Metadata: Government Acts - Commerce (modern part). Folder 145
Collection
- Country:
- Italy
- Holding institution:
- Milan State Archive
- 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:
- Atti di Governo – Commercio (parte moderna)
- Title:
- Government Acts - Commerce (modern part). Folder 145
- Title (official language):
- Atti di Governo – Commercio (parte moderna)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Ministry of the Interior (1802-1814); Provisional Regency of the Government of Lombardy (1814-1816); Lieutenancy of the Lombard provinces (1849-1859); Ministry of Finance (1802-1814); Milanese Lombardo-Venetian Government (1816-1848); Royal Government of Lombardy (1859-1860); Royal provincial government (1860-1861); Governmental Senate of Finance (1816-1830)
- Date(s):
- 1802-1861
- Date note:
- Jewish-related material dates from 1806-1816
- Language:
- Italian
- Extent:
- 2 files
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The Commerce series of the fonds Government Deeds comprises provisions regarding the quality, condition and development of trade: manufacturers' duties, arts and crafts, operators, designers, train drivers, banks, pawn shops, fairs and markets, chambers of commerce, manufacturing. According to the General Guide, the documents and records were created by the Ministry of the Interior, by the Ministry of Finance, by the Temporary Government Governance, by the Senate's Political Chamber, by the Lombard Lieutenancy.
Box number 145 in the series is entitled “Jews”. It includes a file related to the "Draft disciplinary regulation for the organisation of the Jewish Society of Mantua, 30 September 1806" and a file related to the organisation of departmental consistories requested by Napoleon Bonaparte. In those years there was no real Jewish Community in Milan and the Jews who lived in the capital actually depended on the Community of Mantua (a situation that lasted until 1866).
The second file contains the printed decree dated 17 March 1808 by Napoleon Bonaparte who, after a preamble in which the principle of equality of the Jews with other citizens was established, issued strict rules on the loan on pledge and laid the groundwork for the central reorganisation of the Communities. As for the exercise of the loan on pledge by Jews, the decree established that they should obtain a special license from the prefect of the department after investigating their commercial and moral probity. The license was to be renewed annually and was revoked in case of obvious usury or "fraudulent traffic". The decree also established that all transactions of Jews without a license should be considered void and that they could not lend to servants and employees, or accept work tools as pledges. As far as the organisation of the Communities was concerned, the Decree established that the Communities should be organised into departmental consistories that depended on the Paris General Consistory.
The file also contains documents related to a delegation of Jews from the Lombardo-Veneto to be sent to Paris in July 1806. The Prefect of Olona (which also depended on the city of Milan) delegated Moise Formiggini and David Sanson Pavia; the Prefect of the Mincio: rabbi Abram Vita Cologna, and Benedetto Rafael Fanno [Fano]; the Prefect of the Crostolo: Jacob Carmi; the Prefect of the Adige: Angelo Coia and Girolamo Basilea; the Prefect of the Panaro: Beniamino Graziadio de Usiglio and Bonaventura Modena; the Prefect of the Reno: Lazzaro Coia and Felice Levi; from the Prefect of the Lower Po: rabbi Graziadio Nepi and D Bondì Zomorani; from the Prefect of the Adriatic: Jacob Emanuel Cracovia; Abram Tedesco and Aron Latis. There is also a sub-file concerning the granting of 100 golden louis to Abram Cologna, who was nominated third great Rabbi, to go to Paris.
Further, the file includes a letter from the Milan delegate, Moise Formiggini, dated 17 October 1806 declaring "although there is an oratory at my house, to which those Jews who routinely or temporarily find themselves in this capital intervene ordinarily to exercise their cult, there is no form of corporation or administration. Very few families are established here and only four or five of them (including mine and that of Mr. Pavia, another member of the aforementioned assembly) could be able to contribute to the costs which the aforementioned decree deals with”, as well as correspondence related to the Venetians and Mantua Jews and some papers of 1816, including a minute of a decree that excludes the Israelites and foreigners from the trade of grains and a supplication of 19 January 1816 of the Jewish nation of Lombardy for the annulment of the provision that forbids all Jews to assume any judicial, political and municipal job and all the rules of the civil code which place distinctions between Jews and other citizens. The petition was presented in Mantua to the Imperial Royal Central Commission of Organisation but its outcome has not been preserved.
