Social Support Systems in Rural Italy: The Modern Age Regional States of the Northern Peninsula (Palgrave Studies in Economic History) 3031243021, 9783031243028

Citation preview

PALGRAVE STUDIES IN ECONOMIC HISTORY

Social Support Systems in Rural Italy The Modern Age Regional States of the Northern Peninsula Edited by Giovanni Gregorini Luciano Maffi Marco Rochini

Palgrave Studies in Economic History

Series Editor Kent Deng, London School of Economics, London, UK

Palgrave Studies in Economic History is designed to illuminate and enrich our understanding of economies and economic phenomena of the past. The series covers a vast range of topics including financial history, labour history, development economics, commercialisation, urbanisation, industrialisation, modernisation, globalisation, and changes in world economic orders.

Giovanni Gregorini · Luciano Maffi · Marco Rochini Editors

Social Support Systems in Rural Italy The Modern Age Regional States of the Northern Peninsula

Editors Giovanni Gregorini Catholic University of Sacred Heart Milan, Italy Marco Rochini National Research Council Institute of History of Mediterranean Europe Rome, Italy

Luciano Maffi Department of Economics and Management University of Parma Parma, Italy

ISSN 2662-6497 ISSN 2662-6500 (electronic) Palgrave Studies in Economic History ISBN 978-3-031-24302-8 ISBN 978-3-031-24303-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24303-5 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: Vidimages/Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Contents

1

2

3

4

5

6

Formal and Informal Social Support Systems in Northern Italy: A Regional Assessment Giovanni Gregorini, Luciano Maffi, and Marco Rochini Hospitals and Hospital Workers in the Late Middle Ages: Personal and Credit Relationships in Two Northern Italian Case Studies Antonio Olivieri The Social Support System in the Kingdom of Sardinia: The Diocese of Tortona Marco Rochini Organizing Charity: Social Support Structures in the Republic of Genoa During the Early Modern Period Andrea Zanini The Ritual Economy: Charity and Worship in Early Modern Lombardy Emanuele C. Colombo Social Support Systems in Imperial Fiefdoms Luciano Maffi

1

31

63

99

125 151

v

vi

7

8

9

10

11

CONTENTS

Rural Microcredit in the Sharecropping Northern Provinces of the Papal States (Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries) Mauro Carboni and Omar Mazzotti

175

Instruments and Strategies of the Social Support System in Rural Brescia During the Eighteenth Century Giovanni Gregorini

203

At a Distance. Social Support in Friuli in the Early Modern Period: First Notes Claudio Lorenzini

231

Ties of Solidarity: Charity in Rural Communities in the Prince-Bishopric of Trent (Seventeenth to Eighteenth Centuries) Marina Garbellotti Parish Priests and Parishes in the Social Support Systems of Early Modern Rural Italy Paolo Cozzo

Index

251

277

299

Notes on Contributors

Mauro Carboni Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Bologna, where he teaches Economic History. His research interests focus on the evolution of public finance, financial dealings of charitable agencies, and business practices promoted by civic pawn banks. His recent publications include “The ‘untimely’ demise of a successful institution: the Italian Monti di pietà in the nineteenth century”, Financial History Review, 2019, 26, pp. 147–170 (with Massimo Fornasari); “Preteritorum memorans et futura providens. L’eredità di un mercante nella Bologna barocca”, Quaderni Storici, 54, 2019, pp. 657–687; “Between ethics and profit. Shaping a coordinated credit network in pre-modern and modern Italy”, in Social Aims of Finance, EABH, Frankfurt 2020, pp. 30–50 (with Massimo Fornasari); “Financing marriage in early modern Italy: innovative dowry funds in Florence and Bologna”, The History of the Family, 2022, 27, pp. 221–242. Emanuele C. Colombo is Full Professor of Economic History at the Catholic University of Milan. He specialized in the economic history of charity and the evolution of cooperative systems in Italy. He is currently directing the GEOR course at the Catholic University of Brescia and is in charge of the relations between the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences and the Brescia business community. Notable contributions include the books Giochi di luoghi. Il territorio lombardo nel Seicento (Milan, 2008) and Il Cristo degli altri. Economie della rivendicazione nella Calabria di vii

viii

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

età moderna (Palermo, 2018). He was a Marie Curie IEF grantee in 2011 for a project on the Albanian diaspora in early modern Europe. Paolo Cozzo is Associate Professor in the History of Christianity and Churches at the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Turin. He is interested in the history of ecclesiastical institutions, the history of the clergy, the history of sacred spaces, the history of cults and devotions, and the history of religious life from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, with particular attention to the relationship between politics and religion in the Ancien Régime. He is the author of a number of articles published in scientific journals and books. Marina Garbellotti teaches Early Modern History and Family History at the University of Verona. Her main research interests are the history of charity and assistance, gender history, and family history. Among her academic publications: Per carità. Poveri e politiche assistenziali nell’Italia moderna, Rome, Carocci, 2013; she edited with Maria Clara Rossi, Madri e padri sociali tra passato e presente. Per una storia dell’adozione, Rome, Viella, 2016; she edited with E. Gamberoni, S. Carraro, Raccontare la follia. Le carte dell’ospedale psichiatrico veronese di San Giacomo di Tomba, Sommacampagna (Verona), Cierre edizioni, 2019; “La famiglia italiana di età moderna, una realtà multiforme. Percorsi di ricerca nell’ultimo ventennio”, in Studi storici, 2020, 3, pp. 777–804; “Exemples de pratiques adoptives en Europe et en Extrême Orient. Une étude comparative (XVIe –XVIIIe siècles)”, in Annales de démographie historique, n. 141, 2021/1, pp. 17–40. Giovanni Gregorini is Full Professor of Economic History and head of the Department of History and Philology at the Catholic University of Milan, where he teaches Economic History and Business History. His research interests, as well as his main publications, concern public finance in the seventeenth-century State of Milan, the history of the Lombard banking and finance sector in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and Italian and European economic history in the second half of the twentieth century. He has edited the proceedings of several national and international conferences, as well as many works about the development of local systems, in particular the area of Brescia and Bergamo. For some years he has also been studying the economic and financial history of Italian charities and religious congregations.

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

ix

Claudio Lorenzini earned a doctorate from the University of Udine with a dissertation on the history, culture, and structures of borderlands. His main research interests focus on the history of society, economy, and culture of the eastern Alpine area in the early and late modern periods. His recent publications include, Via dalla montagna. ‘Lo spopolamento montano in Italia’ (1932–1938) e la ricerca sull’area friulana di Michele Gortani e Giacomo Pittoni (edited with Alessio Fornasin, Forum 2019) and “Common Forest, Private Timber: Managing the Commons in the Italian Alps” (with Giacomo Bonan, in Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 2021). Luciano Maffi is a lecturer in Economic and Global History at the University of Parma (Italy). He was previously a lecturer at the University of Salento and before that a research fellow at Bocconi University in Milan (2020), at the University of Genoa (2017–2020) and at the University of Brescia (2011–2013). For some months in 2014–2015, he was a visiting researcher at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University. He studies the primary sector and food production in the Early and Late Modern Periods and the history of tourism, especially in relation to demographic trends and infrastructural and economic changes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He deals with economic, financial, and social history, with particular attention to social support system in the early modern period. Another topic of his research is the history of tourism and of tourism by people with disabilities. He has presented more than 70 papers at conventions in Italy and abroad. Omar Mazzotti (Ph.D. in Economic and Social History) teaches Economic History at the University of Bologna, School of Economics and Management, and is a research fellow at the University of Parma, Department of Economics and Management. His main research interests are the history of agricultural education and the history of welfare and the voluntary sector in the early and late modern period. His latest publications include “Agricultural education and Italian primary school teachers: the Romagna in the late 19th century”, Modern Italy, 26 (1), 2021, 51–66; “At the Origins of a Multi-Stakeholder Non-Profit Organisational Model: Comizi Agrari in Post-Unification Romagna”, International Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 17, No. 4, 2022, 80–97 (both with Massimo Fornasari).

x

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Antonio Olivieri is Full Professor of Palaeography and Diplomatics at the Department of Historical Studies of the University of Turin. His main field of research concerns the notarial records of late medieval Italy. He has been particularly involved in the history of documentation and notaries of churches, hospitals, and city communes. In the latter field, he published the edition of a Liber iurium of the commune of Vercelli and research on communal judicial records. He is also interested in the history of medieval studies. Marco Rochini is a research fellow at the Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea (CNR) and lecturer in Hagiography at the Catholic University of Milan, where he earned his Ph.D. in the History of Christianity. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Turin. He worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies at Boston College in a research project on the idea of mission among the Society of Jesus in the nineteenth century. He is a member of the editorial committee of the journal Annali di Scienze Religiose. He earned a scholarship from 2016 to 2018 at the Fondazione Michele Pellegrino, Centro di Studi di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa. His research focuses on the history of the Society of Jesus, missions, Jansenism, Catholic reform movements, and theological-doctrinal debate in the early and late modern period. He has conducted a number of studies in social history, with a particular focus on the development of social support systems in the early modern period, producing the following publications: with Luciano Maffi and Giovanni Gregorini he edited Il sistema del dare in area rurale nel XVIII secolo, Milan, Franco Angeli, 2018; and with Luciano Maffi he edited “Poor Relief Systems in Rural Italy: the Territory of Diocese of Tortona in the Eighteenth Century”, in Continuity and Change, 31, 2, 2016, pp. 211–239 and “Corpi intermedi e “reti di supporto sociale” in Italia nell’età moderna: il sistema del dare a Voghera nel XVIII secolo”, in Nuova Rivista Storica, 99, (2015), 3, pp. 773–796. Andrea Zanini has been Associate Professor of Economic History at the Department of Economics, University of Genoa, Italy, since December 2014. He received a Ph.D. in Economic History from the University of Bari in 2003. He began his academic career at the University of Genoa with a two-year research fellowship, continuing (2005–2014) as Assistant Professor of Economic History. His research interests cover a wide range of topics, including the organization of trade and finance during the early modern period, long-term economic development, and the evolution of

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

xi

tourism and the hotel industry in Italy during the Belle Époque. He is the author of more than 80 publications (monographs, journal articles, and book chapters) and has delivered dozens of research presentations at international conferences, seminars, and workshops. His latest article, “Restoring the King’s Creditworthiness in Troubled Times: The Mission of a Polish Prince in Genoa (1776–1777)”, will soon be published in the Journal of Early Modern History.

List of Figures

Chapter 1 Fig. 1

Northern Italy in the eighteenth century (Source Authors and Graziano Bertelegni elaboration based on a 1742 map by Homann Heirs)

8

Chapter 6 Fig. 1

Imperial fiefdom in the context of North-Western Italy (Source Author and Graziano Bertelegni elaboration based on a 1770s map by Matteo Vinzoni)

156

Chapter 7 Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Grain loans disbursed by the monte frumentario of Imola, 1717–1740 (Source ADI, Stanza IV, palch. XXIX, Monte Frumentario) Wheat stored and wheat loaned by the Imola monte at the end of each business year, 1824–1859 (Source ADI, MA, 1824–1918)

191

196

xiii

xiv

LIST OF FIGURES

Chapter 10 Fig. 1

Prince-Bishopric of Trent in eighteenth century (Source Tirolensis Comit. et Brixiensis Episc. novissimus atque accuratissimus typus complectens etiam confinia Bavariae, Helvetiae, Tridentin. ac Venetiar. Schenk Peter, 1707, Amsterdam, Biblioteca Comunale di Trento, GG1 at a 2-0144)

254

List of Tables

Chapter 2 Table 1 Table 2 Table 3

Census register OSAV, m. 578, no. 116, accounts on ff. 20r–24v OSAV census register, m. 577, no. 103, headings on the first eight pages OSAV census register, m. 577, no. 103, rationes rendered on 9 or 10 January 1396 present in the first eight sheets

45 54 56

Chapter 4 Table 1 Table 2

Debt and annual interest accrued by communities in western Liguria (1611) Beneficiaries of alms in some communities of eastern Liguria (1646)

105 108

Chapter 5 Table 1 Table 2 Table 3

The assets of the Beatissima Vergine del Santissimo Rosario altar The chantries of San Biagio collegiate (Codogno) The assets of pious work Leonardi-Tornielli in 1762

127 129 133

xv

xvi

LIST OF TABLES

Chapter 7 Table 1

Overview of the monti frumentari in Romagna

177

Chapter 8 Table 1

Types of income and expense items on the balance sheets of the Scuola del Santissimo Sacramento of Eno, 1675–1737

219

CHAPTER 1

Formal and Informal Social Support Systems in Northern Italy: A Regional Assessment Giovanni Gregorini, Luciano Maffi, and Marco Rochini

1

Regional Approach to the Study of Social Support Systems

In a recently published study titled Pre-industrial welfare between regional economies and local regimes: rural poor relief in Flanders around 1800,1 Nick Van den Broeck, Thijs Lambrecht, and Anne Winter emphasized the importance of the category of space in comparative historical 1 Van den Broeck et al. (2018).

G. Gregorini (B) Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy e-mail: [email protected] L. Maffi Department of Economics and Management, University of Parma, Parma, Italy e-mail: [email protected] M. Rochini Institute for History of Mediterranean Europe (National Research Council), Rome, Italy e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 G. Gregorini et al. (eds.), Social Support Systems in Rural Italy, Palgrave Studies in Economic History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24303-5_1

1

2

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

studies of social support systems in pre-industrial societies. Focusing their study on the area of Flanders, these scholars see the regional dimension (rather than the local or national levels) as the most appropriate instrument for studying the long-term evolution of social support systems. As highlighted in European historiography, this method of analysis makes it possible to grasp the causes that generated the variety of social support systems in early modern Europe and the agents and factors that contributed to creating it: family structures, local and state organization, religion, the socio-economic structure, and urban design.2 The research method outlined by Van den Broeck, Lambrecht, and Winter also allows critical examination of historiographical interpretations that have taken root over time. In his work titled Poverty and welfare in England, 1700–1850: a regional perspective, Steven King has shown that even in Elizabethan England, where an important “Poor Law” took form between 1598 and 1603, the ostensibly uniform social support system for the neediest manifested significant differences in practical terms between the rural south-east and the more urban north-west.3 The local realm, however, also proves quite relevant. Micro-historical studies have highlighted the particular features of the welfare systems in contexts limited spatially to a local dimension. Here the studies of Steve Hindle—again in the British Isles—are emblematic. In his study On the parish?: the micro-politics of poor relief in rural England, c. 1550–1750, the scholar examined parishes to show that significant differences on the local level emerged within very similar regional economies and national legislative frameworks, producing marked variations in the number of beneficiaries and types of social support systems from one locality to another. Hindle also highlighted how the poor actively influenced the social support practices through continual negotiations with the functionaries responsible for the relief.4 The same research approach, starting from a local vantage point in a comparative analysis with regional practices, also characterizes studies of the Netherlands by Winter and Lambrecht.5

2 King (2011), Harris (2004), Marfany (2014), Lindert (1998), and Innes (2002). 3 King (2000). 4 Hindle (2004). See also Williams (2011) and French (2015). 5 Winter and Lambrecht (2013).

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

3

While there have been a plethora of studies on social support systems in England and the Netherlands, the same cannot be said for the Italian regional states. Due to its territorial and institutional fragmentation and to the economic differences, at times quite marked, between different regions, the Italian peninsula in the early modern period is an advantageous observation point for exploring the evolution and features of social support systems in rural contexts.

2

Why Northern Italy?

We examine the development of social support systems in the Modern Period in the rural areas of the regional/city-states of Northern Italy. This investigation achieves two main purposes: first, it allows researchers to understand the concrete role played by welfare and microcredit in the political and socio-economic panorama of rural Northern Italy; secondly, it analyses the extent to which the formation of a more or less structured support system influenced the establishment of local identity and the rooting of individuals. The subject of support activities for the neediest fringes of the Ancien Régime society in Italian rural areas has been little studied either by Italian or European historiography. The reason for this lack of research is twofold: on the one hand, the great difficulty in finding sources produced by social actors gravitating to rural areas; on the other, the larger number of welfare activities rooted in the urban areas have attracted historiographers mainly to the study of cities. However, despite the direction adopted by mainstream research, the Ancien Régime was characterized by a type of society closely linked to agriculture and a population primarily residing in rural areas. Moreover, recent studies on social support activities in rural areas have shown the presence of a well-structured system. Among the most widespread activities were hospitals, grain banks (monti frumentari), pawnbrokers (monti di pietà—mounts of piety) and other forms of microcredit, dowries for poor girls, primary schools, and bread or alms for the poor. These activities were sponsored by the various actors that constituted the fragmented society of the Ancien Régime: the State and its social policies, local communities, trade guilds, families and individuals, neighbourhoods, dioceses, parishes, religious orders, brotherhoods, and congregations.

4

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

Paolo Malanima observes that the north–south divide was evident already in the late Middle Ages. He writes that “in commerce and banking, the central and northern Italian cities assumed a dominant position starting in the period of growth seen in the late Middle Ages”.6 This situation, arising from a series of factors, including geography, persisted into the sixteenth century when Venice and Genoa played important roles in international trade and finance. In the latter half of that century, Northern Italy was at the centre of broad circulation of money and goods, with positive balances of both trade and payments. Furthermore, Malanima reveals that prices were high in Northern Italy, as is often the case in leading economies with higher incomes. The population was growing and pressure on resources caused a slight inflationary trend. This was coupled with robust production, especially in the cities, responding to the growing demand for products.7 This situation changed significantly however between the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, and it was precisely in the countryside that an extended crisis began that would also reach the cities. Numerous factors caused this crisis; its consequences for Northern Italy included the loss of the economic primacy it had enjoyed in previous centuries. Agricultural production diminished, manufacturing collapsed, commerce and banking were weakened, plagues and epidemics swept through the area in waves. Profound changes were witnessed in the seventeenth century, with a complex transformation of the manufacturing and industrial sector that made its long-term analysis difficult. Generally speaking, manufacturing took place in an urban–rural system (one example being silk farming) that changed the structure of economic life in the countryside and differed by region. This ushered in a new system of development which, while not restoring Northern Italy to its former primacy, facilitated the growth of the credit system and business starting in the eighteenth century, while also promoting social support systems. The rural areas of Northern Italy have been studied in recent years by Guido Alfani, particularly in relation to social inequalities and mobility. His research illustrates the main economic-social features of the communities of the Ancien Régime and how they related to famine,

6 Malanima (1998, p. 21). 7 Malanima (1998, p. 96).

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

5

epidemics, and wars.8 Central and Southern Italy have been the focus of a series of studies by Paola Avallone,9 Raffaella Salvemini,10 and Donatella Strangio,11 who examine various aspects of the social support systems (particularly the grain banks, hospitals, and forms of credit). Generally speaking, however, there is a gap in historiography regarding the full complexity of support systems in the old regional States and imperial estates of Northern Italy. Our book examines case studies from the Modern Period to identify and highlight the role played by social support systems in the formation of a virtuous substrate, favourable to microcredit and the welfare community, aspects which contributed to development of many parts of Northern Italy in the nineteenth century in ways not observed in other parts of the peninsula. Vittorio Daniele and Paolo Malanima cite differences between the two areas rooted in remote history to explain the origins and nature of the economic gap between Northern and Southern Italy: social behaviours, institutional development, and even population genetics.12 Supported by the most recent research in economic history, Emanuele Felice has demonstrated that Southern Italy differed significantly from Central and Northern Italy both economically and socially. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was not the most advanced State on the Italian peninsula, as has been argued in recent literature, but actually the most backward.13 In terms of per-capita income and preconditions for development, Southern Italy appears to have been burdened by internal inequalities between rich and poor that were more accentuated than elsewhere in Italy. Naturally, there were exceptions on the local or sub-regional level. However, overall, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was far from the threshold to autonomous industrial development; in no way could it be considered one of the most industrialized States at the time, or even boast good institutions and effective administration. In his examination of the North–South gap, Felice discusses “active modernization” in the North and “passive

8 Alfani (2010, 2014, 2021) and Alfani and Di Tullio (2020, 2021). 9 Avallone (2014, 2018) and Avallone and Salvemini (2020). 10 Salvemini (2018, 2019). 11 Strangio (2018). 12 Daniele and Malanima (2011, 2017). 13 For the most recent discussions of the issue, see the studies of Emanuele Felice:

Felice (2019a, b) and Felice and Vecchi (2015).

6

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

modernization” in the South, the latter being characterized by a “social and institutional makeup” with institutions that tended to be “extractive”, i.e. that tended to feed off the system rather than nourish it.14 Furthermore, various authors mention the prokinetic role— contributing to regional development in subsequent historical phases—played by widespread, effective social support systems in the Middle Ages and the Modern Period, particularly in Northern Italy. In this historical span, we discern a virtuous substrate favourable to microcredit, community welfare, and the establishment of tempered capitalism that performed well. Edoardo Bressan points out the institutional innovative capacity of the Lombardy area with reference to social support systems conducive to development in the Contemporary Period15 ; Giorgio Rumi cites the “singular naturalness with money” as a distinctive feature of social support systems in the Modern and Contemporary Periods,16 as well as the role of Catholic culture, which was widespread and fundamental to social support systems in terms of the non-condemnation of wealth and development.17 Giovanni Gregorini attributes an original role to social Catholicism via the protagonists of social support systems at the service of the industrialization process in Lombardy.18 Pietro Cafaro,19 Elisabetta Lurgo,20 Daniele Montanari,21 and Maurizio Pegrari22 analyse the links between microcredit and social support systems. Riccardo Semeraro has recently demonstrated a positive correlation between practices of giving, i.e. philanthropic bequests, since the beginning of the Early Modern Period, and subsequent economic development.23 Patrizia Battilani and Corrado Benassi have pointed out that in Italy, “unlike what has been observed in other European contexts, the welfare 14 Felice (2017, p. 58). 15 Bressan (1998). 16 Rumi (1988). 17 Rumi (2003). 18 Gregorini (2022). 19 Cafaro (2015). 20 Lurgo (2016). 21 Montanari (2001). 22 Pegrari (2007). 23 Semeraro (2020).

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

7

system was not configured as a set of uniform, centrally administrated policies, but has been characterized by the progressive emergence of regional welfare models, often differing deeply from one region to another, both in organization and effect.”24 This statement implies that in Italy, even post-unification, there is no welfare state (or not in a complete form) but a collection of community-based welfare systems. Thus, in general, the analysis of individual regional States and geographical areas is essential in evaluating the contribution of social support systems to the economic and social development of Northern Italy. Based on the numerous cases we have studied, we believe that where such systems were rooted and functional, especially in relation to microcredit, rural zones were favoured in their development over the long term. The regional States of Northern Italy in the Modern Period were the following: Kingdom of Sardinia, Republic of Genoa, Duchy of Milan, Republic of Venice, Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, Papal legations, and the Apostolic Principality of Trento (Fig. 1). They were complemented by imperial estates located principally in the Apennines. Indeed, a peculiarity of the Italian case is the presence of imperial estates (fiefs), which were dependent on the Holy Roman Empire and assigned to local lords and therefore independent from the contiguous Regional States until the end of the eighteenth century, thus delineating evident political, legal, and institutional fragmentation.25 In these lands, until the end of the Ancien Régime, the feudal lord held an important political role which often led to jurisdictional conflicts with the regional States in which the fiefs were situated as enclaves.26 In the course of the Modern Period, States such as the Republic of Genoa and Savoy 24 Battilani and Benassi (2013). While the two scholars view territorial complexity and fragmentation as offering potentials for the development of well-structured and efficient community welfare systems, others see those conditions as a serious obstacle. For example, Giorgi and Pavan (2021, pp. 12–13) write: “The fragmentation of social policy in postunification Italy was partially a consequence of delays in addressing enduring and now urgent social issues, which often forced policymakers to take action under constraining circumstances”. They go on to identify a further obstacle in Catholic social support institutions: “Among enduring elements we also observe a residuality in social support systems which has caused critical immobility [deriving from] the deeply rooted presence of the Catholic world […] and its thousands of religiously based support institutions”. 25 Schnettger and Verga (2006). 26 Von Aretin (1978).

8

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

Fig. 1 Northern Italy in the eighteenth century (Source Authors and Graziano Bertelegni elaboration based on a 1742 map by Homann Heirs)

Piedmont, which contained a number of imperial estates, implemented strategies aimed at weakening the rights of the feudal lords, who only recognized imperial power. We are able to study social support systems in rural areas thanks to numerous historical sources illustrating their structure. These sources produce a complex array of perspectives, which combine different fields of research ranging from economic and political history to the study of the history of ecclesiastical institutions and the most recent research on the anthropological value of welfare actions. They allow investigation of the various models of social support that took form on the Italian peninsula in the Modern Period. They include ecclesiastical sources, such as the preparatory reports for pastoral visits and episcopal encyclicals, bequests, the charters of brotherhoods, the statutes of trade guilds or communities often administrating grain banks, pawn-brokerages, hospitals, and State laws. As highlighted in recent historiography, ecclesiastical sources are a precious aid to the study of economic history as they constitute the historical memory of a very complex institution: the Catholic Church (“Church”). Deeply rooted in the lands of the Italian peninsula, the Church played a leading role not only in spirituality but also in social policy, politics, and economics. Over the centuries, it has been responsible

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

9

for a series of initiatives that have significantly influenced the formation of social support systems, carrying out actions in the field of assistance to the needy, education, and health. Given the complexity of these sources, it is appropriate that they be subjected to critical analysis, assessing their value within their proper physical and temporal context. The variety of geographical settings analysed and historical sources used does not detract from the conceptual unity of this volume, but rather constitutes added value. Given the intricacy and fragmentation of political and institutional structures in Northern Italy in the Modern Period, research carried out at regional level, aimed at concurrently interpreting the evolution of political structures and the development of certain forms of systems of giving, constitutes the ideal framework for developing the theme of our volume. Social support systems developed in Northern Italy during the Modern Period in response to criteria that do not exactly fit the concept of poverty as we understand it today. Of course, in the Ancien Régime, people who would be considered poor by today’s standards—low income households, vagrants, abandoned children—were the recipients of aid but the categories of the needy also included the elderly, the sick, and the ashamed poor (nobles fallen on hard times). The numbers of indigent were high, especially in rural areas. Our book presents multiple perspectives on social support systems which have hitherto received only scant attention by historiography. While history may not be the ultimate magistra vitae, the study of the past is necessary if we are to understand the evolution of the current socio-economic situation. The retreat of the welfare state, coupled with depopulation of rural areas in Italy and a steady spread of poverty, which now reaches social fringes that were not experiencing economic problems a few years ago, pushes us to investigate more carefully the dynamics that gave shape to social support systems for the indigent and the poor during the Ancien Régime.

3

Formality and Informality

The objective of this book is to analyse the complex economic, political, and social impact of social support systems. Our approach involves describing, comparing, and contrasting such systems in the various regions of what is now modern-day Italy. Italian historiography has yet to undertake a general investigation of the evolution of relief systems in rural Northern Italy. Studies that have

10

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

touched on this topic have focused on specific geographical areas.27 This work is unquestionably important and necessary for better understanding the many situations characterizing Ancien Régime Italy, however, its limited geographical extent does not permit a broader comparative analysis. In analysing the subject matter of this book, we focus on the general concept of “rural history”. By this, we mean the history of all those areas of Northern Italy that cannot be considered urban. This choice rests on two factors: historiography has tended to neglect rural areas because most activities developed in urban contexts; it allows us to develop sources that have received little attention because they are not easily accessible. While we know that Northern Italy has been characterized by a polycentric urban fabric, the Modern Period witnessed a process of ruralization. Historians and demographers use this term to refer to a situation where the population shows negative or strictly limited growth in large cities while expanding significantly in rural areas.28 Northern Italy in the Ancien Régime was characterized by a type of society that was prevalently dependent on farming, with a high percentage of the population residing in rural areas. In the Modern Period, the social support systems in Northern Italy were commonly promoted by numerous intermediaries: parishes, confraternities, trade guilds, or family groups.29 The study of the development of these systems in rural areas of Northern Italy provides an advantageous vantage point on modes of development of the regional State. Similar research themes have enjoyed a particular interest in the historiography of the English-speaking world, where lively debate is underway among those who highlight the central importance of the laws of the State, tracing their origin to the Elizabethan era, and those who stress the importance, again in the eighteenth century, of social support systems sustained by intermediaries, especially in rural areas. We may cite the studies by Colin Jones and Lynn Hollen Lees,30 which highlight the centrality of the activities of the State in the formation of social support systems, and those of Peter Lindert, Steve Hindle,

27 See Maffi et al. (2018). 28 “Ruralizzazione” in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is defined in Corritore

(1993) and references. 29 See Emanuele C. Colombo’s preface to Elisabetta Lurgo’s book (Lurgo, 2016). 30 Jones (1996, pp. 51–63) and Lees (1998, pp. 13, 43–6).

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

11

John Broad, and Ilana Krausman Ben-Amos,31 who do not deny the role of the State but use local historical sources to argue the importance of the development of social support systems within communities, parishes, charities, and also among neighbours. The recognition of the role of intermediate bodies in the formation of social support systems allows us to investigate a question of significant historiographical relevance regarding the distinction between formal and informal support activities. By formal support activities, historiography means activities regulated by formal legislation, whether national law, the bylaws of a confraternity or a mount of piety (monte di pietà), a grain bank, a trade guild, or a testamentary bequest.32 Informal support activities include those that are not shaped by written rules or statutes. These include relations with neighbours or the extended family and almsgiving. Both formal and informal social support activities played a significant role in rural Italy in the Modern Period.33 However, the latter is more difficult to study from the historiographical standpoint, mainly because of the relative scarcity and inaccessibility of pertinent historical sources. English-speaking historiography has also paid particular attention to the difference between formal and informal structures, as we find in the studies by Joanna Innes, Steven King, Alannah Tomkins, and Julie Marfany.34 In this volume, we develop a number of considerations regarding parties who use this system in various ways and for various reasons. As we stated above, those who took part in social support systems as passive parties, who benefited from local welfare activities, were not only the poor in the strict sense of the term.35 There were very often parties who 31 Lindert (1998), Hindle (2004), Broad (1999), Krausman Ben-Amos (2008). 32 There is an extensive historiography on the monti di pietà, of which we propose

a limited selection. Regarding those in Northern Italy in the Modern Period: Montanari (1994, 1997, 1999, 2007), Lanaro (1983, 2001), Turchini (1999), Pegrari (1999), Compostella (1997), Cargnelutti (1994), Albini (1975, 1985), Prodi (1982), Muzzarelli (1980, 1979). As regards grain banks, see Maffi and Rochini (2016) and Avallone (2014). 33 Maffi and Rochini (2016). 34 Innes (1996), Marfany (2014), Tomkins and King (2009), and Tomkins (2006). 35 Establishing a definition for “poor” is no easy task and Italian historiographers have

long debated the issue. Sources, for example fiscal documents, used a variety of terms to refer to and classify the indigent (encompassing a large percentage of the population in the Modern Period). See, for example, the recent observations by Marina Garbellotti (Garbellotti 2013, p. 68): “Thus, the indigent were many, and while these figures encompassed

12

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

could not be classified as poor but for various reasons needed aid of some sort. For example, small landowners, emphyteutae, or sharecroppers, who live off the proceeds of agricultural work, might need social support, for example, in the event of a poor harvest. Such an event would not only have a negative impact on the family but on the entire community, generating socio-economic dynamics to which the support activities sought to provide a response.36 Within the local community, it is difficult to make a clear separation between active and passive parties in social support systems. It might happen that a small landowner used the alms from the mass in honour of some deceased family member for various aid activities, perhaps with the objective of boosting the social status of his family, taking advantage of a positive phase in the economy. However, perhaps after a bad harvest, the same landowner might also find himself in need, thus in a passive role, of aid that he himself had helped structure.

different degrees of poverty, scholars tend to group them in three categories. The least numerous category are those conventionally defined ‘structural poor’, including individuals who are fully or partially physically incapacitated, suffering from chronic ailments, and generally unable to support themselves. Such persons were in a constant state of need and thus required continuous support and amounted to 4–8% of the population. The second group, estimated at approximately 20% of the population, are the circumstantial poor, the ‘poor of the crisis’, people without steady employment or in low-wage employment who were able to make ends meet until adversely affected by a crisis in the economy. A sudden rise in prices but not in wages, or some adverse personal circumstances—an illness, an accident, permanent or temporary loss of work—could quickly push such individuals into poverty. They thus occasionally found themselves in need of support from charitable institutions. The last and largest group consisted of the ‘non-indigent poor’ or the ‘labouring poor’—artisans, itinerant vendors, low-level clerical workers, small-scale retailers –, who were able to support themselves and their families under normal circumstances, but in the event of particularly grave adversity or calamity risked falling into the category of the circumstantial poor or even the structurally poor. Rather than indicating the effective lack of financial resources, the paradoxical definition of non-indigent poor refers to the constant risk of failing to be able to meet primary needs and includes those who lived on the brink of poverty. In the Modern Period they represented a significant percentage, from 50% to as high as 70% of the population”. Thus, many people lived at close to a subsistence level. See Olwen H. Hufton’s study of the poor in eighteenth-century France (Hufton 1974), where she defines and explains the concept of “informal relief”. She also speaks of an “economy of makeshifts” in vast rural areas of the country, where many individuals and workers were forced to choose between two alternatives: seasonal migration or alms-seeking. See the discussions of the poor in: McIntosh (2012), Hindle (2004), and Tomkins (2006). 36 Maffi and Rochini (2015).

