Alle origini dei Duchi di Villarosa: Francesco Notarbartolo (1630-1704)

The economic rise of the branch of the Notarbartolo family that would obtain the title of Duke of Villarosa was defined by the rapid and incisive action of the progenitor, Francesco Notarbartolo Alvarez d'Eván. Moving skilfully in the Sicilian economic framework of the second half of the seventeenth century, Francesco was quickly able to amass a nucleus of family estates: in the space of twenty years, between the 1670s and 1690s, he created a large number of compact and geographically well-defined feudal estates extending from Castrogiovanni to Santa Caterina. The accomplishments of Notarbartolo are comparable to other similar cases, but are also characterized by a certain originality, as demonstrated by his unique solution to the problem of handing down newly acquired assets and the great clarity in defining a marriage and financial policy that was to guide the family's actions for over fifty years.