Mr. Chiaradia and "his" little Owl … (1 Viewer)

Here´s some small possible additions regarding the eponym:

chiaradiae
● …in the invalid Athene chiaradiae GIGLIOLI 1900 [a rare and single variety of Athene noctua SCOPOLI 1769]
… most likely the fairly unknown (long forgotten, like "his" Owl) Italian Civil servant Emidio Chiaradia (1839-1904), whose full name seem to have been Emidio Bortolo Giuseppe Chiaradia – who captured this little odd Owl in its nest, in a loose wall at Pizzocco, Friuli, Foothills of the Italian Alps, in 1899.

Note: OD unseen by me; in Avicula : giornale ornitologico italiano IV, fasc. 29-30, pp. 57-60 (1900), as well as in Ornis, tome XI, n. 2-3, pp. 237-242, 1900-1902, etc. etc. *

This Emidio Chiaradia was born in Caneva di Sacile, 1839 … and he died in Monte Berico, 1904. More info on him; here, here and here (at least I think, assume it is about him) … their all written by Stefania Miotto, in Italian (that I understand very, very little of).

Here we need someone who does understand Italian to verify it´s the right guy …

*Also see Henry Hillyer Giglioli's own article "The strange case of Athene chiaradiae" in The Ibis 1903 (here). The year after he was dead.

The latter link also incl. a nice Plate (attached) of the little Owl in question.

Enjoy!
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Ornix version of the OD [here]. (See editorial footnote on first page: "M. le professeur Giglioli nous a remis, au lieu du texte manuscrit de sa communication, cette Note plus explicite, qu'il avait rédigée le 13 juin 1900, et qui a paru peu de temps après dans le tome IV, fasc. 29-30 de l'Avicula, Journal ornithologique Italien publié ä Sienne (Note de la Red.)." "The professor Goglioni gave us, instead of the manuscript text of his communication, this more explicit Note, which he had written on 13 June 1900, and which appeared a short time later in the volume IV, fasc. 29-30 of the Avicula, Italian journal of ornithology published in Sienna (Eds. note]." So this really seems to be a reprint of the original; not another work describing the species anew.)

"Il 13 Novembre 1899, il mio amico Onorevole Comm. Emidio Chiaradia, andando a Roma per la riapertura della Camera, mi portava vivente una Civetta che lo aveva colpito pel singulare aspetto, cosi diverso da quello delle nostre Civette comuni."

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"Queste riflessioni e l'opinione unanime degli Ornitologi che hanno veduto questa Civetta, tra i quali rammentero: E. Cavendish Taylor., l'Onor. Walter Rothschild ed il Dott. Suschkin dell' Universita di Mosca, che volle aiutarmi nel descriverla, mi hanno persuaso a considerarla come tipo di specie nuova, per la quale propongo il nome di Athene Chiaradiae, dedicandola all'amico che me l'ha fatta conoscere."

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(Chiaradia gave the bird to Giglioli, but he did not actually capture it himself--he purchased it from a local shoemaker, who apparently had himself bought it from a young shepherd girl.)

The three Miotto links are evidently about the same guy (and family), but they say little about ornithology. See footnote 24, p.177, in the first one, though:

Anche i mariti erano legati da sincera amicizia: Costanza aveva sposato nel 1871 l'ornitologo Enrico Hillyer Giglioli, in seguito direttore del Museo Zoologico «La Specola» di Firenze, al quale il Chiaradia, di ritorno dal Friuli, forniva spesso esemplari di fauna locale del territorio altoliventino; in suo omaggio il Giglioli chiamò Athene Chiaradiae una presunta nuova specie di civetta, catturata nelle colline canevesi. Cfr. E. HILLYER GIGLIOLI, Intorno ad una presunta nuova specie di Athene (A. Chiaradiae, Gigl.) trovata in Italia, «Avicula: giornale ornitologico italiano» IV (1900), 57-60.

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Thanks Laurent!

And, you´re perfectly rigth in that he didn´t collect the Owl himself (my sloppy, careless formulation!). He did, like you stated, purchase it from a local shoemaker, who apparently had bought it from a young shepherd girl (she, "about 12 years old", discovered and collected it, in the Canevese hills, in July 1899) ... thereby I think it´s fairly safe to claim:

chiaradiae
● … in the invalid Athene chiaradiae GIGLIOLI 1900 [a rare and single variety of Athene noctua SCOPOLI 1769]
= the fairly unknown Italian Emidio Chiaradia (1839-1904), whose full name was Emidio Bortolo Giuseppe Chiaradia, who delivered the Owl (alive!), in November 1899, to his friend Enrico ("Henry") Hillyer Giglioli (1845-1909) ... etc. etc.

Mr. Chiaradia's various titles; Civil servant, administrator, Commendatore, jurist, deputy and so on ... I simply leave to you guys.

However: it´s him!

Cheers!

PS. Ornis
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Good to see it is already solved. Well done to both of you.👏

Just for completeness sake ...

The OD itself (in Avicula) is now accessible in Google Books (here), i.e. with the very same phrases as in the Ornis Paper:

... di specie nuova, per la quale propongo il nome di Athene Chiaradiae, dedicandola all' amico che me l’ ha fatta conoscere.

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