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

13

In light of the above, it is clear that a historiographical model that seeks to delineate with a high degree of certainty the origin and nature of social support actions will quickly prove inapplicable. This volume does not set out to explain what spark drove a given party to perform a certain welfare action, i.e. if that initiative sprang from religious convictions or for purely political and civil purposes relating to an increase in prestige—indeed this is not a question that the historian can answer with any degree of certainty—but rather to explore the complex and varied web of welfare actions that took form within the rural communities of the Ancien Régime. It is the socio-economic and cultural-identificatory impact of these actions on the local community that concerns us here.37 Analysing the complex system of social support thus equates to getting to the heart of the economic, political, and religious issues of Ancien Régime communities, in which the role of actors is not always easy to circumscribe using contemporary socio-economic categories.

4 The Variety of Actions and Actors in Social Support Systems The studies contained in this volume mainly analyse the agents of social support, more than the beneficiaries. It is thus more a supply-side analysis. Shifting our attention from Anglo-Saxon to Italian historiography, we note a varied terminology: charity, aid, solidarity, philanthropy, support, mutual aid, social support networks, gift/donation, offering, kindness, and concord.38 These are some of the words Italian historiographers have used to address a theme that is complex and difficult to encapsulate in a limited terminology.39 For example, the etymological meaning of “charity” describes the disinterested love of God and of one’s neighbour, implying a voluntary action with no thought of personal gain. Recurrent in Italian historiography, this term is used in two principal acceptations: one the one hand as an all-encompassing term, with a meaning extending

37 See Cerutti (2012). 38 Carità, assistenza, solidarietà, filantropia, sostegno, mutuo aiuto, reti sociali di

supporto, dono, offerta, gentilezza, concordia. 39 See Maffi and Rochini (2016) and Dotti (2010, pp. 15–41).

14

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

to all support actions; on the other, excluding actions having some ulterior purpose such as social harmony or personal gain.40 Historiography of the Catholic stamp has dedicated particular attention to these themes, using the term “charity” with a connotation very often extending to encompass any social support action.41 Many scholars use words such as concord, mutual aid, solidarity, and aid to indicate mutually beneficial actions regardless of whether they are disinterested or bring political, economic, social, or family gain. They include actions with charitable connotations that were also performed to increase the prestige of a person, family, professional group, or community, or else in order to preserve a socio-political order.42 There is a certain polarization in Italian historiography characterized by a clear division into studies seeking to highlight the religious nature of giving and others emphasizing secular or civil origins of such support. We have thus chosen a term that is free of any particular ideological acceptation and able to embody a complex array of actions. The term is “social support systems,”43 which effectively embraces all actions exercised by various parties for a broad array of purposes, collectively forming the complex network of aid in the Ancien Régime. It makes it unnecessary to associate any of a complex set of philanthropic actions with an equally complex set of actors, focusing instead on the ultimate purpose of the practice, which is support for needy individuals and the wellbeing of the community. However, with the aim of presenting a minimal classification, we may divide the sponsors of social support activities into two broad categories: civil actors and religious actors. Among the former, the providers of support are the State with its social policies, local communities, trade

40 Italian historiography has dedicated particular attention to this theme. A recent survey with extensive bibliography is found in Garbellotti (2013) and Montanari (2001). 41 Taccolini (2009), Toscani (2009), Bressan (1981, 1982, 1986, 1998 ), Bressan et al. (1996), Zamagni (2000), and Zardin (1989). 42 Torre (1995, 1999, 2011), Dotti (2010), and Brambilla (2001); the monographic issue of Quaderni Storici, edited by Edoardo Grendi: Grendi (1983) and Cavallo (1995). 43 English-speaking historiography has dedicated a great deal of attention to this subject, developing a lexicon that is particularly effective at capturing the complexity of the theme. See: McIntosh (2012), Lloyd (2010), Krausman Ben-Amos (2008), Hindle (2004), Pullan, (1996, 1988), and Innes (1999).

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

15

associations, families, or individuals. The latter include dioceses, parishes, religious orders, and confraternities. Although such distinctions may be useful in identifying the various origins of support, they are not as hard and fast as one might think. This categorization simplifies a very complex structure. The attempt to make a clean separation between civil and religious actors in the Ancien Régime is a rather arbitrary and methodologically inappropriate operation, giving the notable overlaps that occasionally amount to bona fide intermingling.44 One clear example is the confraternities and fellowships. While falling into the category of religious actors for their devotional purposes, they were composed of laymen from the local community.45 Furthermore, in many cases the families that produced priors and the heads of confraternities and fellowships also produced community administrators, a situation that gave rise to an interweave of bonds that deeply characterized the dynamics by which social support actions were expressed at the local level.

44 Alessandro Pastore writes: “it is impossible to make a distinction between secular or ecclesiastic contributions” in Pastore (1986, p. 434), adding on the following page, “It would be reductive and distorting to posit a clearly defined Church-State dichotomy as regards methods of support and the foundations deriving from it” and on page 462, “The array of aid or beneficence actions shows, as had been amply observed, an alternation of collaboration, competition, and conflict among ecclesiastic institutions and, in certain cases, with the State, city administrations, the urban elite”. Angelo Turchini, drawing on studies of pastoral visits in his examination of charities (luoghi pii), emphasizes that it is not possible to clearly distinguish between ecclesiastic and civil action or between public or private initiative in social support systems in communities of the Modern Period; see Turchini (1999). Turchini also comments on the need to further pursue such studies because “their essence has not been appreciated as ‘parts of a system’ including the set of institutions and relations with the local communities and with the State […]. Furthermore, while they have been studied from the economic, spiritual, and social-support perspectives, little has been studied regarding their nature and the relations between civil society and ecclesiastic realms, a place for meeting and exchanging, a sign of community participation and exercise of power” (Turchini, 1999, pp. 369–370). 45 Regarding confraternities and their role in social support networks, see: Toscani (2009), Negruzzo (2007), Montanari (2001), Turchini (1999, pp. 382–383), Barone (1998), and Zardin (1987, 1981). Regarding confraternities generally in the Modern Period, see Pastore, Prosperi and Terpstra (2011), Dompneir and Vismara (2008).

16

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

As will be readily apparent, this complex interweave of actors, each maintaining their own identity yet frequently crossing boundaries of discipline or jurisdiction, leaves a great deal of room for further study, including works focusing on specific case studies.46

5 The Complexity of Social Support Systems in Regional States The wealth of documentary sources and the various historiographic perspectives from which we may analyse social support systems in the rural areas of regional States in Northern Italy are strong points that emerge clearly from studies collected in this book. These studies analyse the same topic using different types of sources and original case studies. The following chapters present an initial section illustrating the characteristics of the regional State and the principal social support systems and then go on to analyse specific case studies based on unpublished archival sources. Chapter 2, by Marco Rochini, studies the development of the social support system in the diocese of Tortona during the eighteenth century. Owing to its particular geopolitical configuration, the diocese of Tortona constitutes an excellent observation point for investigating the different modes by which the social support system took shape in the Modern Period. Through an examination of ecclesiastical sources (chiefly pastoral visit reports), and lay sources (such as edicts or civil laws), this volume aims to reconstruct the development of a complex support system in this context. The diocese was divided into different areas in the Modern Period and different social support systems had developed in each. Differences in the political power to which they were subject exercised a great impact on their formation and establishment. The study of the parties that developed the Tortona social support system (parishes, confraternities, religious companies, and civil authorities) and the relationships, albeit often conflictual, that developed among them allows us to understand the religious and especially the political implications of their work. In Chapter 3, Antonio Olivieri explores the dynamics of social support systems in Medieval rural settings to reveal continuities and discontinuities with those in the Modern Period. He chooses as his case studies

46 Regarding historical sources used in this work: Turchini (1999) and Torre (1999).

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

17

the forms of acquisition, organization, and administration of rural properties. These were managed directly, or through the organization of farms, by the hospital of Sant’Andrea di Vercelli in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This type of management highlighted the forms of interaction between the hospital and the farm families it employed. The hospital was founded at the behest of Cardinal Guala Bicchieri in the first twenty years of the thirteenth century and was endowed with a significant estate which would later increase through subsequent acquisitions, either purchased or inherited. The hospital thus replaced the powerful laymen who entertained complex relations with their dependent rural communities. Sant’Andrea subjected the rural components of its property to re-organization processes and to rational forms of management also through the employment of various and evolved documentary instruments. In particular these were inventories of assets, registers of agricultural accounts which described the relationship of giving and taking between the hospital and the farming families. The modes of acquisition and the models of organization and administration mentioned above will be further investigated in reference to specific rural property nuclei (Larizzate, Viverone, Gattinara), centres of organized rural communities, in order to establish whether the hospital expressed peculiar cultures and management models compared to other property owners. In Chapter 4, Andrea Zanini analyses the Republic of Genoa. There is a substantial historiographic dichotomy reflecting the different structure of social support between the governing city of Genoa (the dominante) and the governed territories (the dominio). The institutions operating in the capital have been the object of numerous investigations, which have made it possible to identify the existence of a true social support system. It comprised a number of complementary structures with predominantly private funding but a significant public presence in their administration. Further research is required to reconstruct the dynamics in the rest of the State. Some studies do exist, using varied methodologies and focusing mainly on specific cases, but they are limited by the scarcity of documentary sources. One fact that emerges clearly is the widespread, albeit not uniform, presence of small social support structures operating on a local scale. In many Ligurian towns, in addition to episodic remedial initiatives, there were stable and formalized forms of social support provided by different bodies: hospitals, mounts of piety, loca pia (charitable organizations) for the distribution of alms, etc. Unlike Genoa, the small institutions operating in the local villages, where approximately 75%

18

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

of the city-state’s population lived, appeared to be strongly anchored to the local context with little coordination among them and not integrated into the central government’s systemic vision. The chapter illustrates the criteria that informed the social support system in the Ligurian area, its mode of operation and its effectiveness in relation to the needs of the population. Emanuele Camillo Colombo looks at the Duchy of Milan in Chapter 5, with a particular focus on what he calls “ritual capital”. He provides an introduction to social support systems in the Milanese context and then presents an emblematic case study. In a 1670 inventory concerning monies bequeathed or otherwise assigned to a specific altar in the parochial church of Ghemme (Province of Novara), 12 different credit instruments are listed. The credits, to either individuals or communities, were intended not only to finance the activity of the altar (one mass a day in perpetuity), but generally to support the religious and social life of the parties involved. The assignment of funds to the altars meant turning them into a microcredit system and thus solving a problem in relations between creditors and debtors. The small returns of the altar had three main objectives: to create a credit fund (in this case the cleric or whoever managed the altar received a small interest); to provide a salary to a chaplain (most often the unmarried second son of an important local family); to celebrate masses for the salvation of the souls of loved ones. The establishment of an altar also meant a new pole of power within the community. This example sheds light on the backbone of a very complex ritual economy, which has been little investigated by historians. The most striking aspect is the ways religion promoted the creation of social life: a forest of social bodies populated Early Modern Europe. This intense social life was backed by a circular economy, where material and spiritual goods converged and reinforced each other. The pious cause was a contract that worked on two different but perfectly intertwined levels: on the one hand, it served to celebrate masses or produce charity, and on the other hand, it performed actions for the collection of an annuity, which was usually based on the interest generated by a credit instrument or on the rent of a land. “Supporting” was not merely providing assistance, but also collecting credit. The definition of social life arose precisely at the crossroads of these two different needs. Chapter 6 is dedicated to imperial estates. Luciano Maffi examines the social support systems in a little studied area of the Apennines situated

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

19

in modern-day Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Piedmont, and Liguria. He reveals the role of parishes, communities, and families alongside that of feudal lords. The aim is to shift attention from the more eminently jurisdictional, political, and religious aspects to the actions of intermediate social entities that played a leading role in the formation of social support networks. This approach sheds light on how the structuring of social support systems by the bodies that shaped the societies of the Ancien Régime constituted a jurisdiction-generative action. The commitment to giving generated a sort of primordial welfare community, whose strong limitations in the imperial estates were partly compensated by the activity exercised by the feudal lord, who was, in this sense, the main promoter of social support activities. Chapter 7, by Mauro Carboni and Omar Mazzotti, is dedicated to social support systems in Papal Legations and focuses in particular on access to microcredit, which was indispensable to labouring people in Pre-Modern societies; social forms of microcredit had been central to the experience of Italian communities since at least the sixteenth century. When there was no immediate solution to low or sporadic income, debt could provide an important escape from temporary financial distress. Historians and economists have devoted considerable attention to the development of complex systems of microcredit in urban areas—from shop credit to pawn-broking—but limited attention has been paid to rural communities. However, recent studies have documented the development of early forms of socially responsible credit in rural areas of the Italian peninsula, mostly grain banks and mounts of piety. The northern provinces of the Papal States (the Legations of Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna), occupying a broad swath of the eastern Po River valley, provide a very interesting case. Their similar communities, productive patterns, and farming (sharecropping) practices are associated with widespread microcredit institutions that met local credit needs from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. The chapter has three main objectives. First of all, it documents and explains the presence, spread, and resilience of microcredit agencies in the three provinces. For instance, grain banks thrived in the rural communities in Romagna, but were rare in the neighbouring provinces of Bologna and Ferrara, where urban mounts of piety were the dominant microcredit vehicles. Secondly, it discusses if and how the different availability of microcredit services was related to farming and the needs of rural families. Thirdly, it explores the role of different property patterns, agri-environmental contexts, and prevailing

20

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

crop patterns in shaping credit services and their availability in rural communities. Chapter 8, by Giovanni Gregorini, focuses on the Brescia area under the Republic of Venice, with emphasis on the role of communities and on rural microcredit. The commitment of the community acted as a cushion to the delicate junctures of recurrent subsistence crises, helping to limit the spread of explosive convulsions of socio-political rebellion, and at the same time laying the foundations for subsequent development. Thus, every single parish, even the smallest, boasted one or more charitable institutions. In the area of Brescia, these institutions could be distinguished on the basis of their religious or laic orientation and their goals (e.g. prayer, charity). They included: disciplines, congregations, brotherhoods, charities, misericordia brotherhoods, grain banks, mounts of piety, consortia of the poor, commissarie, loca pia, dowries, bequests, hospitals. The active role of the communities and the overall reticular structure were thus highlighted as distinctive features of a system destined to last at least until the end of the eighteenth century, until the breakdown of the consolidated balance between emerging needs and the demands of innovative reforms. Nevertheless, this balance transmitted certain predispositions to the subsequent phase, among which the following stand out: community quest for autonomy—not only from the central political power, but also within the Church with respect to the clergy—in the exercise of charity; the spread of microcredit as an infrastructure favourable to local development; the investment in training as a long-term tool for a new intelligence of poverty. Unpublished documentary evidence, in particular the sources consulted in the Historical Diocesan Archive of Brescia (Pastoral Visits series; Parishes series), have made it possible to further develop this interpretive perspective and increase the scientific knowledge available on the Brescian social support system of the eighteenth century. In Chapter 9, Claudio Lorenzini focuses on another area in the Republic of Venice: what is now Friuli. He underscores how there was a structural element that characterized the population and the economy of the Patria del Friuli, one of the largest provinces of the Venetian Republic, in the Modern Period: the absence of towns. In the second half of the fourteenth century, the development of the main urban centres on the mainland came to a halt, with the exception of Udine. The various quasicities dotting the Friulian territory were located along the main trade routes that united the central European area with the Venetian port of call

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

21

and the Adriatic ports, from the pre-Alpine belt in the north to the centres closer to the coastal area and near Venice. These factors contributed to the creation of a diffuse residential fabric of almost 900 villages, in which the vast majority of the population lived and which, by the second half of the sixteenth century, had increased from 220,000 inhabitants to approximately 320,000. This scenario had direct consequences on the construction of social support networks. For instance, hospital institutions were also intended to provide assistance (and prevention) to merchants and transporters, and not only to the local population. Above all, community institutions, including religious ones, helped to constitute the first form of welfare which was the basis of coexistence between the family groups that comprised them. The forms of social support—from formalized ones, such as pious legacies (loca pia), to more traditional and informal ones, such as the distribution of food during funerals or in memory of the departed—are part of this context. This chapter introduces the various settings and then focuses on the Friulian mountain area, which was characterized by a strong male migratory current (seasonal, tertiary) throughout the Modern Period. The absence of a third of the male population for at least nine months a year forced the activation of peculiar methods of social support, at both the household and community levels, strongly intertwined with mobility: widespread education (also for women), support for the constitution of dowries, the strengthening of religious institutions. Chapter 10 by Marina Garbellotti studies collective charities in the rural communities of Trentino (seventeenth–eighteenth centuries). She examines the social support networks in the rural communities in the territory of the Episcopal principality of Trento in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries since these presented peculiar characteristics compared to the urban ones. Particular attention will be paid to informal collective charities, since in these communities—poor, demographically small, and inhabited by approximately a hundred households—no formal charitable institutions were established. In these communities, men and women used to leave a donation for each member of the community in their wills. The generosity of the testators did not benefit particular categories of needy people, such as widows, the elderly, or the disabled, but rather all the inhabitants of the community according to an egalitarian logic of charity. Indeed, a form of circular charity emerged: respecting the custom of leaving a donation to each family in a will, the men and women

22

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

who constituted the community gave and received at the same time. On occasions, foreigners who had been residing for a certain number of years and who had contributed to the economic and demographic growth of the community were also considered members. In exchange for their active participation in community life, they were allowed to use collective goods and enjoy the benefit of receiving charity. Another noteworthy element of the collective charities is the fact that they were managed by community representatives, who had the task of keeping track of them, distributing the charity to the inhabitants, and ordering requiem masses as requested by the testator. The solidaristic and inclusive dimension of community charities is also evident in the type of donations. Most of them were foodstuffs, such as bread, oil, and salt. These items had a strong religious and symbolic value and represented a valid material aid for people living in a subsistence economy. Collective charities can be considered an example of both social and religious practices of integration and symbolic redistribution of resources within communities. Lastly, in Chapter 11, Paolo Cozzo illustrates the role of parishes in social support systems in the Modern Period. Historiographers now widely recognize that parish priests and parishes played a significant role in the construction of a complex social, political, and cultural order in modern and contemporary Italy. This was true both in urban areas and, above all, in rural territories or small communities, where the parish was often the most solid and enduring institution. In these areas, the role of parishes in the management of need (with the wide range of meanings expressed by this term) in its various manifestations is still under-investigated. In an attempt to address this gap, the present work examines the parish priest in relation to the organization, management, and support (including financial) of hospitals, grain banks, mounts of piety, places for the care of children, the poor, and the marginalized, basic education, the management of dowries for needy girls, and other forms of charity which the parishes dispensed as a social and religious point of reference for rural communities in the Ancien Régime. The study, focusing on the Italian context, takes into account the specificities of the various geopolitical areas of the peninsula, also in relation to the different traditions of ecclesiastical organization of the territory

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

23

(pievanie 47 in the North; chiese ricettizie 48 in the South), as well as the heterogeneity of the local contexts. While in the North there was a large number of parishes, often small in size, in the South there was a concentration of a limited number of large parishes, based in the cities and with jurisdiction over the neighbouring rural areas (the contado). Given the need to highlight regional peculiarities, this contribution investigates the presence of analogies and parallels in the management of the multiple systems of giving by Italian parishes in the Modern Period.

References Albini, Giuliana. 1975. La comunità ebraica in Crema nel secolo XV e le origini del Monte di Pietà. Nuova Rivista Storica 59: 378–406. Albini, Giuliana. 1985. Sulle origini dei Monti di Pietà nel Ducato di Milano. Archivio Storico Lombardo 111: 82–102. Alfani, Guido, and Matteo Di Tullio. 2019. The lion’s share: Inequality and the rise of the fiscal state in preindustrial Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Alfani, Guido, and Matteo Di Tullio. 2020. Inequality, growth and taxation in the countryside of the Republic of Venice, ca. 1450–1750. In Inequality in rural Europe (Late Middle Ages-18th century), eds. by Guido Alfani and Erik Thoen, 65–79. Turnhout: Brepols. Alfani, Guido. 2010. Climate, population and famine in northern Italy: General tendencies and Malthusian crisis, c. 1450–1800. Annales de Démographie Historique 120 (2): 23–53. Alfani, Guido. 2021. The economic history of poverty, 1450–1800. In The Routledge history of poverty in Europe, c.1450–1800, ed. David J. Hitchcock and Julia McClure, 21–38. Abingdon-New York: Routledge. Alfani, Guido. 2014. Back to the peasants: New insights into the economic, social, and demographic history of northern Italian rural populations during the Early Modern period. History Compass 12 (1): 61–72.

47 The term pievania is used to refer to the territory over which the pievano exercised its jurisdiction. The pievano was the presbyter and rector of the pieve. The pieve was the territorial district under a rural church. The pieve church had a baptistery and it was here that in the early Middle Ages the most important liturgical functions took place. 48 Chiesa ricettizia “was first and foremost a church associated with a group of priests who were organized collegially and whose primary purpose was to manage and work the massa commune, the church property which they held in common”. La definizione è tratta da Carroll (1992, p. 255).

24

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

Avallone, Paola, and Raffaella Salvemini. 2020. Al servizio dello Stato bisognoso. Le trasformazioni dei Monti di Pietà e degli ospedali in banchi pubblici a Napoli tra XVI e XVII secolo. In Alle origini del Welfare. Radici medievali e moderne della cultura europea dell’assistenza, ed. Gabriella Piccinni, 399–426. Roma: Viella. Avallone, Paola. 2014. Alle origini del credito agrario. I monti frumentari nel Regno di Napoli e le riforme di fine ‘700. Napoli: CNR. Avallone, Paola. 2018. Dare per produrre. I monti frumentari nel Regno di Napoli (secc. XVII-XVIII). In I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini and Giovanni Gregorini, 23–50. Milano: Franco Angeli. Barone, Giulia. 1998. Prospettive di utilizzazione demografica delle fonti relative alla popolazione religiosa e all’associazionismo confraternale (XIV-XV secolo). In Popolazione e società a Roma dal Medioevo all’età contemporanea, ed. Eugenio Sonnino, 677–688. Roma: Il Calamo. Battilani, Patrizia and Corrado Benassi, eds. 2013. Introduzione. In Consumare il welfare. L’esperienza italiana del secondo Novecento, ed. Patrizia Battilani and Corrado Benassi, 13–14. Bologna: Il Mulino. Brambilla, Elena. 2001. L’economia morale degli enti ecclesiastici. Questioni di metodo e prospettive di ricerca. In L’uso del denaro. Patrimoni e amministrazioni nei luoghi pii e negli enti ecclesiastici in Italia, ed. Alessandro Pastore e Marina Garbellotti, 379–402. Bologna: Il Mulino. Bressan, Edoardo. 1981. L’Hospitale e i poveri, la storiografia sull’assistenza: l’Italia e il caso lombardo. Milano: Ned. Bressan, Edoardo. 1982. Povertà e assistenza in Lombardia nell’età napoleonica. Milano-Roma-Bari: Laterza. Bressan, Edoardo. 1986. Azione caritativa e sociale. In Chiesa e società. Appunti per una storia delle diocesi lombarde, ed. Adriano Caprioli, Antonio Rimoldi, Luciano Vaccaro, 293–304. Brescia: La Scuola. Bressan, Edoardo. 1998. Carità e riforme sociali nella Lombardia moderna e contemporanea. Storia e problemi. Milano: NED. Bressan, Edoardo, Daniele Montanari, and Sergio Onger. 1996. Tra storia dell’assistenza e storia sociale. Brescia e il caso italiano. Brescia: Fondazione civiltà bresciana. Broad, John. 1999. Parish economies of welfare, 1650–1834. The Historical Journal 42: 985–1006. Cafaro, Pietro, ed. 2015. Generatività del bisogno. Casi di finanza e servizi in Lombardia (XVII-XX secc.). Milano: FrancoAngeli. Cargnelutti, Liliana. 1994. Istituti di pegno e comunità. Guida all’archivio del Monte di pietà di Udine (1496–1942). Udine: Arti grafiche friulane. Carroll, Michael P. 1992. Religion, ricettizie, and the immunity of Southern Italy to the Reformation. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 3: 247–260.

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

25

Cavallo, Sandra. 1995. Charity and power. Benefactors and their motives in Tourin 1541–1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University press. Cerutti, Simona. 2012. Étrangers. Études d’un condition d’incertitude dans une société d’ancien régime. Montrouge: Bayard. Colombo, Emanuele C. 2016. Prefazione. In Carità barocca. Opere pie e luoghi pii nello Stato sabaudo fra XVII e XVIII secolo. Appunti e materiali per una ricerca, ed. Elisabetta Lurgo, IX–XXIV. Torino: Fondazione 1563 per l’Arte e la Cultura della Compagnia di San Paolo. Compostella, Piero. 1997. San Carlo Borromeo e i Monti di pietà. Milano: Banca del Monte. Corritore, Renzo. 1993. Il processo di “ruralizzazione” in Italia nei secoli XVII e XVIII. Verso una regionalizzazione. Rivista di Storia Economica 10 (3): 353–386. Daniele, Vittorio, and Paolo Malanima. 2011. Il divario Nord-Sud in Italia 1861–2011. Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino. Daniele, Vittorio, and Paolo Malanima. 2017. Regional wages and the north south disparity in Italy after the unification. Rivista Di Storia Economica 33 (2): 117–158. Dompneir, Bernard, and Paola Vismara, eds. 2008. Confréries et dévotions dans la catholicité moderne (XV–XIX siècle). Roma: École française de Rome. Dotti, Marco. 2010. Relazioni e istituzioni nella Brescia barocca. Il network finanziario della Congrega della Carità Apostolica. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Felice, Emanuele. 2017. Dalla convergenza al declino: l’economia italiana dall’Unità a oggi. In Ricchi per caso. La parabola dello sviluppo economico italiano, ed. Paolo Di Martino and Michelangelo Vasta, 23–73. Bologna: Il Mulino. Felice, Emanuele. 2019a. Economia e società. Il Divario Nord-Sud All’unità. Meridiana 95: 39–62. Felice, Emanuele. 2019b. Regional income inequality in Italy in the long-run (1871–2010): patterns and determinants. In The Economic Development of Europe’s Regions. A Quantitative History since 1900, ed. Joan Ramon Rosés and Nikolaus Wolf, 177–203. Abingdon-New York: Routledge. Felice, Emanuele, and Giovanni Vecchi. 2015. Italy’s Modern Economic Growth, 1861–2011. Enterprise & Society 16: 225–248. French, Henry. 2015. An irrevocable shift: Detailing the dynamics of rural poverty in southern England, 1762–1834: A case study. Economic History Review 68: 769–805. Garbellotti, Marina. 2013. Per carità: poveri e politiche assistenziali nell’Italia moderna. Carocci: Roma. Giorgi, Chiara, and Ilaria Pavan. 2021. Storia dello Stato sociale in Italia. Bologna: Il Mulino.

26

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

Gregorini, Giovanni. 2022. Church, religious orders and congregations, catholic movement. In Leading the economic Risorgimento: Lombardy in the 19th century, ed. Silvia Conca, 318–333. London: Routledge. Grendi, Edoardo, ed. 1983. Sistemi di carità: esposti e internati nella società di antico regime. Quaderni storici 53. Harris, Bernard. 2004. The origins of the British welfare state: society, state, and social welfare in England and Wales, 1800–1945. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Hindle, Steve. 2004. On the Parish? The micro-politics of poor relief in rural England c. 1550–1750. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hufton, Olwen H. 1974. The poor of 18th-century France 1750–1789. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Innes, Joanna. 1996. The mixed economy of welfare in early modern England: Assessments of the options from Hale to Malthus. In Charity, self-interest and welfare in the English past, ed. Martin Daunton, 139–180. London: London UCL Press. Innes, Joanna. 1999. The State and the poor: 18th century England in European perspective. In Rethinking Leviethan: The 18th century state in Britain and Germany, ed. John Brewer and Eckhart Hellmuth, 225–280. London-Oxford: Oxford University Press. Innes, Joanna. 2002. The distinctiveness of the English poor laws, 1750–1850. In The political economy of British historical experience, 1688–1914, ed. Donald Winch and Patrick O’Brien, 381–407. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jones, Colin. 1996. Some recent trends in the history of charity. In Charity, selfinterest and welfare in the English past, ed. Martin Daunton, 51–63. London: London UCL Press. King, Steven. 2000. Poverty and welfare in England, 1700–1850: A regional perspective. Manchester: Manchester University Press. King, Steven. 2011. Welfare regimes and welfare regions in Britain and Europe, c. 1750s to 1860. Journal of Modern History 9: 42–65. Krausman Ben-Amos, Ilana. 2008. The culture of giving. Informal support and gift-exchange in early modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lanaro, Paola. 1983. L’attività di prestito dei Monti di Pietà in terraferma veneta: legalità ed illeciti tra Quattrocento e primo Seicento. Studi storici Luigi Simeoni 33: 161–177. Lanaro, Paola. 2001. Prestito e monti di pietà: una riflessione storiografica. In L’uso del denaro. Patrimoni e amministrazioni nei luoghi pii e negli enti ecclesiastici in Italia, ed. Alessandro Pastore e Marina Garbellotti, 89–105. Bologna: Il Mulino. Lees, Lynn Hollen. 1998. The solidarities of strangers. The English poor laws and the people, 1700–1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

27

Lindert, Peter. 1998. Poor relief before the welfare state: Britain versus the Continent, 1780–1880. European Review of Economic History 2: 101–140. Lloyd, Sarah. 2010. Charity and poverty in England, c. 1680–1820: wild and visionary shemes. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Lurgo, Elisabetta. 2016. Carità barocca. Opere pie e luoghi pii nello Stato sabaudo fra XVII e XVIII secolo, IX–XXIV. Torino: Fondazione 1563 della Compagnia di San Paolo. Maffi, Luciano, and Marco Rochini. 2015. Corpi intermedi e “reti di supporto sociale” in Italia nell’età moderna: Il sistema del dare a Voghera nel XVIII secolo. Nuova Rivista Storica 99 (3): 773–796. Maffi, Luciano, and Marco Rochini. 2016. Poor relief systems in rural Italy: The territory of the diocese of Tortona in the 18th century. Continuity and Change 31: 211–239. Maffi, Luciano, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, eds. 2018. I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo. Milano: Franco Angeli. Malanima, Paolo. 1998. La fine del primato. Crisi e riconversione nell’Italia del Seicento. Milano: Bruno Mondadori. Marfany, Julie. 2014. Family and welfare in early modern Europe: a northsouth comparison. In Population, welfare and economic change in Britain 1290–1834, ed. Chris Briggs, P.M. Kitson, and S.J. Thompson, 103–127. Woodbridge: The Boydell & Brewer. McIntosh, Marjorie. 2012. Poor Relief in England, 1350–1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Montanari, Daniele, ed. 1999. Monti di Pietà e presenza ebraica in Italia (secoli XV–XVIII). Roma: Bulzoni. Montanari, Daniele, ed. 2001. Il credito e la carità. Milano: Vita e Pensiero. Montanari, Daniele. 1994. I Monti di pietà bergamaschi (secoli XVI-XVIII). Studi Veneziani 27: 155–267. Montanari, Daniele. 1997. I Monti di pietà della Lombardia nel XVIII secolo. In Politica, vita religiosa, carità. Milano nel primo Settecento, ed. Marco Bona Castellotti, Edoardo Bressan, Paola Vismara, 257–272. Milano: Jaca Book. Montanari, Daniele. 2001a. Introduzione. In Il credito e la carità, vol.II, Monti di pietà del territorio lombardo in età moderna, ed. Daniele Montanari, 3–20. Milano: Vita e pensiero. Montanari, Daniele. 2001b. Organizzazione confraternale e sistema caritativo nella Diocesi di Brescia in età moderna. In Le sante croci. Devozione antica dei bresciani, ed. Giovanni Spinelli, 37–44. Brescia: Compagnia dei custodi delle Sante Croci di Brescia. Montanari, Daniele. 2007. I Monti di pietà nella Lombardia d’età moderna. In Prestare ai poveri. Il credito su pegno e i Monti di pietà in area mediterranea (secoli XV-XIX), ed. Paola Avallone, 55–68. Napoli: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.

28

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

Muzzarelli, Maria Giuseppina. 1979. Un bilancio storiografico sui monti di pietà: 1956–1976. Rivista Di Storia Della Chiesa in Italia 33: 165–183. Muzzarelli, Maria Giuseppina. 1980. Il Gaetano ed il Bariani: per una revisione della tematica sui Monti di Pietà. Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa 16: 3–19. Negruzzo, Simona. 2007. Confraternite e vita di pietà. In A servizio del Vangelo. Il cammino storico dell’evangelizzazione a Brescia, vol. 2, L’età moderna, ed. Xenio Toscani, 203–234. Brescia: La Scuola. Nubola, Cecilia, and Angelo Turchini, eds. 1999. Fonti ecclesiastiche per la storia sociale e religiosa d’Europa: XV-XVIII . Bologna: Il Mulino. Pastore, Alessandro. 1986. Strutture assistenziali fra Chiesa e Stati nell’Italia della Controriforma. In La Chiesa e il potere politico dal Medioevo all’età contemporanea. Storia d’Italia. Annali 9, ed. Giorgio Chittolini and Giovanni Miccoli, 431–465. Torino: Einaudi. Pastore, Stefania, Adriano Prosperi, and Nicholas Terpstra, eds. 2011. Brotherhood and boundaries: fraternità e barriere. Pisa: Edizioni della Normale. Pegrari, Maurizio. 1999. Tra economia e secolarizzazione: i Monti di Pietà della Repubblica Veneta in epoca moderna. In Monti di Pietà e presenza ebraica in Italia (secoli XV-XVIII), ed. Montanari, Daniele, 97–120. Roma: Bulzoni. Pegrari, Maurizio. 2007. Le ricchezze della Chiesa, la Chiesa delle ricchezze. Economia e Ordini regolari nella Repubblica di Venezia alla fine del Settecento. Studi Storici Luigi Simeoni 57: 211–259. Prodi, Paolo. 1982. La nascita dei Monti di pietà, tra solidarismo cristiano e logica del profitto. Annali Dell’istituto Italo-Germanico in Trento 8: 211–224. Pullan, Brian S. 1988. Support and redeem: Charity and poor relief in Italian cities from fourteenth to the 17th century. Continuity and Change 3: 177– 208. Pullan, Brian S. 1996. Charity and poor relief in early modern Italy. In Charity, self-interest and welfare in the English past, ed. Martin Daunton, 65–89. London: London UCL Press. Rumi, Giorgio. 1988. Lombardia, libertà o dominanza? In La formazione della Lombardia contemporanea, ed. Giorgio Rumi, 111–126. Milano-Bari: CariploLaterza. Rumi, Giorgio. 2003. La Lombardia: ragioni e limiti della scelta unitaria. In Storia della Lombardia. Vol. 2. Dal Seicento a oggi, eds. by Livio Antonielli and Giorgio Chittolini, 101–112. Rome-Bari: Laterza. Salvemini, Raffaella. 2018. Sulla distribuzione degli ospedali nel Regno di Napoli nel Settecento borbonico. In I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini and Giovanni Gregorini, 51–80. Milano: Franco Angeli. Salvemini, Raffaella. 2019. The Network of Hospitals in the Kingdom of Naples at the Time of the Bourbons. Revista Istoric˘a 30: 107–124.

