Metadata: Government Acts - Worship (modern part)
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:
- Atti di Governo – Culto (parte moderna). Folders 2911-2912
- Title:
- Government Acts - Worship (modern part)
- Title (official language):
- Atti di Governo – Culto (parte moderna)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Ministry of the Interior (1802-1814); Provisional Regency of the Government of Lombardy (1814-1816); Milanese Lombardo-Venetian Government (1816-1848); Lieutenancy of the Lombard provinces (1849-1859); Ministry of Worship (1802-1814); Royal Government of Lombardy (1859-1860); Royal provincial government of Milan (1860-1861)
- Date(s):
- 1801-1863
- Date note:
- Jewish-related material dates from 1819-1820
- Language:
- Italian
- Extent:
- 2 boxes
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The modern part of the Worship fonds comprises documents and records created by the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Worship, the temporary government Regency, the political Senate, the Lombard Lieutenancy, the central administration of Lombardy and the provincial government of Milan for the years 1801-1861 (approximately).
The papers are organised into 35 categories, one of which is called "Different Religions". This is made up of 4 boxes (2911-2915) containing material related to Jews for the years 1803-1841, the years of the "first emancipation" and of the Habsburg restoration. Only boxes 2911 and 2912 were examined here, as these contain documents of the Jews of Milan.
The documents in this fonds concern the laws regarding Jews for the period between the end of the 18th and the 19th century. Box 2911 contains material on different subjects for the period between 1803 and 1841. The part related to the conversions to Catholicism is significant: the regulation for the admission of Jewish postulants to the Catholic religion was drafted by the Ministry of Worship and approved by the President of the Government on 29 January 1803.
There is also a copy of the provisional regulation of 3 February 1803, approved by the Vice President of the Italian Republic with a decree of 30 January 1803, on the precautions to be observed in the admission of Jewish converts to the Catholic religion. In this case the regulation established that the postulant's request could not be taken into consideration until 4 months after the application for conversion. In this period of time it was necessary to examine the sincerity of the request, keeping the person in custody or in the hospice of catechumens or with a knowledgeable Catholic person, while the local police made sure that no pressure was imposed on the Jewish and Catholic side.
The following documents are also of interest: a circular of 8 May 1804 which communicates the extension of the benefit of exemption from service in the National Guard and its respective payment - already granted to Catholic ministers - to Jewish ministers; list of Jewish feasts in the respect of which the Jews can not be subpoenaed by correspondence (1818-1823); circular letter of 20 September 1821 of the Imperial Royal General Appeal on the divorce of Jewish spouses when one or both have converted to Catholicism; correspondence on the prohibition of subjecting to baptism Jewish minors against the will of their parents, even when there is no abduction, 1838.
Furthermore, the file contains a memorandum and related correspondence containing the request for official recognition to the other subjects of the Habsburg Kingdom (1840-1941). More specifically, the Jews ask to be able to be called to testify both in civil and criminal cases; to access a notary; to abolish the need to have the assent of the Royal Delegation for their marriages; to access the profession of pharmacist; they also ask for Jewish landowners to be elected in municipal councils, municipal congregations and central congregations; to make it possible for them to aspire to public political and judicial posts; to be elected assessors in the mercantile courts and as probi viri in criminal procedures.
Box 2912 contains documents on the rights of Jews and the education of children, conceived as an instrument of "regeneration" of the Jewish people in view of complete integration. It includes: a note of 27 May 1819 of the Royal Delegation of Milan about the presence in the city of several Jews who can not attend public schools. It is therefore proposed to establish a special school in which "only Jews are allowed and from which the chair of religious instruction should be removed leaving the rest of the teachings intact"; a report dated 12 June 1819 to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, signed by D'Adda, on the applicability of the regulation of public education to young Jews. The report contains some quantitative data on the Jewish presence in Lombardy: it states that in the province of Bergamo, Como, Cremona, Pavia and Sondrio there are no Jews; in the province of Lodi there are three families without school-age children; in the province of Brescia 7 families who either do not have school-age children or educate them privately. Then there is a long excursus on Mantua and a reference to Milan. D'Adda maintains that there are no Jews in the province of Milan, while he claims that there are "several families" in the city, all of whose children are privately educated.
