The Processetti
A processetto is everything a couple had to prove before they could marry: their baptisms, their parents' consent, their banns. The first one this archive opened turned out to be the richest document it has.
Under the Napoleonic code a marriage generated a file, not just an entry. The couple had to produce baptism extracts, death certificates for any dead parent, the consent of living parents where either was under age, and proof that the banns had been read twice in the town and once in the church. All of it was bundled and kept. The bundles survive for the Valle Caudina as 321 volumes — and until 13 September 2026 this archive had never read one.
Bundle 16 of 1814 — Falco × Crisci
The file behind Vincenzo Falco 's marriage to Andreana Crisci on 15 December 1814. Eight documents, three hands, four months. Arienzo processetti 1814 ↗
| Image | Document | Date | What it says | Plate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 265 | The wrapper | — | «Documenti del Matrimonio tra Vincenzo Falco di Pasquale, e di Chiara Rivetti, ed Andreana Crisci di Arcangelo, e di Sara Ruggiero» | plate |
| 266 | Vincenzo Falco's baptism extract | issued 13 Sept 1814 | Copied from liber IX, fol. 47 a tergo. Baptised 1 February 1792, named Vincentius Raphael. | plate |
| 268 | Adriana Crisci's baptism extract | issued 13 Sept 1814 | Liber IX, fol. 94 a tergo. Baptised 30 November 1796, daughter of Archangelo Crisci and Sara Ruggiero. | plate |
| 269 | Notarial act 85 — the groom's parents consent | 8 December 1814 | Before Felice Morgillo. «li conjugi PASQUALE FALCO del fu MATTEO, e CHIARA RIVETTI del fu NICOLA…» | plate |
| 270 | Notarial act 26 — the bride's parents consent | 8 December 1814 | Before Salvio Morgillo. «li conjugi ARCANGELO CRISCI fu NICOLA, e SARA RUGGIERO di Pasquale…» | plate |
| 271 | Civil publication act 33 — first banns | Sunday 11 September 1814 | Read by the sindaco before the door of the town hall at one o'clock. States four ages. | plate |
| 272 | Civil publication act 40 — second banns | Sunday 18 September 1814 | The same four ages, repeated a week later — an independent check on the reading. | — |
| 273 | The archpriest's certificate of the church banns | Sunday 9 October 1814 | Giacinto Morgillo certifies the denuncia was read in Sant'Andrea and no impediment was raised. | — |
Every weekday the documents claim — 11 September, 18 September and 9 October 1814, each called giorno di Domenica — is in fact a Sunday. The bundle checks out against the calendar.
What it settled
Matteo Falco, named in 1814. Vincenzo was twenty-three — under the Code's threshold of twenty-five — so his parents had to consent in person. They did, before the notary Felice Morgillo: «li conjugi PASQUALE FALCO del fu MATTEO, e CHIARA RIVETTI del fu NICOLA, domiciliati … strada Camellara». This is the earliest document that names Matteo Falco , and the earliest that proves him dead. His death bracket closes from [1786, Oct 1822] to [1786, 8 Dec 1814]. the act
Vincenzo Falco's baptism — and the end of the age problem
The archpriest Giacinto Morgillo copied it out of the parish register on 13 September 1814: «Anno Domini … 1792, die vero prima 1 Februarii … baptizavi infantem natum ex Paschale Falco, et Clara Rivetta Conjugibus … cui dedi nomen Vincentius Raphael.» the extract
This archive has published his stated ages as a warning for a long time — twenty-one, then thirty-five, then twenty-seven, then forty-two. Measured against a real birth date, three of them are exactly right, provided you count the way the clerks counted: by the year a man is in, not the years he has finished.
| Record | Stated | Actually | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banns, 11 Sept 1814 | 23 | 22y 7m | ✓ right — in his 23rd year |
| Banns, 18 Sept 1814 | 23 | 22y 7m | ✓ right |
| Marriage act, 15 Dec 1814 | 21 | 22y 10m | wrong by 2 |
| Raffaele I's birth, 25 Apr 1816 | 35 | 24 | wrong by 11 |
| Raffaele II's birth, 10 May 1818 | 27 | 26y 3m | ✓ right — in his 27th year |
| A declaration, 1831 | 38 | 39 | close |
| Death register, 1839 | 42 | 47 | wrong by 5 |
He was also christened Vincenzo Raffaele — which is why he named a son Raffaele in 1816 and, when that child died, named the next one Raffaele too. He was passing on his own second name, not a grandfather's.