1

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS …

29

Schnettger, Matthias, and Marcello Verga. 2006. L’Impero e l’Italia nella prima età moderna. Bologna: Il Mulino. Semeraro, Riccardo. 2020. Piccoli Ior. Le Casse diocesane da Porta Pia alla seconda guerra mondiale. Bologna: Il Mulino. Strangio, Donatella. 2018. Credito e network sociali. I Monti di Pietà e i Monti frumentari nello Stato romano (XVI-XVIII secolo). In I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini and Giovanni Gregorini, 99–114. Milano: Franco Angeli. Taccolini, Mario. 2009. Chiesa ed economia. In Nuovi percorsi della storia economica, ed. Mario Taccolini, 133–147. Milano: Vita e Pensiero. Tomkins, Alannah, and Steven King, eds. 2009. The poor in England 1700–1850: An economy of makeshifts. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Tomkins, Alannah. 2006. The experience of urban poverty, 1723–82: Parish, charity and credit. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Torre, Angelo. 1995. Il consumo di devozioni. Religione e comunità nelle campagne dell’Ancien Régime. Venezia: Marsilio. Torre, Angelo. 1999. Vita religiosa e cultura giurisdizionale nel Piemonte di antico regime. In Fonti ecclesiastiche per la storia sociale e religiosa d’Europa: XV-XVIII secolo, ed. Cecilia Nubola and Angelo Turchini, 181–211. Bologna: Il Mulino. Torre, Angelo. 2011. Luoghi: La produzione di località in età moderna e contemporanea. Roma: Donzelli Editore. Tocani, Xenio. 2009. A misura d’uomo. L’assistenza nella campagna bresciana in Antico Regime. In Istituzioni, assistenza e religiosità nella società del Mezzogiorno d’Italia tra XVIII e XIX secolo, ed. Giovanna Da Molin, 45–63. Bari: Cacucci. Turchini, Angelo. 1999. I ‘loca pia’ degli antichi stati italiani fra società civile e poteri ecclesiastici. In Fonti ecclesiastiche per la storia sociale e religiosa d’Europa: XV-XVIII secolo, ed. Cecilia Nubola and Angelo Turchini, 369–409. Bologna: Il Mulino. Van den Broeck, Nick, Thijs Lambrecht, and Anne Winter. 2018. Pre-industrial welfare between regional economies and local regimes: Rural poor relief in Flanders around 1800. Continuity and Change 33: 255–284. Von Aretin, Karl Otmar. 1978. L’ordinamento feudale in Italia nel XVI e XVII secolo e le sue ripercussioni sulla politica europea. Un contributo alla storia del tardo feudalesimo in Europa. Annali Dell’istituto Storico Italo-Germanico in Trento 4: 51–94. Williams, Samantha. 2011. Poverty, gender and the life-cycle under the English Poor Law, 1760–1834. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. Winter, Anne, and Lambrecht Thijs. 2013. Migration, poor relief and local autonomy: Settlement policies in England and the Southern Low Countries in the eighteenth century. Past and Present 218: 91–126.

30

G. GREGORINI ET AL.

Zamagni, Vera, ed. 2000. Povertà e innovazioni istituzionali in Italia dal medioevo a oggi. Bologna: Il Mulino. Zardin, Danilo. 1981. Confraternite e vita di pietà, nelle campagne lombarde tra ´500 e ´600. Milano: NED. Zardin, Danilo. 1987. Le confraternite bresciane al tempo della visita apostolica di san Carlo Borromeo. In San Carlo Borromeo e Brescia, 123–151. Rovato: Comune di Rovato- Fondazione Civiltà Bresciana. Zardin, Danilo. 1989. Carità e mutua assistenza. In La carità a Milano nei secoli XII-XV , Maria Pia Alberzoni and Onorato Grassi, 281–300. Milano: Jaca Book.

CHAPTER 2

Hospitals and Hospital Workers in the Late Middle Ages: Personal and Credit Relationships in Two Northern Italian Case Studies Antonio Olivieri

1

Introduction

The problematic relationship between cities and the countryside has been a major focus in the Italian historiographical tradition. This problem is described in an admirable summary,1 but it will suffice for now to 1 Carlo Cattaneo’s famous article published in 1858 in the journal ’Il Crepuscolo’, later re-edited in various venues. I refer the reader to the Cattaneo edition (1957b) and the very recent one edited by Michele Campopiano, Cattaneo (2021). The anthology of Cattaneo’s writings edited by Gaetano Salvemini in 1922, which included extensive excerpts from the 1858 article, has recently been translated into English, Cattaneo (2006). For the earlier phase of historical research on this topic, up to Heinrich Leo, see Toubert (1984).

A. Olivieri (B) University of Turin, Turin, Italy e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 G. Gregorini et al. (eds.), Social Support Systems in Rural Italy, Palgrave Studies in Economic History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24303-5_2

31

32

A. OLIVIERI

remember that the centrality of urban life in Italy’s history has dominated debate among historians, social scientists, and politicians from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards. Cities took the initiative to shape the appearance and economy of the countryside and were one of the factors that, in the big picture outlined by Carlo Cattaneo in an essay written some fifteen years prior to the one referenced in Note 1,2 underlay the extraordinary feats of Lombardy’s rural economy. The city’s driving forces were local landowners and entrepreneurs who were among the most important players in shaping the landscape, economy, and social facilities of the countryside that depended on urban areas. However, assistance to the poor and the sick, “acts of giving” organised in the form of hospitals, pawn houses (monti di pietà), and other assets (public granaries or grain banks) as well as primary schools were also heavily influenced by the cities. Charities operated as a traditional form of hospital (domus hospitalis) and were essentially funded by the resources produced on a landed estate. Consequently, the study of how hospitals organised their assets and managed their peasant workers is fundamental to understanding, at least in part, how a hospital’s economy worked.3 However, when embarking on research, it is necessary to discard preconceptions and examine the sources with an unprejudiced mind. Hospitals’ rural properties had contracts to sell agrarian products to facilities in the city, but it would be of great interest to see hospital accounts and other sources to better understand how these exchanges took place and what those involved thought of them. How did the administrators of a large city hospital view this fundamental business that they managed and how did their rural employees see it? How did the former represent the rural estate and its farmers and how did the latter perceive the hospital and their relationship with it? This more general perspective, i.e., what the hospital is and who it is for, is what we will be focusing on here, putting aside preconceived dichotomies and latent distinctions between town and country, which researchers long ago recognised as contrived.4 In order to avoid inflexibility and prejudice, it is necessary to rethink the balance between the 2 Cattaneo (1957a, in particular pp. 331–340, 416–433); see Luigi Einaudi’s introduction in Cattaneo (1975, pp. VII–XL). 3 Epstein (1986) is fundamental as a model for the investigation of this specific topic. 4 See Chittolini (1996, in particular the foreword and chapters I and II); Epstein

(1993).

2

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

33

players, try to investigate the dynamics of the exchange flows, understand the trends towards autonomy and the dynamism of eccentric initiatives, and finally understand how the men and women involved perceived the spaces, institutions, and economic and social networks around them. Those trying to see it from this point of view will find that the recent volume I sistemi del dare [Systems of Giving]5 represents a healthy corrective or an invitation to independently consider the contribution that rural centres made to the construction of welfare practices, styles, and traditions in Italy between the early modern period and the nineteenth century. However, given the chronological focus of this chapter, we must immediately ask to what extent late medieval documentation can allow us to investigate the proposed theme. Judicial records are the documentary sources that best highlight viewpoints, perceptions, subjective or socially shared ways of understanding power and trade relations, social arrangements, and the presence of family or institutional power centres. Thanks to this documentation, we have access to the words of the parties involved and the witnesses, the actual words of men and women responding to questions put to them by the courts, mediated by judges and notaries who collected them, translated them into Latin, and preserved them in court records.6

2 Santa Maria della Scala Hospital in Val d’Orcia: Hospital Workers in a Trial in the Late 1200s A book published some twenty years ago offers a very interesting example for the topics discussed here as it analyses the minutes of a court case from a tribunal of the chief magistrate of Siena in the late 1270s, including records. The Podestarial court was called upon to settle the dispute between a member of the powerful Piccolomini family and Santa Maria della Scala Hospital administrators over land in the countryside in Siena, in Val d’Orcia. The complaint filed with the Siena court at the end of December 1277 described a violent raid by a nobleman, Rinaldo son of dominus Turchio of Siena, together with an armed manservant and

5 Maffi L., Rochini M., and Gregorini G. (eds.), I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo, FrancoAngeli, Milan, 2019. 6 See the contributions included in Maire Vigueur and Paravicini Bagliani eds. 1991.

34

A. OLIVIERI

labourers, that took place while hospital employees (famulos et familiares et laboratores dicti hospitalis ) were working on a piece of hospital-owned land. The armed manservant broke onto the land, attacked the Santa Maria farmer who was supervising the work, and drove the oxen away. The nobleman destroyed the land’s boundary markers and, in a second raid, destroyed or confiscated agricultural tools and drove the hospital workers off the land, causing them intolerable suffering (intollerabiles iniurias ). Court witness records help us understand, albeit indirectly, the perception that external witnesses had of the hospital, its land and its workers, and at times the hospital workers’ point of view.7 The perspective that the locals had of the hospital and its staff, in some cases rather nebulous, naturally depended on the makeup of the hospital itself. It had several small hospices in the local area, including Ponte d’Orcia and San Quirico d’Orcia, which were part of a larger complex that had developed in a richly diversified fabric of settlements and farmlands thanks to close relationships between prominent families, communities, and church institutions.8 The judicial source reveals a characteristic contrast among the witness accounts put forward by Santa Maria della Scala: on the one hand, there is the articulate vision of the witnesses from the hospital’s ranks about the hospital workers themselves (lay brothers [conversi], farmers, and manual workers); on the other, the greatly simplified vision of persons who had close relations with the hospital as tenants of its lands but did not belong to it. In the testimonies presented by the opposing side, no mention was made of the hospital or its workers, probably as a litigious strategy. Among the hospital workers present at the time of Rinaldo Piccolomini’s raid were the two lay brothers supervising the work, Accorsino and Guido , who were later interrogated by the judge. When questioned, the former said he was able to answer the judge’s questions because he was “that same Accorsino, conversus of the said hospital, to whom Rinaldo did the aforesaid things”, and that he had helped Viviano, hospital worker and frater, to put the boundary stones that Rinaldo had removed back into position. He then added that he was a “famulus [assistant] of said hospital and conversus ” and that he was lodged at said hospital (which 7 Mucciarelli (2001, pp. 23–25, doc. 2, pp. 99–107). 8 Epstein (1986, pp. 30–41), where the importance of the agricultural income from the

Val d’Orcia for the Ospedale della Scala is noted (especially from the fourteenth century onwards); cf. Piccinni (1990) and Redon (1985, p. 21).

2

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

35

must have been the San Quirico hospice, which was a local branch of the La Scala Hospital), which paid for his board. The latter, Guido, was a farmer and lay brother and—according to a witness—lived in San Quirico d’Orcia. Guido told the judge that he was there when Rinaldo committed the act he was accused of and he saw him remove two hospital laboratores from the land as well as being removed himself together with Accorsino, who were both familiares dicti hospitalis. Some family members, famuli, and others on the payroll that the hospital employed on the disputed land were also there: a man from San Quirico, Giovannino Baroni, said he was famulus and familiar and was a temporary hospital laborator. Others declared something similar; another said he was a “bifulcus ”, i.e., the hospital’s cowherd, and that he was a salaried hospital laborator. Yet another, Ghezzo di Piero, stated—something worth noting—that he was not a hospital familiaris but working there “pro laboratore ad certam mercedem” (as a worker for a fixed salary).

3

Sant’Andrea Hospital’s Farm Workers and Lands in Larizzate, Vercelli

What emerges from the comparison between depositions of different types will be summarised in the conclusions. We shall now focus in greater depth on a northern Italian case illustrated by sources of an entirely different character from the previously mentioned judicial sources in Siena. The case that will be put forward for readers’ consideration is instructive for at least two interrelated reasons. Similar to the Valdorcia case, there were agrarian buildings and human lodgings that developed together over time, characterized by phases of diversification and expansion and the consolidation of local religious and civil institutions. In close connection with these processes, the area’s rural economy changed considerably, first of all from the point of view of land ownership and the organisation of cultivated and uncultivated areas and the relationship between the two. The second reason is the establishment of a city hospital as a prominent local landowner, which made the land and its workers factors in the economic support of a charitable enterprise. It thus became an organic component of the welfare economy of Sant’Andrea Hospital in Vercelli, which owned the Larizzate farm we will discuss herein. The above applies generally to all lands and all personnel of welladministered charitable institutions. In this regard, the situation in Larizzate seems to be comparable to Val d’Orcia although the La Scala

36

A. OLIVIERI

Hospital in Siena built its local presence by becoming part of what was already a consolidated group of small rural charities. The Siena hospital superimposed its presence by absorbing them, although without annulling their local identity, thanks to the customary complex procedures of merging hospital bodies decreed by diocesan ordinaries.9 This study will focus on financing charitable enterprises, but we will also consider the relationship between charitable bodies, including that of a consolidated hospital in Vercelli (a medium-sized city in the Po Valley) and the directly run farms that represented both its primary assets and a fundamental source of income. My thesis is that these farms were also organised centres whose human resources contributed to the charitable purposes of the organisation in a two-way relationship between management and peasant employees. Larizzate is on the south-east outskirts of Vercelli and the process of defining lands belonging to it is of great interest as it clearly exemplifies similar and contemporary events. Sant’Andrea Hospital in Vercelli purchased the castrum of Larizzate with the domus of the castle and a large landed estate from the sons of the late dominus Pietro de Bondonno. They did this for the benefit of the poor (ad hutilitatem pauperum) at the end of 1227, i.e., shortly after the hospital was founded by Cardinal Guala Bicchieri and when it was still called hospitale ecclesie nove Sancti Andree.10 Larizzate was then characterised by considerable diversity in its functions, a concentration of the interests of various ecclesiastical institutions, and the remnants of a lay presence that had been preponderant in previous decades.11 Referring to the castrum, the deed of sale specified 9 Albini (1993, 84–127); see also, for the legal bases that legitimised these mergers, Olivieri (2017). 10 On Cardinal Guala Bicchieri, see Fonseca (1968). For the deed of sale OSAV, m. 1804, no. 35; another authentic copy in OSAV m. 1881, fasc. 3, ff. 4r-15r. Cf. Ferraris (2003, pp. 49–58). 11 The formation of the place in its political-territorial consistency must be traced back at least a century earlier, when it appeared as a castrum: see the imperial diploma of May 1111 or 1112 in the Vorab-Edition of the diplomas of Henry V and Queen Matilda at URL https://data.mgh.de/databases/ddhv/ (diploma no. 76), later confirmed by Frederick I in 1153 (DD F I, 1, p. 77 ff., no. 47). See BSSS 34, p. 215 ff, nos. 2, 6. For later developments see a bull by Pope Adrian IV of 1156, which states that the church of Santa Maria di Larizzate with tithes and appurtenances belonged to the canons of the cathedral of Sant’Eusebio in Vercelli (Italia Pontificia 6/2, p. 20, no. 10; BSSS 70, p. 193, no. 156), and the subsequent confirmation by Pope Lucius III in 1183 (Italia Pontificia 6/2, p. 21, no. 14; BSSS 71, p. 124, no. 417). See Olivieri (2021).

2

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

37

that all rights were to be understood as transferred to the hospital, with the exception of property belonging to the monastery of San Benigno di Fruttuaria and to the heirs of one Nicolò de Lanterio.12 Regarding local powers and overall distribution of land ownership, the Larizzate area witnessed a process of purification, as it were, of the presence of large aristocratic families at the end of the 1220s. The hospital became the principal landowner in the area, followed by the Fruttuaria monastery, which the San Savino priory in Larizzate depended on, and the Sant’Eusebio cathedral rectory. The entrance of the Sant’Andrea Hospital onto the scene was not a simple replacement of one large landowner with another. This is a critical point. The hospital completely overhauled the local agrarian landscape, which in turn led to an equally far-reaching reconfiguration of the local peasantry. As detailed in previous research,13 the hospital basically transformed properties having little cohesion or organisation into large, dual-purpose agricultural holdings which were self-managed (referred to as castrum seu mansio in the sources)14 and into a series of tenures run by farming families. We will examine the late fourteenth-century accounting documentation later, but for now, suffice it to say that it testifies very well to the high degree of productive unity between the manor estate and the self-managed farms. This partnership grew gradually from the earliest stages of restructuring, which led to a transformation of the entire small peasantry subject to hospital power. The most significant aspect of this transformation was that the income of dependent peasant families became part of an economy that was oriented towards the charitable redistribution of agricultural income. A study of hospital and employee relationships clearly shows that this economy was sustained by an uninterrupted and pervasive succession of fruitful relationships, but it also shows other components of the hospital’s business

12 The monastery of Fruttuaria is attested as possessor in the place from 1170 (BSSS 70, doc. 260, pp. 302–304). In the sale of 1227, the presence of Fruttuaria (an abbey, see Italia Pontificia 6/2, 147–156) is indicated in the lists of the boundaries of the individual units of the assets acquired by Sant’Andrea, with reference to the abbas de Fructera and, on the other hand, to a local dependency of the abbey, that of San Savino, indicated as monacus Sancti Savini or simply with the genitive Sancti Savini. 13 Olivieri (2021). 14 This directional centre is only incidentally documented, usually in the topical dating

of notarial instrumenta: OSAV, m. 1823, no. 15; m. 1824, no. 41.

38

A. OLIVIERI

and that of its stakeholders. We will see an example later, by studying the will of a worker at the mansio in Larizzate. The agricultural reorganisation mentioned earlier emerges from documentation as a reassignment. The property that Pietro de Bondonno sold was organised into around thirty sedimina (building plots), which were areas destined for residential purposes, some of which already had buildings (sedimina albergata), some of which did not (sedimina disalbergata). There were also 96 plots of cultivated land totalling 21 and a half mansi, nine mansi of forest, four of meadow, and four of fallow.15 This long deed of sale shows how this property was divided into 189 plots in total. The document was obviously drawn up with the aim of listing and describing the individual agrarian components of the plot of land, divided by crops, and not to identify the individual peasant tenures. It would be difficult to reconstruct the latter aspect. However, two workers were tasked with describing the estate’s16 organisational structure more than a year after the sale, in an extensive document that listed all the individual components as consignate et demonstrate [declared and described]. These two workers were probably hospital farmers who had already been mentioned as land and housing estate tenants in the previous sale. The language used was descriptive: the landed estates, made up of cultivated lands, meadows and gerbids granted to individual heads of families were called teneture; a lord’s manor was also identified, known as dominicum, which also comprised cultivated lands, meadows, fallow lands, and woods. However, no dominicum was mentioned in the previous sale, even though the woods and uncultivated land mentioned were not conceded under tenure and some cultivated land was at the disposal of sellers. But, apart from these last necessary clarifications, it must be said that the effect of the hospital reorganising the property just over a year and a half after the sale had a serious impact, even as regards the relative stability of the 15 Here, the term manso is to be understood as an agrarian measure corresponding to 30 bushels for approximately 10 hectares of land: Panero (1979, p. 161); cf. Fumagalli (1985, p. 25 ff.): from the twelfth century onwards, a new way of measuring land began to emerge, “the use of the term manso (…) to define the width of plots of land, often very large ones”; the term was also used to measure uncultivated areas. 16 OSAV, m. 1807, no. 114: “Breve ad memoriam retinendam terrarum et pratorum, zerbiorum et nemorum quas et que adquisivit hospitalis Beati Andree siti in Vercellis ab Uberto de Bondonno filio condam Petri de Bondonno sive ab heredibus condam ipsius Petri de Bondonno, reiacentes in curte et territorio Lariçati, consignate et demonstrate per Petrum Bergonzum et per Mafeum de Staxa de Larizato”.

2

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

39

dependent peasantry with fourteen of the seventeen tenancies mentioned and accurately described in the consignment also specified in the sale. The economic integration between the leased estates and self-managed area, which is an aspect of the farmers’ dependence on the concessionaire, was firm. Suffice it to say that the tenetures were not endowed with parts of the forest. All the latter was concentrated in the dominicum, which was just over 110 hectares. The land being cultivated extended over 188 hectares, of which only about 9% was in the dominicum. The latter included 32% of the meadows, totalling about 53 hectares. The uncultivated land extended to about 52 hectares and was almost all in the dominicum (just over 93%). The estate covered just over 400 hectares. This is larger than what can be inferred from the deed of sale by about 15 hectares. The reason for this discrepancy is not clear: perhaps it stemmed from a more accurate measurement of the property, which would tally with the explanation mentioned earlier. The dominicum was mostly woodland and uncultivated land which were two fundamental resources for the medieval agrarian economy and an example of the synergy between the two parts of the Larizzate estate: the dominicum with its overall management hub and the individual self-managed farms. This and other aspects of the two factors working together will be discussed in more detail later when we reach a period of about a century and a half further ahead. This chronological jump is necessary due to the characteristics of the surviving documentation. It must, however, be said straight away that the ample availability of woodland, uncultivated land, and meadows in the self-managed estates can be considered consequential to the authority’s economic planning. It is not known whether and how this was realised. What is certain, however, is that the lord’s manor included other buildings, the domus castri from the 1227 sale, which were used for agricultural (warehouses, barns, stables), residential, or other purposes, as we will see. The latter are highly relevant to what will be said here, even if they are only documented indirectly. The municipality [comune] of Vercelli granted a large number of authorisations to the hospital to export provisions (victualia) from Vercelli to Larizzate17 , which are useful, albeit generically, to certify the presence of 17 Such an authorisation is a typical expression of the annonary policies of the public authorities of Italian cities in the late Middle Ages and early modern period, which subjected the export of foodstuffs from the city to strict control. See Corritore (2012). It is clear that, in this specific case, the direction of foodstuff traffic was in the vast majority

40

A. OLIVIERI

employees in the dominico. The oldest of these documents (July 1286) states that such foodstuffs were necessary in Larizzate for consumption by the hospital minister and his masnengi and famuli.18 Masnengus is directly related to a mansion.19 This authorisation was repeated in similar terms in subsequent years, with some interesting language variants.20 The constant presence of hospital staff in the Larizzate farm is therefore indirectly confirmed. Hospital staff? This was mentioned earlier in connection with the dispute over the Val d’Orcia. The hospital famuli were either directly involved in caring for the poor and sick or working on the lands that produced annuities to be channelled towards social support. They are a little-studied component, because they are not often documented by available sources.21 In order to better understand the Sant’Andrea Hospital, one would have to laboriously construct a prosopography based on testimonial lists found in notarial documents, but even then it would only be fragmentary and insignificant. There are however occasional flashes in the dark and we can talk about one here. It should be added that the hospital’s administrative responsibility was in the hands of a board of directors made up of the minister (a Victorine canon from the Sant’Andrea Abbey in Vercelli, which the hospital depended on) and of cases from Larizzate to Vercelli. Obtaining authorisation for traffic in the opposite direction served to ensure the lawfulness of free trade between the hospital and its farm, which was necessary to guarantee the efficiency of the hospital economy as a whole. 18 OSAV, m. 1821, n. 14: “§ Dominus Oglerius de Merllanis potestas Vercellensis dedit parabolam domino Ugoni ministro hospitalis Sancti Andree nomine dicti hospitalis ducendi et duci faciendi de civitate Vercellarum ad locum Larizati victualia eidem ministro et masnengis et famulis necessaria ibidem pro eorum ussu, preter de blava, de quibus licentia non habeant. Et ipsa victualia ducant ex bonis et redditibus hospitalis predicti. Que licentia duret toto tempore regiminis potestatis predicti”. 19 Cf. Ahokas (1986, p. 139); cf. Du Cange (1885, p. 295), s. v. masnagium, masnenga, masnengus. 20 OSAV, m. 1826, no. 48 (3 July 1303); m. 1829, no. 30 (25 June 1311); m. 1830, nos. 35 (12 February 1315), 45 (31 May 1316); m. 1831, no. 23 (7 February1318); m. 1835, nos. 13 (10 April 1336 and 2 April 1337), 28 (4 April 1338, 3 April 1340); m. 1836, no. 34 (5 October 1342); m. 1838, nos. 9 (7 November 1345), 25 (4 October 1346); m. 1839, n. 38 (14 November 1351); m. 1840, nn. 29 (7 February 1359), 36 (20 February 1360): the most interesting variant is the explicit definition of the farm as a grange (granzia Larizati) in the documents from the mid fourteenth century onwards. Rao (2011, pp. 243–247) has already dealt with these documents. 21 See, for example, Brunetti (2005) on the personnel of the Sienese hospital known as Monna Agnese. For the hospital of Sant’Andrea in Vercelli in the thirteenth century Ferraris (2003, pp. 71–119).

2

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

41

the hospital’s lay brothers. The latter, together with the lay sisters, formed the group of individuals legally ascribed to the charitable body and who had often converted together. The Larizzate grangia (as it was called from around the midfourteenth century) had two components, the dominico and the selfmanaged farms which both contributed to its income. Work carried out by famuli and Larizzate tenure owners and—according to sources—another farmstead known as Friar Marco’s made up a vital part of the hospital’s overall charitable business. The most relevant point is that the tenutari were not therefore mere tenants who paid rent to the hospital. We will see more about this later. These employees were men or women—although the latter are practically absent in the documentation—and it is hard to say if they were only motivated by the need to obtain a livelihood or whether they were also motivated in a charitable sense. There are very few cases where the sources show such motivation, although we do have the will of a masnengus from the Larizzate farm named Bertolino, from nearby Valle d’Aosta, which reads: “porcharius et masnangus domus et fratrum de Larizate hospitalis Sancti Andree.”22 This will identified the Larizzate fratres and a domus where the testator dictated his last will. The domus was therefore a residence, as well as the centre for distributing charitable funds, as we shall now see. The sources are mostly notarial and are very reticent about charitable activity and how it was organised: nothing is known about the fratres just mentioned, although it would seem they should not be seen differently from the city hospital’s fratres conversi. The porcarius will holds some surprises: in addition to Bertolino’s declared trade and subsequent salary, he must have run a discreet business as an interest-charging money lender. He appointed a converso from Sant’Andrea hospital23 as heir on behalf of the hospital and charged him with collecting the male ablata, which was payment to save the souls of those who had practised usury.24 He then made several donations of money, including one to the Larizzate domus, where he transferred a sum owed to him by some of his debtors. He allocated another gift 22 OSAV, m. 1838, no. 34 (14 June 1347, “in domo habitionis domus hospitalis Sancti Andree in Larizate”). Cf. Rao (2011, p. 245). 23 Friar Iacobo Bolla, attested among the lay brothers of the hospital of Sant’Andrea in a document of the same month of June 1347 (OSAV, m. 1838, no. 36) drawn up in Vercelli ’in hospitali predicto’. 24 See Pia (2019).

42

A. OLIVIERI

to the Santa Maria church in Larizzate, where he wanted to be buried, others to a frater Pietro serviens of the same Santa Maria church and to Iacobina known as a plebana, who was probably also connected to the same church. He also donated clothing and household goods to people he cared for, he instructed the conversus, whom he had previously appointed as fidei-commissioner, to donate salt or bread to Larizzate, spending what remained of his possessions after the execution of legata. The list of debtors who would become hospital debtors after Bertolino’s death is remarkable. In fact, behind the qualifications of porcarius and masnengus was a very different reality from the image of a poor pig-keeper working for a religious grange that one would imagine. Bertolino was a man who could advance small sums of money to a fair number of people, he worked with various religious bodies besides the hospital, such as Larizzate parish church, Santa Margherita women’s monastery in Vercelli, the church of Calvagnasco (a place that no longer exists, but must have been in neighbouring Lomellina). He was involved in Sant’Andrea Hospital work for paupers, by allocating a significant portion of his wealth (21 lire in Pavia currency) to the Larizzate estate, thus emphasising its welfare role (domus hospitalis de Larizate); on this other available sources are silent.

4 The Fourteenth-Century Agricultural Accounting Registers of the Sant’Andrea Hospital: Employees, Debt, and Integration in the Hospital Economy We mentioned earlier the extent to which the work of the Larizzate grange peasant employees was integrated into the hospital’s charitable interests. There is clear evidence of this in some remarkable registers of agricultural accounts that the hospital had drawn up, it seems, from the end of the 1330s.25 I will devote the following pages to analysing the evolutionary process of documentary forms and accounting criteria that have emerged. These are censi registers: the peasant family (only the head of the family’s name is on the documents) was given tenancy of an agricultural unit, which is not described in these registers, for which it owed the

25 The oldest in time is a register from 1340: OSAV, m. 578, no. 116. Another, slightly later (years 1347–1349), is in OSAV, m. 576, no. 79.

2

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

43

payment of amounts of money, agricultural commodities, labour services. Here is one of the simplest examples, translating from Latin: § Furthermore, Oliverio of Larizzate gives as rent 48 shillings per 14 bushels of land planted beyond the Cervo stream.26 Is this an ordinary tenant who pays an annual rent in money? It would not seem so, if one reads the following comment: He paid 16 shillings and the rest of the payment was settled through the work he did at Larizzate.27

By using the verb excusare, it was recorded that payment due in money or commodities was replaced by labour services. So, the hospital allowed tenancy holders to pay part of or all rents they owed in labour services, by converting the amount owed in money or commodities into days of work. It should be pointed out that compensation of payments and services of different types recorded in these accounts are widespread customs in late medieval northern Italy and elsewhere. This was due first and foremost to very little money being in circulation, which, in fact, was a general and persistent condition that characterised the exchange economy from the late Middle Ages through much of the early modern period. The economy was based on credit and personal credibility (cultural currency) rather than on monetary transactions. Networks of credit relationships largely replaced money payments and spanned all levels of exchange reaching beyond the boundaries set by social hierarchies, as recent research shows.28

26 "§ Item Oliverius de Lerizate dat fictum solidos XLVIII pro stariis XIIII plantati ultra Sarvum" (OSAV, m. 578, no. 116, f. 18v). 27 "Soluit solidos XVI excusatos ad seminandum Larizatum". 28 On the issue of offsets in the economy of northern Italy in the late Middle Ages,

see the examples in Della Misericordia (2015) and Olivieri (2016), the latter based on the documentation of the hospital of Sant’Andrea in Vercelli. The theme of offsets, of the cross-counting of debts and credits accumulated over time (reckonings ), thus generally of the credit economy, of the prevailing function of money as a measure of prices, of credibility as a cultural currency is central to Craig Muldrew’s research: Muldrew (1998, pp. 95–195, 2012). Important reflections on the different credit circuits in the rural areas of the late Middle Ages, with a strong emphasis on the vertical dimension of credit in the relationship between affluent individuals and individuals at the lower rungs of the wealth ladder, in Schofield (2016).

