History and etymology of Cefala-Diana

Cefalà Diana is a "small" town of Sicily, but it presents many difficulties of interpretation that only in recent years have found a satisfying solution . Even Cefalà Diana, like other  towns of Sicily, has modern origins, dating back to the late seventeenth century, in concomitance with the "Ius or licentia populandi”, the privilege that allowed local landowners the opportunity to establish new villages and first to cultivate land deserted and unproductive.

However, even if Cefalà Diana is of recent origin, in the feud "Cefalà" there was a village, the name of which was also "Cefalà" (discussed below), of very ancient origins. We have the first mention of a locality named “Cefalà” in a medieval document dating from 1093 of Count Roger (1031-1101), in which  was mentioned a deed of  gift to the church of Mazara : "[...]Tendit hec (“haec”) parochia ad divisionem Jatine et 'Chephale' videlicet usque ad grandem cristam et a crista tenditur usque ad Saganam et a Sagana usque ad Carines et a Carinis usque ad districtum arenosum ubi est divisio Panorni et Carini [...]"; or, "This parish goes to the  territory of Jatin and 'Cefalà', that is up to the big rock ridge, and from the ridge goes toward Sagana and from Sagana to Carini  and from Carini to the district where there are the areas of  Palermo and Carini [ See “Archivio di Stato di Palermo (ASP SMS F2 B1631) in G. Nania, “Toponomastica e topografia storica delle valli del Belice e dello Jato”, Palermo, Barbaro, 1995: 72 Note 2].

The mention of Cefalà is also into a document of 1240, the so-called  “Libellus de successione  Pontificum Agrigenti”, in which we read: "[...]Est sciendum qualiter in Libro Prelatiarum Regni Siciliae (...) conservata in Regia cancelleria esiusdem Regni Panormi, adest 'Libellus de successione pontificum' et de institutione praebendarum Canonicorum Ecclesiae Agrigentinae facta Gerlando Episcopo a Comite Rogerio electo de anno 1093, Summo Pontefice Urbano II confirmante (...) Quarta prebenda fuit de 'Cephala' et tenimento suo praeter Ecclesiam Sanctae Mariae […] "; or," It is known that in the Book of  pre-emption of the Kingdom of Sicily (...) preserved in the Royal Chancellery of the Kingdom of Palermo, there is the 'Libellus' of the succession of pontiffs and  the imposition of some prebends  in favour of  the canonicals  of the Church of Agrigento, and of  Bishop Gerlando by Count Roger in 1093, and confirmed by Urban II [1035-1099] (...) The fourth prebend ("tithe") was ‘Cefalà’ with its properties, besides the Church of Santa Maria "( We can read the  document in A. Inveges , “La Cartagine siciliana”, Bisagni, Palermo, 1651: 106-107).

According to G.B. Pellegrini, the name derives from the Greek "Kefalè": "Cefalà Diana, a ‘fortress on  a top of a high cliff’, from the Greek masculine" Kefalas' ('big head') [See G.B. Pellegrini , "Italian toponymy" Hoepli, 1990: 81). According to G. Alessio "Cefalà" is a Greek name of Byzantine origin, "Kefalas" ("Big Head”) [See G. Alessio, “L'elemento Greco nella toponomastica della Sicilia”, Bollettino I, Palermo, 1953: 65 ff.].

The name is probably related to the shape of  skull of the rocky outcrop where the castle is located. However, we mention here also a very interesting hypothesis of Biagio Pace, a great Sicilian archaeologist, who thought to the Greek expression "Kefalè Potamou" or "source of the river" and the "source", says Ferdinando Maurici, "could be that of river 'Milicia', which actually originated in this area "(See Ferdinando Maurici in" Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome: Moyen  âge, L'Ecole, 1993, Vol. 105, 1: 232 and footnote 5). Among other things Biagio Pace linked the concept of "source" to the "salutary water" sources, as was that of "The Arab Baths" of  Cefalà: "[...] This is also the waters that flow into the Arabic bathroom of Cefalà Diana, if we believe in the value of this place-name [that] takes us back to the classical age [...]" (See B. Pace, ,”Arte e civiltà della Sicilia antica” ["Art and civilization of the ancient Sicily], Editrice Dante Alighieri, 1938: 243).

The history of  Cefalà is rather convoluted, because over the centuries it passed into the hands of several baronial families. The feud was inhabited as early as the Norman and Swabian, and during the fourteenth century it belonged to the Chiaramonte  family and then to  the Abbate, who was also responsible for building the castle. Towards the end of the fourteenth century, a period of adjustment of the feuds, Cefalà was granted to the Catalan Thomas de Olzenelles , then the "feudum Chifale" went to another Catalan, Giovanni of Abella and after to Peter Raymond Falgar, who sold it to Giovanni Abbatellis , who, in 1431, was granted a "licentia populandi”.

Giovanni Abbatellis not materialize this privilege and did not found any village (although it must be said that, contrary to all scholars, G.C. Garufi  said that Cefalà Diana  already existed in the sixteenth century [ See S. Correnti (“La Sicilia del Cinquecento…”, Mursia, 1980: 79 ), who writes: “In his study already quoted by us, G.C. Garufi points out how founded in the sixteenth century the towns of Cefalà Diana (Palermo) and Villa-Frati (Palermo), that other sources attribute to the eighteenth century”]. The old feud was sold by his descendants, loaded of debts, in 1620 to Niccolò Diana. His grandson, also named Nicolò Diana, towards the middle of the eighteenth century, built a new village (1684), which became a municipality, first called "Diana" and also "Cefalà of Diana," and then "Cefalà Diana ". The  contemporary name in practice  brings back into use the ancient name of the feud ("Cefalà") combined with the name of its founder, Giuseppe or Nicolò Diana (See in particular about the origins and the sixteenth century, F. Maurici, "Illi de domo et Familia Abbatellis ...", Officina di Studi Medievali, 1985: 10-37 ff. and " Rivista Geografica Italiana ", Florence, 1920, vol. 20: 160 ff.).