Adriana Crisci — and a conflict closed
The same archpriest, the same day: «… 1796, die vero trigesima 30 Novembris … infantem natam ex Archangelo Crisci, et Sara Ruggiero Conjugibus … cui dedit nomen Adriana.» the extract
Adriana is the name she was given at the font — and the root of every variant the registers throw at her: Andreana, Andriana, Andrea. The 1839 death register was read here as «Andriana Cioffi», and this site carried Crisci-versus-Cioffi as a live conflict. Six documents of 1814 say Crisci and four of them name her parents. The conflict is closed, and the wrong reading stays on Corrections rather than being quietly swapped.
Two new generations
The bride's consent act names people no record had reached before — NICOLA CRISCI, Arcangelo's father, already dead by December 1814 (fu), and PASQUALE RUGGIERO, Sara's father, still living (di, not fu). And it puts the Crisci on strada Camellara: the two families were neighbours before they were in-laws. the act
The four ages in one act
The banns state everyone's age at once — which makes them a controlled experiment in how much a register clerk actually knew.
| Who | Said, Sept 1814 | Implies born | Against the record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vincenzo Falco | 23 | c. 1791 | ✓ baptised 1 Feb 1792 — he was 22 years 7 months |
| Andreana Crisci | 17 compiti | c. 1797 | ✓ baptised 30 Nov 1796 — days off her eighteenth |
| Chiara Rivetti | 47 | c. 1767 | her 1843 burial implied 1763; the tree says 1772 |
| Pasquale Falco | 60 | c. 1754 | ✗ baptised 24 Oct 1767 — he was 46. Wrong by fourteen. |
The clerk got both young people right to the year and the father wrong by fourteen. That is the thesis this archive has been arguing across a dozen volumes — the registers are accurate about whoever is standing in front of the clerk and careless about everyone else — and here a single document proves it in both directions at once.
A standing question, half of it now closed
Vincenzo Falco 's sister Anna Falco (d. 23 August 1820, aged 25) was the wife of an Arcangelo Crisci. Andreana's father is an Arcangelo Crisci, of the same street. This site has asked before whether that is one man twice married or two men of a name — and the 1817 birth register already answered half of it: two Arcangelo Crisci declare births in that single year, one aged 52 and one aged 30.
The baptism decides which one fathered Andreana, by arithmetic. She was baptised on 30 November 1796, so her father was a married man with a child that year. The elder Arcangelo — 52 in 1817, so born about 1765 — was 31 in 1796. The younger — 30 in 1817, born about 1787 — was nine years old. He cannot be her father.
So Andreana Crisci's father is the elder Arcangelo Crisci, born about 1765. That is fixed.
This dossier turned the rest of the question into a dated, falsifiable search: the elder Arcangelo could only also have married Anna Falco if his wife Sara Ruggiero had died between December 1814 and about 1818. That search has now been run, and it answers.
She did not die. She bore a child. The 1815 death register — the only unread year in the window — has been read end to end: seventy-seven acts, no Sara Ruggiero. And act 4, of 9 January 1815, does better than a negative:
…a' detto dì nove del mese corrente di Gennajo ad ore una di notte CARMELA CRISCI figlia d'ARCANGELO CRISCI, e SARA RUGGIERO, di giorni sette … domiciliata strada Camellara…
A new daughter of the family — Adriana's baby sister, born about 2 January 1815, three weeks after Adriana's wedding, and dead at seven days. Her mother was delivered of a child in the first week of 1815, which is not the condition of a woman about to be replaced. Two Arcangelo Crisci, and Anna Falco married the younger.