44

A. OLIVIERI

This same register outlines a more complex example, in fact, in the section titled In Larizzate. 1340 libro dei fitti degli uomini di Larizzate 29 we read: § Albertono de Eusebio holds 57 modii of land, for which he gives 28 bushels of grain, or one-quarter wheat and three-quarters rye. In addition, 4 pounds for the grounds, meadows, and forest. In addition 4 transport services (corvées) and 4 capons. In addition 7 pecks of rye for the plantatum. In addition 30 shillings for the two-storey building (pro solario). 36 shillings are exchanged for three trips to the Domus Dei meadow. In addition (excusavit ) 56 shillings are exchanged for two trips to the mountain for wine. In addition, 12 shillings are exchanged for two trips to Vercelli. The reckoned total owed is 19 pounds and 4.5 shillings and 7 pecks of rye.30

Alberto had a modest debt in grain (a quartaronus, that is a quarter of a bushel, a peck) but had accumulated a considerable debt in money which was equivalent to what he should have paid in three and a half years. If we read in sequence and compare the breakdowns of the most detailed accounts over one year in the Larizzate rent book (see below), we can see that: a. the composition of tenure tends to be standardised (arable land, grassland, and forest rights, intercropped land); b. tenants tend to accumulate substantial cash debts; c. tenants pay their debt by offsetting them with services that are similar in the accounts of other holders. See the table below (Table 1): The data above is taken from accounts that show the most detail, i.e., the names of the farmers who rented a diversified amount of goods and rights from the hospital, which one can assume was sufficient to ensure

29 OSAV, m. 578, no. 116, f. 19r: "In Larizate | MCCCXL liber fictorum hominum Larizate". 30 OSAV, m. 578, no. 116, f. 20r. On the place known as Domus Dei, former site of a monastery and hospital, east of Vercelli beyond the Sesia, Cassetti (1980).

land plot of land, meadow, forest intercropped land plot of land meadow land plot of land, meadow, forest intercropped land land plot of land, meadow, forest

Ioannino Calzia and Marco his brother

Boza

Albertono, Vassallo’s grandson and brothers

Oldriono Bianchino and brother

Vassallo

Marco Castegna

land plot of land, intercropped solarium land plot of land, intercropped solarium land plot of land,

Albertono de Eusebio

meadow, forest

meadow, forest land

meadows, forest land

composition of tenures

£ 11, s. 18, d. 7 pecks of rye excluding Friar £ 9, s. 18 2 capons excluding Friar £9, s. 13, d. 4 4 capons 5 pecks of rye excluding Friar –

Borgesio’s ratio

Borgesio’s ratio

Borgesio’s ratio

8

£ 18, s. 15 Papiensium excluding £ 5 to be given to Brother Borgesio de alia ratione

£ 15, s. 6, d. 6 excluding Friar Borgesio’s ratio

£ 19, s. 4.5 7 pecks of rye

debts

Census register OSAV, m. 578, no. 116, accounts on ff. 20r–24v

tenure holders

Table 1

(continued)

trips to Domus Dei meadow

trips to Domus Dei meadow work days in the fields trips to Vercelli trips to the mountain for wine trips to Domus Dei meadow trips to Vercelli trips to the mountain for wine trips to Domus Dei meadow trips to Vercelli trips to the mountain for wine trips to Domus Dei meadow work days in the fields trips to Vercelli

trips to Domus Dei trips to the mountains trips to Vercelli

trips to Domus Dei meadow trips to the mountain for wine trips to Vercelli

offsets

2 HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

45

composition of tenures land plot of land, meadow, forest intercropped land

land plot of land, meadow, forest intercropped land

solarium

Manono

Iacobo de Eusebio’s heirs

Vercellono Curlando

(continued)

tenure holders

Table 1

£ 53, s. 16 (of which £ 53, s. 6 for old debts) 14 bushels, 3 pecks of rye (including old debts) 3 bushels wheat 4 corvées, 5 capons £ 11, s. 16, d. 6 5. bushels of rye 1 bushel wheat excluding Friar Borgesio’s zedula (= ratio)

s. 16 3 bushels, 4 cupi of rye

debts

–

mowing Domus Dei meadow trips to Domus Dei meadow trips to the mountains work days in the campum trips to the casina work on Domus Dei meadow working days ad campum trips to Vercelli

offsets

46 A. OLIVIERI

2

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

47

their family’s self-sufficiency. Other accounting records are not taken into consideration here as they are much simpler. This table shows how Larizzate’s most important peasant employees and the payments they made in money, goods, and labour were part of a coherent economic system, and how this extended over several years. It is coherent because these employees operated within an agrarian system that tended to be cohesive. Their services were directed in well-defined areas of the hospital’s agrarian system: to the locality known as Domus Dei and its meadow; in journeys to transport wine to (or rather from) the so-called “mountains”, probably in the northern part of the Vercelli area (where the hospital had significant properties in Gattinara); in journeys to Vercelli, Sant’Andrea Hospital’s headquarters; in days of work in a campum, which must have been a field that the hospital managed directly, through salaried tenants’ labour and services like those now being discussed. It should be pointed out that the agrarian property managed directly by the hospital and the forms of this management are only documented indirectly, due to the total lack of documentation produced during these forms of management.31 However, it should be noted that the debt which the employee accumulated towards the hospital must have been the reason (and consequently turns out to be the proof) of his/her long-term dependency: generally speaking the worker and his family became a stable part of the hospital’s economic system for at least a few years. The account (the source uses the word ratio) between the two parties was constantly open. So, it should be noted that the 1340 book frequently mentions a ratio rendered to Brother Borgesio which testifies to a stratification of different accounts.32 This stable relationship between hospital and workers should not however 31 Direct management by the hospital cannot therefore be satisfactorily investigated. It emerges asystematically from the accounts relating to the goods given under management: a congeneric and slightly later register than the one we have now examined (OSAV, m. 576, fasc. 79, years 1347–1349) has, on f. 13r, an entry relating to a planted land in the name of a Rofinus ortolanus for 40 soldi a year, with the note below: “Cassatum est quia non tenet, sed tenetur a nobis propria manu, videlicet illa terra que est desuper plantatum nostrum Cantarane”. Tenetur a nobis propria manu clearly alludes, with its subjective form and the expression propria manu, to direct management. In the late Middle Ages, the forms of direct farming and animal husbandry by the owners of agricultural land and livestock generally left little trace in the documentation, in contrast to the various forms of tenure, for which notaries were widely used: see e.g. Costantini (2019, p. 83). 32 Friar Borgesio, known as Borgesio da Trino, a locality south-west of Vercelli, is documented as a lay brother [converso] of the hospital in documents dating from 1335 (OSAV, m. 1835, no. 4) to 1350 (OSAV, m. 1839, no. 22).

48

A. OLIVIERI

be taken for granted, as we will see, as it represents a relevant problem when defining the profile of dependent peasants. So, peasant employees had a well-integrated and stable relationship lasting several years within an agrarian system that—according to the data in the table—can be system coherent. This coherence should not be assessed as the result of planning by the owner but as the effect of a strong element of aggregation. It was the tenants who created this element as they connected the parts of the estate they managed with those that were managed centrally. They made this connection thanks to a constitutive component of their state of dependence: the need to settle debts accrued to the hospital (including advance payment for seeds) through repeated work supplies, consisting of both agricultural work and transport services. The characteristics of the economic relationship between the Larizzate hospital and its tenants led to an evolution in its documentation over time. The 1340 register testifies to accounts being broken down over several consecutive years due to the fact that tenants had accumulated significant debts as well as it mentioning the accounts kept by friar Borgesio and other notes. This all led to bookkeepers adopting the classic form of late medieval Italian accounting known as the current account.33 Bookkeepers started accounting practices for rented goods by using typically elongated registers (vacchette, in Tuscan documentary lexicon). In these accounting books, the granted goods were ordered by location and were distributed year by year. Although it was easier to estimate each property’s income,34 this form of recording did not give a picture of the payments and debts accrued by various tenants for several consecutive years. Hence the reference to other rationes and other registers. This drawback was remedied by adopting a different registration criterion, which continued, however, as we shall see, to adopt an identical principle. Three registers dating from

33 The main characteristic of the so-called current account is the co-presence within the same account, reserved for one account holder and extended for the duration of the relationship between the manager and the current account holder, of debits and credits that can be offset against each other, the criterion defining this type of account being precisely that of offsetting: Melis (1972, pp. 72, 82, 466–467). 34 In the register that is typologically identical to the one mentioned above (OSAV, m.

576, fasc. 79), there are on f. 19v, two sums of rents in money, respectively of houses in Vercelli (201 pounds, 4 shillings) and of plantations also in Vercelli (212 pounds, 1 shilling, 2 pence). On f. 24v we read sums of wheat and rye relating to goods owned by the hospital in Greggio (on the Sesia river north of Vercelli). Other sums on the following pages (ff. 25v, 29v, 33v, 34r, etc.).

2

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

49

the early 1360s onwards and twice as wide as the two we have discussed so far35 were designed for each page to accommodate registrations in a tenant’s name. The two oldest registers contain rationes dated respectively between the 1360s and 1380s and between the 1380s and the beginning of the fifteenth century which relate to tenants renting houses owned by the hospital in the city of Vercelli.36 The third register contains rationes dated between 1396 (the oldest) and the 1430s in the name of tenants renting property in the Larizzate area.37 It is important to clarify that the destinations mentioned in the registers (houses in the town, goods in Larizzate) do not come from explicit writings or titles placed at the beginning of each manuscript, but from incidental annotations in the records, such as “Giovanni from Crevacuore holds a house near the hospital (…)” or, even more generically, “Magister Bonino keeps another house (…)”,38 or continuous references to works done in the Larizzate manor house in the register that we will now discuss. How are rationes organised in these registers? An example will be taken from the first page of the Larizzate register. The header reads as follows: To begin with (In primis) Perrono de Alberto gives a rent of 56 Pavia shillings and 2 capons and 2 corvées in the field, including [in the tenancy] a bushel of land cultivated with hemp near the tabia nucis [= the barn near the walnut tree]. Item gives a rent of 3.5 pecks of rye for the planting.

On the continuation of the page are the rationes for the years 1396 to 1400. Note that the register can be read either vertically, i.e., page by 35 OSAV, m. 576, nos. 72, 81; m. 577, no. 103: these registers measure approximately 30 × 22 cm. The previously mentioned registers (OSAV, m. 578, no. 116; m. 576, no. 79) measure instead approximately 30 × 11 cm. The two different formats proceed from the use of sheets with the same measurements (approximately 30 × 44 cm) folded once or twice widthwise. 36 OSAV, m. 576, nos. 81, 72. 37 OSAV, m. 577, no. 103. The use of the term “territory”’ here is not arbitrary:

in 1251 the minister of the hospital of Sant’Andrea asked the podestà of Vercelli to authenticate testimonies to prove that Larizzate had “curiam sive curtem”, i.e., its own territory, as was public knowledge, separated from the territory of the city of Vercelli and from the territories (curie) of the surrounding places, and that this territory, determined within the boundaries covered by the testimonies, had been defined since time immemorial (OSAV, m. 575, no. 62). 38 OSAV, m. 576, no. 72, ff. 2r, 2v.

50

A. OLIVIERI

page, or horizontally, by scanning across the pages. It looks like it was designed to be consulted both ways: if the heading on f. 1r begins with In primis, the second (on f. 2r, since f. 1v was left blank) begins with Item (In addition). The second register of houses in Vercelli, mentioned earlier, is even more systematic: In primis, Item, Item, Item, (…). It will be seen that the latter is not an insignificant aspect. It will be useful now to give an example of one of the most complete, or at least rationes-rich accounts, which is the Larizzate register (f. 16r): Maffeo di San Savino gives a rent of 3.5 florins for the meadows and woods he keeps in the name of the San Savino church and 2 corvées and 2 capons. He also gives a rent of 2 bushels of rye for the intercropped land de Cazulo. He also gives a rent of 2 bushels for the planting near the church. He also gives a rent of 6 pecks and 7 shillings for 4 modii of land in Tostolis. He also gives a rent of 1 bushel and 0.5 peck of rye for the planting in Tostolis or ad Zardinum. The sum is 6 bushels and 2.5 pecks of rye. 1396 January 9 A ratio was done with Maffeo di San Savino for his rents paid 40.5 grossi, which he replaced (excusavit ) with a service of transporting two casks of wine. He also paid 7.5 grossi in full payment of rent for the year 1395. He also paid 14 grossi in rent for the year 1394. Therefore, once the total was made, he must give (Unde facto computo debet dare) 22 grossi, 1 pechones; he must also make a corvée; he paid 2 capons; he also paid 12 bushels of rye for the intercropped land of Cazulo; he also paid 4 bushels, 2 pecks of rye for the intercropped land in Tostolis. 1397 January 8 A ratio was done with Maffeo di San Savino for his rents he [owed] 14.5 grossi, which he replaced with a service of transporting rye and wheat to Vercelli. In addition, he made 3 corvées, paid 2 capons; he also paid 7 shillings in Pavia currency for land in Tostolis. Therefore, once the total was drawn up, he must give 4 florins, 4 grossi for his rents until the day written above. In addition, he paid 6 bushels, 2.5 pecks of rye for rent on his crops. 1397 August 10 The above-mentioned Maffeo paid 6 bushels of rye and 2.5 pecks for his rents for the current year. 1398 January 13 A ratio was done with Maffeo named above for his rents he paid 7 shillings in Pavia currency for land in Tostole. In addition, he paid 2

2

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

51

capons, he made 2 corvées. Therefore, once the total was drawn up, he must give 7 florins, 12 grossi for his past rents. 1398 December 2939 A ratio was done with Maffeo and Giorgio named above for their rents, he paid [sic] 28 grossi that he replaced with a service of labour and by transporting a cask of wine from Viverone. He also paid 2 capons, he made 2 corvées, he paid 6 bushels, 2.5 pecks of rye for the rents on his crops. So once the total was drawn up, he must give 9.5 florins for his past rents. 1399 February 10 The above-mentioned Maffeo paid 3 florins for the above-mentioned debt. 1400 January 13 A ratio was done with Maffeo and Giorgio for their past rents for the year just gone by, he paid [sic] 20 grossi, which he replaced with a service of transporting wine from Viverone for the rent of the year 1399. He also paid 3.5 florins in money for the past year’s rent. Therefore, once the total was drawn up with said Maffeo and Giorgio for their abovementioned rents, he must [sic] give 5 florins, 4 grossi in money. He also paid 3 bushels of rye and must give 14.5 pecks of rye for the past year. He also paid 7 shillings in Pavia currency for land in Tostole. In addition, he paid 2 capons, he made 1 corvée and must make 1 corvée.

The San Savino brothers’ account continues on the next page (f. 16v) with rationes for the years 1401 and 1402 and then with later accounts (years 1419–1429) for the same family. It is unnecessary to go into more detail here. What has been reported is more than sufficient to show that the characteristics of the relationship between tenants and hospital interests that can be seen in this documentation is confirmed, i.e., long-term relationships between tenants and hospital, open accounts and flexible methods of payment, integration of different parts of hospital activities through the trait d’union with tenants, tenants’ chronic debt to the hospital, their work that allowed their debts to be paid off and connecting different parts of hospital resources through labour and providing transport services. They also carried out work to renew and maintain their farming tenure property, deducting the corresponding value of this work 39 In the register this date is marked ’MCCCLXXXXVII°, die XXVIIII° decembris’ which corresponds to our 1398 December 29 because in Vercelli, as in most of the western Po Valley, the year began on 25 December, seven days earlier than our New Year.

52

A. OLIVIERI

from their own debt which was obtained by equivalence calculations. In January 1396, Perrono de Alberto paid 40 shillings in Pavia currency “which he substituted [with work rendered] to build his house” (f. 1r). A house that was also built with the help of other tenants. In the same month of January 1396, the de Roncarolio brothers paid 67 grossi through work done on Perrono de Alberto’s house and farmstead and through work completed on the old castle moat (f. 2r). Other examples could be given, such as regarding the tenants Perrino Cerexia (f. 6v), Perrino de la Mota (f. 10v), Giovanni Sibono (f. 11r), etc. All this and much of what else we read in these registers makes it possible to identify a fundamental aspect of being a hospital and offering hospitality. The hospital certainly had its minister and the few lay brothers who made up its management, which probably consisted of five or six people, sometimes even fewer. We must also add their wives, if they had them, but here the sources are almost completely silent. The hospital also had its inpatients, who sometimes (this is a remarkable fact) were the lay brothers themselves, who often joined the hospital’s governing board through a formal act of conversion when they were well advanced in years.40 However, the minister and lay brothers who drew up the registers recognised the hospital’s employees as an integral part of the hospital. In fact, the employees ensured the functioning of the complex economic mechanism that financed the hospital as a whole with its continuous replenishment and reproduction of its forces and creation of surplus that was distributed in charitable services, subject, of course, to the normal dysfunctions that afflicted enterprises of this kind (including the embezzlement that sources often complain of41 ). It should be mentioned here in passing—and we are only examining the hospital’s agrarian interests here—that Sant’Andrea Hospital income streams, like many late medieval Italian city hospitals, were also fed by artisan work and direct or indirect exercise of credit.42

40 Olivieri (2019). For the oblation acts at the Hospital of La Scala in Siena, see Redon

(1985, pp. 26–34). 41 Olivieri (2017). 42 For the competition of artisan labour see, for the hospital of Sant’Andrea in Vercelli,

Degrandi (1996) Oliveri (2016). For the exercise of credit see the example of the Sienese hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Piccinni (2012); in general Gazzini and Olivieri eds. (2016).

2

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

53

The reason we can argue that the hospital mirrored itself in its employees, i.e., that it represented itself as a complex made up of management, employees, and tenants in an unbroken give-and-take relationship, lies in the dominant factor we saw in the accounts mentioned above. The sequential accounts of the 1340s were organised by year, location, and sometimes type of census (whether in money or in kind).43 Subsequent accounts, from the 1360s onwards, were recorded in standardised registers by location of the rented property (city house register, Larizzate property register, etc.) although the location was not explicitly stated in any heading. Both these ways of recording data were based on the criterion of identifying the tenants and what they owed, not the property they rented. Properties for which, as mentioned above, only a generic location can be inferred, nothing more: the specific details of where they were located within the micro-area (ubi dicitur in) and their boundaries were not recorded. This can be seen from the accounts of the 1340s: Oliverio di Larizzate gives as rent 48 schillings for fourteen bushels of land planted beyond the Cervo stream; or Albertono de Eusebio keeps 57 modii of land, for which he gives 28 bushels of cereals, i.e., a quarter of wheat and three quarters of rye. The properties that Oliverio and Alberto rented were described in a very generic manner (beyond the Cervo, in Larizzate): what mattered was identifying the tenant and what he owed. This is even clearer in later registers. We can take, for example, the register relating to assets in Larizzate (by studying the rationes ) and add some primitive headings to a table of each account (we will see why they are primitive later). Here are the first eight pages: The underlying principle for administrating the leased property and collecting what the tenants owed was identifying them and how much they owed each year. It was the tenants who went to the minister and lay brothers to settle the accounts. In 1396, for example, the eight listed in the following Table 2 went to the minister on 9 or 10 January. On set days and normally at the beginning of the calendar year, the minister and lay brothers brought the tenants together (although where

43 OSAV, m. 578, n. 116: In Albareto (f. 2r), In vicinia Sancte Agnetis (f. 3r), rents

in grain rendered in Vercelli (f. 7r), rents in money for planted land rendered in Vercelli (f. 12r), In Larizate (f. 19r), etc. OSAV, m. 576, no. 79: Book of the rents of houses and plantations of the hospital of Sant’Andrea in the city of Vercelli [continued by another hand] and elsewhere and of all those who hold lands and possessions of the said hospital in rent.

54

A. OLIVIERI

Table 2 pages

OSAV census register, m. 577, no. 103, headings on the first eight

Page

Primitive heading

1r

To begin with, Perrono de Alberto gives a rent of 56 soldi in Pavia currency and 2 capons and 2 corvées in the field, including a bushel of land cultivated with hemp near the tabia nucis In addition, Antonio de Roncarolio and his brother give as rent 4 £ in Pavia currency and 4 capons and 4 corvées. They also give a rent of 47.5 grossi per 16 modii of meadow at a rate of 2.5 grossi per modius Antonio Bianco gives a rent of 4 lire, 4 capons, 4 corvées. He also gives a rent for the Prato Lungo of 32.5 grossi Martino de Albano gives a rent of 5 lire, 4 capons, 4 corvées Iacobo de Bulgaro gives a rent of 12 grossi, 2 capons, 2 corvées Giovanni de Albano gives a rent of 4 £ in Pavia currency, 4 capons, 4 corvées Guglielmino de Albano gives a rent of 16 £, 2 capons, 3 corvées Rubata gives a rent of 4 lire in Pavia currency, 3 capons, 2 corvées de campo

2r

3r 4r 5r 6r 7r 8r

is not clear) to do the annual accounts. This showed payments the tenants had made both in money and in kind, the contractual corvées (roydas ) performed and labour services rendered to replace what they still owed and undoubtedly could not have paid any other way. At the end of the meeting, an amount was registered as their debt or, sometimes, as their credit. It was all clear and quite functional. The records show, however, that the administrative principle held the tenant at the centre, although it also ran into a contradiction. This was caused by a structural problem with this management system, for reasons which unfortunately are unclear. We mentioned earlier primitive headings: here it should be added that annotations were added at the top of the page to indicate changes of tenants or changes in conditions, which sometimes overlapped making it unclear to understand (Table 3). On the heading relating to Perrono de Alberto (f. 1r) we can see “Holds (Tenet ) Perrino Mota”, i.e., Perrino holds the lease etc. The heading relating to de Roncarolio brothers (f. 2r) shows accumulated issues: meanwhile, the primitive annotation regarding the 16 moggia of meadow has been deleted and an added note informs us that the meadow is no longer part of the lease (“Cessat pratum”). Next to the upper margin of the page we can see that “Iacobino de Roncarolio holds a (or the) sedime” and below that “The aforementioned Iacobino and Nicolino and Enriono de Roncarolio hold a third of (the) meadow”; finally, a note which was perhaps added immediately after

2

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

55

the primitive heading explains: “1395 [the rationes begin in 1396]. The aforementioned de Roncarolio began ploughing the meadow near the old farmstead (ad caxinaciam) and must keep and enjoy it for the next nine years”. On the heading relating to Antonio Bianco (f. 3r) we can see that Antonio, Bartolomeo and Bonino Bicocca took his place in the year 1400, and in fact we learn from the accounts that up to 13 January 1400 the ratio was done with Antonio Bianco, while on 9 January 1401 the ratio was done with Antonio Bicocca. The header relating to Martino de Albano (f. 4r) reads “Bartolomeo Mora held … and now Zanono Mora a.k.a. Gigiono holds …”, etc. The stability of the tenants referred to earlier made their debt to the hospital sustainable as they integrated into the hospital’s economic interests. However, this stability was only relative. It sometimes lasted for a few years, but then stopped. For example, the last ratio in the name of Antonio Bianco, dated 13 January 1400, shows that facto computo Antonio still owed 25 grossi and 20 imperial pennies and 2 bushels of wheat that had been advanced to him for sowing. On 9 January the following year, the ratio made with Antonio Bicocca shows that he had paid a debt of 38.5 grossi by replacing it with the salary (excusavit in feudo) of a certain Biagio.44 Sometimes it was not the tenant’s profile that changed, but the tenancy, as with the de Roncarolio brothers. As is always the case with these registers, the details of their tenetura were ignored, except that a meadow or a lot of ground had been removed or added to it. So basically, the centrality of the tenant in the hospital’s vision produced more than one flaw. The single tenetura or complex of rented property, tends to emerge from the unspoken because the circumstances of the hospital and tenant relationship impose changes: the object of that tenet is always implied and is very present just beneath the surface of the writing. The employee is always the subject.

44 A similar case of relative instability of the concession in the medium term is studied in Orlando 2002. Nothing can be deduced from the accounting documentation studied here about the reasons that led to the interruption of the relationship between hospital and concessionaire. This is an open field of investigation. One of the problems associated with this field is that of insolvency: the role and extent of insolvency on the part of the concessionaires and, on the other hand, whether there was also, under certain conditions, a problem of insolvency on the part of the hospital (e.g., temporary or cyclical inability to pay wages). On all this, stimulating insights and perspectives in Muldrew (2012, pp. 27– 29).

56

A. OLIVIERI

Table 3 OSAV census register, m. 577, no. 103, rationes rendered on 9 or 10 January 1396 present in the first eight sheets Page

tenant

Ratio of 9 or 10 January 1396 (FR = facta ratio, reckoning)

1r

Perrono de Alberto

2r

Antonio de Roncarolio and his brother

3r

Antonio Bianco

4r

Martino de Albano

5r

Iacobo de Bulgaro

FR with Perrono for his rents, corvées and capons, Perrono paid 2 capons, made 3 corvées, paid 3.5 pecks of rye, paid 40 shillings in Pavia currency, which he replaced by building (ad faciendum) his house. Having completed the work, he does not have to give anything FR with Iacobo, Perrazono and Antonio brothers for their rents and work, they pay 67 grossi, which they replaced ‘with building work’ in Perrono de Alberto’s house and farmstead and on the old castle moat (castellacium), they also pay 2 capons, they made 4 corvées. After the calculation they must have 13 grossi, 1 shilling from Terzoli FR with Antonio Bianco for his rents, he paid 74 grossi, which he replaced by transporting 2 casks of wine, and 24 grossi for building Perrono’s house and farmstead; he also paid 6 capons, he made 4 corvées. When the calculation has been done, he must have 10 grossi for the work done in rebuilding his house FR with Giovanni [sic] de Albano for his rents, corvées, and capons, he paid 12 grossi, which he replaced by building the house. He also paid 28 shillings in Pavia currency, made 4 corvées, paid 3 capons. Having made the calculation, he must give for his rents 4 corvées, 1 capon, £ 20 in Pavia currency, 4 pecks of wheat. He also paid 3 pecks of rye FR with Iacobo de Bulgaro for his rents, he paid 44 grossi, 1 shilling, which he replaced by building the houses in the Larizzate village; he made 2 corvées, paid 1 capon. Having made the reckoning he must give 5 grossi, 1 pegiones for his past rents, 1 capon, 1 corvée. In addition he paid 2 bushels of wheat for renting the plantation

(continued)

2

Table 3

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

57

(continued)

Page

tenant

Ratio of 9 or 10 January 1396 (FR = facta ratio, reckoning)

6r

Giovanni de Albano

7r

Guglielmo de Albano

8r

Rubata

FR with Giovanni de Albano for his rents, corvées, and capons, he paid 4 £ in Pavia currency, which he replaced with labour; 4 capons, 3 corvées FR with Guglielmo de Albano for his rents, corvées, and capons, paid 2 capons, made 4 corvées FR with Rubata for his rents, he paid 3 £ in Pavia currency, he paid 2 capons, he made 3 corvées. After calculation, he must give 29 £, 18 shillings in Pavia currency for his past rents

5

Conclusions

The employee is an important player in the hospital’s administration. From a certain point of view, a hospital is the daily unfolding of relations among its human resources—mostly men, as women were rarely written about—in their various roles. Their customs brought ministers, lay brothers, farmers, labourers, and salaried employees together to work the plough, mow meadows, repair tenant houses, transport barrels of wine and other foodstuffs, and who knows what else. Judicial acts like those of the Santa Maria della Scala Hospital against the Piccolomini for goods in Val d’Orcia are sources that allow us to get a closer look at what seems to be very instructive episodes of daily life. It was made up of local people in various roles within the hospital. If they belonged to the inner circle of hospital staff, they were capable of distinguishing roles, they knew the rectors, lay brothers [conversi], assistants [famuli], and salaried workers, and although the internal delimitations were not always very clear, the informative potential was very encouraging. Sources of a different kind, such as the testament of a porcarius (pig farmer) from Larizzate, show individuals whose profiles take on surprising forms as their lives are completely absorbed in the rich dynamics of a rural domus hospital. Finally, we have seen other sources at greater length, such as the annuity registers, which should perhaps be analysed in more detail in order to go beyond the apparent barren surface and help us grasp the

58

A. OLIVIERI

perspective that shaped ministers’ and lay brothers’ administrative techniques. Because this contributed to defining not only the image that the hospital had of its resources but the very notion of being a hospital.

Archival Sources Archivio di Stato di Vercelli, Ospedale di Sant’Andrea di Vercelli (OSAV).

Published Sources BSSS 34 = Documenti biellesi, pubblicati da Pietro Sella, Francesco Guasco di Bisio, Ferdinando Gabotto, Pinerolo: Società Storica Subalpina, 1909 (Biblioteca Della Società Storica Subalpina, 34). BSSS 70 = Le carte dell’Archivio capitolare di Vercelli, 1, by Domenico Arnoldi, Giulio Cesare Faccio, Ferdinando Gabotto and Giovanni Rocchi, Vercelli: Società Storica Subalpina, 1912 (Biblioteca Della Società Storica Subalpina, 70). BSSS 71 = Le carte dell’Archivio capitolare di Vercelli, 2, by Domenico Arnoldi and Ferdinando Gabotto, Vercelli: Società Storica Subalpina, 1914 (Biblioteca Della Società Storica Subalpina, 71). DD F I, 1 = Die Urkunden Friedrichs I. 1152–1158, bearbeited von Heinrich Appelt, unter Mitwirkung von Reiner Maria Herkenrath, Walter Koch, Josef Riedmann, Winfried Stelzer und Kurt Zeillinger, Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhanbdlung, 1975 (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Die Urkunden den Deutschen Könige und Kaiser). Italia Pontificia. 1914. 6, Liguria sive provincia Mediolanensis, 2, Pedemontium – Liguria Maritima, congessit Paulus Fridolinus Kehr. Berlin: Weidmann. Vorab-Edition https://data.mgh.de/databases/ddhv/ Die Urkunden Heinrichs V. und der Königin Mathilde, Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Diplomata regum et imperatorum Germaniae, 7, Die Urkunden Heinrichs V. und der Königin Mathilde, Herausgegeben von Matthias Thiel unter Mitwirkung von Alfred Gawlik.

References Ahokas, Jaakko. 1986. Saggio di un glossario del Canavese. Ricavato dal Corpus statutorum Canavisii, pubblicato a cura di Giuseppe Frola (secoli XIII-XVII), Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia. Albini, Giuliana. 1993. Città e ospedali nella Lombardia medievale. Bologna: CLUEB. Brunetti, Lucia. 2005. Agnese e il suo ospedale. Siena, XIII-XV secolo, Pisa: Pacini.

2

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

59

Cassetti, Maurizio. 1980. Cenni storici sul monastero e ospedale della Casa di Dio in Vercelli. Bollettino Storico Vercellese 15: 31–45. Cattaneo, Carlo. 1957a. Notizie naturali e civili su la Lombardia, in Carlo Cattaneo, Scritti storici e geografici, 1, ed. Gaetano Salvemini and Ernesto Sestan, 309–433. Firenze: Le Monnier. Cattaneo, Carlo. 1957b. La città considerata come principio ideale delle istorie italiane, in Carlo Cattaneo, Scritti storici e geografici, 2, ed. Gaetano Salvemini and Ernesto Sestan, 383–437. Firenze: Le Monnier. Cattaneo, Carlo. 1975. Saggi di economia rurale, ed. Luidi Einaudi, Torino: Einaudi. Cattaneo, Carlo. 2006. Civilization and Democracy: The Salvemini Anthology of Cattaneo’s Writings, ed. and introduced by Carlo G. Lacaita and Filippo Sabetti, trans. David Gibbons. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Cattaneo, Carlo. 2021. La città considerata come principio ideale delle istorie italiane, ed. Michele Campopiano, Pisa, Edizioni della Normale. Chittolini, Giorgio. 1996. Città. Comunità e feudi negli stati dell’Italia centrosettentrionale (XIV-XVI secolo). Milano: Unicopli. Clerici, Luca. 2021. Italian Victualling Systems in the Early Modern Age: An Overview and a Critical Assessment, Italian Victualling Systems in the Early Modern Age, ed. Luca Clerici, 3–36. London: Palgrave. Corritore, Renzo Paolo. 2012. Un problema negletto. Per un riesame della questione annonaria nelle città di antico regime. Storia Urbana 36 (1/134): 5–9. Costantini, Valentina. 2019. Carni in rivolta. Macellai a Siena nel Medioevo. Pisa: Pacini. Cuniberti, Gianluca, ed. 2017. Dono, controdono e corruzione. Ricerche storiche e dialogo interdisciplinare. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso. Degrandi, Andrea. 1996. Artigiani nel Vercellese dei secoli XII e XIII . Pisa: Pacini. Della Misericordia, Massimo. 2015. «Non ad dinari contanti, ma per permutatione». Compensi, credito e scambi non monetari nelle Alpi lombarde nel tardo medioevo, Montagne, comunità e lavoro tra XIV e XVIII secolo, ed. Roberto Leggero, 113–163. Mendrisio: Mendrisio Academy Press. Du Cange, Carolus Du Fresne.1885, Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, auctum a monachis ordinis sancti Benedicti, digessit G. A. L. Henschel, editio nova aucta pluribus verbis aliorum scriptorum a Léopold Favre, tomus quintus, Niort: L. Favre Epstein, Stephan R. 1986. Alle origini della fattoria toscana. L’ospedale della Scala di Siena e le sue terre (metà ‘200 – metà ‘400). Firenze: Salimbeni. Epstein, Stephan R. 1993. Town and country: economy and institutions in late medieval Italy. Economic Hystory Rewiew 46 (3): 453–477.

60

A. OLIVIERI

Ferraris, Gianmario. 2003. L’Ospedale di S. Andrea di Vercelli nel secolo XIII. Religiosità, economia, società. Vercelli Società Storica Vercellese. Fonseca, Cosimo Damiano. 1968. Bicchieri, Guala, Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 10, Roma, Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana. [versione digitale https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/guala-bicchieri_%28Dizionario-Bio grafico%29/]. Fumagalli, Vito. 1985. L’evoluzione dell’economia agraria e dei patti colonici dall’alto al basso Medioevo. Osservazioni su alcune zone dell’Italia settentrionale, Le campagne italiane prima e dopo il Mille. Una società in trasformazione, ed. Bruno Andreolli, 13–42. Vito Fumagalli, Massimo Montanari, and Bologna: Clueb. Gazzini, Marina and Olivieri, Antonio, eds. 2016. L’ospedale, il denaro e altre ricchezze. Scritture e pratiche economiche dell’assistenza in Italia nel tardo medioevo. Reti Medievali Rivista, 17 (1). Maffi, Luciano, Rochini, Marco and Gregorini, Giovanni, eds. 2019 I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo, a cura di, Milano: Franco Angeli. Maire Vigueur, Jean-Claude and Paravicini Bagliani, Agostino eds. 1991, La parola all’accusato. Palermo: Sellerio. Melis, Federico. 1972. Documenti per la storia economica dei secoli XIII-XVI . Firenze: Leo S. Olschki. Muldrew, Craig. 2012. Debt, credit, and poverty in early modern England. A debtor world: Interdisciplinary perspectives on debt, ed. Ralph Brubaker, 9–35. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Muldrew. Craig. 1998. The economy of obligation. The culture of credit and social relations in early modern England. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Mucciarelli, Roberta. 2001. La terra contesa. I Piccolomini contro Santa Maria della Scala (1277–1280), Firenze: Olschki. Olivieri, Antonio. 2019. Formule di conversione. Esempi dalle carte di un ospedale vercellese (secoli XIII-XIV), Scrineum Rivista 9.:1–79. https://doi. org/10.13128/scrineum-10765 Olivieri, Antonio. 2017. Il linguaggio della riforma: retorica della corruzione e ritorno alle origini nella documentazione ospedaliera tardomedievale. In Cuniberti 2017: 487–507. Olivieri, Antonio. 2016. Il volto nascosto dell’economia ospedaliera. L’ospedale di Sant’Andrea di Vercelli nei secoli XIV e XV, L’ospedale, il denaro e altre ricchezze. Scritture e pratiche economiche dell’assistenza in Italia nel tardo medioevo, ed. Marina Gazzini and Antonio Olivieri, Reti Medievali Rivista 17 (1): 189–217. Olivieri, Antonio. 2021. La signoria dell’ospedale di Sant’Andrea di Vercelli su Larizzate, La signoria rurale nell’Italia del tardo medioevo, 3, L’azione politica locale, by Alessio Fiore and Luigi Provero, 107–131. Firenze: Firenze University Press.

