Metadata: Government Acts - Population (ancient 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 - Popolazione (parte antica). Folders 193-194
- Title:
- Government Acts - Population (ancient part)
- Title (official language):
- Atti di Governo - Popolazione (parte antica)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Health Magistrate (1534-1786)
- Date(s):
- 1451-1800
- Date note:
- Jewish-related material dates from 1799-1801; 1805-1806
- Language:
- Italian
- Extent:
- 227 boxes
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The ancient section of the Population subject fonds dates from 1451 to 1801.
The series Births and Weddings consist exclusively of a table showing aggregate data on the population of the city over the years. There is no indication of Jews.
More interesting, however, is the series "Deaths" which is entirely made up of the so-called Mortuorum Liber (Book of the Dead), a series of 287 paper registers with the records of all the deaths that occurred in the city of Milan for the period between 1452 and 1801, carried out by the Chancellors of the Health Office and - from 1534, with the reform of Francesco II Sforza - by the Magistrate of the Court of Health. The series constitutes the first organic registration of the population of the city of Milan (resident or visiting), predating by far the Napoleonic introduction of the civil registry and is an extraordinary source for research in demographic and medical history.
The first part of the series, until 1501, is very incomplete due to a fire at the Health Office, which took place the night of 31 December 1501 in the rooms where the records were kept.
The registers, written first in Latin and later in Italian, systematically report the following data: the place where the death occurred (parish and house); the name, surname, age and sometimes the profession of the deceased; the cause of death.
The regularity of the registrations was guaranteed by the fact that they were necessary for the approval of the burial, issued by the Health Office on the basis of the death notices compiled by the doctors (if the deaths occurred in the hospital) and by the elder of the parishes for home deaths. Registers unfortunately are not accompanied by indices and a systematic examination is therefore necessary to carry out an effective search.
Some registers were examined for the medieval period, including those relating to the years 1485-1486, during which a plague epidemic spread in the city, but no trace of members of the various Jewish communities of the State of Milan was found. As a sample, we then examined the registers from 1796 to 1801 and we could identify the death records of Claudio Benedetto Colombo, Jew, son of Leone Israele, aged 32, who died on 13 February 1799 in the parish of San Satiro of “reuma”(Folder 193); Anna Cantarini, wife of Moisé Formiggini, 37 years old, Jew, and Sansone Lipil, Jew, son of the late Sabato, aged 55, living in the parish of San Nazzaro, who died of nervous fever (both records in folder 194).
The second part of the Population series, called the modern part, contains 28 linear meters of documentation, divided into 194 boxes, for the period between 1802 and 1883. It includes the last part of the Mortuorum Liber for the years 1802-1806, during which the presence of a Jewish core in the city is ascertained. For this period, three recordings were identified: on 15 February 1805, Mosé Leone Eusilio, Jew, son of Solomone, resident in the parish of San Fedele, died of epilepsy at the age of 3 months; on 28 July 1805, Mosé De Benedetti, Jew, son of Alessandro, a resident of the parish of San Nazaro of one and two months died of nervous fever, and on 28 January 1806, Rosa Pavia, Jew, Salomone's daughter, resident in the parish of San Nazaro, aged 15 days, died because of convulsions.
- 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 Population series-ancient part comprises tables and registers of births, marriages and deaths, laws, “fedi di sopravvivenza”, certificates of "existence in life”. The series is divided into General Provisions, Marriages, Deaths, Births. The documentation regarding citizenship, domiciles and naturalisations granted to foreigners is collected in the Albinaggio (Escheat) series of the "Government Acts" fonds. Among the creators of the documents, the following were identified: Government Council (1786-1791); Chamber political magistrate (1791-1796); General Administration of Lombardy (1796-1797); Executive Directory (1797-1799); Chamber Magistrate (1749-1771); Royal ducal magistrate chamber (1771-1786); Health Magistrate (1534-1786) (http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/archivi/complessi-archivistici/MIBA0023C8/)
- Access points: locations:
- Milan
- Subject terms:
- Vital records
- Vital records--Death records
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds is divided into 227 boxes, organised into the series General Provisions, Weddings, Deaths and Births.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center - Milan
- Author of the description:
- Rori Mancino; Centro di documentazione ebraica contemporanea; 2018