ABOUT MY SURNAME
Scansi (or Scanzi, as it was later written in standard Italian) was a Venetian and, previously, Ghibelline family from Brescia. In the early 15th century, Gianbatista de Scanso (In Bergamasque: Scans, today known as Scanzorosciate), a merchant, moves from Bergamo to Brescia. He marries a daughter of the count Francesco de Terzi (senior), and assumes the Terzi coat of arms as his own, entering the Patristic Council of Brescia as his heir, with the title of count. The Terzi and their cadet branches, Scansi and Lana de Terzi were highly involved in the accession of Brescia into the Republic of Venice. The year is at most 1426 since that year Brescia enters the Republic. They were old Brescian nobility, from before the closure of the council in 1488. Prior to that they were ghibellines, as can be seen in the alternative Terzi coat of arms, and the branch Lana de Terzi would earn high titles in the HRE.
One Scansi branch left Brescia after the Candian War, accepting a paga de guaso and relocating to Sumartin, Brač. By the fall of the Republic in 1797 the family Scansi no longer existed in Brescia, but a branch of the family survived in Milan up until 1910, when the widow of general Egidio Osio, Maria Scansi-Osio died in the Osio-Skansi Lodge in Milan. Around 1700, Bartolomeo Scansi was born in Sumartin, Brač. Although Bartolomeo's name was written both in Venetian and Latin (as was customary for nobility), the exact date of birth was not recorded, and curiously enough, there is no record of the names of his parents. Bartolomeo's second child, Pelegrini Scansi (b. 1735) is the ancestor of all currently living Skansi. The Skansi family in Brač was a naval merchant family, and my great-great-grandfather Luca was the last member of the family to be a native speaker of Veneto and during his lifetime he changed the spelling of his first name and last name to use a "k". Luca Scansi owned an unknown number of ships, but it was certain he had at least one ship, and had acquired a second ship, a bracera named Mirvami. He died at the end of WWII. His son, Petar Skansi, during his life owned and co-owned several ships, among which his pride was his loger named Darko, commissioned in honor of his first son, my grandfather, which he captained up until the end of WWII.
The most common current variations used by expatriates (aside from "Skansi" and "Scansi") are "Skansie", "Scansie" and "Scanzi", found mostly in Argentina, New Zealand and the USA. There is an interesting curiosity connected with the Skansi family name. Dalmatian-Croatian recognizes the verb "skansati", which, quite differently from the similar Italian verb "to slide over", means "to squander one's wealth". The verb is probably derived from the family name (and not the other way round) in reference to the lost family fortune.
References:
Dizionario storico blasonico delle famiglie nobili e notabili italiane estinte e fiorenti vol.II, p. 503, Comm. G.B. di Crollalanza,, Pisa 1888.
Alessandro Augusto Monti della Corte. 1960. Le Famiglie del Patriziato Bresciano. Brescia: Fratelli Geroldi.
https://www.geni.com/people/Bartul-Skansi/6000000017186298032
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobiltà_bresciana


Scansi Coat of Arms from Dizionario storico blasonico delle famiglie nobili e notabili italiane estinte e fiorenti vol.II, p. 503, Comm. G.B. di Crollalanza, Pisa 1888. and Le Famiglie del Patriazato Bresciano, Brescia 1960.

The land of Petar Skansi in Sumartin left after the 1946 confiscation is shown in the image in blue.
Some historical holdings of the Scansi family (all branches, including extinct ones):
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Parts of the village of Sumartin (Brač), Croatia
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Parts of the village of Brusje (Hvar), Croatia
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Palace Trappa-Scansi, Piazza Aldo Moro 9, Quinzano (Brescia), Italy
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Villa Scansi, Via Biondella 9, Verona, Italy
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Lodge Osio-Scansi, Piazza dei Mercanti 9, Milan, Italy
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Palace Scansi, Via Carlo Alberto 1, Monza (Milan), Italy