2

HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE LATE …

61

Orlando, Ermanno. 2002. Campagne e congiuntura: la proprietà fondiaria dell’ospedale dei Battuti di Treviso nel Trecento. Studi Veneziani 43: 95–137. Panero, Francesco. 1979. Due borghi franchi padani: popolamento ed assetto urbanistico e territoriale di Trino e Tricerro nel secolo XIII , Vercelli: Società Storica Vercellese. Pia, Ezio Claudio. 2019. Credito, restituzione e cittadinanza: uno snodo storiografico tra valutazione e reintegrazione (secoli XII-XV). Reti Medievali Rivista 20 (1): 257–281. Piccinni, Gabriella. 1990. Ambiente, produzione, società della Valdorcia nel tardo medioevo, La Val d’Orcia nel medioevo e nei primi secoli dell’età moderna, ed. Alfio Cortonesi, 33–58. Roma: Viella. Piccinni, Gabriella. 2012. Il banco dell’Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala e il mercato del denaro nella Siena del Trecento, Ospedaletto (Pisa): Pacini. Rao, Riccardo. 2011. Il villaggio scomparso di Gazzo e il suo territorio. Contributo allo studio degli insediamenti abbandonati, Vercelli: Società Storica Vercellese. Redon, Odile. 1985. Autour de l’hôpital Santa Maria della Scala à Sienne au XIIIe siècle. Ricerche Storiche 15: 17–34. Schofield, Phillipp R. 2016. Access to credit in the early fourteenth-century English countryside, Credit and Debt in Medieval England c. 1180-c. 1350, ed. Phillipp R. Schofield and Nicholas J. Mayhew, 106–126. Oxford: Oxbow Books. Toubert, Pierre. 1984. “Città” et “contado” dans l’Italie médiévale. L’émergence D’un Thème Historiographique Entre Renissance Et Romantisme, La Cultura 2: 219–248.

CHAPTER 3

The Social Support System in the Kingdom of Sardinia: The Diocese of Tortona Marco Rochini

1 The “Corporate” Nature of the Social Support System in the Modern Period: As an Introduction To understand how social support systems took form in eighteenthcentury rural Italy, we must focus our analysis on a delimited geographical area. This is useful for studying an entity such as the Italian peninsula in the Old Regime, characterized by a great diversity of political-institutional

This article has been made possible by a quarterly research scholarship provided through the project “Organizzare l’assistenza, Istituzioni, persone, dibattiti”, directed by Professor Antonio Olivieri, Department of Historical Studies, University of Turin. M. Rochini (B) Institute for the History of Mediterranean Europe (National Research Council), Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 G. Gregorini et al. (eds.), Social Support Systems in Rural Italy, Palgrave Studies in Economic History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24303-5_3

63

64

M. ROCHINI

systems, each with its own social support system. There were political entities where the State exercised policy leadership in social support and charity systems and others where it played a secondary role. The diocese of Tortona is a particularly interesting case for its geographical conformation and political makeup. The study of limited geographical areas also makes it possible to incorporate analyses characterized by a broader and more general frame of reference that places special emphasis on processes of centralizing support systems promoted by States during the eighteenth century. This takes on a particular value for the Kingdom of Sardinia. If we limited our investigation to legislation enacted by Vittorio Amedeo II in the early decades of the century, we would be led to think that the controlling tendency of the Savoy State had substantially eliminated the complexity of social support systems characteristic of Piedmont. If, on the other hand, we extend our analysis of legislation to smaller regional contexts and the associated archival documentation, we note that that State project necessarily had to confront persistent local practices and customs that were difficult to extirpate. The study of social support systems in limited geographical areas makes it possible to avoid excessively generalized interpretations that put weight exclusively on official documents produced by central powers (e.g., laws and regulations on charity) and thus risk concealing the complexity that characterized by the modes of development of support mechanisms in the Old Regime in the various areas of the Italian peninsula. The micro-historical investigation constitutes a “historiographic practice”1 whose distinct features derive firstly from the procedures by which it is conducted. The main tenet of the micro-historical study is that of not ignoring the particular in the comprehension of the general, not to sacrifice the individual to the collective. The conviction is that specific cases, regarding limited dimensions and experiences, can produce knowledge applicable to more general phenomena.2 The study of the ways in which social support systems took form in the diocese of Tortona in the eighteenth century can thus be a relevant focus of micro-historical study. Subject to various State powers and characterized by a rather complex

1 Gribaudi (2011). 2 Levi (1991, p. 129) and Lanaro (2011).

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

65

geographical conformation, the diocese was characterized by the coexistence of different social support systems. While in some areas, parishes and confraternities provided aid to the disadvantaged, in other areas no such aid was available, such as in the southern part of the diocese, which bordered on the State of Genoa and was characterized by the presence of imperial estates (enclaves directly subject to the Empire). In that politicalinstitutional framework, support was almost exclusively in the hands of feudal families. The micro-historical method is also effective for another reason, strictly correlated to the complex structure of Old Regime society. In the pre-industrial age, society was a complex system comprising many intermediate bodies (the diocese, the parish, confraternities, corporations, the rural township, communities of neighbours, etc.) mediating between the individual and the political institutions (the State being the ultimate authority). In the modern period, the individual—understood as a subject endowed with his/her own social, political, and juridical status, as we are accustomed to thinking in the modern acceptation of the term, developing with the publication of the Napoleonic codices at the beginning of the nineteenth century—was not a well-defined category. In the Old Regime, the individual was not endowed with specific rights and responsibilities, but represented a subject whose right to act within society derived essentially from his/her membership in one of the many intermediate bodies that combined into an intricate network between the single person and the State and thus gave structure to society.3 These structuring bodies had a broad diversity of characteristics. Some were specifically religious, such as the parishes, which the Council of Trent had attempted to make the fulcrum of local religious life, while others were of a civil nature, such as the corporations, the municipality, or the community of neighbours. Still others we might term “intermediate”, such as the confraternities, one of the most important and studied social entities in the Old Regime.4 These sodalities were composed of laypersons who chose to join for the purpose of performing a variety of religious or 3 Mannori and Sordi (2002). See Levi (1985, p. 5) and Revel (2011, p. 557). 4 The most recent studies of Italian confraternities in the modern period have applied

a predominantly sociological methodology. Black and Gravestock (2006), Terpstra (2000, 2001), and Bertoldi Lenoci (1994). Confraternities and their charitable/social-support efforts have received significant attention in Italian historiography. Zardin (2010, 2011), Toscani (2009), Vismara (2008), Negruzzo (2007), Savelli (1984), and Grendi (1965).

66

M. ROCHINI

charitable activities, e.g., providing aid to the sick, the incarcerated, or the poor, performing catechesis, maintaining altars in the parish church. However, although they were of a civil nature, the confraternities were subject to control by the parson (although the provision was not applied homogeneously across the different areas of the Italian peninsula). The social structure in the Old Regime was not grounded on a system of law comparable to the one that took form following the implementation of the Napoleonic code, which was based on a legislative system produced by an institution specifically delegated to that function and thus applicable to the entire State. The pre-industrial age was characterized by the contemporary presence of regulatory systems produced by various society-structuring bodies and applicable exclusively to the members of each body. Old Regime society represented the outcome of a plurality and interweave of different legal systems and institutional compositions which, sometimes conflicting, gave form to a jurisdictional system. In this overall framework, each social-structuring body endowed with regulatory power constituted a field of jurisdiction acting legitimately within well-defined boundaries. It was thus a system of competing jurisdictions, in which the social bodies claiming leadership of a portion of an interconflicting whole claimed rights and social spaces contested by a plurality of contending social bodies.5 In this complex social and legal system, characterized by a heterogeneity of legal systems, social support practices constituted one of the main arenas of jurisdictional encounter/conflict and were leveraged by social bodies to secure areas of action and control.6 This pattern was accentuated in contexts where social bodies of a secular nature, such as a community, a rural township, or a neighbourhood, also claimed realms of action within religious spheres. This gave rise to somewhat latent conflict with religious bodies, the parish first and foremost. From an anthropological perspective, in the Old Regime, charity represented a “locus” within which to claim rights and work towards social and political legitimation. If we analyse social support practices in 5 Hespanha (1986) is fundamental here. The reflections on work by Hespana di Torre (1995) are very interesting. As regards the jurisdictional structure of Old Regime society, see also: Mannori and Sordi (2002), Lombardini et al. (1986), Levi (1991), Cerutti (1992, pp. VII–XXIV). For a juridical study: Grossi (1992), Hespanha, (1984) and Raggio (1996). 6 Von Gierke (2007) and Gurvitich (1932).

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

67

modern period Italy, jurisdictional conflicts were not at all infrequent, and involved a variety of parties. A recurrent case is the parson who criticizes the excessive autonomy of the confraternities. While formally subject to his control, these bodies administrated their own assets (often significant) in near total freedom, frequently entering into conflict with the parish in the social support market. The study of charitable/support actions in limited geographical areas allows us to understand how, contrary to claims by a certain historiography, pre-industrial societies were not static, immutable organisms. On the contrary, they represented the final outcome of continuing complex processes of identity reformulation, in which the social bodies emerge as parties that lay claim to their own spaces of jurisdiction and, in the final analysis, their very right to exist.7 This process of identity formulation could be structured on a reduced scale, regarding that which occurred within the confines of the local societies, or on a broader scale, concerning the relations among social bodies operating between localized communities and supra-regional powers. This is the case, as regards the field of social support, in relations between the local community, within which various bodies having their own jurisdictional profile operate, and bodies outside of the community, such as the diocesan ecclesiastic hierarchies claiming authority over local social support practices. The tension between bodies within local communities and supra-regional parties endowed with jurisdictional power, if examined on the micro-analytic level, allows us to comprehend dynamics of development and perception of charity/support that are in part different from those that can be investigated in a macroanalytic study from a general vantage point far removed from the specific issues addressed.8 In many cases, the support action constitutes an arena of confrontation between a model which, leveraging the principle of the authority and right of supra-territorial political institutions to assert themselves as the sole party having control of political and economic activities, is imposed in a top-down manner, and a model, or several models, that local societies seek to defend as a heritage of local customs. Take for example the above case of the Kingdom of Sardinia in the eighteenth century. A supra-regional authority endowed with jurisdiction, such as the diocese

7 Levi (1985, p. 3) and Revel (1989). 8 Levi (1991, p. 116).

68

M. ROCHINI

or, on a larger scale, the State, was juxtaposed with a host of intermediate social-structuring bodies, reluctant or openly opposed to giving up certain customs, of which social support practices were a significant slice. This conflict, which expanded, for example, from social support to religious and devotional practices, constituted a fundamental piece in the process of identity definition in Old Regime societies. Via the defence of religious, devotional, and social support practices, the local communities—or better, the social bodies that shaped themselves as promoters of such practices—asserted their rights and their own jurisdictional space. The nature of social support practices as a “locus” of encounter/conflict among antagonistic bodies makes it possible to grasp another aspect concerning economic goods and charity practices in the Old Regime, i.e., their “ritual” value.9 The ritual nature of social support actions derives firstly from their “repetitive” aspect. Activities such as distributing food, seed, clothing, or money as stipulated in a will were performed, as a rule, on certain days of the year, often corresponding to an important religious festival. The concrete delivery of support produced a moment of aggregation and social mobilization, which engaged various-sized groups of people.10 The support activity practised by intermediate social-structuring bodies, each in its own way, constituted a “ritual” moment bringing together those who benefited from the support and those who proffered it. This community moment, which often extended beyond the confines of the parish and brought together people belonging to neighbouring communities, allowed the parties promoting the support to legitimate their social and political status before the entire community. In other words, bodies doing charitable work used social support as an instrument to define and preserve their political status in the complex social system of the Old Regime, in which a multitude of contending parties sought increasing large spheres of influence through support practices. The distribution of bread, salt, or wheat by the confraternity on the feast of their patron saint day, as well as dowries from the parish to help poor young women who would otherwise have no access to the marriage market, were both highly “political” and religious actions. The activities assumed a particular value via the

9 Colombo (2016). Regarding charity as one of the “loci” giving form to Old Regime society, see Torre (2011). 10 Colombo (2016, p. XIX).

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

69

ritual gesture that accompanied them. In other words, ritual played a central role in Old Regime society in that it possessed “the capability to affirm, construct, and emphasize the prerogatives of those—lay or cleric, individual, subgroup, or group—who promote and perform [the activities]”.11 One example, although beyond the scope of the present chapter, is philanthropic bequests (legati pii) and testaments. These legal dispositions, with which a family could donate a part of its estate to an institution such as the parish for social support purposes, constituted an extraordinary means for legitimation and promotion of social status. The charity was an instrument for perpetuating the memory of the testator and the name of their family. In other words, for some members of the local communities, social support represented an investment that could be quantified not only on the religious level, corresponding perfectly to Christian dictates regarding the duty to provide charity to the most needful, but also on the “political” level, regarding the legitimation of their social status.12 The rituality of social support actions also implied a relevant “liturgical” value, which is very important in understanding the significance of charity in the pre-industrial age. Rituality in association with social support practices was part and parcel of a liturgical act in the customary sense of the term (very often when distributing food, dowries for poor girls, or clothing, a eucharistic service was performed), but also of a series of devotional practices that accompanied the charitable act, such as processions, novenas, recitals of the rosary, etc. This illustrates the dual nature of social support actions in the Old Regime, both religious and economic-political.13 It was precisely that dual nature, closely related to the process of “ritualization” associated with social support practices, that made charitable activities an arena for confrontation among various social bodies. Once again, the work of the confraternities within the confines of the parish is an emblematic case. Indeed, it was not at all rare for a parson, turning to his bishop, to criticize the social support actions of the confraternities working in his parish. Very often, providing money and food 11 Torre (1999, pp. 207–208), Grendi (2004), Torre (1995, 2002, 2006), and Ago (2006). 12 Chiffoleau (1980). The author highlights how modern forms of bookkeeping are directly connected to pity for souls in purgatory. Bossy (1983, p. 42). 13 Cf. the specific case study regarding Lodi: Colombo and Dotti (2014).

70

M. ROCHINI

to their members (but also to outsiders), the confraternities generated a bond with the faithful of the parish (in many cases the majority of adult males in a community belonged to a confraternity) that had an impact on their religious habits. For example, they might attend with greater frequency the churches or oratories administrated by the confraternities rather than the parish church. In addition to challenging the pivotal role of the parish in local religious life envisioned by the Council of Trent, it also channelled collection of monies away from the parish church. Thus, in Old Regime societies there were competing cultural, liturgical, and charitable offerings, which significantly complicated what was intended to be a rather straightforward formula based, following the Council of Trent, on the idea of the parish as the pivot of local religious life, and has been described extensively in the historiographical literature.14

2

The Social Support System in the Kingdom of Sardinia in the Eighteenth Century: A Case Study: The Diocese of Tortona

As regards the Kingdom of Sardinia in the modern period, a very important juncture in the history of social support came in the early decades of the eighteenth century. On 6 August 1716, Vittorio Amedeo II instituted the Congregrazioni di carità [Congregations of Charity], aimed at eliminating the collecting of alms, starting in the city of Turin, and eventually ridding all Savoy domains of mendicancy. The royal provision called for the confinement of the poor in the Ospizio di carità [Hospice of Charity] or their forced return to their homelands. On 19 May 1717, the decree creating the Hospices of Charity was promulgated in every provincial capital. Should it not have been possible to implement the provision, this royal decree constituted a mandate to institute a Congregations of Charity, whose purpose was to collect and administrate support for the needy. The task of putting the royal

14 In the Old Regime, and with a dynamic that in some areas of Europe persisted well

into the eighteenth century, the parish was anything but the centre of gravity of local religious life. Often it was only formally such. Thus the constant relations with other intermediate bodies that gave form to the parish, such as the confraternities. See: Grendi (1982), Levi (1985), Torre (1985), Delille (1989), Raggio (1990), Trexler (1994), and Mombelli Castracane (1982).

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

71

edict into effect was in the hands of bishops or governors. Subsequently, with the objective of centralizing the administration of social support in State hands, social support works were hierarchized. The edict of Turin of 20 July 1719 established the Congregazione pimaria e generalissima [Primary and Chief Congregation]. It administrated the Congregazioni generali provinciali [General Provincial Congregations], which in turn oversaw the operations of the local Congregations within their jurisdiction.15 The edict of 27 September 1720 instituted the Provincial Congregations of Alba, Aosta, Alessandria, Asti, Casale, Fossano, Ivrea, Mondovì, Nizza, Pinerolo, Saluzzo, Susa, Vercelli, and Acqui. In 1722 the same provision was introduced for the city of Biella. The Provincial Congregations consisted of twenty members, some appointed permanently (archbishop, bishop, episcopal vicar, governor, and commander) and the rest elected from among the clergy, nobles, councillors, magistrates, and professionals. The reforms enacted by the Savoy monarch contributed to promoting the long and not always linear transition from a charity economy based on opere pie [charities], in which the economic goals were strictly linked to ethical and moral purposes, to a modern State-administrated social support system.16 An examination of the interplay between national legislation enacted by the Savoy government and the social support system that developed in the diocese of Tortona during the eighteenth century illustrates how attempts at centralized State control had to vie with deeply rooted practices and customs enduring at the local level.17 The Congregations of Charity encountered significant difficulty getting a foothold at the local level, where they had only limited influence in social support practices, a situation that was particularly accentuated in rural contexts. The difficulty in implementing the Piedmontese reforms issued in the first decades of the eighteenth century is evidenced by the wide-reaching inquiry conducted

15 Duboin (1844, pp. 280–283), Cavallo (1995), Lonni (1979), and Quazza (1957, pp. 313–319). 16 For reforms affecting charity enacted by Vittorio Amedeo II, see: Lurgo (2016, p. 8). 17 Lurgo (2016, p. 9), Balani (2002) and Levi (1971).

72

M. ROCHINI

by the central government of the Kingdom of Sardinia between 1766 and 1769 into charity initiatives within the State.18 The diocese of Tortona in north-western Italy consisted of eight ecclesiastic regions in the eighteenth century characterized by significant political-administrative and geographical differences.19 The year 1738 was of notable political relevance in the history of the diocese. Following the Peace of Vienna, which put an end to the War of the Polish Succession (1733–1738), the diocese fell under the control of the Savoy Kingdom. Some areas, such as the city of Voghera and environs, were not part of the Kingdom of Sardinia until 1748, when boundaries were redrawn at the end of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). Some parishes in the southern part of the diocese passed into the hands of the Republic of Genoa, whereas others, in the north, found themselves in territories governed by the Hapsburg Empire. The area subject to Republic of Genoa rule contained numerous imperial estates which had the status of enclaves independent of State control and directly subject to the Empire. In addition to its complex political-institutional makeup, the territory of the diocese was also characterized by a notable geo-morphological variety. It was flat between the Po River and the city of Tortona and then climbed rather abruptly into the Apennines to the south, including the hills of the Oltrepò Pavese, thus embracing both plains and mountain communities. The different parts of the diocese were also characterized by different socioeconomic structures. The river plain was densely populated and characterized by different forms of rural land ownership, with a significant component of small property owners. The southern portion was more sparsely populated and characterized by extensive landholdings belonging to a few families; the farming system was based essentially on emphyteusis.20

18 Consider, just to cite a case study that is well known thanks to the pioneering studies by Angelo Torre on the legitimating power of charity, the context of Monreale and the role played by the Confraternities of the Holy Spirit [Confrarie dello Spirito Santo] still in the eighteenth century. The reforms enacted by Vittorio Amedeo II in the early decades of the eighteenth century were ineffective in supplanting this system of ritual practices, which, uniting religious and “political” value, were strongly significant in constructing local identities. Torre (1995, pp. 116–147). 19 Maffi and Rochini (2016, pp. 213 ff). 20 Alfani and Rao (2011).

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

73

The differences in management of agricultural lands had significant repercussions on how social support took form in the various areas of the diocese in the eighteenth century. The fervent activism of the many bodies in social support in the north was contrasted by substantial immobility in the Apennines, and particularly in the region of imperial estates, where charitable activities were almost the exclusive purview of feudal families. There were also few confraternities, religious fellowships, or religious charitable institutes [luoghi pii], marking a particularly clear difference with the northern part of the diocese. This study investigates how social support systems took form in the part of the diocese under the Kingdom of Sardinia. Those in the Apennine area will be addressed in the essay by Luciano Maffi in this volume. After presenting a general outline of the development of the social support system in Tortona in the eighteenth century, we focus attention on a specific form of charitable institution that was particularly well rooted in the area of our study: monti frumentari [grain banks]. Ecclesiastic institutions occupied a prominent role in the complex structural dynamics of the social support systems characterizing the northern portion of the diocese of Tortona. As was true in many places on the Italian peninsula during the modern period, in Tortona the clergy, as well as performing the spiritual and pastoral functions associated with caring for souls, also played significant civil and social roles. Based on information collected in an inquiry commissioned by the episcopal authority, in 1759 the diocese numbered 1,578 priests out of a total population of 129,483 people.21 However, there was a significant difference between the north, where the clergy played a leading role in the field of social support, and the southern part of the diocese, where it was not distinguished for any particular effort in providing support for the neediest. The action of the clergy in the northern part of the diocese in providing charitable services took form within a broad network of solidarity involving numerous entities of different nature, with fellowships and confraternities playing an absolutely central function. The plurality of actors in the social support system set the stage for the encounter/conflict paradigm characterizing the social support system that developed within the confines of the diocese. While in many cases the parish clergy 21 Archivio Storico della Diocesi di Tortona (ASDT), Status Sanctae Derthonensis Ecclesiae. See: Maffi and Rochini (2016, p. 780).

74

M. ROCHINI

expressed its charitable commitment in cooperation with other parties providing social support, i.e., the confraternities, in many other cases social support became an arena of jurisdictional conflict.

3 The Social Support System in the Diocese of Tortona: Sources The complex structure of Old Regime society requires a broad scope of research to investigate the similarly complex question of social support systems. For a long time, this subject was studied from the vantage point of civil institutions, believed to be the principal providers of charitable and social support services. However there is now common agreement among historiographers as to the importance of ecclesiastic sources in the study of social and economic history. Fundamental in this regard are the pastoral visits and the parish reports drawn up in preparation for such visits by bishops.22 Pastoral visits represent an authoritative source, produced “at the top”, i.e., by the episcopal authority. The same thing can be said for parish reports, written by parsons (who were, according to the dictates of the Council of Trent, the main religious authorities at the local level) in preparation for the pastoral visit. The authoritative nature of this source demands certain preliminary considerations regarding how they should be studied as sources in social, economic, and religious history. Given their nature, we must be cautious about analysing the function of a given charitable institution (such as a grain bank or monte di pietà [“mount of piety”, a charitable pawn-loan institute]) solely on the basis of said sources. Their origin “at the top” makes such sources the bearer of a single viewpoint, that of the authority who wrote them. It is thus essential, where possible, to study sources produced by the same social bodies that provide social support services, e.g., the confraternities. Many diocesan archives contain the accounting books of mounts of piety and grain banks, which allow us to study the operations of such charitable institutions, their endowment, and their impact on the local social and economic reality. When examining sources relating to pastoral visits, it is also important to keep in mind their relational matrix, which simultaneously dialogues and conflicts with the reality “on the ground”. They were eminently 22 Nubola and Turchini (1999). Pastoral visits are a source with a dual nature, both religious and social. Rosa (1976), and Mazzone and Turchini (1985). The studies of Angelo Torre are fundamental in this regard, Torre (1995, 1999).

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

75

prescriptive in nature; the bishop clearly sought to exercise his authority over the religious practices of the local faithful and regulate to some extent their lifestyles. Nevertheless, the ecclesiastic authority was obliged to engage in a process of continuous negotiation with the plurality of actors structuring the local system. We see this in the difficulty of the diocesan authorities (rather accentuated in different areas of the Italian peninsula in the Counter-reformation period) to implement the Tridentine decrees on the local level. The analysis of pastoral visits thus contributes to the study of social history only if we recognize the relational nature of this source, which necessarily dialogues with a broader legislative context. An examination of the decrees drafted following visits by bishops to the dioceses under their jurisdiction provides insight into the constant relational process among intermediate bodies underpinning Old Regime societies. In this process—which is described in documentation referring to the pastoral visits—the dimension of encounter, dialogue, and negotiation was no less relevant than that of open conflict.23 Although they are drafted by the episcopal authorities, the pastoral visit reports express a plurality of voices through their description of actions undertaken by the many bodies giving structure to the local reality. In the encounter/conflict with ecclesiastic authorities and other intermediate bodies active within the parish, these bodies sought to legitimate certain rights, and ultimately, their right to exist in society. For this reason, studies of the social support systems utilizing pastoral visit sources have highlighted the eminently jurisdictional nature of said sources.24 According to Angelo Torre, “the pastoral visit organizes the interaction among a multitude of protagonists, and represents this multitude in a specialized idiom and with a strictly defined series of themes: that is, it has a relational rather than a textual matrix”.25 In our study we have chosen to consider the documentation for two pastoral visits in the diocese of Tortona: one by the bishop Giulio Resta (1701–1743) in 1741 and the other by the Dominican bishop 23 Regarding the nature of relations among social bodies in the late modern period,

see: Trexler (1980), Zemon Davis (1981), Weissman (1982) and Muir (1981). Regarding the ability of laypersons and social bodies to preserve their religious habits and socialsupport practices against ecclesiastic authorities, see: Bossy (1981), Scribner (1984) and Underdown (1985). 24 Torre (1995). 25 Torre (1999, pp. 182–183).

76

M. ROCHINI

Giuseppe Lodovico Andujar (1743–1782) in 1743.26 Specifically, we examined the parochial reports written by the parsons in preparation for the bishop’s visit. In these reports, the parsons noted everything requested by the diocesan authority, such as the number of households, communion-aged males, number of religious buildings, the condition of ecclesiastic furnishings, and—something of particular interest—the existence of religious charity institutes [luoghi pii] and various other types of social support systems. The parochial reports allow us to reconstruct a reasonably detailed picture of the charitable activities implemented in the mid-eighteenth century in the parishes of the diocese of Tortona. Furthermore, the quantitative datum of the number of activities is complemented by an even more valuable qualitative element concerning the way in which said social support activities developed. The pastoral visits during the eighteenth century reveal the presence of many diverse forms of social support provided via various different structures and institutions. The most common were hospitals, schools, mounts of piety, and grain banks.27 While the quantitative analysis was performed elsewhere,28 the analysis of this documentation immediately reveals an important aspect: the significant variety of social support systems. A multitude of parties provided various types of support services within the parish confines. In many cases, this situation led to jurisdictional conflicts in which the various intermediate bodies within the framework of the parish competed on the social support services supply market. Emblematic in this regard is the principal parish in the diocese, Voghera. Here the pastoral visits evidenced a high level of conflict regarding the administration of the local grain bank, titled “Santissimo Nome di Gesù”.29 In addition to the pastoral visits, we have also dedicated particular attention to documents regarding the grain banks in the diocese of Tortona, such as the bylaws governing their operation. As regards the social support system, the Tortona case seems to be an extension of the ways in which social support was provided in the 26 ASDT, Visite pastorali, visita Mons. Andujar, F. 45; Visita Mons. Resta, F. 41. 27 For religious/charitable aspects of the social support structures and institutions, see:

Garbellotti (2001), Ammannati (2013), Geremek (1986), Pastore (1986), Politi and Rosa (1982) and Brambilla (2001). 28 Maffi and Rochini (2016). 29 “Most Holy Name of Jesus”, Maffi and Rochini (2016, pp. 228–229).

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

77

neighbouring Savoy domains during the Old Regime. Of central importance here was the role of the dotazioni [endowments], i.e., the bequest of resources for specific social support purposes. As a rule, the support consisted of income generated by assets bequeathed to an institution by a testator, such as a piece of land producing income which the pastor should use to pay the salary of a school teacher to instruct poor children in the community or to set up a mount of piety.

4

Grain Banks in the Diocese of Tortona: Case Studies

Particular attention has been dedicated to grain banks in existing historiography on social support systems in the Old Regime.30 This literature has emphasized the importance of monti [“mounts/accumulations”, a general term referring both to mounts of piety, lending money, and mounts of grain (referred to herein as “grain banks”), lending grain] as institutions providing credit services. With the objective of reining in usurious practices, which were quite widespread and particularly rampant in certain Italian contexts, such as the Republic of Venice, the monti represented the application of Franciscan ethics on the economic level. Thanks to their significant endowments, during the modern period the monti became one of the principal institutions offering social support. This helped make them bona fide centres of power and their administrations were nexuses around which disputes, negotiations, and assertion of rights took place among different social bodies. As proof of their economic, social, and political relevance, the monti very often were sponsored by prominent families among the local elite. They used the monti, whose services were extended to the entire local community and quite often beyond, as a tool to legitimate their social status and ensure that the family name would endure. The reports drafted on the occasions of the pastoral visits of Resta and Andujar reveal the existence of 37 grain banks.31 These banks worked by 30 See at least: Garbellotti (2001), Lanaro (2001), and Lomastro (2001). The theme of the monti di pietà has been thoroughly studied for certain parts of Italy. For example, regarding the Republic of Venice in the late modern period, see: Montanari (1997, 1999, 2007) and Lanaro (1983). 31 The documentation in the Diocesan Archive of Tortona allows study of the development of grain banks over a very long time frame, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth

78

M. ROCHINI

lending a certain quantity of seed on condition that the farmer give back a similar quantity of seed after the harvest, or the original quantity plus some extra portion in the form of interest on the loan. In an area characterized by a socioeconomic system essentially based on agriculture with a significant presence of small-scale landholdings, the grain banks played a fundamental role in ensuring economic stability, and satisfying extensive demand. The grain banks did not limit their services only to the so-called “official poor”, i.e., those who lived in a situation of obvious poverty, but also extended them to those who enjoyed some financial stability. In a system based on small, family-owned farms, a poor harvest in a given year would have repercussions on the following year, threatening the socioeconomic equilibrium of the local community. Bad weather or adverse economic events could leave a small farmer without sufficient seed for the following year’s crop. The grain bank was a remedy in this case, guaranteeing the availability of seed, the following year’s harvest, and hence the socioeconomic stability of the community. The importance of grain banks in the diocese of Tortona during the eighteenth century is proven by their preponderance with respect to mounts of piety, a trend that had already emerged in the sixteenth century. In a context which, as stated above, was predominantly characterized by small self-owned farms, the availability of seed in particularly unfavourable years was a more important and useful form of social support than loans of money from a mount of piety. The 37 grain banks in the diocese of Tortona were located in 27 of the 210 parishes, some obviously having more than one. Voghera is again emblematic in this case. The largest urban centre in the diocese, in the mid-eighteenth century it had ten grain banks. This number quite eloquently explicates the role of these facilities in structuring the complex network of social support services in

century. The study of the pastoral visit by Bishop Gerolamo Ragazzoni in 1576 indicates the existence of only two grain banks, one in Arquata Scrivia and the other in Serravalle Scrivia. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, during the bishopric of Maffeo Gambara, the number increased to six. In the late seventeenth century, during the bishoprics of Giovanni Francesco Fossati and Carlo Settala, the number of grain banks grew significantly. In 1741, in preparation for the pastoral visit, Resta commissioned an investigation. It consisted of twelve points and prefaced the volumes containing the pastoral visit documents. The investigation mentioned only 30 monti di pietà, which were also called monti di carità [mounts of charity]. Of these, four lent money and 25 seed. One, located in the village of Belforte, lent chestnuts. See: Ferrari (2014/2015).

