Metadata: Sforzas correspondence, sovereign powers
Collection
- Country:
- Italy
- Holding institution:
- State Archive of Milan
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archivio di Stato di Milano
- Postal address:
- via Senato 10, 20121 Milano
- Phone number:
- +39 027742161
- Web address:
- http://www.archiviodistatomilano.beniculturali.it/
- Email:
- as-mi@beniculturali.it
- Reference number:
- 1500, 1632, 1634, 1635, 1636, 1637; 1569
- Title:
- Sforzas correspondence, sovereign powers
- Title (official language):
- Carteggio sforzesco, potenze sovrane
- Creator/accumulator:
- Ducal Chancellery
- Date(s):
- 1450-1555
- Date note:
- Jewish-related material dates from 1451-1493
- Language:
- Italian
- Extent:
- 179 boxes
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The series includes documents mainly on the Community of Pavia, which at the time consisted of the heirs of Aberlino and their employees. The documents also show that the community included an innkeeper, Falcone (Haquim), son of Jenhiel Cohen, in whose shop only Jews but not Christians could play cards, under penalty of a fine that the manager would have to pay. There are papers on economic activities, the main being moneylending: however, in 1485, it appears that there were some Jews involved in the jewellery trade. In 1533 the interest rate on loans was 40-45%. It was the result free bargaining sanctioned by the Sforza privilege and it corresponded to the economic reality of the moment, but it was too burdensome for the population which, therefore, asked for the expulsion of the Jews.
In the following years there was a certain ambiguity throughout the State of Milan in the use of the terms "loan" and "usury", which corresponded to the elusiveness of the documents concerning the credit activity in Pavia. In 1549 the governor of Milan, Ferrante Gonzaga, reconfirmed the Sforza privilege for eight years and imposed limits on the interest rate for loans: 35% for loans on pledge and 25% for chirographic loans.
As for the teaching of the Hebrew language, we find in 1490 a converted Jew of Spanish origin, one Benedicto, and, after a few years of intermission, in 1521 the chair of Hebrew in Pavia was reactivated, with the teaching of another neophyte, the scholar Paulus Ricius, to whom we owe, among other works, the systematic synthesis of the Kabbalah, for use by Christian and Jewish readers. During his stay in Pavia, he was also in contact with Erasmus of Rotterdam.
Manno is also mentioned again. He was an important personage in Pavia and in 1461 he complained to the Duke about a group of students who had broken into his house, an event that resulted in a conflict between Manno and the podestà. There are also papers on the ritual murder charge. There is little documentation on the Jewish community of Mantua, except for the payment of a sum of money by Mose and Isac of Lodi for the life of Menachem (Emanuele) of Mantua, son of Mose of Assisi and formally resident in Lodi.
- Archival history:
- In addition to documents on the Sovereign Powers proper (i.e. documents relating to the ducal family and the life of the court), the series also contains other items, which group together documents that vary by type and content. The Sovereign Powers include the correspondence between 1386 and 1555 relating to the Dukes and duchesses of Milan (boxes 1455-1486): Francesco I Sforza, Bianca Maria Visconti, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Bona of Savoy, Giangaleazzo Maria Sforza, Ascanio Maria Sforza, Isabella of Aragon, Bianca Maria Sforza (daughter of Galeazzo Maria), Ludovico il Moro, Beatrice d'Este, Francesco II Sforza, Christine of Denmark, Massimiliano Sforza, Louis XII king of France and Duke of Milan; documents relating to the Sforza family and court life (parties, games, shows, hunts, furnishings, jewellery, ducal residences etc.). The series also includes decrees, patent letters, supplications; “ordinazioni”, that is, sentences of civil and criminal litigations, passed by the Secret Council or by the Council of Justice at the hearing of the prince or his delegate, such as the lieutenant or the first secretary; public notices, “grida” and provisions in general; treaties and deeds relating to the administration of the State coming from the archives of the Secret Chancellery and the Chamber Magistrate; miscellanea, astrology, occultism, superstition; general correspondence, court documents and judicial records.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The secret chancellery was the filter between the Duke’s will and the central and peripheral administrations of the Sforzas’ domain. The internal organisation of the office was regulated by Francesco Sforza when he came to power (1450). Cicco Simonetta, the Duke's first secretary, issued a series of provisions in 1453 to regulate the competences and duties of chancellors and scribes, and again in 1455 and 1456 to regulate the activity of ushers and registrars. All officials, before taking office, were required to make a solemn oath of allegiance to the person and the state of the Duke. They were entrusted with sending the ducal letters and taking care of the registers. Absolute discretion was demanded from the officers: those who revealed secrets of the office were punished with loss of the position as well as a life ban from any public office. Originally a single office, between 1450 and 1460 the Chancellery was divided into four distinct sections: the political chancellery (1450-1479), responsible for domestic and foreign political conduct; a benefit chancellery (1451), to which issues relating to the granting of ecclesiastical benefits were delegated; a judicial chancellery (1451), which dealt with criminal cases and drew up letters of grace ordered by the Duke; and finally the financial chancellery, which was in charge of controlling all the ducal revenues and expenses.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Fano, Menaḥem Azariah da
- Gonzaga, Ferrante, 1507-1557
- Ricius, Paulus
- Sforza family
- Yerusha Network member:
- Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center - Milan
