Note 5 — Chapter II

This information, taken from Tiraboschi, does not seem to favour the system of Father Federici, who says, that in the fourteenth century names were frequently shortened, adducing, at the same time, several examples, (vol. i. p. 53). He thus explains how Buzzaccarino became Bizzarrino, Barisino, Borasino, with many more strange terms in Trevigi. Now why might not this artist's name become Bassino, in Modena? And if in reading Tommaso di Bassino da Modena in the authorities of Tiraboschi, every one perceives the name of the painter, that of the father, and of the country to which he belonged; then why, on reading upon pictures Tommaso di Barisino, or Borisino, da Modena, are we bound to believe this last the name of a family; and so much more, as there were then few families distinguished by their surnames? Tommaso, therefore, wished it to be understood that he came from Modena; and if this became a surname which distinguished his family in Trevigi, it must have been at a later period, when he knew nothing of it.