record the names and religious denominations of all persons within their dominions on standardized forms, referred to as the List of Subjects According to Their Faith (serfs register).
[215] Of the 19 regions of Bohemia covered in the List of Subjects, a family of the name Meduna is mentioned only on the Seč estate in the East-Bohemian Chrudim District.
[217] Since the 17th century, this region developed as the historical epicenter of the Meduna family in the Czech lands, and to this day the name remains most prevalent in Chrudim District.
The confession registers from the parish of St. Valentine in the Old Town of Prague – compiled during the re-Catholization period of the Czech lands – list Václav to be 42 years old, and his wife Kateřina 46, both Catholic.
He is recorded not only in the Moravian Lánové rejstříky (1657)[232] – a source comparable to the Bohemian Berní rula, but also in the Moravské a Slezské Urbáře (1677)[233] and in the first local church books.
His two sons Georg (Jiřík) and Jakob (Jakub) Meduňa established family lines that exist until this day, with descendant branches most prominent in the Czech Republic, Austria, the United States and Brazil.
The above coat of arms is reported to be the oldest known heraldic insignium of Meduna, found at the Sanctuary of Madonna dei Miracoli in Motta di Livenza.
Goi (1993) describes the charge in the field as alla civetta in maestà accompagnata da 3 stelle (owl facing the beholder accompanied by 3 stars) and observes that the position with the enlarged claws is notable.
Finally, the below three-coloured coat of arms of Meduna is reported since the 18th century, with the traditional parted gules and or tinctures supplemented by a sable one, and without any charges.
