Aahana Swrup
Don Fabrizio Corbera leads the narrative of the Italian show ‘The Leopard’ as he navigates the rapid end of the aristocratic and noble rule in 1860s Sicily. With the rise of Garibaldi’s Unification of Italy movement, the Red Shirts arrive on the Prince of Salina’s doorsteps—joined by his own cherished nephew, Tancredi. Consequently, the Corbera family patriarch must make new alliances to strengthen his standing amidst the socio-political changes. However, his ambitious nephew’s similar plans of social ascension threaten to leave his beloved daughter, Concetta, heartbroken beyond repair. Thus, the Prince’s narrative becomes a reflection of the growing tumultuous landscape of the 19th century, harking to the end of an era. Although Fabrizio carries the historical weight of his title well with his storylines addressing various notable checkpoints of the past, does his character actually hold any roots in reality?
Author Giuseppe Tomasi Based Fabrizio Corbera After His Grandfather
Fabrizio Corbera isn’t a directly biographical version of Sicilian royalty from the pages of history. In fact, historically, Prince of Salina doesn’t seem to have been an actual title. Nevertheless, despite the fabrication of the details around Fabrizio’s royal standing, the character isn’t entirely devoid of any historical connections. He is actually based on Don Giulio Fabrizio Tomasi, the 8th Prince of Lampedusa. The Prince of Salina of the Corbera family is an original character created by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, author of the classic Italian novel The Leopard, also known as ‘Il Gattopardo.’
Author Tomasi, the 11th and second to last Prince of Lampedusa, is a descendant of Giulio Fabrizio Tomasi. Thus, as he undertook the task of penning his first novel, he employed his own great-grandfather as the base inspiration. Reportedly, as suggested by the author’s old letters, he mirrored Giulio Fabrizio in his novel’s protagonist in a number of ways, including physicality, philosophies, family relations, and even political career. Notably, the former’s real-life rejection of a position as a Senator is recreated in Fabrizio Corbera’s narrative.
Therefore, in some ways, the character parallels prominent beats from the history of an actual Prince of Lampedusa. Additionally, Fabrizio’s storyline also becomes an authentic portrayal of the reality of the noblemen in 1860s Sicily. In the midst of the Unification of Italy movement, the royal and noble class experienced a unique end of an era. This socio-political phenomenon is embodied in the narratives of various characters, and Fabrizio, the Prince of Salina, particularly personifies this theme throughout his character arc. Ultimately, this aspect of his character informs his own sense of realism while also cementing the overarching storyline in a much more historically authentic light.
Fabrizio Corbera Possesses Some Autobiographical Elements
Alongside Giulio Fabrizio Tomasi’s influence over Fabrizio Corbera’s character, the Prince of Salina also sports some connections to his originator, author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa himself. While the literary character isn’t an exact autobiographical version of Tomasi, several glaring similarities remain between the two. For one, the author was a Prince himself—even if in a vastly different time period than Fabrizio. As such, there are likely distinctions between his experiences and the way the latter’s noble title affects his standing in socio-political environments. Inversely, there’s a prominent overlap in the real-life and fictitious Princes’ childhoods.
Tomasi spent his younger years under his mother, Beatrice di Cutò’s wing. Consequently, he had an intimate acquaintance with the Sicilian town of Santa Margherita di Belice, where his mother’s family home resided. As such, in Fabrizio’s story, the instrumental location, Donnafugata, becomes a literary counterpart of the same town. Similarly, the character’s relationship with his nephew, Tancredi, remains reminiscent of the dynamic Tomasi shared with his cousin, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, whom he eventually adopted as his son. Therefore, many aspects of the author’s life seemed to have bled into his protagonist’s characterization and storylines.
Naturally, over the course of the story’s development, Tomasi also noticed Fabrizio’s autobiographical similarities and expressed his belief that the character embodied his own ideas. Furthermore, many experts, including David Gilmour, who penned the other author’s biography, ‘The Last Leopard: A Life of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa,’ noted that Fabrizio seems to be an idealized version of his creator. Therefore, many aspects of his realism stem from this connection between the character and the writer. Since the show’s Fabrizio remains authentic to the literary character—with actor Kim Rossi Stuart consulting the source material to understand his persona’s depths—the Prince of Salina’s on-screen depiction remains tethered to these same grounding inspirations.
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