- Archival history:
-
The law of 1875, included in the Regulation of 1911, established that the archives of the central magistracies of pre-unification states should form, within the individual Archives, the section of State Acts. The other fonds had to be divided into three more sections, namely Judicial Documents, Administrative Documents, Notarial Deeds. All the remaining archives should form special sections.
Until 1963 the fonds of the State Archives of Milan were then assigned to the various sections, which changed over time [among them we point out the Historical-diplomatic, the Administrative and Financial, the Judiciary, the Military, the Confidential archive; in 1919, after the management of Luigi Fumi, sections of State Acts and Administrative Acts, Judicial Proceedings, Archives of the reigns of the Visconti and Sforza, Religion fonds and collections; in 1950 the First sections (State Acts i.e. Peronian Government Acts), Second (Administrative Acts), Third (Judicial Acts), Fourth (Special Collections), Fifth (Purchases, Gifts, Transfers)].
Following the loss of a large quantity of documents, series and entire fonds during the Second World War and with the transfer of new large archives, including the Notarial Archive and the Cadastral Archive, the fonds were reorganised.
The General Guide to the State Archives describes the fonds of the AS MI in the 1980s, grouping them, where possible, according to the historical period (Ancien Régimes, Napoleonic, Restoration, Post-unitary). The Acts of Government fonds (15th-19th century) could be inserted in any of these historical periods, for its peculiar characteristics, and is considered in its own right. The Diplomatic fonds is also presented in its own right, including the Diplomatic Archive (consisting of the fonds with the oldest documentation) and the Historical Section (containing miscellaneous material and collections). The remaining fonds are identified by type or according to the creator body (Fascist archives, Notaries, Cadastres, Pious and Charitable institutions, Religious corporations; Family and individuals' archives, Different archives, Collections and miscellaneous).
In terms of order and arrangement, the archival history of the pre-unification fonds of the AS MI was characterised by the so-called Peronian system, a particular type of organisation by subject implemented in the 18th and 19th centuries by the Milanese archivists, who created the complex of fonds named Government Acts; to the latter were added the documentary aggregations carried out in the 18th and 19th centuries that produced collections and miscellaneous sections.
See also http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/archivi/soggetti-conservatori/MIAA00017D/
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The hyper-fonds "Government Acts" comprises 28,000 boxes of documentation from the main magistracies and government offices of the State of Milan for a period extending from the 15th to the 19th century. The files preserved in the boxes are not the result of the normal aggregation of documents from various offices, but rather of a reorganisation "by subject" that was carried out from the end of the 18th until the second half of the 19th century.
The administrative subjects according to which the documents are classified are: Acque (Waters), Acque e strade (Waters and roads), Agricoltura (Agriculture), Albinaggio (Escheat), Annona (Supervision of food supply), Araldica (Heraldry), Censo (Census), Commercio (Commerce), Confini (Borders), Culto (Religious worship), Esenzioni (Exemptions), Feudi Camerali (Chambers' fiefs), Feudi Imperiali (Imperial fiefs), Finanza (Finance), Fondi camerali (Chamber's fonds), Giustizia civile (Civil Justice), Giustizia punitiva (Punitive Justice), Luoghi pii (Charitable Institutions), Militare (Military), Popolazione (Population), Potenze estere (Foreign Powers), Potenze sovrane (Sovereign powers), Sanità (Healthcare), Spettacoli pubblici (Public Shows), Strade (Roads), Studi (Studies), Tesoreria (Treasury), Trattati (Treaties), Uffici civici (Civic Offices), Uffici giudiziari (Judicial Offices), Uffici e tribunali regi (Royal Offices and Tribunals), Uffici vari (Various Offices). Within each subject, the documentation has been divided into an ancient part and a modern part and then sorted alphabetically by person, institution or location and then in chronological order.
