Title that looks like 'Macso.' in Kingdom of Naples records?

[mark04ox]

Hi everyone,

I'm just looking at some death records from 1813 from a comune in the Kingdom of Naples, and I've noticed a lot of the men's first names are preceded by what looks like a word which is not part of their name. It's an abbreviation of something, but I don't know what -- it looks like 'Macso.' -- and I'm not sure if it's some kind of title (but all these men are peasants), or if it's some fact about them -- this is the same space where they would put 'Quondam' or 'fu' to indicate the person would be dead, for example. Does anyone know what this word is?

I've included a screenshot of an example -- 'figlia del Macso. Giuliano'

Thanks!

[liviomoreno]

It is Maestro

[mark04ox]

I wondered about that, but why would they be called 'Maestro'? There seem to be a lot of men with this title, all of them contadini. It is definitely distinct from 'Signore' which is applied to landowners. What sort of person would be called 'Maestro'?

[liviomoreno]

Mastro (Maestro) is just a title to indicate that the person has unusual skills...

[mark04ox]

Ah, ok, so it could indicate any craftsman then? Like a shoemaker or a carpenter? Thank you!!