Metadata: Government Acts - Worship (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 – Culto (parte antica). Boxes 2159 - 2165
- Title:
- Government Acts - Worship (ancient part)
- Title (official language):
- Atti di Governo – Culto (parte antica)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Government Council (1786-1791); Chamber political magistrate (1791-1796); General Administration of Lombardy (1796-1797); Executive Directory (1797-1799); Milan Senate (1499-1771); Milan Senate (1771 -1786); Governor (1499-1796); Grand Chancellor (1535-1753); Plenipotentiary Minister (1745-1796); Royal Treasury (16th century-1786)
- Date(s):
- 1200-1899
- Date note:
- Jewish-related material dates from 1533-1590
- Language:
- Italian
- Extent:
- 7 boxes
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The administrative subject Worship is divided into an ancient and a modern part. The ancient part consists of 2,302 folders (equal to 329 linear metres of documentation) ranging from the 13th to the 19th century.
According to the introduction to the inventory of the subject, the papers were created by the economic archive (archive of the Royal Apostolic Treasurer and the Economic Council), the State Chancelleries, the Senate, the Council of Government, the Board of Studies (Magistrate of Studies), the Ecclesiastical and Studies Commission, the Political Chamber Magistrate, the General Administration of Lombardy and the Executive Directory. The series comprises papers concerning the Catholic religion, its ministers and other religious congregations; 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; administration of the mortmain properties for the purchase and sale of funds from religious corporations which following suppression were considered national funds; elections of pontiffs, cardinals, etc.
Material concerning the Lombard Jews can be found in files 2159-2165, which contain heterogeneous material from different magistracies, dating from the 15th to 18th centuries. It is a fragmented collection that covers various topics, including the “condotte”, the conservators of the Jews and, above all, the process of expulsion of the Jews from the Duchy of Milan. Although the documentation produced in Milan is vast, it concerns the Jews of the various communities of the Duchy, but not the community of Milan, whose existence is attested only from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards.
Since the beginning of the fifth century, the presence of Jews in Milan is indirectly documented, based on clues and references taken from papal provisions, chronicles and other testimonies. The first document that testifies with absolute certainty the presence of a sort of Jewish community in the Lombard territory is the “condotta” granted by Gian Galeazzo Visconti on 5 November 1387 to a group of German Jews, which the intensification of the anti-Jewish persecutions in Central Europe had pushed to the Visconti domain. In his capacity as lord of Milan, Visconti allowed them to live in Pavia on certain terms and conditions: the holders of the privilege could live in the city, lend money at interest (but the rate was not specified), have a synagogue inside the city walls and a cemetery outside the city, were exempt from the payment of duties and taxes and could take the oath "super librum Moysi". Finally, the privilege provided that no foreign Jew could settle in the city without explicit authorisation from the Jews of Pavia and that no child under the age of 13 could be baptised without parental authorisation.
File 2159 contains the privilege of Francesco II Sforza of 25 August 1533, a document arranged in 29 articles with which the duke, effectively confirming the privilege of 1387, extended the right of residence to the Jews in any part of the territory, with the exception of the capital Milan, and the possibility of carrying out any mercantile and banking activity according to detailed conditions. The privilege or “condotta” of 1533 also explicitly guaranteed to the Jews the practising of their religion without being harassed by inquisitors and churchmen, of being able to move freely in the territory of the Duchy without the obligation to bring any sign of recognition, to be able to buy kosher meat without increased prices and to have their own cemetery. For their part, the Jews were required to pay an annual fee to the Ducal Chamber. The dossier also contains papers relating to the renewal and extension of condotte for the Spanish period in the years 1548, 1557, 1570-1571, 1582 and 1590.
The Lombard Jews lived scattered over the territory, in many small communities, consisting sometimes of a single family. The most populous centres were in Cremona, Pavia, Lodi, Alessandria and Novara, all cities with Jewish banks. The documentation relating to the individual centres consists largely of petitions to the Senate from individuals or communities concerning mistreatment, complaints, arrests and convictions.
The ban on residence in Milan, explicitly stated in the 1533 condatta, was almost unchanged until 1597, the year in which Jews were expelled from all of Lombardy by Philip II. They were only allowed to reside in the capital for up to three days (later 20) for reasons strictly related to economic activities. Folder 2161 contains papers relating to a trial in 1553 against David Castellano, Emanuele Bassano, and Salomone Levita, who were arrested and tried for lending money in Milan, leaning on the bank of some Jews of Abbiategrasso and Lodi. The defendants were acquitted because they demonstrated that they had done so in good faith, convinced that they did not contravene any rule. Gradually, inns were opened in the capital to accommodate the passing Jews, as evidenced by lease documents kept in the notary fonds (see the records of the series "notarial deeds and items”).
