Metadata: Registers of State Chancelleries - Series XIV Government Decrees, Secret Council
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:
- Registri delle cancellerie dello Stato – Serie XIV Decreti di governo, Consiglio segreto. Registers 1, 4
- Title:
- Registers of State Chancelleries - Series XIV Government Decrees, Secret Council
- Title (official language):
- Registri delle cancellerie dello Stato – Serie XIV Decreti di governo, Consiglio segreto
- Creator/accumulator:
- State Chancellery and the Secret Chancellery of the Spanish and Austrian period
- Date(s):
- 1582-1718
- Date note:
- Jewish-related material dates from the 16th century.
- Language:
- Italian
- Extent:
- 51 registers
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The 14th series, "Government Decrees, Secret Council”, comprises 51 registers for the years 1582-1718, in which there are government decrees, as reported on the cover of some registers and minutes of the meetings of the Secret Council. No documents were identified in this series concerning the overall situation of the Jews of the Duchy or the Jews of the city of Milan. On the other hand, there are numerous files relating to the life of the Jews of the cities of Pavia and Cremona. Volumes 1 and 4 contain two documents relating to the opinions of tax officials on some bookkeeping notebooks designed for tax collection by Isachino de Levi Finci of Casale Monferrato (23 March and 7 April 1583 respectively).
- 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 fonds of Registers from State chancelleries and various magistracies comprises 962 registers and 11 volumes, for a length of 158.9 metres. It brings together documentation from the period 1538-1796 and is organised in 45 series. According to the Guide of the Milan State Archives, these are the letter books (i.e. registers of copied letters) of the State Chancellery and the Secret Chancellery of the Spanish and Austrian period.
The secret chancellery (15th century-16th century) was the real engine of the state and was the filter between the will of the duke and the central and peripheral administrations of the Sforza dominion. Starting from 1453 and 1456, the first secretary of the duke, Cicco Simonetta, issued a series of provisions to regulate the duties and tasks of chancellors, scribes, ushers and recorders. According to these provisions, the officers had the duty, after having sworn a solemn oath of loyalty to the person and to the Duke's State, to send the ducal letters after having personally registered them.
The Chancellery, originally a single office between 1450 and 1460, was divided into four distinct sectors: political chancellery - under the guidance of Cicco Simonetta from 1450 to 1479, and of Bartolomeo Calco from 1480 to 1499 - beneficial chancellery (1451), judicial chancellery (1451) and financial chancellery (1456). The political chancellery, responsible for the domestic and foreign political conduct and therefore superintendent of diplomatic relations, coordinated the ambassadors and managed the personnel responsible for managing the ducal posts and the correspondence between the central authorities and the local courts. The issues relating to the granting of ecclesiastical benefits were delegated to the beneficiary chancellery, while the handling of criminal cases, the writing of safe conducts and any letters of grace were delegated to the judicial chancellery. Finally, the financial registry was responsible for controlling all ducal revenues and expenses. (http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/istituzioni/schede/8000140/?view=toponimi&hid=0)
Following the merger of these archives, which took place at the Government Archive at the time of the directorate of Luca Peroni (1820-1832), the registers could no longer be easily tracked to individual, specific chancelleries.
In the 1930s the entire corpus of the chancellery was rearranged and the registers were organised in 28 series. To this were also added "twelve other sets of registers of the ordinary and extraordinary magistrate, the governors of the fortresses, the lord of Milan, the general of the artillery, the general commissioner of the army, the imperial commissioner, the pay and major courier offices, the Chamber of Accounts" (GG II 931), thus bringing the number of series to 40. The current total number of 45 (44 plus one bis) derives from the separation into autonomous series of the registers constituting the 40th series. These are about seventy registers pertaining respectively to the ordinary Magistrate (40th series), to the Extraordinary Magistrate (41st), to the Chamber Magistrate (42nd), to the Chamber of Accounts (dispatches, letters, decrees – 43rd), as well as registers containing extracts from the correspondence with the Royal Court and extracts from government letters (44th). The access tool available at the Milan State Archives and on the web is an inventory in which the following are listed for each register: number, series, title of the register, initial and final date, notes and old signatures. (http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/archivi/complessi-archivistici/MIBA002455/)
This series collects documentation produced and collected by the Secret Council Chancellery and by the Grand Chancellor. The Secret Council (16th century to 1747) was established and regulated during the Spanish age to assist the governors and was characterised by its consultative nature with functions of judge for appeals against sentences of a fiscal nature issued by ordinary and extraordinary magistrates and responsibilities in matters of politics and government. The Secret Council maintained its functions until the great reforms of the mid-18th century, when it was replaced, in 1747, by two Councils and, in 1753, also by a private Council. (http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/archivi/soggetti-produttori/ente/MIDB000BBF/)
The Grand Chancellor (1535-1753) was the official, second only to the Governor, trusted first by Madrid and then by Vienna, because he was a great expert of the realities of the State. Controller and conciliator of the entire civil life of the State, he had to ensure that the various governing bodies carried out their duties, without hindering the tasks of the other offices, and settling conflicts of competence and pre-eminence. The Grand Chancellor was also given the office of president of the secret council and president of the interim council that governed the state in the interval between the departure or death of the governor and the arrival of the successor. The Grand Chancellor used the so-called secret chancellery to deal with civil practices. In 1753, with the reforming and centralising policy of the sovereign Maria Theresa, Count Beltrami Cristiani, Grand Chancellor, was also invested with the office of plenipotentiary minister; at his death, the office of Grand Chancellor was also abolished. http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/archivi/soggetti-produttori/ente/MIDB000788/
- Subject terms:
- Legal matters
- Taxation
- Yerusha Network member:
- Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center - Milan
- Author of the description:
- Rori Mancino; Centro di documentazione ebraica contemporanea; 2018
