page_title: Corfiot Italians
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Corfiot Italians / Origins
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Il leone di san Marco, simbolo di Venezia, sovrasta a Corfù (anticamente possedimento veneziano) un'iscrizione latina che ricorda i lavori di fortificazione condotti a termine sotto il doge Alvise III Mocenigo, che ne incaricò Marco Antonio Diedo e Giorgio Grimani, nel 1728. English: 1728 Venetian Monument on Skarponas Rampart of New Fortress, Defensive Wall of Corfu Town, with Lion of Saint Mark (Symbol of Venice) and arms of Diedo&#91;1&#93; (Arma Diedo: Troncato d'oro e d'azzurro alla banda di rosso attraversante;&#91;2&#93; or da Casimiro Freschot ne LA NOBILTA' VENETA del 1707 a pag 305: DIEDO. Porta partito d'argento, e di verde, con una fascia d'oro, sopra la prima partitione. Si trovano altre Arme di questa Casa in varij manoscritti, cioè d'oro con due fascie verde, che fù la prima, e spaccato, è diviso per fianco, d'oro, e di verde con una benda vermiglia, c'uno di questa Casa alzò l'anno 1308. Per fess or and azure, a bend gules; Per fess or and vert, a bend gules) above. See comparitive, ledger stone of Ludovico Alvise Diedo (d.1466), Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice[1]. Inscribed in Latin: D(eo) O(ptimo) M(aximo) Aloysius Mocenico Venetiarum Dux Marcus Antonius Diedo Moderat(o)r Supremus Georgius Grimani Classis Praefectus Haec Primus Jussit Alter Disposuit Tertius Noctudiurno Labore Brevit(e)r Absolvit ("To God, most good, most great, Alvise III Mocenigo, Duke of the Venetians (i.e. Doge); Marco Antonio Diedo, Supreme Governor; Giorgio Grimani, Commander of the Fleet; The first ordered this (i.e. the Wall); The second planned it; the third, by labour day and night, quickly completed it").
context_page_description: Corfiot Italians are a population from the Greek island of Corfu with ethnic and linguistic ties to the Republic of Venice. Their name was specifically established by Niccolò Tommaseo during the Italian Risorgimento. During the first half of the 20th century, Mussolini successfully used the Corfiot Italians as a pretext to occupy Corfu twice.
context_section_description: The origins of the Corfiot Italian community can be found in the expansion of the Italian States toward the Balkans during and after the Crusades. In the 12th century, the Kingdom of Naples sent some Italian families to Corfu to rule the island. From the Fourth Crusade of 1204 onwards, the Republic of Venice sent many Italian families to Corfu. These families brought the Italian language of the Middle Ages to the island.
  When Venice ruled Corfu and the Ionian islands, which lasted during the Renaissance and until the late 18th century, most of the Corfiote upper classes spoke Italian (or specifically Venetian in many cases), but the mass of people remained Greek ethnically, linguistically, and religiously before and after the Ottoman sieges of the 16th century.
  Corfiot Italians were mainly concentrated in the city of Corfu, which was called "Città di Corfu" by the Venetians. More than half of the population of Corfu city in the 18th century spoke the Venetian language.
  The re-emergence of Greek nationalism, after the Napoleonic era, contributed to the gradual disappearance of the Corfiot Italians. Corfu was ultimately incorporated into the Kingdom of Greece in 1864. The Greek government abolished all Italian schools in the Ionian islands in 1870, and as a consequence, by the 1940s there were only four hundred Corfiote Italians left.
caption: Venetian blazon with the Lion of Saint Mark, as frequently found on the New Fortress walls
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