Quite by chance we came across a page of the civil marriage registers of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, for the Cathedral parish of Livorno, that certainly deserves a short article. It is October 1840, a month in which no fewer than four marriages took place, one after another, between travelling circus families, some of them internationally famous.

Here they are in date order, as they appear in the register:

• Cammillo NAPOLI, acrobat, aged 27, son of the late Vincenzo and Fortunata TAGLIAGAMBE, married on 3 October 1840 Barbera HUTHOKANBARA?, acrobat, aged 20, daughter of the late Antonio and the late Chiara HAMPLET; witnesses Luigi COLIN and Eugenio CARTRAY.

• Gio. Antonio Eugenio CARTRAY, acrobat, aged 26, son of Ambrogio and Rosalia BERREAU, married on 3 October 1840 Anna SERICH, acrobat, aged 22, daughter of Giovanni and Sofia GRIN?; witnesses Luigi COLIN and Cammillo NAPOLI.

• Benedetto FOURAUX, acrobat, aged 19, son of Luigi and the late Sofia Eloisa TOURNAIRE, married on 10 October Maria Emilia PETERSON, acrobat, aged 17, daughter of the late Gio. and the late Maria PETERSON; witnesses Luigi PETERSON and Eugenio CARTRAY.

• Pietro Celestino TOUSSANTS-HUET, acrobat, aged 24, son of Luigi Michele and the late Maria Vittoria EBERA, married on 19 October Maria Carolina LULAIT, acrobat, aged 20, daughter of the late Maurizio and Francesca Flavia BOUTHAR; witnesses Cammillo NAPOLI and Francesco DEBEH.

Anyone who knows a little about the history of the circus in Europe will recognise some famous families in this list: Cartray, Fouraux, Tourniaire… who were evidently all in town, with their entourage, for one or more shows.

Let us look at some details of these families and their ancestors:

Cammillo (Gio. Cammillo Paolo) NAPOLI was born in Livorno on 24 January 1814 to Gio Vincenzo Napoli, a servant from Caprile (Lucca), and Fortunata Maria Maddalena TAGLIAGAMBE of Livorno, who had married in Livorno Cathedral on 26 June 1806. Cammillo’s brothers and sisters included Francesco Stefano Filippo, who became a clerk; Tommaso, a chaplain and curate; and Adelaide Augusta Giuseppa, who married the gilder Giovanni Battista Cristiano BOLANI. Among their children was Tommaso Bolani, who married Fanny Leontida Giovanna FISCHER, daughter of the well-known Livorno wine and spirits merchant Enrico Luigi Fischer.

Gio Antonio Eugenio CARTRAY, whose real name was Eugène Antoine, was born in Paris on 16 June 1815 to Ambroise CARTRAY and Rosalie Barbe BARAUD, both circus artists. Ambroise, in particular, seems to have been of Circassian origin, although he was born in Brussels to Rémi Didier CARTRAY of Paris and Lucie Jeanne “BOULOGNE”, a circus artist and daughter of Gennaro BOLOGNA.

Lucie Jeanne’s sister, Marie Thérèse Angélique, was the wife of Pierre Louis FOUREAUX, a famous circus performer born in Paris around 1758 who died in Helsinki around 1828. He was the father of Louis Marie FOUREAUX (died in Novara around 1846), another very famous circus performer, who married Sophie Eloise TOURNIAIRE, daughter of the well-known circus impresario Jacques TOURNIAIRE (1772-1829) and Philippine Barbara Ludowika Katarina ROEDIGER.

Louis Marie FOUREAUX and Sophie Eloise TOURNIAIRE were the parents of the Benedetto FOUREAUX in the list of marriages above… Because of these intermarriages, Benedetto FOUREAUX and Eugène Antoine CARTRAY were the sons of first cousins, as well as friends, and both descended from Gennaro BOLOGNA.

CURIOSITIES:

For Louis Marie FOUREAUX or FOURAUX we found an 1807 passport issued in La Rochelle, which lists him with his wife and five children and gives his height as 1.62 m.

Also in La Rochelle there is a passport for Philippine TOURNIAIRE, 1.56 m tall.

The passport of Ambroise CARTRAY, Eugène Antoine’s father, shows that he was 1.66 m tall.

For more information, see also these pages:

https://www.circus-parade.com/2018/11/24/premiers-cirques-europeens-de-jacques-tourniaire/

https://spectacle-de-curiosites.msh.uca.fr