Con diploma, in data 13 giugno 1778, Vittorio Amedeo II, re di Sardegna, concedeva il titolo di cavaliere e l’uso d’armi gentilizie a favore di Donna Maura, dei suoi figli sia maschi che femmine di primo letto avuti col fu Giovanni Pietro Maria Mura, e dei discendenti maschi e femmine. Con altro diploma, di pari data, S. M. concedeva pure il titolo di nobile colla stessa trasmissibiltà. Il nome di Don Giovanni Pietro Mura, è compreso nell’elenco dei Nobili e cavalieri compilato, nel 1822 dal R.Prefetto della Provincia di Cagliari, e trasmesso alla R.Segreteria di Stato e di Guerra presso il viceré di Sardegna, in occasione della incoronazione del re Carlo Felice. La famiglia è iscritta nel’El. Uff. Ital. coi titoli di cavaliere (m.), nobile (mf.) e Don (mf.), in persona di Giovanni Maria, di Nicolò, di Gio. Pietro. Figli: Luigi, Maura. Fratelli: Francesco Giuseppe dec., Maria Angela in Podda e Michela in Fara. Figlia di Francesco Giuseppe: Maria Maddalena. La presenza dell’arme e del motto nella bibliografia documentata della famiglia Mura ci conferma l’avita nobiltà raggiunta dalla casata. Infatti l’origine del motto risale a circa il XIV secolo e deve essere ricercata in quei detti arguti che venivano scritti sui vessilli o bandiere dei cavalieri, esposti alle finestre delle locande in cui questi alloggiavano, in occasione dei tornei, e durante i tornei stessi. Il motto era un pensiero espresso in poche parole facente allusione a un sentimento palese o nascosto, a una qualità, a un ricordo storico, per stimolo al coraggio o onore. Era scelta dal capo della famiglia, dal cavaliere entrante in lizza o data dal sovrano al proprio uomo ligio. Motto della famiglia: Acquiescat rationi voluntas. . Riguardo a questo cognome abbiamo ritrovato ulteriori informazioni storiche in altri archivi. Purtroppo in lingua originale Inglese. : This Italian Last Name of MURA was a name which was applied to someone who lives in solitude, a hermit. The name may also have been a Spanish and Portugese topographic name for someone who lived by a mulberry or blackberry bush, from the Spanish MORA, and rendered in medieval documents in the Latin form MORUM. There are numerous places named with this word. It is also possible that it was used as a nickname with reference to the dark colour of the berries for someone with dark hair or a swarthy complicatedion. The name is also spelt MORO, MORA, MOURIER, MAURIER, MURABITO, MORILL and MORAIS. Surnames as we know them today were first assumed in Europe from the 11th to the 15th Century. The employment in the use of a second name was a custom that was first introduced from the Normans. They themselves had not long before adopted them. It became, in course of time, a mark of gentler blood, and it was deemed a disgrace for gentlemen to have but one single name, as the meaner sort had. At first the coat of arms was a practical matter which served a function on the battlefield and in tournaments. With his helmet covering his face, and armour encasing the knight from head to foot, the only means of identification for his followers, was the insignia painted on his shield and embroidered on his surcoat, the flowing and draped garment worn over the armour. A noble member of the name was Anthonis MORO (1519-75) the Dutch portrait painter, born in Utrecht. In 1547 he entered the Antwerp guild of St. Luke; in 1550-51 he visited Italy, in 1552 Spain and in 1553 England, where he was knighted, and painted Queen Mary for her bridegroom Philip II of Spain. From about 1568 he lived in Antwerp. Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their Last Name as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God. However much the individual may have liked or disliked the Last Name, they were stuck with it, and people infrequently modified them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error….
Noble title: Nobili
Coat of arms: Di azzurro al moro al naturale fruttato di rosso, nudrito sulla pianura d’oro, addestrato da una zappa di argento, manicata d’oro, in sbarra, appoggiato al tronco e sinistrato da un leone d’or…