The box further contains:
An order, dated Vienna 4 February 1820, which refers to Leopold II's provision of 29 January 1820 that Jews are tolerated only in the territories where they previously lived. A detailed report is therefore required on the situation of the Jews, their degree of education and integration; the prohibition on Jews to access state or municipal public services is reaffirmed and finally - as far as worship is concerned - the obligation to carry out a census of synagogues is imposed and it is recommended that prayer books be written in Italian.
A "State of the Jewish families of Milan" of 5 June 1820, namely a report by the Royal Delegation of Milan with data provided by Jews and parish priests on the number of Jewish families, their composition and in some cases notes on how to educate their children. In the parish of Sant'Alessandro, in the district of S. Orsola at no. 1825, the presence of only one family is reported, that of Aron Finzi, widower of a year with 5 small children, shopkeeper and landowner; in the parish of Sant'Ambrogio, in the district of San Simone, at no. 3077 lives the De Rosti [? De Rossi?] family, comprising Giuseppe, rabbi and broker of goods of different qualities, 39 years old, his wife Zefora Sacerdoti, 24, and their daughter Sara of 2 years of age. "They recite their prayers in Hebrew and have a meeting place at no. 4 of the district of Rugabella, parish of S. Eufemia ". In the parish of Santa Maria Segreta, contrada of Bocchetto, at n. 2465, is reported the presence of the family of Salomone Vitalevi, keeper of a jewellery shop, of his wife Zifora Norsa Einleven with five children of tender age. They have Catholic servants and Catholic tutors. "With his business, Vitalevi supplies livelihoods to many families in this city". In the parish of St. Euphemia at numbers 4213, 4226, 4343 some families are reported for a total of 12 people between children and adults of both sexes: their livelihood depends on the domestic work of mothers and the fathers working as dealers of second-hand goods. In the district of Rugabella, in a room on the ground floor at. 4226, "their religious unions are held every Saturday where the Bible is read and the Psalms are recited in Hebrew and are joined by the other families of the city who are foreign travellers from their nation". At no. 4345 of the same contrada there is another family "and there is a school of only Jewish children of a tender age who are made to read the first elements of their religion in the Hebrew idiom". In the Parish of San Babila lives Cesare Gallico, keeper of a jewellery shop, unmarried with a Catholic housekeeper; in the Parish of San Tomaso resides the family of Gabriele Jona and Elisabetta Soana who live together with Giustina Bacchi, Giuseppe, Claudio, Davide, their relatives. "They buy pottery and used earthenware and other kinds and resell them. They are not people of bad behaviour". Then follows the description of the families who live in the Metropolitan Parish. There are four households: the first is that of Salomone Pavia, an important merchant of jewels, with a wife, three children, an uncle and a servant. Pavia, who has lived in Milan since childhood, had the children (whose names are not given) educated by Catholic tutors and a Hebrew teacher for the Hebrew language. The second family is that of Salomone Norse, an unmarried engineer, who studied at the high school of Sant'Alessandro and at the University of Pavia. The third family is that of the "innkeeper" Samuele Milla with wife and 4 children who are sent "to the school of mutual teaching". The fourth family is that of Davide de Angeli, unmarried, a tailor by trade. In the parish de' Servi live Leone Viterbi, a seller of silk and liquids, 60 years old, unmarried, who lives with Anna Sacerdoti; Moise Montelli, widower, 29 years old and Francesco Dal Mayda, 36, money changer, a trader who, according to the parish priest's declaration, "appears to be a Catholic, but by some Jews is held to be Jewish". In the Parish of Santa Maria della Passione, district of Guastalla, at number 102 resides the family of the shopkeeper Bonel Coen with his wife Rachele Segre, mother in turn of Ienol Coen and the children of Bonel's previous