The first Cane Corso European Winner ever; Rubens winning the 1997 title.
Bred by Degli Olmi, owned by Corini Raffaella, Leno-Italy.
The Mediterranean region is well known for its many different Molosser breeds and sub types. In Spain, and its neighbouring Portugal we can find many
different dog breeds belonging to this group, opposit of Spain, in Marocco, we can find the Chien de Atlas (Aidi). France is the home of
a couple survived Molossers, and some more breeds and subtypes that have become extinct. In Greece and and Turkey we find several existing
Molosser breeds of what we could call "Mountain type" or "Shepherd's Dog type". The former area of Yugoslavia, and Albania, we can find dog breeds
of the Mountain type as well. In the center of the Mediterranean Sea we can find Italy, which most likely is the country of the world
that have most Molosser breeds and subtypes. This is not surprising, considering the location of the country and its history.
If we look back in time, the time after the Roman Empire, we will find out that Italy, and especially the southern part of Italy,
have been "owned" and occupied by many other counties and kingdoms. In the early 400 A.D. Italy faced invation from by Alaric and
Visigoth tribes, following by an Ostrogothic invation in 489-493. In 568-569 the Lombards, a Germanic tribe from modern Hungary,
invaded Italy under their King Alboin. The Lombard Kingdom was located in the north and Tuscany and the kingdom lasted until the year 774.
Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia and the other parts of southern Italy were at this time ruled by the Byzantine Empire, which also included Greece and Turkey.
Later in that period this southern area was occupied by the muslims, while the northern areas were under the Saxon Emperors.
Vild boar hunting.
Detail of mosaic art from Sicily, 3-4th century A.D.
Piazza Armerina, Sicily.
In the late 11th century Sicily was conqured from the muslims. Without going to deep into details we can tell you that later
Sicily and southern Italy belonged to the Kingdom of Sicily, the same area, -including Sardinia, belonged to the Kingdom of Aragon (Aragon, Spain)
in the 1400's, while later the area (without Sardinia) was known as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
In the mid to late 1800's the different regions and kingdoms of Italy was "gathered" to what we today know as the country of Italy.
Logically we can assume that the dogs belonging to the different parties that has invaded and/or ruled Italy in the past, has played at least some part in
forming and developing the large variety of dog breeds and subtypes in Italy. To not believe so would be ignorant and
not logical, maybe driven by a wish to only see a romantic history of the dog breeds. The official history of the Cane Corso,
and also the official history of its larger cousin -the Mastino Napoletano, tell that both is direct descendants
of the ancient Roman Molossus, the Canis Pugnax. But common sence tell us, based on Italy's history,
that in addition to the old Roman dogs, the Molosser breeds brought to Italy by invaders, rulers and by human migration, has
played a major part in the development of the Italian Molosser breeds, and possibly also in some extent in the development of the Cane Corso.
Detail of ”Taranto’s seaport” by Jacob Philipp Hackert,
Jacob Phillipp Hackert (1737-1807) was a German painter, specializing in landscapes.
Hackert was active in Italy from 1768, and in 1786 he became the court painter to Ferdinand IV of Naples.
The name of the Cane Corso is derived from the latin word "Cohors", that means guardian, protector.
The Cane Corso was used as a multi purpose farmdog, for guarding of family and properties, as a protector of livestock, a cattle-herder and in hunting, especially in the central and southern
regions of Italy. These hunters often crossed the Cane Corso with other breeds for making a more specialized hunting dog;
the Mezzoleviero -a cross between the Cane Corso and tracking hounds or the Italian Greyhound, the Mezzosangue -a cross
between the Cane Corso and the scent hound. The farmers and herders of central Italy often crossed the Cane Corso with the
Maremmano Abruzzese flock guardian, to produce a dog that also could protect the shepherd, since the Maremmano Abruzzese
was closer connected to the flock of sheep than to the shepherd. These crossdogs, called Mezzocorso, was also used to control the
sheeps at the trasumanza, the migration of sheeps from the plains to the mountain grazing fields.
Ringo, owned by Joao Arraiado, Portugal.
There are at least two sub-types of the Cane Corso; the Branchiero Siciliano from Sicily and the Bucciriscu Calabrese from Calabria.
These two sub-types, differing from the Cane Corso on only minor points, should, even if they has their own breed name, still
be reagarded as Cane Corso sub-types and not as seperate breeds. With the acceptance and international recognition of the
Cane Corso these sub-types surely will vanish and go extinct.
In the 1948 published "The Book of the Dog" it is written; "Even to-day, dogs of this old type may be found here and there, some
recognized as distinct breeds and others lost in the obscurity of unorthodoxy; readily to mind, come the Branchiero of Sicily,
a now rare, short-faced cattle dog,". Notice that this was in 1948 that these dogs was already rare, and that about sums up
the history of the Cane Corso in the 1900's, a century where these dogs became rarer and rarer. However, in the provinces of Foggia and
Ban the Cane Corso survived up to modern time, and it was here the few dedicated entusiasts found the specimens that was used
in the restoration of the breed.