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

79

that and neighbouring areas, which gravitated around and depended on the city for support services. Notable in the city of Voghera was the Santissimo Nome di Gesù grain bank, administrated by the confraternity of the same name.32 It remained in operation for a long time, at least from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century. Archival documents are of particular value in understanding the operation of this religious institute of charity and the relations, at times conflictual, that took form among various social bodies regarding its administration. In the documentation dating back to the mid-eighteenth century we learn that the grain bank had an endowment of fifty sacks of wheat, certainly no small quantity for a city of the size of Voghera. The wheat was given to those who needed seed to plant, regardless of whether they were members of the Confraternity of the Santissimo Nome di Gesù. This is of particular interest because it illustrates that the social support services provided by the confraternity extended beyond the confreres and aimed to satisfy a larger demand. This played a very relevant role in the mechanisms of social and political legitimation implicit in social support activities. While the confraternity, on the basis of its bylaws, was a distinct sort of social body to which one either belonged or not, charity—in this specific case credit in the form of seed to allow crops to be sown (and thus harvested) extended also to non-members—was an instrument allowing the confraternity to extend its territorial reach. This form of social support allowed it to form social bonds beyond those envisaged in its bylaws. By providing universal support, the confraternity implemented a legitimation mechanism to affirm its status and rights that extended to a much broader social context than that constituted by the confraternity itself. We also learn from the above documentation that the administration of the grain bank generated no small number of problems between the Confraternity of the Santissimo Nome di Gesù and the parson. A report written in 1752 reveals that, when the grain bank accounting books were presented to the parson, he noted that the accounts recording the amount of seed lent out were missing. He promptly ordered the confraternity

32 ASDT, Sacra Congregatione Concilii R. P. D. Furietto, secretario derthonen. Visitationis. Pro Il.mo., et R.mo D. E. Episcopo Derthonen., et R.R. P.P. Praedicatoribus S. Mariae Pietatis Oppidi Viqueriae, Summarium, Tortona, Tipys Bernabò, 1757. Maffi and Rochini (2016).

80

M. ROCHINI

leaders to remedy this omission and comply with the provisions of canon law.33 To understand the role of grain banks in the social support system in the diocese of Tortona in the eighteenth century, we felt it was necessary to concentrate attention on certain case studies. Particularly interesting is the grain bank in Serravalle Scrivia, a town near the southwestern border of the diocese. On the basis of documentation in the Historical-Diocesan Archive of Tortona, in 1572 there were three grain banks in Serravalle.34 These institutions were founded on the basis of a bequest from Giovanni Battista Gaetta, of whom we do not have detailed information but who was quite likely a prominent member of the local community. The testator had designated three fellowships as administrators of the bequest: the Santissimo Sacramento, the Beata Vergine del Gonfalone, and San Giovanni Battista. The grain for distribution was initially kept at the oratory of the Beata Vergine del Gonfalone. On 23 July 1576, by mandate of the bishop Cesare Gambara, the apostolic visitor Gerolamo Regazzoni ordered that the three grains banks be united into one, which remained in operation until the mid-nineteenth century. The bylaws of the grain bank were drawn up in 1576 and revised in 1580. On the basis of these documents, the grain bank had 200 “scuti” in coins, which made it possible to purchase 79 mine and 2 stare of wheat.35 The day-to-day administration of the grain bank was in the hands of three “Deputies” chosen from the ranks of the three fellowships designated in the will, who were thus invested with a very relevant role. In addition to handling the management of the grain bank, which made them responsible for its proper functioning, the deputies had the right and duty to choose who was eligible for help from the grain bank. In other words, they were called upon to discriminate between those, being

33 Maffi and Rochini (2015, p. 788). 34 For the purposes of this study, the work undertaken at the Diocesan Archive of

Tortona was complemented by the use of the degree thesis of Emanuela Ferrrai (Ferrari 2014–2015), which examines grain banks in the diocese of Tortona and contains transcriptions of certain documents regarding specific grain banks operating in the diocese between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries. 35 See: Ferrari, (2014/2015, pp. 108–115). A mina [pl. mine] is approximately 22 litres (or 22 kg). Two mine make one staio [or staro], which is thus 44 litres. See: Martini (1883, item Tortona).

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

81

“true poor”, could have a loan of a certain quantity of seed, and those who, on the contrary, not in a true state of indigence, were not eligible for this support. This gatekeeper function prevented those who did not have a real need from improperly exploiting the charitable social support action of the grain bank. To fulfil this function, of significant social implications, the Deputies were required to know the real socioeconomic condition of those who requested aid from the grain bank. This put them in a state of superiority with respect to other members of the local community. Indeed, they constituted a sort of judge of last resort regarding those who had the right to benefit from the social support network promoted by the grain banks and those, on the other hand, who were excluded. Choosing who could partake in the charitable/support action of the grain bank and who was excluded had significant social and political implications. This action could give rise to confrontations and conflicts which, by giving rise to new social relations going beyond the usual (such as family relations), contributed to shaping and reshaping local society. According to the episcopal provisions, the three Deputies were expected to fulfil their task without compensation, simply out of Christian charity, as written in the bylaws of the grain bank. At first this might seem to be a disincentive to undertake the role. Actually, it is quite probable that the lack of compensation was far outweighed by the social prestige and “political” relevance that the three Deputies obtained by assuming this role. As a demonstration of how, in certain areas of the Italian peninsula under the Old Regime, social support actions were the outcome of a set of practices involving different social bodies, the Deputies played a liaison role between the fellowships to which they belonged and the local population. They were naturally required to inform the priors of the fellowships of their activity, reporting the quantity of wheat lent. The great social relevance of the three Deputies, based on the actions they performed, is evidenced in the ritual of their election. They were elected on 8 September, a day dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin, and remained in office for one year. The religious festival was one of the many holy days of obligation on the Catholic calendar, i.e., a feast day in which the faithful were expected to abstain from work and take part in liturgical functions. Such festivals (in this case dedicated to the Nativity of Mary, but applicable to all festivities that implied abstention from work) marked a break in the normal flow of time. During a holy day of obligation (which often fell during the week), time was altered, i.e., the normal alternation between work time and rest time was altered. In Old Regime societies,

82

M. ROCHINI

in which there was no concept of “free time” in the modern acceptation, this situation had significant social and religious implications. The exceptional nature of the religious festivals, in which the entire community took part, found a moment of notable symbolic expression in the liturgical and devotional practices characterizing them (particular religious functions, processions, etc.). In Serravalle Scrivia, the Nativity of the Virgin also included the rite of the election of the three Deputies who would administrate the grain bank. An event of strictly civil and political value, now gained a religious, holy significance. After their one-year term had expired, a new solemn rite was performed on 8 September with the three outgoing administrators in attendance. The passing of the baton involved a symbolic rite in which the former administrators handed their successors the accounting books, initiating them into the role. In order to comprehend the significant ritual dimension of social support in the modern age, it is of help to analyse the operations of the Serravalle grain bank. The bylaws state that one-third of the seed available to the institution had to be distributed during the planting period. Given that the diocese of Tortona is located in northern Italy, we may suppose that this period coincided with the months of September and October. A portion of the seed was distributed to allow fields to be sown before the first autumn snow. The grain bank represented a guarantee for the coming agricultural year, reducing the risk of a missed harvest. However, the seed was also distributed to the eligible—again as determined by the Deputies—at other times of the year. After the autumn distribution, the rest of the available grain was distributed in correspondence with the major Christian religious holidays: Christmas and Easter. The choice to allocate the remaining seed held by the grain bank at this time, when it could not be used for planting, was purely a question of food supply. Those who received a share of the grain could mill it into flour as use it to make bread and pasta. These philanthropic acts amounted to direct aid to the most needy and were thus imbued with an exquisitely ritual significance. Distributing grain at Christmas and Easter, the two most liturgically important moments in religious life, when the entire community stopped working and took part in collective rituals, had very important anthropological implications. Distributing grain at Christmas and Easter meant symbolically binding the charitable/support effort of the grain bank to the principal moments in the life of Jesus. The first distribution following the autumn distribution coincided with the

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

83

Nativity, whereas the second, taking place in the early spring and closing the seed distribution cycle, took place at Easter, the day dedicated to the Resurrection. The bylaws of the grain bank also reveal that a small portion of grain was also distributed in May, a month dedicated to the Madonna and deeply associated with the resumption of agricultural work (in Roman times, the end of the month of May was dedicated to festivals in honour of Ceres to ensure the fertility of the fields). The ritualization of the distribution of grain to those who were effectively in a situation of need and thus eligible had the purpose of imbuing the bond established post-loan between the grain bank and those who had benefited from its support action with religious significance. By means of these distributions, occurring at important dates on the Christian calendar, the grain bank extended its social bonds beyond the three fellowships that administrated it to the entire community. The grain bank thus came to represent a useful, even vital, instrument for the survival of the community itself. The different times of grain distribution were also associated with different uses of the grain by the beneficiaries. The third available to the grain bank and distributed in October was necessary for sowing the fields and ensuring a harvest for those who found themselves in a state of indigence. The distribution at Christmas, Easter, and (in part) in May ensured that the poor would have a supply of grain that they could grind into flour to make pasta and especially bread. In other words, the grain distributed after the initial autumn share served to ensure the immediate support of the poorest. This makes it clear that the choice of the days of Christmas and Easter was quite deliberate. By choosing the principal Christian religious holidays as the days for the distribution of grain, the grain bank administrators intended to ritualize their action, bind the local community inextricably to the grain bank, and emphasize its social support function and thus its role in the very survival of the community. The distribution of seed/grain was thus not a private action, but an occasion involving the entire community, including those who did not directly require assistance from the grain bank. The relevance of the grain bank in the local social support system is also seen in the fact that the loan of seed did not require the return of a greater amount of seed. Those receiving grain were only required to pledge some possession to the grain bank as collateral for the loan they received. The action of the grain bank was thus purely charitable. This allows us to understand, beyond the religious implications of the duty of charitable

84

M. ROCHINI

action, that the true gain for the bank, and thus for the fellowships that administrated it, was in social prestige and political power. The act of returning the seed by those who had received the loan was also charged with a strong ritual value. According to the 1576 bylaws, the grain had to be returned by the end of September. The documents instruct to “ensure the returned grain is properly dried, aged, and provided at the opportune time, and never after the month of September”. However, there was a change in the bylaws of 1580. According to the new rules, the grain had to be returned by 15 August, the feast of the Assumption of Mary. Here too, associating the restitution of the grain received as a loan with a day dedicated to a solemn religious feast had the goal of imbuing the event with a sacred meaning, again taking it beyond the sphere of mere civic action. Another quite interesting aspect of the Serravalle grain bank is that the bylaws do not specify any oversight role for the parson. This makes it clear how the attempts of the Council of Trent to make the parson the pivot of local religious life did not achieve concrete application in Serravalle, a situation seen in many areas of eighteenth-century Italy. Equally helpful for understanding the ritualizing value of social support in the modern age is the case of the monte granario of Pozzolo Formigaro, a town situated just north of Serravalle Scrivia.36 As we learn from archival documents, the grain bank was instituted in 1605 by the initiative of the members of the Confraternity of Our Lady of the Assumption [Confraternità dell’Assunta] and remained active into the first decades of the nineteenth century. The grain was stored at the oratory of the confraternity. Like its counterpart in Serravalle Scrivia, the Pozzolo Formigaro grain bank distributed seed to those who needed it (not just to members of the confraternity) without asking for any interest on the loan. The only requirement was that the borrower returns the same amount of grain and that they leave some possession as a pledge. This is further evidence that the true gain for the grain bank and thus for the confraternity that administrated it was social prestige. Given that the social support action was performed “awaiting the reward of His divine Majesty”, it bound all members of the community to the confraternity. The administration of the grain bank was in the hands of a Cashier [Cassiere] and two Protectors [Protettori]. These figures were elected by

36 Ferrari (2014/2015, pp. 92–97).

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

85

a secret vote among the members of the confraternity in the presence of the rector of the parish church of San Niccolò. As in the case of the Serravalle grain bank, the election of the administrators of the Pozzolo grain bank had a significant ritual dimension. The election took place on a day that was extremely important in local religious life, All Saints Day, celebrated on 1 November. Once elected, the Cashier and two Protectors began their one-year term on the first Sunday of Advent. Once again, the method and timing of the distribution of seed had notable symbolic and ritual implications. The grain was released at two specific moments of the year in correspondence with two important religious feasts: 13 December, the feast of Saint Lucia, and the eve of the Annunciation (if the feast occurred during the Easter period, the distribution was moved up to Palm Sunday). Unlike the Serravalle grain bank, which made its first distribution in October in order to allow pre-winter sowing, the distribution dates of the Pozzolo bank show that here the purpose was exclusively direct consumption. Equally interesting is the case of the grain bank of Godiasco, a town situated in the central part of the diocese of Tortona and within the feud of the Malaspina Aizaga family.37 According to documents in the Historical Archive of the diocese of Tortona, the grain bank, dedicated to Saint Joseph, went into operation in the sixteenth century. However, in 1656, the provost of Godiasco, Don Cacciatore wrote a letter to the bishop of Tortona, in which he reported the state of neglect and abandonment of the institution and asked that the bylaws be redrafted. Having experienced the enormous difficulties in maintaining the local grain bank due to the lack of bylaws, I find it necessary to dispatch this petition to Your Most Reverend Lordship so that you might undertake the drafting of regulations that shall govern this institution and prevent abuses. To ease your burden I have enclosed a brief draft.38

37 Ferrari (2014/2015, pp. 156–164). 38 “Havendo esperimentato le dificolta grandi che vi sono in tener in piedi il Monte

di Pietà di questo luogo per non esservi statuita regola alcuna mi hanno messo in necessità inviare il presente esposto del quale potra Vostra Signoria Reverendissima informarsi a bocca, per supplicarla di novo a volersi pigliare un puoco di fastidio per quest opera di tanta pietà di moderare li Capitoli, et mandare in esecutione il stabilito detto Monte, acciò si possino stampare le sue regol, et dar pace a mal inclinati; anzi che io per solievo di Vostra Signoria

86

M. ROCHINI

The words of the provost express the desire by the principal local religious authority to restore effective management of the charity, which had been abandoned for some time. As indicated in the letter to the bishop, the provost included a draft of bylaws for the grain bank. As in the cases of Serravalle Scrivia and Pozzolo Formigaro, the Godiasco grain bank also had—at least formally—a purely charitable purpose. As stated by Don Cacciatore, the work of the grain bank was one way of fulfilling the Christian precept of helping those most in need. Referring to the contribution of those helping to establish the grain bank, Don Cacciatore wrote: As we are taught by Saint Paul, among the virtues necessary to a Christian for salvation, that is, Faith, Hope, Charity, and good deeds, the most important is Charity: maior antem hora est Caristas. For this reason the confreres, with the agreement of the Patron Feudatories and in the presence of the Very Reverend Provost, have deliberated to establish [a grain bank] in the parish of Godiasco.39

The draft bylaws include a long list of names (approximately seventy) of people described as founders of the grain bank. In this respect, a difference emerges with respect to those of Serravalle Scrivia and Pozzolo Formigaro. In these cases, the grain banks were founded following a bequest, which entrusted their management to fellowships and confraternities. In Godiasco, the grain bank was reconstituted, after having fallen into neglect, by the initiative of certain figures, probably prominent members of the local community, who possessed sufficient wherewithal to contribute to the initial grain bank capital. These persons took this action with the supervision and approval of the feudatories, the members of the Malaspina Aizaga family, and of the provost.40 According to the grain bank bylaws, the principal administrators of the grain bank were the feudatories. Illustrissima ho fatto una breve notta della corretione […]”, cited in Ferrari (2014/2015, p. 156). 39 “Considerando gli infrascritti Confratelli in Cristo quanto essere le cose necessarie al Cristiano per salvarsi ciò è Fede, Speranza, Carità, et opere buone, la magiore delle quali, come afferma san Paolo è la Carità: maior antem hora est Caristas. Per questo hanno deliberato tutti insieme errigere nella parrocchiale di Godiasco col consenso, et intervento ancora delli Illustrissimi Signori loro Patroni, et Feudatarj et alla presenza del Molto Reverendo Prevosto di detti loro”, Ibid. 40 G. Guagnini, I Malaspina di Valle Staffora, Voghera, 1967.

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

87

The abovementioned founders elect as permanent Protectors of said grain bank the Most Illustrious Feudal Lords and Patrons Marchese Gioanni Aizaga and Marchese Antonio Mallaspina who will draft the bylaws of the grain bank.41

Again in the case of the Godiasco grain bank, the ritual dimension, associated with the performance of certain activities on specific days of the year (coinciding with a particular religious feast day) was a central aspect of the social support action. This rituality was expressed both externally, at the time of the actual performance of the charitable/support action by the grain bank on behalf of the eligible recipients of aid, and in the internal mechanisms regulating its operations. The bylaws stipulated that, on the day dedicated to the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (as seen before, a holy day of obligation, on which the faithful are expected to refrain from work and take part in the liturgical functions), the founders of the grain bank (or at least a majority thereof), were to meet to elect the Prior (the main administrative figure), the Vice Prior, and the Chancellor to two-year terms. These figures were responsible for certain administrative tasks in the grain bank. Once they were elected, the provost was required to present the appointment of these figures to the two Protectors, i.e., the two feudatories, who had the right/duty to approve it. Once said commissioners are elected they must be presented to the Protectors, who must give there approval, without which the appointment is not valid.42

Once the approval was obtained from the two feudatories, the three officials were to appoint two “Distributors”, who were responsible for the material distribution of the seed on the basis of instructions from the officials. 41 “Li sopradetti fondatori elleggono per Protettori perpetui di detto Monte gli Ill.mi Sig.ri Feudatarj et Patroni il Sig.r Marchese Gioanni Aizaga et il Sign. Marchese Antonio Mallaspina presenti, alla publicatione delli presenti Capitoli, et che accettano per et con hautorità che si dirà in basso”, cited in Ferrari (2014/2015, p. 159). 42 “Fatta hellettione di detti officiali comisari si dovrà immediatamente presentare la nomina alli Sig.ri Protettori questi daranno l’approbatione di essa perché senza detta approbatione si dichiara nulla detta nomina o sia ellettione”, cited in Ferrari (2014/2015, p. 160).

88

M. ROCHINI

The placing of grain in the bank’s grain storage facility was also something imbued with great ritual implications. Towards the end of August, the founders of the grain bank had to deliver to the provost all the grain that would subsequently be provided to the two Distributors. The Prior, Vice Prior, Chancellor, and provost were the only ones entitled to hold the keys to the grain bank. Furthermore, no one could enter the storage facility alone without having first obtained permission from the other officials and the provost. As in the cases of Serravalle and Pozzolo, the Godiasco grain bank also distributed grain at three different points in the year. The first distribution was in the first days of October, the second in early December, and the third in early May. The October distribution was to allow poor farmers to sow their fields while the other two were for direct consumption. Those receiving a loan of grain were required to leave a pledge as collateral, which would be sold to cover the loss if the borrower failed to provide the proper amount of grain as restitution. The Godiasco grain bank differed from its counterparts in Serravalle and Pozzolo for a function it played alongside that of distributing seed. The Prior, Vice Prior, and Chancellor were required to name three councillors, whose task was to handle extraordinary situations, such as the sale of a certain amount of grain in order to obtain funds to be distributed to the poor in the local community. The bylaws did not specify when this should happen, but it is reasonable to assume that it happened in moments of particular hardship—for example under particularly bad weather conditions that might adversely affect the harvest—when the number of people in conditions of poverty might increase. In the case of the Godiasco grain bank, the most prominent and financially influential members of the community were involved (about seventy people out of a population of 95043 ). Unlike in Serravalle and Pozzolo, they were not bound by the requirement to be members of a confraternity or fellowship. It was their social status that singled them out within their community. The rituality associated with the operation of the grain bank, both in its internal mechanisms and in its actions on behalf of the community, was necessary to preserve and strengthen the underlying social relations. The above-described steps were necessary to firmly establish the different roles

43 ASDT, Visite Pastorali, visita Mons. Andujar, F. 45, cart. 68, fasc. 24.

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

89

played by the founders of the grain bank, the provost, and the feudatories. Each of them was responsible for a portion of management of the grain bank and the rites that characterized its operations (consignment of seed from the founders to the provost, transfer of seed from the provost to the two Distributors named by the three officials, distribution by the Distributors to those who requested such aid and were eligible to receive it, all taking place on the occasion of Christian feasts in which the entire community was involved) had the purpose of legitimating in the eyes of the entire community the various roles that these figures played in social support. With respect to the Serravalle and Pozzolo grain banks, the operations of the Godiasco grain bank give us a better understanding of how social support under the Old Regime was the final outcome of actions by multiple intermediate social-structuring bodies. The founders of the grain bank, while listed one by one in the bylaws, exercised their action as a body, a unitary figure, and not as individuals. Similarly, the two feudatories exercised their function as protectors of the grain bank representing the feudal caste, who retained particular rights deriving from their social status. The same is true for the provost, whose role in administration of the grain bank was not that of an individual, but of the highest local representative of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, who held, at least formally on the basis of the decrees of the Council of Trent, the right to oversee social support institutions operating within the confines of his parish.

5

Concluding Observations

The above overview illustrates how social support activities represented a vehicle for the legitimation and defence of the social status of those who organized and administrated them. The social bodies that administrated the grain banks we have analysed above (but this is applicable to most of the monti in the diocese of Tortona), such as fellowships and confraternities, played a major role in ensuring the socio-political and economic stability of the local community. The distribution of seed in the autumn ensured that fields would be sowed and thus that there would be a harvest the following year. Similarly, the distributions in winter and spring allowed the most indigent to have grain necessary for their sustenance (principally by milling the grain into flour). The people administrating the grain banks, by discriminating between who was and who was not eligible to receive aid of this nature, were invested with a significant political role. The decisions of the administrators had an inevitable impact on local

90

M. ROCHINI

society. Extending or denying aid was an action laden with political significance, far exceeding the charitable actions, which were at least formally the prime motive for the existence of the monti themselves. Granting aid in the form of grain that could be sowed or milled meant binding those who had benefited from such aid to the body that controlled it. By helping legitimate the social and political role of the promoters of this form of social support, this action was a means by which the social relations that structured the complex reality of Old Regime society could be shaped. The emblematic cases of the grain banks we have analysed illustrate how charitable/support activities represented a powerful vehicle for constructing and reshaping pre-industrial society. By means of these organizations, the promoters redesigned their political supports and, in the final analysis, their social identity. By distributing seed to certain people and excluding others, the social bodies administrating charity redrew their own identificatory confines, extending their actions well beyond conventional limits and thus also extending their influence on the community in which they acted. Very often this expansion of the limits of the social body providing the charitable action ended up encompassing the entire community and, at times, nearby social realities (the grain banks often lent to people in neighbouring towns and villages). The granting of seed, beyond the strictly charitable value associated with a religious precept underlying the constitution of the grain banks we have analysed (mutuum date, nihil inde sperantes —“…lend, hoping for nothing again”, Luke 6:35), represented an action that generated social bonds extending well beyond the confines of the body promoting the social support and thus reshaped the body’s social and political identity. In this respect, the case of the Godiasco grain bank is emblematic. The main representatives of the local community took part in its (re-) establishment. With the approval of the two feudatories, they proposed giving a certain quantity of grain to the bank, which had been abandoned for years. Through this action, benefiting the local community and under the supervision of the ecclesiastic authorities on the basis of current needs, the social and political bonds that informed the community were continually reshaped. In other words, the distribution of seed to ensure autumn sowing (and thus the annual harvest) or for direct consumption constituted a powerful instrument for governing the local community. This dynamic, at once social, political, and economic, leads to a further consideration regarding the interaction between charities and ecclesiastic

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

91

bodies in taking in and administrating family possessions.44 As we have seen, the establishment of a monte, whether a grain bank or a pawn-loan service, very often derived from a bequest. This generated an unbreakable relationship with powerful social significance between the testator—and as a consequence his/her family—and the social body entrusted with the management of the bequest. The charities thus constituted means around which social support networks were generated and, on a broader scale, family bonds were replicated. The political significance of the charitable/support action analysed herein via the particular case of the grain banks in the diocese of Tortona, but extendable to many other Old Regime social support activities (hospitals, schools, hospices, etc.), explains the reasons for the conflicts often arising in association with these activities. Precisely because they represented an instrument for political and social legitimation, social support activities were a terrain of constant encounter/conflict among competing subjects seeking to leverage them to legitimate and assert their status in the social forum. This objective was met firstly by securing an increasingly significant presence in the social support market, an action which, in the final analysis, meant extending as far as possible the social bonds into the community to which the actor belonged and at times beyond it. Like all other charities that structured Old Regime society, the grain bank was a “social body” around which ritual practices serving to legitimate rights took form. Through its activities, the grain bank—and this is true for all other institutions comprising the complex networks underlying social support system in pre-industrial societies—had to continually legitimate its existence within the community and its bond with the local area. The operation of the grain banks we have examined is perfectly in line with and instrumental in the complex social structure of the diocese of Tortona in the Old Regime. The contemporary presence of many social bodies competing on the charity/support market in order to legitimate their socio-political status produced a rather extensive social support network which, produced and secured within the local context, constituted an extraordinary instrument for promoting social equilibrium and pacification. It is not a coincidence that in the diocese of Tortona (at least in the part considered in this study: as stated above, in the southern part

44 Lurgo (2016, p. 6).

92

M. ROCHINI

of the diocese, the social support system was exercised in a substantially monopolistic way by the feudal lords of imperial estates), Savoy legislation enacted in the early decades of the eighteenth century with the goal of centralizing charitable activities did not find concrete application. It was only during the nineteenth century that the monti in the diocese of Tortona went into crisis and ceased operation. With the invasion of the Italian peninsula by French troops starting in 1796 and the subsequent enactment of Napoleonic law in the first years of the nineteenth century and its spread during that century, and the emergence of the individual as a category endowed with rights and duties, the many intermediate bodies operating in the market of social support with their own bylaws and legal characteristics lost the political, social, and economic relevance they had had in previous centuries. In the new post-revolutionary social context, social support activities were increasingly shifted to the State, something which, with timelines and methods varying from one region of the Italian peninsula to the next, radically altered the dynamics and mechanisms by which the system of social support in Italian society took form over the centuries.

Archival Sources Archivio Storico Diocesano, Tortona (ASDT), Visite Pastorali. Archivio del Comune di Godiasco Salice Terme, Fondo Malaspina di Godiasco.

Riferimenti Bibliografici Ago, Renata. 2006. Cambio di prospettiva: dagli attori alle azioni e viceversa, ed. Jacques Revel, 239–250. Roma: Viella. Alfani, Guido, and Riccardo Rao, eds. 2011. La gestione delle risorse collettive. Italia settentrionale, secoli XII–XVIII . Milano: FrancoAngeli. Ammannati, Francesco, ed. 2013. Assistenza e solidarietà in Europa, secoli XIII– XVIII . Firenze: Firenze University Press. Balani, Donatella. 2002. Sviluppo demografico e trasformazioni sociali. In Storia di Torino, vol. V. Dalla città razionale alla crisi dello stato d’antico regime (1730–1798), ed. Giuseppe Recuperati, 627–688. Torino: Einaudi. Bertoldi Lenoci, Liliana, ed. 1994. Confraternite, Chiesa e società. Aspetti e problemi dell’associazionismo laicale europeo in età moderna e contemporanea. Fasano: Schena.

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

93

Black, Christopher, and Pamela Gravestock, eds. 2006. Early modern confraternities in Europe and the Americas, international and interdisciplinary perspectives. Adershot-Burlington: Routledge. Bossy, John. 1981. Essai de sociologie de la messe, 1200–1700. Annales ESC 36: 44–70. Bossy, John. 1983. The mass as a social institution. Past and Present 100: 29–61. Brambilla, Elena. 2001. L’economia morale degli enti ecclesiastici. Questioni di metodo e prospettive di ricerca. In L’uso del denaro. Patrimoni e amministrazione nei luoghi pii e negli enti ecclesiastici in Italia (secoli XV–XVIII), ed. Alessandro Pastore and Marina Garbellotti, 379–402. Bologna: Il Mulino. Cavallo, Sandro. 1995. Charity and power in early modern Italy: Benefactors and their motives in Turin, 1541–1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cerutti, Simona. 1992. Mestieri e privilegi. Nascita delle corporazioni a Torino, secoli XVI–XVIII . Torino: Einaudi. Chiffoleau, Jacuqes. 1980. La compatibilité de l’au-delà. Les hommes, la mort et la religion dans la région d’Avignon à la fin du Moyen Age (vers 1320–vers 1480). Roma: Ecole française de Rome. Colombo, Emanuele C. 2016. Prefazione a Elisabetta Lurgo, Carità barocca. Opere pie e luoghi pii nello Stato sabaudo fra XVII e XVIII secolo, IX–XXIV. Torino: Fondazione 1563 della Compagnia di San Paolo. Colombo, Emanuele C., and Marco Dotti. 2014. L’economia rituale. Dalla rendita alle celebrazioni (Lodi, età moderna). Quaderni Storici 147: 871–903. Delille, G. 1989. Famiglie e comunità nel Regno di Napoli. Torino: Einaudi. Duboin, Felice A. 1844. Raccolta per ordine di materie delle leggi cioè editti, patenti, manifesti, ecc. emanate nelli Stati di terraferma sino all’8 dicembre 1789 dai sovrani della Real casa di Savoja, t. 13, vol. 15. Torino: Davico e Picco. Ferrari, Emanuela. 2014/2015. Alle origini del microcredito rurale. I monti di pietà frumentari nella diocesi di Tortona (secoli XVI–XIX). Università degli Studi di Pavia, relatore prof. Mario Rizzo. Garbellotti, Marina. 2001. Introduzione. In L’uso del denaro. Patrimoni e amministrazione nei luoghi pii e negli enti ecclesiastici in Italia (secoli XV– XVIII), ed. Alessandro Pastore and Marina Garbellotti, 7–14. Bologna: Il Mulino. Geremek, Bronislaw. 1986. La pietà e la forca. Storia della miseria e della carità in Europa. Bari-Roma: Laterza. Grendi, Edoardo. 1965. Morfologia e dinamica della vita associativa urbana: le confraternite a Genova fra i secoli XVI e XVIII. Atti della Società ligure di Storia Patria 79: 241–311. Grendi, Edoardo. 1982. Il sistema politico di una comunità ligure: Cervo fra cinque e seicento. Quaderni storici 17: 92–129.

94

M. ROCHINI

Grendi, Edoardo. 2004. In altri termini. Etnografia e storia di una società di antico regime, ed. Osvaldo Raggio and Angelo Torre. Milano: Feltrinelli. Gribaudi, Maurizio. 2011. La lunga marcia della microstoria. Dalla politica all’estetica. In Microstoria. A venticinque anni da L’eredità immateriale, ed. Paola Lanaro, 10–24. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Grossi, Paolo. 1992. Il dominio e le cose. Percezioni medievali e moderne dei diritti reali. Milano: Giuffré. Guagnini, Guido. 1967. I Malaspina di Valle Staffora. Voghera: Società artigiani tipografi. Gurvitich, Georges. 1932. L’idée du droit social. Notione et système du droit social. Histoire doctrinal depuis le XVIIe siècle jusqu’à la fin du XIXe siècle. Revue philosophique de la France et de l’etranger 114: 448–449. Hespanha, António M. 1984. Représentation dogmatique et projets de pouvoir. Les outils conceptuals des juristes de jus commune dans le domaine de l’administration. Ius Commune 11: 3–28. Hespanha, António M. 1986. A historiographia juridico-institucional e a “morte de Estado”. Anuario de filosofia del derecho 3: 191–227. Lanaro, Paola. 1983. L’attività di prestito dei Monti di Pietà in terraferma veneta: legalità ed illeciti tra Quattrocento e primo Seicento. Studi storici Luigi Simeoni 33: 161–177. Lanaro, Paola. 2001. Prestito e carità nei Monti di pietà: una riflessione storiografica. In L’uso del denaro. Patrimoni e amministrazione nei luoghi pii e negli enti ecclesiastici in Italia (secoli XV–XVIII), ed. Alessandro Pastore and Marina Garbellotti, 89–105. Bologna: Il Mulino. Lanaro, Paola. 2011. Microstoria. A venticinque anni da L’eredità immateriale, ed. Paola Lanaro, 7–8. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Levi, Giovanni. 1971. Mobilità della popolazione e immigrazione a Torino nella prima metà del Settecento. Quaderni storici 6 (2): 510–554. Levi, Giovanni. 1985. L’eredità immateriale. Carriera di un esorcista nel Piemonte del Seicento. Torino: Einaudi. Levi, Giovanni. 1991. A proposito di microstoria. In La storiografia contemporanea, ed. Peter Burke, 111–134. Roma-Bari: Laterza. Lomastro, Francesca. 2001. Sulla concezione dell’uso del denaro tra la fine del medioevo e l’inizio dell’età moderna. In L’uso del denaro. Patrimoni e amministrazione nei luoghi pii e negli enti ecclesiastici in Italia (secoli XV–XVIII), ed. Alessandro Pastore and Marina Garbellotti, 107–127. Bologna: Il Mulino. Lombardini, Sandro, Osvaldo Raggio, and Angelo Torre, ed. 1986. Conflitti locali e idiomi politici, numero monografico. Quaderni storici 63: 811–845. Lonni, Ada. 1979. Controllo sociale e repressione di polizia delle classi subalterne da Vittorio Amedeo II a Carlo Alberto. In Storia del movimento operaio del socialismo e delle lotte sociali in Piemonte, vol. I, Dall’età preindustriale alla

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

95

fine dell’Ottocento, ed. Aldo Agosti and Gian Mario Bravo, 143–174. Bari: De Donato. Lurgo, Elisabetta. 2016. Carità barocca. Opere pie e luoghi pii nello Stato sabaudo fra XVII e XVIII secolo, IX–XXIV. Torino: Fondazione 1563 della Compagnia di San Paolo. Maffi, Luciano, and Marco Rochini. 2015. Corpi intermedi e “reti di supporto sociale” in Italia nell’età moderna: il sistema del dare a Voghera nel XVIII secolo. Nuova Rivista Storica 99 (3): 773–796. Maffi, Luciano, and Marco Rochini. 2016. Poor relief systems in rural Italy: The territory of diocese of Tortona in the eighteenth century. Continuity and Change 31 (2): 211–239. Mannori, Luca, and Bernardo Sordi. 2002. Giustizia e amministrazione. In Lo Stato moderno in Europa. Istituzioni e diritto, ed. Maurizio Fioravanti, 59– 101. Roma-Bari: Laterza. Martini, Angelo. 1883. Manuale di metrologia, ossia misure, pesi e monete in uso attualmente e anticamente presso tutti i popoli. Torino: Loescher. Mazzone, Umberto, and Angelo Turchini. 1985. Le visite pastorali. Analisi di una fonte. Bologna: Il Mulino. Mombelli Castracane, Mirella. 1982. Ricerche sulla natura giuridica delle confraternite nell’età della Controriforma. Rivista di storia del diritto italiano 55: 43–116. Montanari, Daniele. 1997. I Monti di pietà della Lombardia nel XVIII secolo. In Politica, vita religiosa, carità. Milano nel primo Settecento, ed. Marco Bona Castellotti, Edoardo Bressan, and Paola Vismara, 257–272. Milano: Jaka Book. Montanari, Daniele, ed. 1999. Monti di Pietà e presenza ebraica in Italia (secoli XV–XVIII). Roma: Bulzoni. Montanari, Daniele. 2007. I Monti di pietà nella Lombardia d’età moderna. In Prestare ai poveri. Il credito su pegno e i Monti di pietà in area mediterranea (secoli XV–XIX), ed. Paola Avallone, 55–68. Roma: CNR. Muir, Edward. 1981. Civic ritual in renaissance Venice. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Negruzzo, Simona. 2007. Confraternite e vita di pietà. In A servizio del Vangelo. Il cammino storico dell’evangelizzazione a Brescia, vol. 2, L’età moderna, ed. Xenio Toscani, 203–234. Brescia: La Scuola. Nubola, Cecilia, and Angelo Turchini, eds. 1999. Fonti ecclesiastiche per la storia sociale e religiosa d’Europa. Bologna: Il Mulino. Pastore, Alessandro. 1986. Strutture assistenziali fra Chiesa e Stati nell’Italia della Controriforma. In Storia d’Italia, Annali, vol. IX, ed. Giorgio Chittolini and Giovanni Miccoli, 433–465. Torino: Einaudi. Politi, Giorgio, and Mario Rosa. 1982. Timore e carità: i poveri nell’Italia moderna. Cremona: Biblioteca Statale.