marriage: Misianna, Richetta, Giacobbe, Beniamino , Guttellina, Lamberto. The daughters of the Coen family learn to read and write at home with the help of Catholic teachers, while the sons "go to Jewish schools". In the parish of San Satiro, contrada de 'Spadari, at number 3144 and 3242 two families were identified: that of Emanuele Usiglio, restorer of copper prints and ancient books, awarded by the I. R. Government, chemist distiller, former student of the School of Chemistry applied to the arts, who lives with his wife Gutela Marianna Sacerdoti, and that of the itinerant shopkeeper "without shop and without warehouse" Ezechia Davide Foa, with his wife Consola Iacchia. The sons of the Foa "are educated at home in their language. Their rites and ceremonies are carried out in Hebrew. They participate by grace and not by right in major solemnities at the ceremonies in the synagogue of Rugabella”. The report ends with the list of families in the Parish of San Nazaro (described as having "excellent behaviour"): Gherzon Muggia with mother and wife; Davide Montagana [?] with his wife; Isac De Benedetti with the brothers Raffaele, Iona, Salomone, Bonaiuto; Marianna De Benedetti, widowed mother of the Debenedetti brothers; Emilio Falco "with his sewing wife"; Samuel Segri; Marco Finzi; Beniamino Muggia; Jacob Sacerdoti; Abram De Angeli with seamstress wife and son; Emilio Lattis with wife and seamstress sister and three sons; Abram Salomon Segron with a son; Rubini Cavagliere; Regina Latis. According to the present census the Jews of Milan would be 102, but from a declaration of the archpriest, parish priest of the Metropolitan area, the author of the document increases the number of Jews to 120 people.
A declaration of 23 June 1820 signed by Carpani, Royal Inspector in charge of the Elementary Schools of Milan, which states that "Mantua, Milan, Brescia and Lodi" are the only provinces where there are Jewish families while, for Milan, he speaks generically of "several families”.
A long note dated 24 September 1820 and signed by Benzoni on the official recognition of the Jews through education, on the need to create a rabbinical college in Padua, on the education of rabbis and on textbooks. The note refers to Leopold II's diploma of 2 January 1791, which opens the public schools to Jewish children (so that there were Jews who dedicated themselves to medicine, mathematics, law and to arms). In the note it is emphasised that in the ghetto of Mantua there is an elementary school maintained by the Community. The teachers are "regularly licensed according to the regulations of public education". Benzoni specifies that, with a government provision dated 2 July 1820, it had been established that special schools - paid for by their families - had to be created for the elementary education of Jewish children; in the absence of economic means, private teachers or public schools could be used after dispensation from religious duties. With the same diploma of Leopold II mentioned above, the tax of tolerance had been abolished, but the 1820 law had actually put it back into effect, applying to the Jews all the legislation relating to Worship, Charity and Education. In the Lombard area, small Jewish settlements and communities, often without means to pay for any expense, had been aggregated to the Community of Mantua.
- Archival 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 Worship series-modern part collects documentation concerning the Catholic religion, its ministers and other religious sects in general, except for purely civil and criminal acts, which are dealt with in other fonds, such as Civil justice (religious debts and credits, litigation cases involving clergymen) and Punitive justice (criminal cases). Included in this fonds are the correspondence and writings concerning the relations between the State of Milan and the Church (in particular the Milanese Church), jurisdiction of the lay forum and the ecclesiastical forum, the administration of mortmain for the purchase and sale of funds of religious corporations, that after the suppression were considered national funds, elections of the pontiffs, cardinals, etc. The qualifications of foreign priests are kept in the Albinaggio (Escheat) fonds.
