Giuseppe Verdi had humble origins, but his parents were not, as is often written and believed, peasants. Small tradespeople would be a more accurate description. This fact is not without significance. In the town register of Busseto we read that ‘[…] est comparu Verdi Charles, âgé de vingt ans, Aubergiste domicilié à Roncole, lequel nous a présenté Enfant du sexe Masculin … de lui déclarant et de la Louise Uttini, fileuse […]’

They were, then, an inn-keeper and a spinner, and if with these titles they were trying to exaggerate their social standing – as far as we know, Carlo Verdi was less an ‘inn-keeper’ than what we might nowadays term a small-time barman – this only emphasises their middleclass character. As if to stress the point, the occupations of the two witnesses are added: ‘Romanelli Antoine, âgé de cinquante un ans, Hussier de la Mairie, et Carità Hyacinthe, âgé de soixante un ans, Concierge’. Some may object that the latter could have been assembled on the spur of the moment, as often occurs today; but while this is certainly the custom in large cities, which are in some sense corrupted, it was not followed in small communities, where it was almost easier to follow the letter of the law, especially the Napoleonic Code, recently established and particularly severe during that period.