The 2161 folder also contains a much later document, dated 9 August 1788, which granted Abram Bondì Corinaldi permission to manage an inn "at the convenience of Jewish nationals who visit and live in Milan". Corinaldi obtained the authorisation and managed the inn for almost a year before requesting authorisation to open a synagogue to avoid travel during the holidays, which was denied by the ecclesiastical commission.
On the subject of Milanese residence, it is also worth noting the documents relating to the Jewish banker Giuseppe Vitale from Lodi (of the Sacerdoti family, originally from Alessandria) who, on 29 February 1768, asked for permission to rent a small apartment in Milan for the periods in which he was forced to go to the city on business, to avoid having to stay in inns and taverns, a solution that caused him great trouble and considerable expense. The plea was sent to the Senate, but did not get a positive response. Subsequently, on 13 January 1778, Vitali himself sent a new plea to obtain the right to proceed with the purchase of a house in Lodi. In the document Vitali speaks of his family as the oldest of the Duchy, even if domiciled in Lodi, since it has lived there for about four centuries. The text of the plea is accompanied by documents proving the privileges granted to the Vitali family during the 17th and 18th centuries and acts relating to financial transactions between the family and the legitimate governments. Vitale's new plea also received a negative response. Furthermore, in 1799 the Senate ordered the revocation of the permit granted to the Vitali family to live in Lodi and the closure of their pawnshop, in support of the new Monte di Pietà built in those years right in the city (envelope 2161, file: Milan, documents March-June 1799).
The second topic on which it is possible to find documents in the series Worship - ancient part (folders 2159-2160) is that of the Conservator of the Jews. This is the magistrate who was in charge of civil jurisdiction in disputes between Christians and Jews, who had the task of collecting the annual tax due by the “Hebrew universities” to the Ducal Chamber and - more generally - of checking the activity of Jewish moneylending banks. Folder 2159 contains documents relating to some of the conservators of the Jews: Giovanni Angelo Rizzo and the Countess Bianca Caterina Stampa of Lodrone, whose appointment "for life" in 1528 was made by Francesco II Sforza, and was later confirmed by Charles V in 1548; Giacomo Nizzola da Trezzo, sculptor of Philip II in Madrid and conservator of the Jews from 1 January 1567 to September 1589 (through his agents Francesco Nizzola, Ottaviano Ferrario and Giovanni Battista Sitoni); and Leonardo Herrera, who succeeded Count Clemente Pietra, son of Countess Stampa, in June 1574.
In folders 2159-2160 there are also documents relating to a burning of the Talmud which took place in Cremona in 1559. Pope Julius III (Giovanni Maria del Monte), on 12 August 1553, ordered the burning of the Talmud in Rome, following a legal dispute between two Venetian printers on the work of Rabbi Maimonides, a dispute exploited by three apostates who used the incident to stir up anti-Jewish controversy. The request to requisition and destroy the Jewish books, collectively called Talmud, also reached Milan (doc. 16 September 1553, folder 2160). The governor of Milan, Don Ferrante Gonzaga, who at first seemed to have accepted the requests of the Holy See, preferred to postpone his decision, at the explicit request of the Jewish Community of the Duchy (doc. 5 and 12 October 1553, file 2160). Four years later, Cardinal Alessandrino returned to the issue, accusing the Senate of Milan with a letter of December 3 (folder 2160) of not having monitored the distribution of the Talmud and its printing in the city of Cremona. Between March and April 1559, the inquisitor Giovanni Battista Clarino issued a “grida” that established the obligation for the Jews to hand over all the forbidden books to the Holy Office. Despite the entreaties of important members of the Jewish community, including Vitale Sacerdote, at the end of August 1559, in Cremona, a pyre of Jewish books put an end to the controversy.
The fourth topic on which there is much documentation in this series is that of the expulsion of the Jews from the Duchy of Milan, which, designed by Philip II since 1566, actually began in 1592 and was defined only five years later, in 1597.
In September 1565 the draft of a diocesan decree arrived Milan which required a total inversion with respect to the regulation established by the privilege of Francesco II Sforza in 1533. The decree required that Jews be forbidden to use their own language, perceived as a smuggling tool of heresy; that they all be obliged to wear a yellow sign (cap or collar); that they no longer be allowed any contact with the Christian community. Imprisonment in a ghetto was mooted as were the prohibition of exercising any liberal profession - especially the medical profession; the prohibition of trade and even charity towards Christians in the form of bread and meat. Finally, it was hoped that all obstacles to the conversion of Jewish children would be removed, even forcibly removing them from the control of relatives and holding them in hospices for catechumens. The report of this document is found in the opinion of the Senate on the subject, in folder 2159, opinion of October 1566, which effectively rejects the decision of the Governor of Milan, Duke of Albuquerque who, in line with the diocesan decree of 11 September 1566, established the imposition of the yellow sign and the prohibition to the Jews of the Duchy of lending at interest. The Senate rejected the decree, considering it de facto an intrusion of the ecclesiastical authority in civil contexts. At the same time the pressing requests for the expulsion of the Jews from the cities of Pavia and Cremona began.