96

M. ROCHINI

Quazza, Guido. 1957. Le riforme in Piemonte nella prima del Settecento, vol. I. Modena: Società Tipografica Editrice Modenese. Raggio, Osvaldo. 1990. Faide e parentele. Lo stato genovese visto dalla Fontanabuona. Torino: Einaudi. Raggio, Osvaldo. 1996. Costruzione delle fonti e prova: testimoniali, possesso e giurisdizione. In Quaderni storici 31 (91): 135–156. Revel, Jacques. 1989. L’histoire au ras du sol, introduzione a Giovanni Levi. In Le pouvoir au village précédé de L’Histoire au ras du sol: Histoire d’un exorciste dans le Piémont du XVII e siècle. Paris: Gallimard, I-XXXIII. Revel, Jacques. 2011. Microanalisi e costruzione del sociale. In Giochi di scala: la microstoria alla prova dell’esperienza, ed. Jacques Revel. Roma: Viella. Rosa, Mario. 1976. Le parrocchie italiane nell’età moderna e contemporanea. Bilancio di studi e linee di ricerca. In Religione e società nel Mezzogiorno tra Cinque e Seicento, ed. Mario Rosa, 157–183. Bari: De Donato. Savelli, Rodolfo. 1984. Dalle confraternite allo Stato: il sistema assistenziale genovese nel Cinquecento. Atti Della Società Ligure Di Storia Patria 98: 171–216. Scribner, Robert W. 1984. Ritual and popular religion in Catholic Germany at the time of the reformation. Journal of Ecclesiastic History 35: 46–77. Terpstra, Nicholas, ed. 2000. The politics of kinship: Confraternities and social order in early modern Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Terpstra, Nicholas. 2001. The politics of confraternal charity: Centre, periphery and the modes of confraternal involvement in early modern civic welfare. In Povertà e innovazioni istituzionali in Italia. Dal medioevo a oggi, ed. Vera Zamagni, 153–173. Bologna: Il Mulino. Torre, Angelo. 1985. Le visite pastorali: altari, famiglie, devozioni. In Valli monregalesi. Società, cultura, devozioni, Vicoforte, ed. Giovanna Galante Garrone, Sandro Lombardini, Angelo Torre, 148–188, Savigliano: Comunità montana Valli Monregalesi. Torre, Angelo. 1995. Percorsi della pratica 1966–1995. Quaderni storici 30 (90): 799–829. Torre, Angelo. 1999. Vita religiosa e cultura giurisdizionale nel Piemonte di antico regime. In Fonti ecclesiastiche per la storia sociale e religiosa d’Europa: XV–XVIII secolo, ed. Claudio Nubola and Angelo Turchini, 181–211. Bologna: Il Mulino. Torre, Angelo. 2002. La produzione storica dei luoghi. Quaderni Storici 110 (2): 443–475. Torre, Angelo. 2006. I luoghi dell’azione. In Giochi di scala, ed. Jacques Revel, 301–318. Roma: Viella. Torre, Angelo. 2011. Luoghi. La produzione di località in età moderna e contemporanea. Roma: Donzelli.

3

THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM IN THE KINGDOM …

97

Toscani, Xenio. 2009. A misura d’uomo. L’assistenza nella campagna bresciana in Antico Regime. In Istituzioni, assistenza e religiosità nella società del Mezzogiorno d’Italia tra XVIII e XIX secolo, ed. Giovanna Da Molin, 45–63. Bari: Cacucci. Trexler, Richard C. 1980. Public life in renaissance Florence. New York: Cornell University Press. Trexler, Richard C. 1994. The construction of regional solidarities in traditional Europe. In Riti e rituali nelle società medievali, ed. Jacques Chiffoleau, Lauro Martines, and Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, 263–283. Spoleto: Fondazione Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo. Underdown, David. 1985. Revel, riot and rebellion: Popular politics and culture in England 1603–1660. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Vismara, Paola. 2008. Confraternite e devozioni nella Milano del Settecento. In Confréires et dévotions dans la catholicité moderne (miXV e –déboutXIX e ), ed. Bernard Dompnier and Paola Vismara, 1–24. Roma: Ècole française de Rome. Von Gierke, Otto Friederich. 2007. La natura delle associazioni umane. In Società e corpi, ed. Pierangelo Schiera. Napoli: Bibliopolis. Weissman, Ronald F.E. 1982. Ritual brotherhood in renaissance Florence. New York: Academic Press. Zardin, Danilo. 2010. Confraternite, Chiesa e società nell’Italia della prima età moderna. In Le confraternite laicali in Umbria in età moderna e contemporanea: storia istituzionale e archivi, ed. Emma Bianchi, 11–32. Perugia: Soprintendenza archivistica per l’Umbria. Zardin, Danilo. 2011. Istanze universaliste e particolarismo corporativo nelle confraternite dell’età moderna. In Brotherhood and boundaries. Fraternità e barriere, ed. Stefania Pastore, Adriano Prosperi, and Nicholas Terpstra, 569–592. Pisa: Edizioni della Normale. Zemon Davis, Natalie. 1981. The sacred and the body social in sixteenth-century Lyon. Past and Present 90: 40–70.

CHAPTER 4

Organizing Charity: Social Support Structures in the Republic of Genoa During the Early Modern Period Andrea Zanini

1

Introduction

In the last few years, social support systems in Italy during the Old Regime, the forms they assumed and the logic motivating them, have been the object of increasing interest by the scientific community.1 As regards the Republic of Genoa, there is a substantial historiographic dichotomy that reflects the different social support structures operating in Genoa: the city capital (the dominante), and the various district of the state (the dominio). Structures existing in Genoa have been the subject of numerous investigations, which have identified the existence of 1 Gregorini et al. (2018), Avallone et al. (2019), and Carboni and Loss (2021).

A. Zanini (B) Department of Economics, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 G. Gregorini et al. (eds.), Social Support Systems in Rural Italy, Palgrave Studies in Economic History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24303-5_4

99

100

A. ZANINI

a number of charitable institutions aimed at supporting the most vulnerable parts of the population: the sick, the poor, the vagrants, orphans, and abandoned children, young women gone (or led) astray. The beneficiaries received food, health care, religious and vocational education, and—for the latter—a chance for redemption after what was considered a sinful life. This situation was the outcome of a gradual shift from spontaneous, scattered forms of charity to a more organic system of poor relief, which started in the Renaissance and continued up to the midseventeenth century. However, these changes did not imply a clear-cut shift from the private to the public sphere or from the church to the state as regards funding, legal status, and administration of the charity. Overall, the system could be considered public as regards scope and the supervision, entrusted to specific public bodies, but private in terms of the resources employed, provided by members of the nobility and wealthy bourgeoisie. Even if these actions were part of a logic of political calculation aiming at preserving the status quo, as in other Old Regime societies, many donations were inspired by an authentic sentiment of human compassion, deeply rooted in the Genoese context.2 While the capital city was experiencing the above changes, in the rest of the state, small-scale charitable institutions operating on a local level were the rule: hospitals, mounts of piety, philanthropic bequests for the distribution of alms, etc. Although there is a growing body of literature in this field, studies are heterogeneous in many respects. Alongside some solid and well-documented works, others have been conducted by non-professional local historians, who sometimes simply transcribe documents considered, rightly or wrongly, more significant than others, often in a completely decontextualized way. As a result, several aspects are still poorly understood, and it is impossible to outline an overall picture of the organization and function of rural poor relief.3 Starting from these premises, this essay seeks to illustrate the criteria that informed the social support system in the territory of the Republic

2 For a general overview, see: Savelli (1984), Grendi (1987) [1982], Polonio (2004), Petti Balbi (2013), Tachella (2018), and Ferrando (2019). 3 Among the most relevant essays, see: Bacigalupi (2018), Bonfigli (1979), Borsari (1967), Bottero (2005), Bruzzone and Santamaria (2000), Calvini and Cuggè (1996), De Moro (2007), Di Raimondo (2011, 2012), Firpo (1984), Imperiale (1993, 1998, 1999), Malandra (1995), Massa (2021) [1999], Palmero (2000), Piana Toniolo (2012), Rossi (1975), and Silvano (1982).

4

ORGANIZING CHARITY: SOCIAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES …

101

of Genoa during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the way it operated, and its effectiveness in relation to the needs of the population.

2

The Economy of the Republic of Genoa and the Problem of Rural Poverty

During the early modern period, the Republic of Genoa was a preunification Italian state in the north-western part of the Italian peninsula, covering an area of about 1,644 square miles (4,258 square kilometres), mostly coinciding with the present-day Liguria region. The population of the state amounted to about 360,000 inhabitants at the beginning of the seventeenth century, reaching 490,000 at the end of the following century. In 1600, the share of the urban population (cities with at least 5,000 inhabitants) was 23.9% and grew to 24.1 in 1800; by contrast, the average for Northern Italy rose from 18.4% in 1600 to 17.5 in 1800. As a result, despite one of the highest levels of urban population in preindustrial Europe, about three-quarters of the inhabitants lived outside urban centres, in small towns, villages, little hamlets, or in scattered dwellings.4 In geographical terms, the Republic was a long, narrow strip of land, squeezed between a mountain range and the sea; its territory was mostly mountainous and hilly, divided into a series of valleys, perpendicular to the coastline and separated from each other by mountain ridges. The peculiar orography of the state influenced the lives of the inhabitants in a number of ways: road communications were difficult and fertile soils were scarce, so the territory was unable to produce enough food to feed the population, which was chronically dependent on imports. Despite these unfavourable conditions, agriculture engaged most of the rural population; alongside subsistence farming, there were some commercial crops (oil, wine, and citrus fruits). However, in many districts of the dominio, households supplemented their modest incomes with other activities: along the coast, where most of the population lived, these activities included fishing and coastal trade; in inland areas, domestic production

4 For a more comprehensive view on urbanization in this area, see Oddo and Zanini (2022). On the problem of territorial discontinuity, see Zanini (2005, pp. 13–33).

102

A. ZANINI

of textiles and activities related to trade between the Ligurian Sea and the Po Valley (warehousing and transport of goods).5 At the turn of the seventeenth century, the Republic undertook an important reorganization of the dominio, which included, among other measures, greater centralization and more effective administrative and financial control over the periphery.6 This process led to the establishment of a special state body with powers to control the management of the revenues and expenses of the various communities of the state, the Magistrato delle Comunità (1623). Its officers were to monitor the problem of the indebtedness of the communities and ensure the accurate management of communities’ resources and common goods.7 However, these measures of rationalization and bureaucratic-administrative centralization were not followed by state intervention in the economic sphere to boost the local economy. The main concern of the Genoese ruling class was to favour the economy of the dominante, often at the expense of that of the dominio, which was regarded as a major source of fiscal income to support the functions of the state.8 In this respect, the Republic of Genoa may be considered a typical extractive institution of the time.9 The combination of unfavourable agricultural conditions and extractive institutions meant that most of the population of the state was vulnerable and lived in precarious economic conditions. Although it is difficult to define and measure poverty, since material expectations varied over time and space, and poverty is a structural as well as a cyclical phenomenon, we may consider poor those who were permanently or temporally unable to access enough resources to meet basic needs. However, in addition to people who were structurally below the subsistence line, living in a condition of absolute poverty, the so-called “miserable”, most households were obliged to spend their entire income on survival, without being able to save for emergencies.10 Therefore, in the event of a crisis resulting

5 Zanini (2020, pp. 5–6), and Oddo and Zanini (2022, pp. 5–8). 6 For a general overview, see Assereto (1999) [1985] and Savelli (2003, pp. 158–191). 7 Benvenuto (1980), Assereto (1999) [1985, pp. 28–35], and Savelli (2003, pp. 189–

191). 8 Felloni (2007, pp. 136–146). 9 See Acemoglu and Robinson (2012). 10 For examples concerning the first half of the seventeenth century, see Grendi (1983,

p. 305). However, these data are too scattered to allow a generalization.

4

ORGANIZING CHARITY: SOCIAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES …

103

from poor harvests, war, famine, or epidemics, their situation could imply a rapid descent into poverty, thus swelling the ranks of the miserable.11 This situation is confirmed by an attempt to measure the income of the Republic’s population carried out by economic historian Giuseppe Felloni. According to his analysis, around 1650, some sources compiled for fiscal purposes allow a calculation of annual per capita income in the dominio of 20 Genoese lire. However, Felloni believed that the criteria used to derive the tax assessments were inaccurate and that this amount is well below the real income. He argued that it would be more reasonable to increase the original data by a factor of three or four.12 Assuming an intermediate factor (3.5), we calculate an annual per capita income of the dominio population in the mid-seventeenth century of about 70 Genoese lire. This figure must be compared with the cost of living. For that very same period, Felloni estimated that an inhabitant of Genoa spent at least 85–90 Genoese lire per year on basic necessities.13 This threshold represents a kind of poverty line between a condition of absolute poverty and one of relative poverty. Regarding the population of the dominio, the threshold should be reduced by about 20–25%: expenditures for food in rural areas, especially inland mountainous areas, were lower than in urban areas, with relatively expensive wheat being replaced by less costly foods such as millet, figs, and chestnuts.14 This means an annual average cost of living of between 68 and 72 Genoese lire. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the per capita income of inhabitants of the dominio was very close to the poverty line, thus confirming a situation of widespread relative poverty, as the well-known Malthusian interpretation postulated for the pre-industrial world.15 Although these data refer to the mid-seventeenth century, it is unlikely that the situation changed significantly before the end of the Old Regime and the fall of the Republic of Genoa. 11 See Grendi (1983, pp. 305–306), and, regarding the city of Genoa, Felloni (1998) [1977, p. 1168]. However, this situation was quite common in the preindustrial age. For a general overview, see Alfani (2020). 12 Felloni (1998) [1988, p. 230]. Sums are in the money of account of the time, the Genoese lira, divided into 20 soldi, each consisting of 12 denari. See Pesce and Felloni (1976). 13 Felloni (1998) [1988, p. 229]. 14 Grendi (1970, pp. 109–111) and Costantini (1973, pp. 316–324). However, for the

territory of the Republic of Genoa, studies on peasants’ consumption are still scarce. 15 Clark (2007, pp. 19–189).

104

A. ZANINI

In these conditions, when an economic downturn occurred, it was necessary to implement extraordinary measures to support the population. The first form of intervention was carried out at the local level, by a single community, which acted following a mechanism of horizontal subsidiarity and solidarity to assist the growing number of poor.16 Typically, communities resorted to debt, mortgaging the commons, to procure and distribute food to their members at a low price. The impact of the crisis, and consequently of the debt owed, varied according to certain factors, such as the number of inhabitants, the amount of existing food stocks, etc. Data presented in Table 1, concerning a group of poor inland communities in the far eastern end of the Republic, provide an example of the differing degrees of debt. The report was compiled at the beginning of the seventeenth century; however, communities resorted to debt in previous years to meet the extraordinary expenses that occurred during the famine of the 1590s.17 Apart from the absolute figure, the weight of debt concerning the annual per capita income (70 Genoese lire) is rather high in the case of Carrodano Superiore (25.4% of per capita income), Carrodano Inferiore (20.3%), and L’Ago (15.6%). This situation gives an idea of the precarious living conditions of the population. Should the impact of the crisis be severe or long-lasting, the central government was forced to adopt specific forms of intervention, for example providing grain in times of famine.18 If we exclude extraordinary crises, which require exceptional measures to counter the consequent rise in poverty, the inhabitants of the dominio, unlike the residents of the capital, did not have an organic system of centrally provided social support. Therefore, their situation could vary considerably, depending on the place in which they lived, the presence or absence of local poor-relief initiatives, and their effectiveness or ineffectiveness in meeting the population’s needs. In other words, there was not a uniform situation but rather a patchwork of heterogeneous situations and conditions.

16 On these concepts, see Donati (2009). 17 On the problem of local indebtedness in the Genoese area in response to famines and

plagues, see Savelli (2003, pp. 188–189). On the impact of the 1590s crisis in Northern Italy, see Alfani (2011). 18 See, for example, Grendi (1970) and Gatti (1972).

4

ORGANIZING CHARITY: SOCIAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES …

Table 1 Debt and annual interest accrued by communities in western Liguria (1611)a

Community

Borghetto and Ripalta Bracelli and Padivarma Carrodano Inferiore Carrodano Superiore Groppo L’Ago Mattarana Pogliasca Zignago

Population

105

Debt Principal

% of per capita income

373

2,745

10.5

477

4,034

12.1

341

4,847

20.3

259

4,600

25.4

446 302 252 227 1.062

500 3,300 1,200 1,425 5,850

1.6 15.6 6.8 9.0 7.9

a Sums are in Genoese lire. The per capita income considered is 70

Genoese lire as calculated above Source author’s elaboration based on ASG, Magistrato delle Comunità, 835; Senato, Sala Bartolomeo Senarega, 1076

3 Attempts at Centralization at the Beginning of the Seventeenth Century Despite scarce interest by the Genoese government in the social support structures of the dominio, some attempts were made at the beginning of the seventeenth century to create centralized services in specific sectors, albeit with only modest success. This trend was part of the above-mentioned more general reform and rationalization of the state’s peripheral administration that occurred in those years. In 1607, the Capuchin Clemente Castelletti promoted an ambitious project aimed at entrusting the supervision of the mounts of piety operating in the domain of the Republic (and others that would be established in the following years) to the Monte di Pietà of Genoa. This institution was the most important one in the Republic, governed by a state body whose members were appointed by the Doge (the highest office of the Genoese government). This initiative aimed to remedy the poor management which, according to the friar, was frequent in the other small mounts

106

A. ZANINI

of piety, and to encourage cooperation between the various mounts.19 Although the proposal did not achieve concrete results, it represents a good example of the climate of administrative renewal that characterized the Republic of Genoa at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The first concrete form of intervention was through the Deputazione (later Magistrato) delle Chiese Rurali, a state body created in 1611 to fund the construction and maintenance of the poorest churches in the Diocese of Genoa and to support the rural clergy. It was established and financed by private benefactors under the control and approval of the state, with the consent of the archbishop. The aim was to restore dignity to religious worship in the mountain villages, where, owing to extreme poverty, many churches were in ruins and others were not officiated due to a shortage of priests. According to the promoters of the Deputazione, the lack of religious assistance would encourage internal discord, feuds, and enmities that could have serious repercussions far beyond the local sphere. These statements are an explicit reference to the logic of a political calculation that inspired the Republic’s welfare provision in the early modern period, namely the desire to keep the subjects, in this case, the miserable populations of the mountains, calm to ensure that the ruling class could peacefully preserve the status quo.20 The second and most ambitious initiative was the foundation of the Deputatione pro elemosine pauperum dominii, which came into operation around 1614. The aim was to provide social support to the poorest families living in the territory of the Republic through the distribution of money or in-kind aid (foodstuffs). In addition to the centralizing and rationalizing action of the Genoese state, the establishment of this Deputazione was influenced by the effects of the famine in the 1590s, which, as we have seen, had forced the poorest communities to resort to debt to provide inhabitants with food, highlighting the vulnerability of rural populations. The Deputatione pro elemosine aimed to prevent too many poor people from flowing into the capital, overburdening the city’s charitable institutions and creating problems of public order. To identify the beneficiaries of the aid, local authorities were asked to compile a list of the poor residing in their jurisdictions with the cooperation of the parish

19 Bruzzone (1908, pp. 99–100) and Massa (2021) [1991, pp. 1107–1108]. 20 Saginati (1979, pp. 231–254).

4

ORGANIZING CHARITY: SOCIAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES …

107

priests. Unfortunately, much of the documentation produced has been lost; however, surviving information attests to a situation of widespread poverty, especially in the inland mountain areas of eastern Liguria. The beneficiaries of these forms of relief were mostly small, peasant families in which there was an internal imbalance between the number of working members capable of supporting the family and the mouths to feed.21 There is little evidence to assess the effectiveness of the interventions that the Deputazione pro elemosine implemented. However, the aid was discontinuous and of a modest amount, often of little more than symbolic value. As a result, this form of intervention did not have a significant impact on the real condition of the poor. For example, data for 1646, covering ten communities in the inland areas of eastern Liguria, having overall 3,600 inhabitants, show that, on average, almost 36.6% of households received alms (one-third of the population). However, there were significant differences. While in Cornice and L’Ago the percentage was 25.2 and 25.8%, respectively, figures for Mattarana and Carrodano Superiore show an alarming situation: as much as 60.0 and 73.3% of the households received support (see Table 2). It is no coincidence that some of these communities, such as Carrodano Superiore, were among the most indebted in the area at the beginning of the century (see Table 1). In some cases, sources also recorded the type and amount of aid provided, considering the number of household members and the presumed conditions of greater or lesser indigence. For example, the thirty poor families of Brugnato (104 individuals) received a total of 360 libbre of biscotto (hardtack) and 18 quarte of dried broad beans; the thirteen poor families of Bozzolo (64 individuals), on the other hand, received a total of 217 libbre of biscotto and 14 quarte of dried broad beans. The largest amount of aid per capita was given to a single poor woman from Bozzolo, who received 15 libbre of biscotto and one-half quarta of dried broad beans. It was therefore a palliative, which could not provide real support for people living in poverty.22 Due to the negligible impact of the social support measures implemented by the Genoese government at the central level, the rural 21 Costantini (1978, pp. 187–190). 22 ASG, Camera del Governo e Finanze, 967. A Genoese libbra (pound) corresponded

to 317.664 grams, while a Genoese quarta (quart) corresponded to 14.566 litres. See Giacchero (1979, pp. 695–696).

108

A. ZANINI

Table 2

Beneficiaries of alms in some communities of eastern Liguria (1646)

Community

Households

Bozzolo Brugnato Carrodano Inferiore Carrodano Superiore Cornice L’Ago Mattarana Pogliasca Ripalta Zignago Total

Individuals

Receiving alms

% of total

Receiving alms

% of total

13 30 40 33 24 16 36 18 9 73 292

46.4 31.3 52.6 73.3 25.3 25.8 60.0 36.0 34.6 28.1 36.6

64 104 204 132 84 86 162 73 27 264 1,200

49.2 27.8 53.3 61.1 17.7 24.6 64.3 29.7 20.5 25.3 33.3

Source author’s elaboration based on ASG, Camera del Governo e Finanze, 819, 821, 822, and 967

population could only rely on local forms of poor relief, developed in the periphery. However, many places did not have hospitals, mounts of piety, philanthropic bequests for the distribution of alms, or other kinds of charitable institutions. Unfortunately, there are no sources that allow us to map the institutions operating in the territory of the Republic of Genoa during the early modern period. A partial exception is the inquiry of 1743–1744, which offers a unique, albeit incomplete, insight into local poor relief and its inner workings.

4

An Overview: The Inquiry of 1743–1744

In August 1743, the Genoese government ordered the local officers of the domino to compile a report enumerating all the poor-relief institutions existing in their respective districts and to provide detailed information on their management. Particular attention was to be paid to the value of assets, their management criteria, the beneficiaries of their donations, and, above all, the existence of debtors. In case of pending credits, the local officers would also have to quickly make every effort to facilitate debt recovery. This latter instruction evidences the fact that the existence

4

ORGANIZING CHARITY: SOCIAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES …

109

of debts was considered one of the most important problems of local charitable institutions.23 This inquiry represents the only attempt carried out by the central government to reconstruct an overall picture of charitable organizations operating outside the walls of the capital. Although the reasons for this inquiry are not explicitly stated in official documents, it likely represents an attempt to focus on the problems that often emerged from reports by local officers or from anonymous complaints that were addressed to the central government.24 The role of liaison between the Genoese authorities and the peripheral officers was entrusted to the above-mentioned Magistrato delle Comunità. Twelve months later, the Magistrato drew up a summary report that was sent to the government together with the analytical information collected through the local officers. Overall, the result was disappointing and, consequently, did not allow the government to implement any form of intervention to correct and rationalize local poor relief.25 As noted in the report, the investigation failed to fully collect the information that the Genoese authorities required. Despite efforts by the authorities, not all officers were entirely diligent in responding to the central government’s requests, especially in the western part of the state. Many administrative districts did not send any reply, while in other cases, answers were vague and elusive, demonstrating a lack of knowledge on the part of local officers. Even when they did their best to comply with the prescriptions received, they subjectively interpreted the instructions, often resulting in heterogeneity in the depth of analysis in the different reports. Despite these shortcomings, it is possible to identify some basic characteristics of the rural poor-relief organization of the Republic of Genoa.26 The most usual form of poor relief was the “hospital”, at that time an unspecialized structure, often of mediaeval origin, which, in addition to

23 Documents concerning the inquiry are preserved in ASG, Giunta di Giurisdizione, 120. Some aspects have been analysed in Zanini (2018). 24 Another attempt to reconstruct the poor-relief system was carried out in 1799, two years after the fall of the Republic, when a more general inquiry was carried out. See Costantini (1973). 25 Zanini (2018, pp. 231–232). 26 Zanini (2018, pp. 232–233).

110

A. ZANINI

assisting the local sick and the indigent, also provided lodging to occasional pilgrims and wayfarers. There were often significant differences in terms of size and range of action. Alongside modest hospitals, with few resources and an extremely limited capacity for intervention, often insufficient to meet the demand of the local population, there were a few well-organized structures having adequate incomes and salaried staff at the service of the community. This is, for example, the case of Ovada (3,500 inhabitants), whose hospital had annual rental income of 1,230 Genoese lire and proved to be well managed.27 Another form was the so-called uffici dei poveri (literally: offices of the poor), whose main purpose was to help the poor in their homes by providing food and/or distributing alms at the local level. Some of these offices did not have an autonomous administration but were managed together with the local hospital, even if the funds allocated for these purposes were administered separately. In many cases, there is no specific information on their operations or the volume of available resources, generally modest. In Portovenere (550 inhabitants), 28 lire were spent each year on bread to be distributed to the poor, while in Bonassola (750 inhabitants), the annual “pious alms” left by the late Vittorio Vinzoni for the poor were much more substantial: over 850 lire. For Sestri Levante (2,400 inhabitants), on the other hand, the report contains some information about the methods of intervention. Twice a year, on Easter and Christmas Eve, alms were distributed to all the poor residing in the village and the neighbouring hamlets; the amount given was modest: between six and eight soldi, depending on the number of beneficiaries.28 In addition, it provided home assistance to the sick, supported indigent households, and distributed alms to beggars. In general, therefore, these actions were limited in scope, constrained by the resources available, and largely insufficient to ensure real relief for the beneficiaries.29 Alongside these institutions having general tasks, there were others with more specific aims, such as the provision of dowries to poor local 27 Zanini (2018, p. 233). On this hospital, see also Borsari (1967) and Bottero (2005).

A case of a rural hospital specialized in providing health care was the one founded in the eighteenth century by the Spinola family in Borgo Fornari, a territory close to the borders of the Republic of Genoa, but independent as an imperial fiefdom. See Zanini (2019). 28 At that time 20 soldi = 1 lira and an agricultural labourer earned around 20 soldi per day. See Bulferetti and Costantini (1966, pp. 208–209). 29 Zanini (2018, p. 234).

4

ORGANIZING CHARITY: SOCIAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES …

111

girls, as in Portovenere and Levanto (2,000 inhabitants). Finally, in Sassello (3,600 inhabitants), in addition to a hospital to assist the sick and the poor there was a mount of piety, established at the beginning of the seventeenth century, which lent chestnuts or money against the guarantee of movable property, generally metal objects or textiles. In 1743, the list of pledged goods included silver ornaments belonging to the two parishes of the village and the local confraternities, which likely pledged them to obtain resources for the poor during an economic crisis. This situation highlights the mutual effort of various kinds of local intermediate bodies.30 As regards the subjects entrusted with the administration, many charitable organizations were managed directly by the local communities or by religious bodies, especially confraternities or parishes. The management was entrusted to two or more massari (civil administrators in charge of managing the assets of a parish or charity) appointed periodically, either by election or by drawing lots.31 However, when the authorities looked more closely at the daily management of charitable institutions, a number of issues emerged. They were the result of inadequacy of the administrative apparatus, management distortions, and, ultimately, ineffective supervision and correction procedures on the part of the central government. This situation emerges from the above-mentioned summary report prepared by the Magistrato delle Comunità in August 1744, who regretfully stated that their examination of the reports received from the local officers revealed several different issues. Firstly, there were cases of diversion of resources from their intended purpose. This occurred most frequently when there was an overlap of roles and competencies between the administrators of several institutions, especially if the secular and ecclesiastical dimensions were intertwined. In such cases, there was a risk that, in the event of a governmental inspection, an exclusive accountability to religious authorities was claimed, but the exact opposite was declared in the event of review by the bishop during a pastoral visit. This unresolved ambiguity was to the detriment of poor-relief activities.32

30 Zanini (2018, p. 234). See also Rossi (1975). 31 Zanini (2018, pp. 236–237). 32 Zanini (2018, pp. 237–238). See also Podestà (1997, p. 118) for the case of the

above-mentioned hospital in Ovada.

112

A. ZANINI

In most cases, however, the situation was much more serious. There was a complete lack of accounting records and, contrary to the basic rules of good management, most of the massari were in debt to the charity they administered. Even the audit of the accounts presented to the community was often incomplete and irregular because of collusive behaviour. Therefore, it was a situation in which the specific interest of a small but cohesive power group acted to the detriment of the more general interest of the community. In the opinion of the Magistrato delle Comunità, to put an end to this regrettable situation, it would be necessary to adopt a central regulation that would reduce local autonomy and, above all, make it compulsory to prepare a detailed report of revenues, expenses, creditors, and debtors on an annual basis. However, the existence of overdue credits was not always due to mismanagement. In many cases, they derived from unpaid rents on land and buildings that did not arise from the opportunistic behaviour of tenants: some of them were actually experiencing temporary difficulties. Therefore, the relative tolerance on the part of the massari could be interpreted as an indirect, even if improper, way to assist people facing a critical situation.33 Sometimes the local officers attempted to draft a set of regulations to remedy the problems encountered, specifying the criteria to be followed to distribute aid and how administrators should be appointed. In Andora (450 inhabitants), it was specified that the two massari of the parish hospital of St John the Baptist would be drawn by lot every year from a list of names of people of ascertained ability to read, write, and add: a basic requirement for being able to keep even elementary accounts. They should have been drawn from among the wealthiest residents, as it was believed that they would not be tempted to divert resources to their advantage. At the end of the mandate, they had to present an accounting report, which should be examined by special independent auditors of accounts. These procedures were aimed at putting an end to the previous maladministration.34 Overall, from the inquiry, it emerged that charitable organizations operating in the dominio were promoted, funded, and managed at a local level, through intermediate bodies, and without systematic supervision by state authorities. As a result, these institutions often enjoyed wide margins

33 Zanini (2018, pp. 237–239). 34 Zanini (2018, p. 238).

4

ORGANIZING CHARITY: SOCIAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES …

113

of discretion, which could give rise to situations of mismanagement. To some extent, local poor-relief organizations can be seen as an expression of the autonomy of peripheral communities vis-à-vis the central state, an aspect jealously defended by the local side, and which the Republic tended to respect, by virtue of agreements, privileges, and customs.35 Although the government was aware of the problems affecting this system, apart from some declarations of intent and many good intentions, in the following period, the Republic did not adopt any tangible measure to remedy the many critical issues that emerged from the inquiry.