The declarants are the two families standing side by side: «ANDREA CRISCI, di anni quarantad[ue], contadino, strada Camellara, e GIUSEPPE FALCO, di anni trenta, massaro di campagna, strada Camellara, vicini della defunta» — neighbours, and this archive does not upgrade that word into kinship.
And the trap it nearly fell into. A Sara Ruggiero did die at Arienzo, on 13 December 1817, and she was married to an Arcangelo. She is a different woman — daughter of the late Raffaele Ruggiero and Fortunata Villano, wife of Arcangelo SOSSI. Two women of one name in one town, both married to an Arcangelo, and taking the first at face value would have closed this question the wrong way round. The two families are linked, though: Fortunata Villano, that woman's mother, stood godmother at Adriana Crisci's baptism in 1796. See Open Questions.
Every marriage at Arienzo in 1814
Having found one bundle, the obvious question was what else the volume held. All 290 images were swept as contact sheets and every bundle cover read. The volume holds seventeen bundles — seventeen marriages, each wrapped in a sheet that names both sets of parents before any act is opened.
Read this table for what it is. Only bundle 16 has been read through, act by act. Every other row is its cover sheet only — read at full magnification, so the surnames are sound, but a cover names four parents and nothing else. Readings marked (?) are uncertain. Bundle 1's cover was never photographed: the scan opens partway into it, at the archpriest's certificate of 16 January 1814, so that couple is unknown.
One of these women was dead within months. Bundle 13 marries MARGARITA CRISCI, «figlia de' furono Angelo Crisci, e Grazia». On 6 February 1815 the Arienzo death register records Margarita Crisci, thirty-two, daughter of the late Angelo Crisci and Grazia, wife of Angelo Diglio — and bundle 13's groom is «Angelo figlio di Nicola». Almost certainly the same woman, married in 1814 and buried before the next winter was out. The two volumes were read on the same day and neither knew about the other. It is set down as probable, not proved: the groom's surname is not on the cover.
| Bundle | Cover at image | The marriage | How well read |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | cover not photographed — the scan opens inside bundle 1, at the archpriest's certificate of 16 January 1814 | not in the scan |
| 2 | 3 | PASQUALE RUGGIERO figlio di Giovanni, ed Orsola Espositella, vedovo di Lucia Giovanna Martone × Giovanna … | cover read |
| 3 | 19 | ORAZIO VILLANO fu Luca, e di ANTONIA CRISCI × Grazia Carp… | cover read |
| 4 | 38 | GASPARE MORGILLO di Marco, e di Caterina Ruggiero × ANNA ARRICOLE di Angelo, e fu Rosa Sirelli | cover read |
| 5 | 53 | DOMENICO VALENTINO figlio del fu Gennaro, e di Maria … | cover read |
| 6 | 78 | FRANCESCO LICCINELLO(?) delli furono Vincenzo, ed Andreana … | cover read |
| 7 | 107 | GENNARO TERRACCIANO di Andrea, e di Maria Esposito × TERESA LORRINO del fu Pasquale, e di Angela Laudato | cover read |
| 8 | 122 | VINCENZO ALBANELLI(?) figlio di Giovanni, e di Elena di Saprio × MARIA TERESA MARRONE figlia di Agostino | cover read |
| 9 | 136 | FRANCESCANTONIO SADEROSA(?) figlio di Agostino Saderosa … | cover read |
| 10 | 151 | ANGELANDREA DI LUCIA figlio delli furono Lorenzo di Lucia e Marianna Taddeo, vedovo di Anna … | cover read |
| 11 | 171 | CRESCENZO PORRINO figlio di Vincenzo, e di Agnese Carrecchia × … figlia di Felice | cover read |
| 12 | 182 | ANGELO INDIMBO di Pasquale, e della fu Teresa Madonna × MARIA DI LUCIA figlia di Domenico, e della fu Teresa Coppola | cover read |
| 13 | 200 | ANGELO figlio di Nicola, e d'Antonia Abbratelli × MARGARITA CRISCI figlia de' furono Angelo Crisci, e Grazia | cover read |
| 14 | 225 | DOMENICO VENDICCHIO figlio di Vincenzo, e di Rosa Marrone × SARA ARRICOLE di Alessandro, e della fu Lucrezia Marrone | cover read |
| 15 | 238 | LORENZO SDALLENA(?) figlio de' furono Francesco, ed ELENA CRISCI, vedovo di Maria Tadaresa × MARIA RAFFAELE MORGILLO figlia del fu Mat… | cover read |
| 16 | 265 | VINCENZO FALCO di Pasquale e Chiara Rivetti × ADRIANA CRISCI di Arcangelo e Sara Ruggiero | ✓ act by act |
| 17 | 275 | FRANCESCO CRISCI figlio del fu Alessandro, e di Carmina … × TERESA MORGILLO | cover read |
Six of the seventeen touch this line
- Bundle 16 — the marriage this archive came for. Read end to end; everything above comes out of it.
