Tradition links the Zorzi to the origins of the city of Venice. In 1817, Antonio Longo wrote that they came from Moravia and Silesia; entered Italy in 411 AD and took up residence at Pavia; and after the invasion of Attila in 453 AD were among the founders of Venice.[3]
The Almanach de Gotha[4] enumerates it among the eleven oldest native families of the Republic of Ragusa,[5][6] and members of the family were still living in the city in the 19th century.[7]
The first documented mention of the family dates from the tenth century: in 964 Gregorio di Andrea de Georgii was bishop of the island of San Pietro di Castello, formerly known as Olivolo, in the Venetian Lagoon.[2][8]
It has been suggested that the Giorgi came to Ragusa either from Rome[9] or from Kotor.[1]: I: 58
Over the centuries, the Giorgi were divided into several branches in Italy and abroad, merging with other noble families of Dubrovnik and continental Europe. A branch of the family joined its name and arms to those of the Bona family, creating a new branch as Giorgi-Bona.[1]: III: 71
The Giorgi were among the important families of the Republic of Ragusa, serving in the 14th and 15th centuries in 6.50% of all major public offices.[11]: 51 Between 1440 and 1640 the Giorgi had 109 members of the Great Council, representing 4.95% of the total.[11]: 54 In the two hundred years, they also count for 203 senators (6.21%), 163 rectors of the Republic (6.84%),[11]: 60 173 representatives in the minor council (6.33%) and 41 guardians of justice (4.99%).
The Ragusan poet Ignjat Đurđević (Ignazio Giorgi) did not belong to this family, but to another ennobled a few years before his birth in 1675.[12]: 145
Gallery
Maria Giorgi-Pozza tomb, Dubrovnik
Palazzo Giorgi, Dubrovnik
Nineteenth-century copper engraving of Marino Zorzi
Various coats-of-arms of the family. The last one is the branch of House of Bona-Giorgi.
^ abcKonstantin Jireček (1984–1986) L'eredità di Roma nelle città della Dalmazia durante il medioevo (in Italian). Atti e Memorie della Società dalmata di storia patria, volumes IX, X, XI. Roma: Società Dalmata di Storia Patria.
^ abcdefgZorzi (in Italian). Enciclopedie online. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed February 2017.
^Almanach de Gotha 1763/1785 bis 1944 by Justus Perthes Verlag
^Ragusan Archives Document: "Speculum Maioris Consilii Rectores", showed 4397 rectors elected between September 1440 to June 1806; 2764, (63 %) were from eleven "old patrician" families: Gozze, de Bona, de Caboga, Cerva, de Ghetaldi,de Giorgi(slavic Juric/Jurici), Gradi, Pozza, Saraca, Sorgo and Zamanya. A list of Ragusa's governing bodies in 1802 showed 3 that 6 of the 8 Minor Council, and 15 of 20 Grand Council members were from the same 11 families.
^Helias and Blasius De Radoano: Ragusa Merchants in the Second Half of the 14th Century by Barisa Krekic." In February 1378 Blasius and ser Lucas de Bona had appointed two Venetians and a Ragusan" page 408
^Dubrovnik Under French Rule (1810–1814) by Stjepan Cosic/ hrcak.srce.hr/file/12648."Court of First Instance in Dubrovnik, over which Niko Pozza presided.In Dubrovnik, Ston, and Cavtat, Ivan Bona, Frano Liepopilli, and Nikola Facenda operated as justices of the peace" (page 113).
^Mario Brunetti (1937). Zorzi (in Italian). Enciclopedia Italiana. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed February 2017.
^Giorgio Gozzi, La libera e sovrana Repubblica di Ragusa 634-1814, Volpe Editore, Roma 1981
^Antonio Renato Toniolo, Umberto Nani, B. F. T., Giuseppe Praga, Adolfo Venturi (1931). Dalmazia (in Italian). Enciclopedia Italiana. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed May 2017.
Francesco Maria Appendini (1803). Notizie istorico-critiche sulle antichità storia e letteratura de' Ragusei. Ragusa: Dalle stampe di Antonio Martecchini.
Renzo de 'Vidovic (2004). Albo d'Oro delle famiglie nobili patrizie e illustri nel Regno di Dalmazia. Trieste: Cultural Scientific Foundation Rustia Traine.
translated as: Robin Harris, Alessandro Sfrecola (translator) (2008). Storia e vita di Ragusa – Dubrovnik, la piccola repubblica adriatica. Treviso: Editrice Santi Quaranta. ISBN9788886496834.