Members of various branches of the Asmundo family occupied important administrative positions in the
Kingdom of Sicily, ever since the time of the
Aragonese. Adamo Asmundo, doctor in civil law at the
University of Padua, was
rationum magister (master of finances) at the Court of Royal Property and
luogotenente generale. In 1432 he took part in the special
Royal Council that governed the island during the absence of King
Alfonso V, who was on his expedition to
Djerba. In the same year he became President of the Realm with viceregal functions until 1435, a position that he would again attain in 1439 and 1449, under King Alfonso. drawn by the
Abbé de Saint-Non (1727–1791). To the southeast is the
Asmundo Palace of Gisira. The Asmundo family possessed many titles and fiefdoms, including the castellan domains of Aci,
Taormina, and Mazzara, and the fiefs of Jace, Baldirone, Pontalica, Callura, Missanèllo, Lamia, Targia, Xirumi,
Troina, Capici,
Militello, Alcara, Salomone, Ameda, Salandra, San Giuliano, Campopetro,
Villasmundo, San Dimitri, Gisira, and Scalarancio. The wealth and privilege of the Asmundos allowed them to play important roles in the political and cultural history of Sicily. In 1434, Adamo Asmundo, along with Battista Platamone, founded the
University of Catania, one of the oldest still extant universities in the world. Among the first lecturers in theology appointed by Viceroy
Lope Ximénez de Urrea y de Bardaixi in 1445 was the
Carmelite Nicola Asmundo, a graduate of the
University of Bologna. Bartolomeo Asmundo, a senator of Catania from 1492 to 1532, was a reformer of studies at the city's university from 1495 to 1497. He is considered the first lyric poet of Sicily and one of the greatest poets in the
Sicilian language. His fame is connected with some
canzoni on sacred and profane themes inspired by
Petrarchism, translated from Sicilian into Italian by
Pietro Bembo (1470–1547). His achievements include characterizing the
canzuna as a major poetic form as distinct from the sonnet, and promoting Sicilian as a sublime language of poetry. Following the
1693 Sicily earthquake that devastated Catania and the
Val di Noto, Giuseppe Asmundo was a leader in the urban and cultural rebirth in the affected areas. In Catania, among other works, he rebuilt the orphan girls' school
Conservatorio delle Verginelle, and contributed, through the prior Bartolomeo Asmundo, to the construction of the church of the
Immacolata Concezione ai Minoritelli. In
Noto, he was the commissioner general for reconstruction. Together with
Giuseppe Lanza (vicar general for the
Val di Noto), Giovanni Montalto, Sipione Coppola, and the Jesuit architect
Angelo Italia, he was one of the architects of the form of renaissance that took the name
Sicilian Baroque. In 1701, Consalvo Asmundo received from King
Philip V a
licentia populandi (concession to populate a fief) to construct a center of habitation near the Villa Asmundo in the fief of San Giuliano. First, construction was begun of the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel, completed in 1711, and then the houses.
Villasmundo, by request of the founder, received legal recognition in 1715. In the first half of the 19th century, Giuseppe Asmundo Cirino di Gisira was one of the members of the Decurionate (city council) of Catania, to whom is owed the completion of the seaport, crucial for the city's economic development and for its economic supremacy in eastern Sicily. Among the works of patronage of the arts by the Catania Decurionate, that of 1819 in favor of the composer
Vincenzo Bellini has remained celebrated. Michele Scammacca Asmundo and Francesco Asmundo were president and vice-president of the administrative council of the Sicilian Public Works Company founded in 1886. The company began its work building the
Ferrovia Circumetnea in 1889. The route around
Mount Etna that connects
Riposto to the Port of Catania, going through the towns at the foot of Etna, became completely accessible in 1898. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Giuseppe Zappalà Asmundo and his wife Anna
Grimaldi Francica Nava were among the promoters of the Sicilian Belle Époque. In 1910, they created the Teatro Minimo in the halls of their palazzo, a rare example of a private theater where shows by Catanian authors are produced, some directed by
Giovanni Verga. In 1934, they donated to the Museo Civico at
Castello Ursino a collection of paintings, archaeological finds, porcelains, majolicas, antique arms, coins, and decorative arts, among which are
Amati and
Goffriller violins. Together with the Benedettini collection and that of
Ignazio Paternò Castello, the Zappalà Asmundo collection forms a significant part of the nucleus of art works curated by Catania's Museo Civico. ) donated by Asmundo familyt o Museo civico al
Castello Ursino, Catania == Asmundo women ==