Sforzas correspondence

Collection

Reference number:: 8, 39, 676, 760, 879, 880, 892-893, 899, 900, 906, 931, 932, 1075, 1084, 1086, 1109

Scope and content:: The papers of the series mainly concern the prohibition for Jews of the duchy to have relations with Christian women, on penalty of a fine of 100 imperial coins or 4 months in prison; requests by monks and nuns of Pavia in economic difficulties addressed to the Duke asking for a special permission to take a loan from Jacob Morello (in 1531 the monks and nuns went as far as pawning sacred furnishings to the Jewish banks and in exactly those years the requests to the Duke to expel the Jews are insistently renewed). There is also talk of a certain master Isac of Noyone, also called Maestro Achino, who, according to a certain Salomon, will arrive in Milan; of the concession of the right to live and the concession made by the Duke Francesco Sforza to the two doctors Gaspare and Samuel Ebreo to enter Milan to provide care for their brother Leone.

Archival history:: The importance and extent of the documentation relating to the Sforza Duchy convinced Luigi Fumi to remove it from the Religion fonds and from the other archival collections to make it an independent section, placed next to the already created sections Visconti Correspondence and Sforza Archive before the Principality. The creation of the collection was entrusted to the care of the first archivist Beno Della Croce, who formed the section by extracting the documents from other fonds (such as Families, Municipalities, General correspondence and Historical Miscellany). He was assisted in his work by other archivists, who broke up other fonds and inserted what they found in the Sforza Correspondence to increase the section that was thus constituted. In 1918 alone Della Croce placed in this section around 3000 documents taken from the Historical Miscellany collection (where, however, Sforza material is still to be found). From the same Miscellany Natale took those he defined as "statistical documents" and other material relating to the Chancellery and the Ducal Archive.

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:: Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan, 1495-1535

Subject terms:: Antisemitism; Antisemitism--Antisemitic legislation; Financial matters; Financial matters--Moneylending; Residency issues of Jews

System of arrangement:: The Sforza Correspondence series is divided into three sub-series: Internal Correspondence, Foreign Powers and Sovereign Powers.