With the Baden treaty of 1714 the Duchy of Milan was ceded by Spain to the Habsburgs of Austria who remained in control until the Napoleonic conquest of 1797. The numerous reforms introduced by the Austrian domination produced profound changes in the administrative apparatus of the Duchy of Milan. The creation of new offices, the abolition of many old magistracies and the overlapping of different jurisdictions had created the need for the central Austrian administration to access the documents more quickly and efficiently. As early as 1765, the archivist of the Chamber Magistrate's Archive, Gaetano Pescarenico, had received instructions from the Habsburg government to reorganise the acts of the abolished magistracies by "classes and subjects", a provision that Pescarenico had fiercely opposed. In 1778 Bartolomeo Sambrunico, Pescarenico's successor, yielded to the requests of the central government in Vienna and began the reorganisation by subject but only of the Chamber's Archive. When in 1781 emperor Joseph II established the government archives of San Fedele in Milan, with the function of a concentrated archive for all the administrative documents of the Habsburg government in Lombardy, a huge number of documents were deposited at the headquarters of the new institute. These consisted of the "governo del Castello" archive ("Castle government”), including the Sforza and Visconti archives (at least the part that had survived the destruction of legal documents in 1447, during the Ambrosian Republic), the Spanish and Habsburg chancelleries, the Secret Council, interim and provisional government councils and statute registers. At the head of the government archives was placed the former prefect Ilario Conte, assisted by second officer Luca Peroni who carried out the reorganisation of the papers, dismembering files and complex archival units and organising the papers according to the aforementioned subjects. This arrangement is known as the "Peronian order", from the name of Luca Peroni who implemented it in its most extreme form. He also compiled a "Vocabolario ossia indice alfabetico di tutte le materie le specie e i generi ed ogni altra cosa ed oggetto atti ad essere distribuiti in indice i quali concorrono a formare impinguare e corredare i ‘titoli principali’ e ‘subalterni’ componenti la diverse ‘classi’ dell’archivio" (Vocabulary or alphabetical index of all subjects, kinds and genres and every other thing and object apt to be distributed in index, which concur to form, impinge and accompany the 'main' and 'subaltern title' forming the different 'classes' of the archive). The Vocabulary was the fundamental tool for the archivists who had to implement this method and is an important aid for the consultation of the inventories. This arrangement by subject was also followed by Peroni's successors until 1895, when Ippolito Malaguzzi Valeri became director. He expressed strong criticism of the Peronian method which effectively annulled the institutional reality, sacrificing the identity of the single magistracies. (http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/archivi/complessi-archivistici/MIBA0022BC/)
The Commerce series (modern part) contains provisions regarding the quality, condition and development of trade: manufacturing duties, arts and crafts, operators, designers, machinists, stalls, pawn shops, fairs and markets, chambers of commerce, manufacturing. Among the creators of the documents, the following were identified: Ministry of the Interior (1802-1814); Provisional Regency of the Government of Lombardy (1814-1816); Lieutenancy of the Lombard provinces (1849-1859); Ministry of Finance (1802-1814); Milanese Lombardo-Venetian Government (1816-1848); Royal Government of Lombardy (1859-1860); Royal provincial government (1860-1861); Governmental Senate of Finance (1816-1830) (http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/archivi/complessi-archivistici/MIBA002312/)
- Subject terms:
- Legal status of Jews
- Trade and commerce
- System of arrangement:
- The fond is divided into General Provisions and Special Occurrences, arranged alphabetically by profession (boxes 15-63), materials (boxes 64-373), arts and manufacturing (boxes 374-406) and deeds of the Lombard Lieutenancy, then Royal Central Administration of Lombardy and Royal Provincial Government (boxes 407-470) for the years 1802-1859.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center - Milan
- Author of the description:
- Rori Mancino; Centro di documentazione ebraica contemporanea; 2017
