It is recorded how in 1549 the Valguarnera family obtained from Emperor Charles V the right to set up a town and give it their name. It was anything but an isolated case, which is part of the bigger picture of the rush to take advantage of vast territories of the island, carried out by the aristocracy, who were motivated by the rising prices of agricultural products (especially grain).In less than two hundred years, there came to be about eighty new towns.

This doesn't necessarily mean that 1549 was the year zero in the story of our little town. Traces of human settlement go back much further.In medieval times, there was a feudal holding that documents called "Carrapipi" or "Carupipi" etc. The Arab origin of this name seems to be beyond doubt. The most convincing etymology is that which was communicated to me by the arabist Dr. Lorenzo Lanteri. The name comes from compounding two words:

quaryat (which means "village", "town") and habibi (which means "of my beloved", "of my dear one").

How Quaryathabibi of arabic/sicilian changed to the Carrapipi of latin/sicilian is easily said. Let's take one word at a time:

1. quaryat (transcribed from classical Arabic) evolves into karia (the arabic q stops being pronounced in the base of the throat. the t disappears, usually not pronounced) and then to carra (latin transcription of k, dropping of the i and normal doubling of the r).

2. habibi becomes bibi ( the aspiration and the the following vowel fall away, as normally happens with neolatin transformation of Arab words) and then pipi (normal progression from the voiced consonant b to the corresponding nvoiced consonant p; the i's following the local pronuciation come to be pronounced like "central" vowels: the "carrapipians" understand without problems.

Carrapipi has therefore the meaning "village of my beloved". It would be beautiful to know to whom, from whom and for what reason a millenium ago the little town was dedicated with this poetic name.

Enzo Barnaba

A Couple of Words on Valguarnera Caropepe

Valguarnera Caropepe is situated at 2000 feet above sea level, on the slopes of the Erei mountains.The first notice of the feudal holding of "Caropipi" goes back to 1296, when it was a simple manor belonging to Lamberto di Carupipi, from whom it takes its name. Owned successively by Ludovico di Pamplona, by Pietor Mirone Agorizio and by Muchio de Affermo, the town passed into the hands of Vitale and Tommaso Valguarnera in 1398. In 1549 a member of the Valguarnera family, Giovanni Count of Assoro, was authorized by Emperor Charles V to build the town of Valguarnera in the holding of Caropepe; he therefore had the opportunity to gather together the people of the feudal holding and thereby develop the town.

Cyrepicum and Caripa , Greek names of little towns located near Valguarnera seem to have given rise to the medieval name Caropepe, of which we have real evidence. But it is also said that the name Caropepe comes from Arabic; the Arabs, in fact, dominated Sicily from the ninth to the eleventh centuries, imposing their civilization and their language. The area surrounding Valguarnera still bears traces of the ancient civilizations that came and went in this sunny isle, when people, attracted by its beauty, made it their own:

Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans and Arabs.  Recently, among the hills of contrada Marcato archaeological excavations have brought to light human settlement   as far back as the fourth millenium B.C. A human skeleton from the late copper age and some ceramics from the early bronze age discovered in this setting will probably force the re-writing of the history of the origins of Valguarnera C.

The well-situated Valguarnera Caropepe faces the Dittaino valley, and is surrounded by rolling hills. Valguarnera C can be reached by Highway A19 Palermo-Catania "Mulinello" exit , and sits 25 Km from Enna, the provincial capital.  Worth seeing in Valguarnera are numerous churches, with rich pictures, frescoes, antique holy walls, and statues, testimony to a fervid religious faith.