What connection is there between Paperon de 'Paperoni (Scrooge McDuck), the well-known Disney character, and the less famous (at least to most) Paparone de Paperonibus, noble ecclesiastical of the thirteenth century who lived during the pontificates of Pope Clement IV and Pope Honorius IV, was appointed first bishop of Foligno, and then elected bishop of Spoleto? The Holy See newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, compares the names and points out the 'anagramatic' (and other) similarities between the fantasy billionaire conceived by American cartoonist Carl Barks in 1947, and the man of the Church who lived in Middle Ages, interviewing the Archbishop of Benevento Felice Accrocca and the writer Dario Fertilio.

The genealogy is taken not from the famous comic "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck," but from the much more authoritative 'Hierarchia Catholica' by Konrad Eubel. Reports of a "Paparone" in the Umbrian diocese, child of the rich Roman family of the Papareschi who lived in the district of Trastevere in the first half of the twelfth century, and are still present in the Capitoline streets. The priest was then registered in the order of the Dominicans as coming from the "de Paparonibus" or "de Paperonibus" family, and subsequently is in the Archbishop's palace of Spoleto with the name of Paparonus de Paparonis.

"He is found portrayed in the eighteenth-century portraits of the city bishops in the archbishop's palace of Spoleto," explains Archbishop Accrocca, where the priest is indicated by the name of Paparone de Paparoni; and is said to have been moved, in 1285, by Pope Honorius IV, from Foligno to Spoleto, and then died in 1290. The inscription reads: "F. Paparonus de Paparonis Romanus, Ordinis Praedicatorum, year MCCLXXXV ab Honorio IV and Fulginatensi ad hanc translatus, obyt a. MCCXC."

Guido Martina, the translator for publisher Mondadori of the stories of the Disney characters whose American names were then "reinvented" in Italian, may have been inspired by the name of the bishop. Mickey Mouse became "Topolino," and Donald Duck became "Paperino." The more influential citizen of Duckburg, Uncle Scrooge, who was inspired by the stingy miser of Charles Dickens' novel 'A Christmas Carol,' became "Zio Paperone" or "Paperon de' Paperoni" thanks to the medieval erudition of his Italian translator.

"Who would have thought to say" - concludes the Archbishop of Benevento - "to a friar and bishop of the thirteenth century that his name would one day have served to solve far more problems than those to which he was used, and that his memory would be fueled by Disney comics?"