sicilian 'partiti'

[scagghiuni]

The first historical document in which a mafia-like clan is named is from 1837, in which the attorney general of Trapani, Pietro Calà Ulloa, refers to his superiors in Naples on the activity of strange sects or brotherhoods dedicated to criminal enterprises and which corrupted also public employees:

'In many countries there are unions or brotherhoods, especially sects that are called parties, without color or political purpose, without meeting, with no other link than that of dependence on a leader, who here is a landowner, there an archpriest. A common fund helps needs, now to have an official exonerated, now to defend him, now to protect a defendant, now to blame an innocent. There are many kinds of small governments in the government. The lack of public force has multiplied the number of crimes. Just as thefts happen, the brokers come out to offer a transaction for the recovery of the fleeced objects. The number of such agreements is infinite'

in 1870s a suspected mafioso, Calogero Gambino, told Sangiorgi that the criminal organizations were called 'parties'

this document discovered in 2009 by the national state archives could prove the existence of the mafia (with another name) as early as 1830s

I recall reading somewhere (don't recall where at the moment) the claim that the earliest mafia formed around 1799 in Mazara del Vallo. Don't know if this was related to the Trapanese "Partiti" that you reference here.

that's a legend

[B.]

Was looking at Dr. Allegra's deposition and throughout it he calls members "brothers of the sect". So that was still in use within the mafia into the 1930s.

[B.]

Statement by Italian Parliament in 1948, translated via Google:

The historical role of the mafia as a force for conservation was emphasized by the senator Picchiotti. "We know that in 1800 the mafia was used to prevent the principles of the French revolution from reaching Sicily, we know that in 1812 in the law of subversion of feudalism it was not possible to fight this evil because it was articles of that law they tested and defended the mafia; we know that in 1860 Giuseppe Garibaldi he disarmed these armed squads and handed them over to the courts and the police."

Beyond the role historically carried out by the mafia, it still remained - a judgment of Senator Picchiotti - in the Sicilian population the belief that there was an organization that was opposed to State and “when the citizen feels that the authority of the State is humiliated and not suffocated
he has no other means than to take sides ... in this mob of brigands and murderers.

-

Stands out that they believe the mafia was involved in countering the influence of the French Revolution (1789-1799) in Sicily and identified the mafia as a fundamentally conservative idea that early.

Also pinpointing 1812 as a year when the law was used to protect the mafia's influence -- wonder what evidence they were referring to.

[Angelo Santino]

Which again goes counter to the Carbonari that was trying to implement a French inspired constitution. The British ruled Sicily from 1806 until 1815 and in 1812 tried to adopt an British-centric constitution. We see elements of the Freemasons within the Mafia and it makes me wonder if this 1805 to 1815 era was when the "bug bang" happened.

[B.]

From the same report:

The deputy Berti, in carrying out his own questioning on the situation of the public security in the province of Agrigento, drew a picture of the economic and social conditions in that area. An area dominated by the feud, "social structure (in which) there are some serious degenerative phenomena, favored ... by a certain part of the managerial classes of the province and favored by the absence of a government policy "

...

In the light of these considerations, it was possible to understand, as the deputy Berti pointed out, how the mafia had not limited itself to crimes of crime, but had become responsible for a series of "crimes of a political nature".

I like the phrase "not limited...to crimes of crime". Reminds me of the thread you made a few months ago.