Here's my Black "Ischia" that I bought from the silent auction at the Fig Fiesta.   There was discussion that this is actually Black Provence.   I have some early figs forming and they are coming in dark even at the early stage.  Usually my dark figs start out green and then gradually turn black.  Hopefully these will hang on until spring.   Plant is too large for the mini greenhouse.

Some dark types do that when they first appear .
You mention " There was discussion that this is actually Black Provence. "
RW renamed his from original source he obtained to "Black Ischia" to add to confusion of figs.

So there are 3 different sources (institutions) naming their fig black ischia without a known relationship to each other? What does the word "Ischia" mean anyways.

Jon said at the Fiesta that he thought it looked like VdB, though it didn't have fruit on it at the time.  Mine haven't fruited yet.  Richard didn't rename them to cause confusion.  He told me that he saw they were listed as synonyms on the F4F variety list (they are), so he thought the name was interchangeable.

Ischia is the island in Italy (edited) where the figs were imported.  The original names of this and the green version were lost so they just named them after the island.  I read that here somewhere in an old post.

Ischia is an island off the coast of Naples, Italy. 

edit - I was typing at the same time as Harvey above.  I used to think it was Greek too.   Look it up on Google Maps

google maps street view is pretty cool. I just was virtual driving through the island of Ischia (which isn't very big by the way) and found some fig trees... on both sides of the road.

google "40.715607,13.895826" and go on street view.

The Ischians probably have their own name which was changed from where the first got it so the circle of confusion continues. I wonder if anyone has both to compare the two. One day when every single gene is mapped out we will know what's really different.

Well, if it's actually VdB it replaces the VdB imposter you appear to have. :)