- Bundle 17 — Francesco Crisci figlio del fu Alessandro, e di Carmina …, marrying a Teresa Morgillo , published 20 November 1814. A Crisci marrying a Morgillo in the same town in the same year as our Falco married a Crisci. No connection to this line is claimed — both surnames are common at Arienzo — but it is set down because the archive counts eleven Falco–Crisci crossings and would rather record a near-miss than lose it.
- Bundle 3 — Orazio Villano , son of the late Luca Villano and ANTONIA CRISCI. A third Crisci woman, and a second man called Orazio in a town where generation four would marry the daughter of an Orazio Morgillo .
- Bundle 4 — a MORGILLO marrying an ARRICOLE. «GASPARE MORGILLO di Marco, e di Caterina Ruggiero × ANNA ARRICOLE di Angelo». Three surnames from this line in one marriage: Morgillo, who marry into it at generation four; Arricole, who marry into it at generation five; and Ruggiero, Adriana Crisci's mother's name.
- Bundle 14 — SARA ARRICOLE, «di Alessandro, e della fu Lucrezia Marrone». A second Arricole, and a second woman of Arienzo called Sara.
- Bundle 15 — ELENA CRISCI as a groom's mother, and MARIA RAFFAELE MORGILLO as the bride.
No descent from any of these is claimed. Crisci appears on 113 of 361 Arienzo register pages and Morgillo on 76. Six of seventeen marriages touching one of this archive's surnames is close to what chance predicts in this town, and that is exactly why the archive counts them rather than connecting them.
The 1814 section ends at image 286; image 287 is the divider card «Anno 1815 / Arienzo (66) / dal n° 1 al n° 25».
How this file was nearly lost
An earlier session worked this volume from the back, found a bundle numbered 25 and then the 1815 divider, and concluded that the volume stopped short of act 26. It wrote the conclusion into the research queue under “Dead ends, recorded so they are not repeated — do not search these two again.”
It was wrong. Processetti bundles are numbered in their own sequence, in the order the banns were published — not by the number the marriage later received in the marriage register. The 1814 volume holds seventeen bundles, and this couple published in September and married in December: bundle 16, act 26. The volume was never truncated; the search was looking for the wrong number.
And this paragraph had to be corrected too. When it was first published, hours earlier the same day, it said “bundle 25's publication is dated 20 November” — a figure carried straight out of the note it was overturning, without checking. There is no bundle 25. The 25 was a publication act number inside bundle 17, the last of the year. The mechanism was right; the illustration was inherited rather than verified, which is the very failure the paragraph above is about. It is on Corrections as its own entry.
Two rules came out of it. In a processetti volume, match on the names and the publication date, never on the marriage act number. And a wrong negative is the most expensive mistake an archive can make, because it stops anyone looking again — so every “do not search this again” note here now carries the reasoning that produced it, where the reasoning can be checked.
What remains
320 volumes. Arienzo's own runs are the priority; Moiano (99 volumes) and Paolisi (43) have never been opened. Each bundle carries baptism extracts, which reach a generation earlier than the civil registers begin — this one reached back to a parish register of 1792 that is not itself online. That is the argument for reading the rest. How these are read →