The same folder 2159 also includes a handwritten copy of the “grida” of 2 September 1566, which sanctioned the obligation to wear the yellow sign and forbade usury, establishing, in fact, the closing of the loan desks. In reality this last imposition did not have many practical consequences, due to the lack of alternative sources of credit, so that for small loans the population continued to go to the Jewish banks. The imposition of the yellow sign, making Jews immediately recognisablem, exposed them more to the derision and harassment of the local population. The unrest that followed was serious to the point that the Secret Council had to issue a new “grida” in November 1566 (later re-issued in July 1572) which made an explicit prohibition of mistreating and taunting the Jews. It should be noted that within the Jewish community there were prominent figures who were exempt from wearing the yellow mark for their activity and were even allowed to carry weapons. (Folders 2159 and 2160 contain the requests to carry arms of the representatives of the community Consiglio Carmini, Clemente Pavia, Anselmo Vitale and a document dated 4 September 1567 in which the Governor of Milan Duke of Albuquerque informs the podestà of Lodi and Como that the Jews are required to wear the yellow mark when they are out of their place of residence for business.)
In 1569 the condotta of the Jews in the Lombard state came to an end. From this moment until 1591 there was a succession of extensions, until, pressed by the requests of the cities of Cremona and Pavia and despite the proposals to renew it from members of the Jewish Community, on 3 December 1590 Philip II decided to expel the Jews from the duchy.
Six months were granted to define the pending issues and obtain the payment of the outstanding claims. Only those who had converted to Christianity could remain. With regard to the Jews the debtors were indeed private citizens, but the bulk of the credit they claimed was due by the Royal Chamber. As early as 1581 (folder 2159), with a grida of January 12, the governor of Milan, referring to a letter of Philip II of 1 October 1573, ordered judges and officials to help Jews in collecting their claims against private individuals and public bodies. To speed up the expulsion the sovereign established that the actual amount of the debt to the Crown should be taken over by the State and divided between the different cities (27 November 1594). If Cremona and Pavia quickly agreed to pay their share, smaller towns and above all the capital did not. In Milan the Jews never had permission to have a permanent residence so the Senate objected that - not having been able to enjoy the advantages that the Jewish credit network would have guaranteed to the city - it did not intend to take on the share of the Crown's debt. After a long process, however, all cities actually paid what they owed, as witnessed by a report by the orator of Pavia, Giovanni Battista Pasquali, of 15 March 1596, although the money was not paid to the “University of the Jews”, because it was spent on other needs. The Jews tried to avoid the expulsion, which however became effective on 10 March 1597, and in June of the same year the process was completed.
Folders 2159 and 2161 include documents relating to Bartolomeo Caranza. A lawyer, probably of Genoese origin, Caranza presented in 1592 a long memorial to the Milanese Senate in which the Jews of the duchy were denounced as guilty of abuse and transgression of the norms imposed by the condotta regarding the loan on pawn, printing of books considered blasphemous and building of synagogues without having first asked for authorisation. Caranza asked the governor of Milan for permission to carry out an investigation to prove the validity of his theses, getting help from a neophyte, with the agreement that he would be granted - as compensation - a third of the proceeds that the Chamber would derive from this investigation. Despite the support of the ecclesiastical authorities, Caranza's plan did not go through due to the opposition of the Secret Council and the Milanese Senate which established that it was the task of ordinary judges to investigate this matter. Caranza continued his work and presented a memorandum of the faults of the Jews in 1595, and in 1597 he participated as a party in an appeal case concerning the amount of credit claimed by the Jews against the Royal Chamber.
- 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 Worship series-ancient 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, the elections of the pontiffs, cardinals, etc. The qualifications of foreign priests are kept in the Albinaggio (Escheat) fonds.
The fonds is divided into general provisions and special occurrences, consisting of an alphabetical list of the following titles. Among the creators of the papers, the following were identified: Government Council (1786-1791); Chamber political magistrate (1791-1796); General Administration of Lombardy (1796-1797); Executive Directory (1797-1799); Milan Senate (1499-1771); Milan Senate (1771 -1786); Governor (1499-1796); Grand Chancellor (1535-1753); Plenipotentiary Minister (1745-1796); Royal Treasury (16th -1786) (http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/archivi/complessi-archivistici/MIBA002369/)
- Access points: persons/families:
- Giangaleazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, 1351-1402
- Pasquali, Giovanni Battista
- Philip II, King of Spain, 1527-1598
- Trezzo, Jacopo da 1514-1589
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds is divided into General Provisions and Special Occurrences, including an alphabetical list of different series (Abbeys, Churches, Brotherhoods, etc.). The "Different Religions" series consists of 13 envelopes and contains material concerning Protestants, Jews, Non-Catholics, Heretics, Calvinists, Anabaptists, etc.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center - Milan
- Author of the description:
- Rori Mancino; Centro di documentazione ebraica contemporanea; 2018
