Metadata: Gonzaga Archive, Police Affairs
Collection
- Country:
- Italy
- Holding institution:
- Mantua State Archive
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archivio di Stato di Mantova
- Postal address:
- via Roberto Ardigò 11, 46100 Mantova
- Phone number:
- +39 376324441
- Web address:
- http://www.asmantova.beniculturali.it
- Email:
- as-mn@beniculturali.it
- Reference number:
- Inventario Luzio e Torelli, G
- Title:
- Gonzaga Archive, Police Affairs
- Title (official language):
- Archivio Gonzaga. Affari di Polizia
- Creator/accumulator:
- Gonzaga family
- Date(s):
- 1281-1786
- Date note:
- Jewish-related material dates from 1541-1775
- Language:
- Italian
- Latin
- Extent:
- 71 boxes
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The fonds contains documents of the Mantua Police; in most cases, requests to obtain a professional license. Folder no. 3105 contains documents of the Collegio dei medici (College of physicians), with a list of the names of the physicians registered in the Collegio from 1539 to 1783 (in Latin), and several unbound documents. In the physicians’ list there is a final section of the “Maestri Medici Hebrei admissi per Collegium ad medendum in Dominio”, i.e. “Jewish physicians admitted, through the College, to exercise their medical profession in the Ducal dominion”. From 1556 to September 1778, eleven Jewish doctors are registered (including Abram de Castro, Davide de Portaleoni and Lazzaro Salomone Italia, whose degree was obtained in Padua). In the same folder, among the unbound documents, there is also a “Productio attestationum, facultatum, admissionum et per medicum Hebreum Abraam Portaleone exibita, qua demonstrat eumdem posse exercere artem medendi tam cum hebreis, quam cum cristianis libere, valide et legitime”, a certificate exhibited by Jewish doctor Abram Portaleone, showing that he can freely and legally exercise his medical profession both among Jews and Christians (9 July 1591); a copy of a letter written in Latin in Rome by cardinal Alessandrino prohibiting Jewish doctors from attending Christians (15 January 1597), followed by a correspondence on the issue; Vailer Moisè, a Levantine Jew, with a degree in medicine, asking permission to exercise his medical profession among the Christians (1750).
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Gonzaga Family ruled Mantua and the province of Mantua from 1328 to 1708. The "Archivio Gonzaga" is the old, so called "secret" Archive of the Marchesato (Marquisate, 1433-1587), later Ducato ( Duchy, 1531-1708) of the Gonzaga Family in Mantua. It includes papers dated before the coming to power of the family in 1328 and later than the date of their fall in 1708. Important sections of the archive were destroyed during two fires in 1413 and 1448.
In 1785 the entire archive of the Gonzagas was concentrated in the lower rooms of the castle of San Giorgio, where it took the name of "Archivio governativo" (Archive of Government). In 1865 the Archivio governativo was delivered to the Municipality of Mantua and in 1883 it was moved to the Palazzo degli Studi - now State Archive of Mantua - where it is currently located.
The "Archivio Gonzaga" is one of the seven archives included in the macro-area named "Antichi Regimi - Periodo Gonzaga" (Ancient regimes - Gonzaga Period) into which the State Archive of Mantua is organised. It also includes Archivio del Monferrato (1155-1605); Magistrato ducale (1573-1736), Gridario del magistrato ducale (1578-1787); Archivio degli instrumenti (1345-1770); Magistrature di sanità (1555-1817).
A detailed description of this archive was supplied by Pietro Torelli in 1920. This inventory is still the only available complete finding aid. The "Guida generale degli Archivi di Stato", published in Rome in 1966-1969 - now also available online (http://www.guidageneralearchivistato.beniculturali.it/) - provides information about the Gonzaga Archive, the inventory edited by Pietro Torelli and bibliographic information. For historical information about the holding institution, the State Archive of Mantua, see http://guidagenerale.maas.ccr.it/document.aspx?uri=/istituticonservatori/IC0460022101
- Access points: persons/families:
- Portaleone, Abraham ben David, 1542-1612
- Finding aids:
- Guida Generale degli Archivi di Stato. Archivio di Stato di Mantova
- Yerusha Network member:
- Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center - Milan
- Author of the description:
- Samuela Marconcini; Centro di documentazione ebraica contemporanea; 2017