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Francesco del Balzo

1805–1882

Born
17 May 1805, Naples
Country of birth
Kingdom of Naples, today Italy
Died
15 Apr 1882
facts
8
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

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A life in time

  1. Born · Naples

    Birth, Naples

  2. Event · Maggiordomo di settimana del re delle Due Sicilie

    Event

  3. Died

    Death

What was it like?

The world around Naples, 1805: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

When Francesco was born in 1805, Naples belonged to the Kingdom of Italy, ruled by Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.

Known for

Titles held

  • Maggiordomo di settimana del re delle Due Sicilie1839–1861
Who ruled

  • Victor Emmanuel II of Italy

    Monarch of Italy, 1861–1878 · Kingdom of Italy

  • Otto I the Great

    Monarch of Italy, 951 · Kingdom of Italy

Born the same year

  • Giuseppe Mazzini

    Italian nationalist activist, politician, journalist and philosopher

  • Maria De Mattias

    Italian Catholic nun, foundress and saint (1805-1866)

  • Fanny Mendelssohn

    German pianist and composer (1805–1847)

  • Marie d'Agoult

    Franco-German romantic author and historian (1805-1876)

  • Luigi Ricci

    Italian opera composer (1805-1859)

  • Hans Christian Andersen

    Danish writer and poet (1805–1875)

Fashion

Cost of wedding attire

A wedding dress for an ordinary person usually cost up to 30 ducats, though wealthy families could spend up to 300 ducats on garments with gold and silver fabrics.

Traditional women's accessories

Women often wore lace-trimmed aprons and high-heeled pointed shoes, typically in pink or light blue, fastened with silver buckles. Their hair was usually braided and collected at the nape of the neck, often decorated with ribbons and pins.

Music

Instruments of home and street music

Guitars and violins were common in Neapolitan homes and were used by street musicians for serenades, especially after midnight. Musicians also sold small instruments like tambourines, guitars, and crotali at festivals.

Music during religious festival processions

Religious processions often featured musicians, including porters who danced while carrying heavy barrels of wine on their shoulders to the sound of a distant orchestra.

Getting around

The Lettiga: A Mule-Drawn Carriage

The lettiga, a national carriage suspended between two mules, was a common way to travel through regions lacking roads suitable for wheeled vehicles. It was notoriously fatiguing and slow, moving at an average speed of about three miles per hour.

Around 1775–1799

Extra animals for steep terrain

Travelers often needed extra horses or mules to navigate steep or sandy mountain terrain, paying extra fees for these additional animals.

Daily life

Gender-restricted education controlled by the Church

There was no compulsory schooling, and education was heavily influenced by the Church, with 30 articles regulating male education versus only 22 for females. While boys could study reading, writing, and arithmetic, girls' education was largely restricted to domestic arts, catechism, and religious duties.

Limited water and sanitation infrastructure

Public infrastructure for water was inadequate, leading households to rely on cisterns or local wells, with communities strictly distinguishing between water used for drinking and water used for animals or washing. In towns without sewer systems, private homes generally had no toilets.

Food

Common drinks and food prices

Drinking coffee became a general habit even among the lowest laborers, who consumed it in the morning as a digestive aid. By 1816, a liter of wine cost 3 grana, while a roll of bread weighing nearly a kilogram cost 6 grana.

Staple meals for working families

Working-class families often ate pasta, specifically a cheap, mixed-quality version called monnezzaglia, or relied on tavern food like the hearty minestra maritata soup made with meat and vegetables.

Prices and wages
Around 1775–1799

Fixed Price Bread in Florence

In Florence, the price of a loaf of bread was fixed at eight soldi for most of the eighteenth century, with authorities adjusting the loaf's weight rather than the price itself to manage market fluctuations.

Around 1775–1799

Self-Sufficiency and Rural Debt

Many rural families produced their own food and clothing instead of buying them, often paying artisans like cobblers or tailors with their own farm products rather than using money. In some areas, sharecropping families were frequently deeply indebted to their landlords, with average debts reaching 82 scudi.

During their lifetime

  1. 1835

    Deadly cholera epidemic hits Italy in 1835

    A cholera epidemic struck Italy between 1835 and 1837, resulting in over 140,000 deaths, including nearly 20,000 in Naples alone. Poor sanitation in urban centers favored the spread of the disease, which disproportionately affected the poor.

  2. 1842

    First seaside medical hostel opens in 1842

    In 1842, a seaside hostel was opened in Viareggio, Tuscany, specifically for treating children suffering from tuberculosis. This was the first facility of its kind in Italy, marking an early attempt at marine therapy.

  3. 1847

    First telegraph line established in 1847

    The first Italian telegraph line connecting Florence, Pisa, and Livorno was established in 1847. This technology represented a major leap in communication speed across the region.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.