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); Milanese Lombardo-Venetian Government (1816-1848); Lieutenancy of the Lombard provinces (1849-1859); Ministry of Worship (1802-1814); Royal Government of Lombardy (1859-1860); Royal provincial government of Milan (1860-1861). (http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/archivi/complessi-archivistici/MIBA002369/)
See also http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/archivi/soggetti-conservatori/MIAA00017D/
- Administrative/biographical history:
- After the expulsion of 1597 ordered by Philip II, there were no Jews in Milan until the end of the 18th century. On 13 October 1781 Joseph II granted to the non-Catholic minorities of some of the Austrian dominions the "tolerance license", recognising freedom of worship to Protestant and Greek Orthodox subjects and granting them the same rights as all other subjects in accessing education and public employment. In Austrian Lombardy the license was published on 30 May 1872 and was also extended to Jews. From that time Jews did not have to carry the distinctive sign, were granted the right to practice trades, found factories and attend public schools of all grades, including universities (with the exception of theological ones). Jews were given the opportunity to establish their own school system, with the expense borne by their communities. However, the bans on the access to public offices and mixed marriages, which would be lifted only with the Napoleonic domination, remained in place. From 1796 in Napoleonic Italy the ghettos were abolished and in 1802 the Council of Lyon approved the statute of the Cisalpine Republic that declared Catholicism the state religion but granted Jews the right to practice their religion in private. It was in these years that a number of Jewish groups reappeared and expanded in Lombardy, with the exception of Milan, where the prohibition of permanent residence for Jews was still in force, having been established in 1541 by the emperor Charles V. Despite these measures, there were many anti-Jewish revolts in various parts of Italy. Over the years Napoleon's attitude towards the Jews gradually changed, making it clear that his pro-Jewish policy of the early years had in fact only stemmed from the need to gather consensus for his regime. In 1806, on the occasion of a violent anti-Semitic campaign in France, Napoleon even threatened to revoke the Jews' right of citizenship and to restore the previous legislation. To curb anti-Semitism and at the same time to better control the Jewish institutions on his territory, Napoleon issued a decree, on 30 May 1806, which sanctioned the suspension for one year of the payment of debts to the Jews and the convening in Paris of an assembly of 111 Jewish notables (including 8 rabbis), from every part of the Napoleonic empire. At the Assembly issues related to usury, mixed marriages and loyalty to the state were discussed. Its conclusions were evaluated and ratified by a Sanhedrin that was officially convened in Paris in 1807. Judaism was declared the third official religion and rules were issued for its stable organisation: in Paris a central consistory was created, led by three rabbis and two lay people, on which local Concistories depended (in Italy these were located in Casale Monferrato, Turin, Livorno, Florence, Mantua, Padua, Venice, Rovigo, Ferrara, Ancona and Rome), sort of departments that included up to two thousand Jews each. The local Concistories had the task of managing and supervising the exercise of worship, promoting the exercise of "useful" professions, providing economic aid to the poor and presiding over military districts. From the economic point of view the Napoleonic legislation saw the reenactment of the restrictions on trade (which could be exercised by Jews only with a license issued by the prefect) and the loan of money (with a restriction of interest to 5%) and the cancellation of free movement in the State with the prohibition of change of residence from one department to another. After the fall of Napoleon, with the Restoration, the Habsburg legislation in Lombardy came into force and lasted until the Risorgimento and the Unification of Italy.
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds is divided into general provisions and special occurrences, consisting of an alphabetical list of the following titles: General provisions; Offices; Various; Abbeys, commendam; Baptisms and confirmations; Benefits; Calendars; Cardinals; Churches ; Councils and synods; Convents; Tithes; Christian doctrine; Feasts; Funerals; Sacred functions; Jubilees; Indulgences; Miracles; Speakers; Holy Orders; Easter; Patriarchs; Popes; Preaching; Propaganda fide; Protonotaries; Lenten; Ams; Different religions; Priests; Bishops; Lombard Lieutenancy; Central administration of Lombardy; Royal provincial government of Milan.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center - Milan
- Author of the description:
- Rori Mancino; Centro di documentazione ebraica contemporanea; 2017