The Anguissola (also known as Angusuola) were an aristocratic Piacenza family, ascribed to the Venetian patriciate and counted among the so-called non-Venetian patricians.
The origin and the name of the Anguissola family are linked to an ancient Byzantine legend. In fact, they would be descended from Greek people, and in particular by a certain Galvano Sordo (identified as the progenitor of the family) who, in 717, militated in the army of the Emperor of the East Leone III Isaurico and that, "with an ingenious artificial fire contributed to deliberate the city of Constantinople from 'Saraceni that the besieged besieged by sea and land ». Since the shield of the Sordo carried as an emblem the effigy of an asp, after the victory reported on the Muslims the people began to repeat: Anguis sola fecit victoriam !, ie: The snake alone has brought back the victory! This saying would then become so popular, that Galvano Sordo himself was nicknamed "Anguissola", and this name would remain later, as a surname, to all his progeny.
The descendants of the first Anguissola settled in France and in Italy, sometimes succeeding in building small autonomous powers. The family, however, always had its main headquarters in Piacenza. In 1409, Giorgino di Uberto Anguissola of the Counts of San Polo moved to the territories of the Republic of Venice, serving as a man of arms: he remembers, in particular, his great contribution to the taking of the castle of Schio, occupied by the rebel count Horses of Sant'Orso. The Venetian Senate decreed, as a reward, that the family of the Anguissola was recognized as the fief of Schio with a commendable rank, and as such, in 1729, were registered in the Golden Book of the Titolates of the Republic. Moreover, they were aggregated to the noble Order of the city of Vicenza.
It is certain the aggregation of a branch of this family, attested in 1499 with the name of Angusuola, to the patrician body of the lagoon city. This branch, however, became extinct after 1612 or, according to other sources, after 1640, probably in a certain Nicolò Angusuola.
After the fall of the Serenissima, this family obtained confirmation of the nobility of the Austrian imperial government with Sovereign Resolution of October 20, 1816, in the persons of Francesco Antonio di Galeazzo and Vincenzo di Gabriele Anguissola: the first of the two was given the title of baron and the insignia of Cavaliere della Corona Ferrea, while his father, Galeazzo, had been a general of the Neapolitan army and Knight of the Grand Cross of the Constantinian order of Saint George.