5

The Case of Brugnato

To deeply understand the issues related to the management of social support structures and their effectiveness or ineffectiveness, it is necessary to move from a relatively general macro-analysis to a more specific microeconomic analysis. The case of Brugnato is particularly significant in this respect as regards the management of the structure, control over the work of administrators, and the evaluation of the effectiveness of poor-relief intervention. Brugnato is in one of the few flat areas in Liguria, along the Vara River valley. Although it boasts the title of “city” as an episcopal seat, it was actually a rural village. In 1582, it had about 400 inhabitants, growing to 519 in 1607 and then falling again to 374 in 1643.36 The demographic trend reflects the precarious economic conditions of the population, captured in a letter that Bishop Francesco Durazzo addressed to the Senate of Genoa in May 1641. The prelate pointed out that the poverty and misery of Brugnato were such “that if a criminal were sentenced to live there, it would be an overly harsh punishment regardless of the crime”. This is a rather cynical statement, which the bishop explains by specifying that the small town of Brugnato was cut off from the main commercial routes and thus could not possibly become a rural marketplace, able to attract buyers and sellers from the neighbouring areas and revitalize the local economy.37 As a result, to survive peasants had to rely

35 On this aspect, see Zanini (2005, pp. 15–18). 36 Tomaini (1985, p. 25), ASG, Senato, Sala Bartolomeo Senarega, 1076; Camera del

Governo e Finanze, 821. 37 On land routes in this area, see Redoano Coppedè (1980–1982).

114

A. ZANINI

only on “the work of their hands and the sweat of their brow”. Although the territory was flat and suitable for agriculture, many parcels of land had to pay the bishopric annual rents, thus reducing the harvest available for consumption or marketing. Moreover, there were periodical floods that “wipe out the toil of many months”, destroying crops and expectations. As a result, Bishop Durazzo concludes that the peasants of Brugnato “lacked everything except misery”.38 The vulnerability of the local population also emerges from the above-mentioned data, which attested that, in 1646, 31.3% of Brugnato’s households received alms from the Deputatione pro elemosine.39 In this context, poor-relief organizations played a crucial role in assisting the local population, especially in times of crisis. In the late Middle Ages, Brugnato had two hospitals: the hospital of St Anthony, located next to the western gate of the village, and the hospital of St Lazarus, located about a quarter of a mile west, near the bridge over the river Vara. They originally gave hospitality to passing pilgrims, and helped the poor or sick, while the hospital of St Lazarus also assisted lepers. For a long time, they were managed separately: the hospital of St Anthony was run by the community, which each year appointed two massari to take care of its management; the massari of the hospital of St Lazarus were instead appointed by agreement between the episcopal vicar and the community.40 During the seventeenth century, the administration of the two hospitals was unified. The care of lepers gradually lost importance, so the hospital of St Lazarus, damaged by the river flood, was never rebuilt; however, the St Lazarus chapel, annexed to the hospital, was maintained and officiated. From this point onwards, the relief activities focused on the poor and sick.41 Brugnato’s social support structures were not included in the inquiry conducted by the Republic in 1743–1744, as the local officer (the capitano of Levanto) did not mention them in his report. However, the Opera di San Lazzaro e Ospedale (St Lazarus charity and hospital) was still operating. Information on the management during the 38 ASG, Camera del Governo e Finanze, 822, 1 May 1641 (quotations translated by the author). This picture resembles the description written eighty years later by Bishop Niccolò Leopoldo Lomellini. See L’antica diocesi di Brugnato (2006, pp. 30–31). 39 See Table 1. 40 Zolesi (1844), Tomaini (1957, pp. 48–53, 1964, pp. 74–77), and Chiappe (2013,

pp. 86–91). 41 See Zolesi (1844, p. 401).

4

ORGANIZING CHARITY: SOCIAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES …

115

eighteenth century can be obtained from reports drafted during pastoral visits and from documents preserved in the Municipal Archive.42 The annual income, from rent on land obtained via bequests from local benefactors, would ensure an annual income of 125 Genoese lire.43 However, as Bishop Niccolò Leopoldo Lomellini noted in 1723, the accounting records clearly showed that the administrators had completely disregarded the aims of the institution and the will of the donors. This was due to the wrongdoing of the massari who long handled the hospital’s income, passing management from father to son and misusing the funds, often for personal needs. As a result, the hospital’s massari mismanaged the assets entrusted to their administration with serious harm to the community. These misuses and abuses happened because, as the bishop explains, taking advantage of Brugnato’s remote location, the massari were long able to avoid any form of control by either civil or ecclesiastical power.44 To remedy this deplorable situation, Bishop Lomellini was able to reassert his authority over the structure––thanks to the presence of the St Lazarus chapel––and impose periodic administrative control.45 After Lomellini’s death (1754), Bishop Domenico Tatis continued this good practice, although he seemed less interested in the matter than his predecessor.46 Starting from the 1730s, it is possible to analyse the inner workings of the hospital, thanks to surviving documents. The first element that emerges from accounting records is that the average annual income was considerably lower than the estimated value of 125 lire: between 1739 and 1755, it was about 67 lire (53.6% of the theoretical budget). This was because many tenants were in arrears with payments, leading

42 ACB, Congregazione di Carità, 1 and 2. 43 ACB, Parte antica, 15. The property of the hospital included chestnut groves, arable

and grazing land, and, to a lesser extent, vineyards and olive groves, located in Brugnato and in surrounding places (Bozzolo, Pogliasca, Cassana, Mangia, and Bergassana). Rents were in kind (wheat and chestnuts) or sometimes in money (ACB, Congregazione di Carità, 1). 44 Although Brugnato was an episcopal seat, for most of the year the bishop resided in the small coastal town of Sestri Levante. See L’antica diocesi di Brugnato (2006, p. 53. 45 L’antica diocesi di Brugnato (2006, pp. 38–39. 46 ACB, Congregazione di Carità, 1. During the 1755 pastoral visit, Bishop Tatis

provided only a few instructions concerning worship and maintenance of the St Lazarus chapel. See L’antica diocesi di Brugnato (2006, p. 166).

116

A. ZANINI

to an increase in the hospital’s credit, which, at the end of the eighteenth century, was close to 1,440 Genoese lire. On the other hand, in 1739–1755, annual expenses amounted to an average of 70 lire, partially eroding the initial cash fund. However, it is striking that only a small part of these expenses was related to welfare activities. The largest item was worship and religious expenses (about 32.4%), followed by ordinary and extraordinary maintenance costs (29.2%). Poorrelief expenses, which vary in amount, consist of costs to provide accommodation and food to non-resident poor and sick people (as well as their burial) and sending abandoned orphans to Genoa where they would receive care at the Pammatone hospital, the largest hospital in the capital (on average 20.4%).47 The remaining category refers to other expenses (18.0%) unrelated to the charitable purposes of the institution. The most striking examples were a contribution of 100 Genoese lire for the renovation of the floor of the cathedral and of 92 Genoese lire to the four agenti (representatives) of the community for the cost incurred during their travel to Genoa on behalf of the community itself.48 This situation did not change significantly in the following years: poor-relief activity was always marginal.49 As a result, the support that inhabitants could receive was modest; the most important intervention was related to abandoned babies, a widespread practice in times of crisis when the extreme poverty of many peasant families made it impossible to feed even one more mouth.50 However, there was also an indirect form of support. Almost all the arrears arose from rent on land belonging to the hospital. Some tenants benefitted from the massari’s tolerance and, sometimes after several years (even decades), settled their debts: this testifies to the fact that debtors did not always have fraudulent intentions. As a result,

47 See ACB, Congregazione di carità, 1. The massari did not follow a double-entry bookkeeping method. In the first part of the register, they recorded rents due, and payments made by tenants (fos. 1–104), while in the second part (from fo. 105), they reported incomes and expenditures following a cash accounting principle. 48 ACB, Congregazione di carità, 1, fos. 107 and 116. 49 ACB, Congregazione di carità, 1. Unfortunately, in the period following Bishop

Lomellini’s death, accounting entries are less accurate, thereby preventing a detailed analysis of revenue and expenses. 50 The number of abandoned orphans was sporadic and not apparently related to economic cycles. In 1750, one orphan was assisted, two in 1755, one in 1761 and 1768 and again two in 1770. (ACB, Congregazione di carità, 1).

4

ORGANIZING CHARITY: SOCIAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES …

117

the charitable role, in the broadest sense, of the institution expanded, albeit in a different direction from the intentions of the founders.51 Apart from the management problems common to other poor-relief structures of the period, our analysis of the activity of this organization reveals its substantial ineffectiveness vis-à-vis the real needs of the population. Therefore, it was unable to offer concrete help to the poorest people in the community. In other words, this is a typical example of how the supply of assistance failed to match demand. Having lost its initial charitable function of assisting lepers, pilgrims, and wayfarers, the Opera di San Lazzaro e Ospedale did not readapt to meet the actual needs of the community. A change of pace occurred during the Napoleonic period, with the creation of the bureau de bienfaisance (municipal charity office) and the subsequent interventions of the Kingdom of Sardinia after the Congress of Vienna.52 Nevertheless, despite the modest efficacy of local poor relief, after the fluctuations of the previous period, the population stabilized at levels close to those of the early seventeenth century (536 inhabitants were counted in 1777), a sign of a balance achieved between population and resources, despite the lack of any structural change in the local and regional economy.53

6

Concluding Remarks

Charitable organizations in small towns and villages of the Genoese dominio, where about three-quarters of the state’s population lived during the early modern period, were promoted, funded, and managed at a local level through intermediate bodies without systematic supervision by state authorities. As a result, these institutions were firmly anchored to the specific context; they enjoyed wide margins of discretion, although this did not turn out to be a strong point, giving rise to mismanagement. This localism also produced a lack of integration and cooperation among institutions operating in the very same area. In other words, the

51 ACB, Congregazione di carità, 1 and 2. 52 ACB, Congregazione di carità, 2; Regia Segreteria degli Affari Interni (1841, p. 248)

and Statistica del Regno d’Italia (1868, pp. 12–13). 53 ASG, Archivio Segreto, 1428. Modest growth was recorded in the following period: in 1803 Brugnato had 570 inhabitants. See Costantini (1973, p. 348).

118

A. ZANINI

principles of autonomy, independence, horizontal subsidiarity, and solidarity that inspired poor-relief organizations outside the city capital, often resulted in archaic and ineffective structures. Even when there was an effort to improve efficiency, this was directed—at best and with varying degrees of success—at mitigating indigence, without effectively counteracting the causes. A more radical approach in this respect would have required a more structured and incisive involvement of the central government to compensate for the weaknesses of local bottom-up initiatives. Instead, the intervention of the Republic was sporadic, often prompted by economic downturns when the ruling class feared that the rising cost of living and food shortages could push a mass exodus of the poor from the countryside to Genoa, leading to the collapse of the city’s social support system and endangering public order. Apart from these exceptional circumstances, the state did not have the will, or perhaps the strength, to intervene to structurally reform social support systems in the peripheral districts in a systemic way, as happened in the city capital. As a result, in most villages and small towns, there is no form of poor relief to support the local population. Even when one or more charitable institutions existed, in many cases the supply of support was structurally insufficient to meet demand. Consequently, poor-relief activity was unable to significantly mitigate the widespread poverty that characterized the territory of the Republic of Genoa during the pre-industrial age.54

Archival Sources Archivio Comunale di Brugnato (ACB): Congregazione di Carità, 1 and 2. Parte Antica, 15. Archivio di Stato di Genova (ASG): Archivio Segreto, 1428. Camera del Governo e Finanze, 819, 821, 822, 967. Giunta di Giurisdizione, 120. Magistrato delle Comunità, 835. Senato, Sala Bartolomeo Senarega, 1076.

54 On this aspect, see Oddo and Zanini (2022).

4

ORGANIZING CHARITY: SOCIAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES …

119

Published Sources Chiappe, Mario, ed. 2013. La diocesi di Brugnato nelle visite pastorali di mons. Nicolò Mascardi (1579 e 1581–82). Genova: Quasar. L’antica diocesi di Brugnato nelle visite pastorali dei vescovi Lomellini e Tatis. Luoghi della Val di Vara e del Tigullio nel XVIII secolo, attraverso le carte dell’Archivio Vescovile. 2006. Sarzana: Biblioteca Niccolò V. Tomaini, Placido. 1964. Attività pastorale di Filippo Sauli vescovo di Brugnato (1512–1528). Città di Castello: Unione Arti Grafiche. Tomaini, Placido. 1985. La visita apostolica della Diocesi di Brugnato nel 1582. Chiesa Locale. Rivista diocesana La Spezia-Sarzana-Brugnato 57 (1–2): 21– 28.

References Acemolgu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. 2012. Why nations fail? The origins of power, prosperity and poverty. London: Profile Books. Alfani, Guido. 2011. The famine of the 1590s in Northern Italy: An analysis of the greatest “system shock” of sixteenth century. Histoire & Mesure 26 (1): 17–50. Alfani, Guido. 2020. The economic history of poverty, 1450–1800. In The Routledge history of poverty, c.1450–1800, ed. David Hitchcock and Julia McClure, 21–38. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. Assereto, Giovanni. 1999 [1985]. L’amministrazione del Dominio di Terraferma, New ed. In Le metamorfosi della Repubblica. Saggi di storia genovese tra il XVI e il XIX secolo, ed. Giovanni Assereto, 9–76. Savona: Elio Ferraris. Avallone, Paola, Gemma Teresa Colesanti, and Salvatore Marino, eds. 2019. Alle origini dell’assistenza in Italia meridionale. Istituzioni, archivi e fonti (secc. XIII–XVII). Special issue of RiMe. Rivista dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Europa Mediterranea n.s. 4 (1): 5–199. Bacigalupi, Marcella. 2018. Offerta e domanda di istruzione nel territorio della Repubblica aristocratica di Genova: variazioni nel tempo e nello spazio geografico (1528–1797). Quaderni di Intercultura 10: 4–16. Benvenuto, Grazia. 1980. Una magistratura genovese, finanziaria e di controllo: il Magistrato delle Comunità. La Berio 20 (3): 18–42. Bonfigli, Casimiro. 1979. L’ospedale Sant’Andrea, La Spezia, 1479–1979. Genova: Agis. Borsari, Gino. 1967. L’Ospedale Civile di S. Antonio di Ovada nel centenario della sua seconda fondazione. La Provincia di Alessandria 14 (5): 27–30. Bottero, Lorenzo. 2005. Brevi note sull’Ospedale S. Antonio di Ovada. Urbs. Silva et flumen 18 (4): 249–253. Bruzzone, Michele. 1908. Il Monte di pietà di Genova, 1483–1810. Cenni storici. Genova: Sordomuti.

120

A. ZANINI

Bruzzone, Laura, and Roberto Santamaria. 2000. Gli ospedali medievali della Val Polcevera e dell’Oltregiogo: osservazioni preliminari sulle problematiche poste dalla ricerca sul terreno. Studi Genuensi n.s. 16 (2): 43–58. Bulferetti, Luigi, and Claudio Costantini. 1966. Industria e commercio in Liguria nell’età del Risorgimento (1700–1861). Milano: Banca Commerciale Italiana. Calvini, Nilo, and Cuggè Antonio. 1996. La Confraria di Santo Spirito, gli Ospedali e i Monti di Pietà nell’area intemelia e sanremasca. Sanremo: Casabianca. Carboni, Mauro, and Edward Loss, eds. 2021. Oltre la carità. Donatori, istituzioni e comunità fra Medioevo ed Età contemporanea. Bologna: Il Mulino. Clark, Gregory. 2007. A farewell to Alms: A brief economic history of the world. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. Costantini, Claudio. 1973. Comunità e territorio in Liguria: l’inchiesta dell’Instituto Nazionale. In Territorio e società nella Liguria moderna. Studi di storia del territorio, ed. Diego Moreno and Massimo Quaini, 291–363. Firenze: La Nuova Italia. Costantini, Claudio. 1978. La Repubblica di Genova nell’età moderna. Torino: Einaudi. De Moro, Gianni. 2007. I “monti di pietà” nel ponente ligure tra Cinque e Seicento. Il caso di Dolcedo. Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria n.s. 47 (1): 115–138. Di Raimondo, Armando. 2011. Il Monte di Pietà di Gavi della Confraternita di N.S. Assunta dei Turchini. Genova: Erga. Di Raimondo, Armando. 2012. Il Monte di Pietà di Voltri. La Casana 54 (2): 32–35. Donati, Pierpaolo. 2009. What does ‘subsidiarity’ mean? The relational perspective. Journal of Markets & Morality 12 (20): 211–243. Felloni, Giuseppe. 1998 [1977]. Italy, New ed. In Scritti di Storia economica, ed. Giuseppe Felloni, vol. II, 1139–1174. Genova: Società Ligure di Storia Patria. Felloni, Giuseppe. 1998 [1988]. Distribuzione territoriale della ricchezza e dei carichi fiscali nella repubblica di Genova, New ed. In Scritti di Storia economica, ed. Giuseppe Felloni, vol. I, 199–234. Genova: Società Ligure di Storia Patria. Felloni, Giuseppe. 2007. Le attività finanziarie. In Storia della Liguria, ed. Giovanni Assereto and Marco Doria, 132–152. Roma and Bari: Laterza. Ferrando, Francesca. 2019. Le istituzioni assistenziali della Repubblica di Genova. In La Misericordia a Genova e il suo Magistrato. Istituzioni e società tra XV e XVIII secolo, ed. Isabella Merloni and Andrea Lercari, 125–152. Genova: Sagep. Firpo, Guido. 1984. Il monte frumentario di Novi. Note d’archivio. Novinostra 24 (1): 3–18.

4

ORGANIZING CHARITY: SOCIAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES …

121

Gatti, Carlo. 1972. Una congiuntura difficile: 1677–78. Approvvigionamenti e consumi di grano nella Repubblica di Genova. Università degli Studi di Genova. Annali della Facoltà di Giurisprudenza 11: 135–166. Giacchero, Giulio. 1979. Il Seicento e le Compere di San Giorgio. Genoa: Sagep. Gregorini, Giovanni, Luciano Maffi, and Marco Rochini, eds. 2018. I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Grendi, Edoardo. 1970. Genova alla metà del Cinquecento: una politica del grano? Quaderni Storici 5 (1): 106–160. Grendi, Edoardo. 1983. La distribuzione della ricchezza privata nel territorio della Repubblica dei Genovesi attorno al 1630. Miscellanea storica ligure 15 (1): 301–313. Grendi, Edoardo. 1987 [1982]. Ideologia della carità e società indisciplinata: la costruzione del sistema assistenziale genovese (1460–1670), New ed. In La repubblica aristocratica dei genovesi. Politica, carità e commercio fra Cinque e Seicento, ed. Edoardo Grendi, 281–306. Bologna: Il Mulino. Imperiale, Francesca. 1993. Assistenza privata ad Albenga nel ’500: alcune osservazioni sulle fondazioni di Giovanni Battista Cazzulini, Bernardo Ricci e Mariettina Lengueglia. Rivista Ingauna e Intemelia 48: 29–33. Imperiale, Francesca. 1998. Assistenza privata e assistenza pubblica nel periodo francese: l’esempio dell’Eredità Mariettina Lengueglia di Albenga. In Loano 1795. Tra Francia e Italia dall’Ancien Régime ai tempi nuovi, 447–461. Bordighera: Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri. Imperiale, Francesca. 1999. Confréries, charité et assistance: la création de l’hôpital d’Albenga (1588). In Fondations et œuvres charitables au Moyen Âge, ed. Jean Dufour and Henri Platelle, 317–323. Paris: Éditions du CHTS. Malandra, Guido. 1995. I Monti di Pietà del Finale. In Studi in omaggio a Carlo Russo nel suo settantacinquesimo compleanno, 239–263. Savona: Società Savonese di Storia Patria. Massa, Paola. 2021 [1991]. Assistenza e credito alle origini dell’esperienza ligure dei monti di pietà, New ed. In Fattori identificanti dell’economia ligure e della società genovese (secoli XV–XIX), ed. Paola Massa, vol. III, 1103–1122. Genova: Società Ligure di Storia Patria. Massa, Paola. 2021 [1999]. Banchi ebraici e Monti di Pietà in Liguria. Bilancio storiografico e prospettive di ricerca, New ed. In Fattori identificanti dell’economia ligure e della società genovese (secoli XV–XIX), ed. Paola Massa, vol. III, 1123–1140. Genova: Società Ligure di Storia Patria. Oddo, Luigi, and Andrea Zanini. 2022. The paradox of “Malthusian urbanization”: Urbanization without growth in the Republic of Genoa, 1300–1800. European Review of Economic History 26 (4): 508–534. Palmero, Giuseppe. 2000. Le strutture ospitaliere intemelie nel basso medioevo. L’Ordine del Tempio ed altri fenomeni di religiosità assistenziale. Intemelion. Cultura e territorio 6: 5–32.

122

A. ZANINI

Pesce, Giovanni, and Giuseppe Felloni. 1976. Genoese coins: The artistic and economic history of genoese coins between 1139 and 1814. Genova: Stringa. Petti Balbi, Giovanna. 2013. Il sistema assistenziale genovese alle soglie dell’età moderna: l’Ufficio di Misericordia (secoli XIV–XV). Reti Medievali Rivista 14 (2): 111–150. Piana Toniolo, Paola. 2012. Il Monte Frumentario dell’Annunziata di Ovada. Urbs. Silva Et Flumen 22 (2): 113–115. Podestà, Emilio. 1997. La visita pastorale ad Ovada di Monsignor Alessio Marucchi (1752). Parte I. Urbs. Silva et flumen 10 (3): 116–121. Polonio, Valeria. 2004. Ubi karitas, ibi pax: l’aiuto al più debole. Secoli IX–XVII. In Storia della cultura ligure, ed. Dino Puncuh, vol. I, 311–368. Genova: Società Ligure di Storia Patria. Redoano Coppedè, Gino. 1980–1982. Le vie di comunicazione nell’estrema Liguria orientale nell’età moderna e contemporanea. Università degli Studi di Genova. Annali della Facoltà di Scienze Politiche 8–10: 181–252. Regia Segreteria degli Affari Interni. 1841. Relazione a S. M. sulla situazione degli istituti carità e di beneficenza, dopo l’editto 24 dicembre 1836. Torino: Stamperia Reale. Rossi, Piero. 1975. Il Monte di Pietà di Sassello. Quaderno dell’Associazione Amici del Sassello 3: 5–16. Saginati, Liana. 1979. Aspetti di vita religiosa e sociale nelle campagne liguri: le relazioni al Magistrato delle Chiese Rurali. Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria n.s. 19 (1): 229–300. Savelli, Rodolfo. 1984. Dalle confraternite allo stato: il sistema assistenziale genovese nel Cinquecento. Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria n.s. 24 (1): 171–216. Savelli, Rodolfo. 2003. Scrivere lo statuto, amministrare la giustizia, organizzare il territorio. In Repertorio degli statuti della Liguria (secc. XII–XVIII), ed. Rodolfo Savelli, 1–191. Genova: Società Ligure di Storia Patria. Silvano, Mario. 1982. Il Monte di pietà in Novi. Novinostra 22 (1): 9–18. Statistica del Regno d’Italia. 1868. Le opere pie nel 1861, vol. II: Compartimento della Liguria. Firenze: Le Monnier. Tachella, Paolo. 2018. L’Albergo dei Poveri di Genova. Vita quotidiana, continuità e cambiamento di un’ “azienda benefica” tra Sette e Novecento. Genova: Stefano Termanini. Tomaini, Placido. 1957. Brugnato città abbaziale e vescovile. Documenti e notizie. Città di Castello: Unione Arti Grafiche. Zanini, Andrea. 2005. Strategie politiche ed economia feudale ai confini della Repubblica di Genova (secoli XVI–XVIII). “Un buon negotio con qualche contrarietà”. Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria n.s. 45 (3): 5–238. Zanini, Andrea. 2018. “Di pie fondazioni abbonda lo stato”. L’assistenza nel dominio genovese a metà Settecento. In I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale

4

ORGANIZING CHARITY: SOCIAL SUPPORT STRUCTURES …

123

del XVIII secolo, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, 229–241. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Zanini, Andrea. 2019. Filantropia o controllo sociale? Le opere assistenziali di un feudatario del Settecento. In Ianuensis non nascitur sed fit. Studi per Dino Puncuh, vol. III, 1387–1408. Genova: Società Ligure di Storia Patria. Zanini, Andrea. 2020. La Superba: Its institutions and fortune. In A superb baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750, ed. Jonathan Bober, Piero Boccardo, and Franco Boggero, 5–21. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. Zolesi, Domenico. 1844. Ospedali di S. Lazzaro e di S. Antonio di Brugnato. Rivista Ligure. Giornale di Lettere, Scienze ed Arti 2 (1): 399–403.

CHAPTER 5

The Ritual Economy: Charity and Worship in Early Modern Lombardy Emanuele C. Colombo

1

What Is Inside Charity? The Charitable Assets

If we take a high-level overview of social support during the Old Regime, we see the extensive development of hospitals and other charitable institutions (luoghi pii), and mass stipends, scattered throughout a predominantly rural territory. The number and dimensions of charitable institutions are currently difficult to assess, as is the value of the assets they controlled. Before dwelling on the mechanisms that give life to the enormous number of social bodies in early modern Europe, I am interested in taking a look at the assets of charitable organisations. I will examine three case studies chosen from among the great variety of Lombard charitable and religious organisations, the first two ecclesiastics, the third secular: an altar, a collegiate church, and a charity (‘luogo pio’).

E. C. Colombo (B) Catholic University, Milan, Italy e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 G. Gregorini et al. (eds.), Social Support Systems in Rural Italy, Palgrave Studies in Economic History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24303-5_5

125

126

E. C. COLOMBO

The first is the altar of the Beatissima Vergine del Santissimo Rosario, located in the parish of S. Maria Assunta di Ghemme, whose construction began in 1666 and which, according to reports relating to a pastoral visit in 1749, housed at that time seven chapels.1 The chapels were all seats of chaplaincies, and mass could be celebrated in each of them. One of them, the Beatissima Vergine, contained an altar on which an ecclesiastical benefice was set up in 1690 with an endowment of 9,308 lire to finance a daily mass in perpetuity.2 Historians have paid very little attention to altars as socioeconomic structures, despite their importance. As has been shown in part, however, in the Old Regime, European churches experienced a sort of invasion, which led to an exceptional endowment of masses. Where were all these masses celebrated? Since the central altar was already occupied, the lateral ones were used from time to time. The overcrowding of masses was such that, as Chiffoleau has shown, there were frequently more chaplaincies than side chapels, so at times a succession of masses was celebrated by different chaplains at the same altar.3 Another answer to the growing number of masses was the fragmentation of the sacred space: once the altars of a given church were all occupied, another church could be built specifically to accommodate a different mass stipend.4 It should be borne in mind that the altars were in effect subjects endowed with juridical personality, which could therefore inherit, sue, and own property. For example, Cohn reminds us of the case of a chaplain, Ser Petrus, who in 1500 Siena made a will to rebuild a chapel in the cathedral, with a new name, changing it from San Iacomo Interciso to the Conception of the Virgin Mary, where he would also be buried. After changing its name, the chaplaincy became the owner of an extensive landed property, the income of which was to be used to pay the chaplain. Ser Petrus chose his nephew, establishing that after his death the title must follow

1 Archivio storico Diocesano di Novara (hereinafter ASDN), Pastoral Visitations, bishop Roero Sanseverino, 269, 2/8/1749. 2 ASDN, Teche parrocchie, Ghemme, 1, Inventario del reddito di beneficio di messa cotidiana eretto all’Altare della Beatissima Vergine del Santissimo Rosario, 1690. 3 Chiffoleau (1980, p. 332). Michel Vovelle speaks explicitly of “sacred invasion”, and calculates that in 1720 Provence an average of 400 masses were financed by will, Vovelle (1973, p. 125). 4 See Torre (1995).

5

Table 1

THE RITUAL ECONOMY: CHARITY AND WORSHIP IN EARLY …

127

The assets of the Beatissima Vergine del Santissimo Rosario altar

Instrument

Amount (lire)

Interest (lire)

Debtor

Censo (credit instrument) Censo Censo

4.4 1,942.5 698.15

125.8 97.2 34.18

Censo Censo Censo

500 400 383.13

25 20 19.3

Censo Censo

325 300

16.5 15

Censo

250

12.11

Censo

160

8

Censo Annual income

100

5 14

Community of Sizzano Pietro Girolamo Nasi Brothers Pietro, Carlo e Giovanni Nolli (of Ghemme) Bordigotto Batta Zuon Gio. Batta Ferrari (Ghemme) Agent of marquis Busca Scarpia Brothers (Ghemme) Cura Brothers (Ghemme) Giovanni Domenico Farozzi (Ghemme) Batta Seraffino Community of Ghemme

Source ASDN, Pastoral Visitations, bishop Roero Sanseverino, vol. 269, 2/8/1749

his male lineage, thus building his descendancy on the privatisation of a sacred space.5 Let us look at the assets of the altar (Table 1). The altar consisted of a series of credits, almost all of which were censi (census contracts), which gave an annual income, quite high for the period (almost 4% interest), which was used to fund a daily mass. It is not surprising that there was some confusion between chaplaincy and credit in the State of Milan at that time, the two institutions looked very similar to one another.6 Obviously, worship or charity could also be financed by other types of income, as we will see shortly. But credit plays

5 Cohn (1988, p. 108). 6 Colombo and Dotti (2011, p. 73). It is a similar case: capital entirely composed of

credit instruments, in the community of Musso near Como, whose income is used to pay a daily mass. The chaplaincy was considered in the same way as a credit, and indeed was subject to the same state tax on loans.

128

E. C. COLOMBO

a particular role: as we know, being a ‘fragile’ resource, it needed to be protected.7 Allocating it to mass stipends could serve this purpose. We are struck by two elements of such accumulation: the first, that credit instruments of various kinds (private and public) were commonly intermixed to constitute a monte. The second, the broad spread of credit culture. Lending money while receiving a consolidated debt instrument and an annuity in return was an investment strategy widely practised by very large segments of the population.8 Let us completely change the scenario and observe a church, this time of considerable size: the collegiate church of San Biagio in Codogno. Also in this case, it seems to me that research on collegiate churches is relatively scarce, apart from (mostly) dated works of Anglo-Saxon historiography.9 Literature has certainly tended to focus on cathedrals (which are themselves collegiate) and above all chantries. Perhaps the scarcity of studies was determined by the fact that, in general, the history of law has struggled to analyse foundations and associations together as the same phenomenon. Yet collegiate schools represent exactly the unity of these two elements: they are associations of bodies that owe their origin to pious legacies (they are thus also foundations). It could also be said that the church itself is a foundation, even though it is also a college.10 It should be noted that the individual foundations, which took the form of chantries, also provide for a right of patronage: they therefore function as chaplaincies with the obligation of celebrating masses. As we will see, the collegiate church was built in 1633 by means of a first bequest that subsequently also elicited others. After a few years, the situation was as follows (Table 2).

7 See Cerutti (2015) and Dotti (2016). 8 On credit culture in the early modern period see Muldrew (1998), Wrightson (2000),

Finn (2003), and Smail (2016). 9 See Burgess and Heale (2008), who note that “Lack of understanding and of any particular interest in what may, for convenience, be referred to the collegiate form, has left us ignorant, not only concerning the extent of institutional overlap but also an entire sector”, p. XIII. See also the classic studies of Cook (1959), Edwards (1969), and Denton (1970). 10 Feenstra (1956), Michaud-Quantin (1970), Schiera (1986), Haggh (1996), and Rigon (2007). For Fantini, the concept of collegium was treated by canonists as “the lowest level of a collective body with relevance to the common good of society”, Fantini (2010, p. 169).

Folli family

Bartolo Martinenghi Bartolo Martinenghi Giacomo Folli

Gabriele Gimmo (1646)

Bartolo Martinenghi (1618, later ratified in 1636)

San Gabriele

Annunciation and San Teodoro

Antonia Belloni (widow of Girolamo Martinenghi)

Holy See

Bartolo Martinenghi

San Pietro Apostolo and Vincenzo San Carlo San Giovanni Battista San Giacomo Chantries built later Sant’Antonio abate

San Francesco

Provost Andrea Cornali and Ottaviano Ugoni Paolo Martinenghi

S. Andrea Apostolo

37 perches

37 perches in Corno Giovine, 14 in Cassina de Pizzamigli, 10 at Fossadazzo, 4 at Crianna + censo of 5,050 lire 7 perches + credit instruments (4,293 lire) 43 perches + 400 lire of credit instruments A farm of 196 perches and a censo of 436 lire

Goods

(continued)

Maddalena and Isabella Ferrari A censo of 1,900 lire later (daughters of Antonia and Girolamo) resumed in 20 perches; 32 perches; three censi of 787 lire; a censo of 100 ducatoni toward Codogno Bernardo Lodesano’s heirs 24 perches; a censo of 604 lire; a credit instrument of 325 lire Chapter See first erection

Stefano Re of Cremona (Ugoni’s heir) Albini Family (Heirs)

Pio Albergo Trivulzio

Cardinal Teodoro Trivulzio Cardinal Teodoro Trivulzio

S. Agostino San Giovanni Evangelista

Patronage (1814)

Founder

The chantries of San Biagio collegiate (Codogno)

Chantries (1635)

Table 2

5 THE RITUAL ECONOMY: CHARITY AND WORSHIP IN EARLY …

129

Provost Gaspare Domenicani (1658) Girolamo Magni (1680)

San Bernardo

Gio.Batta Marianno (1707)

San Gioseffo and Giulio

Visitation SM Elisabetta

Marianno’s heirs

Belloni’s heirs

Gioseffo Belloni and his heirs

Magni’s heirs

Domenicani’s heirs

Patronage (1814)

Source Diocesan Archives of Lodi, Parishes, Codogno S. Biagio, b. 5, 3/10/1814

Giacinto and Gaspare Domenicani, nephews of Gaspare (1681) Giulio Belloni (1698)

San Bonaventura

San Girolamo

Founder

(continued)

Chantries (1635)

Table 2

21 perches + 30 perches and a censo of 300 lire Three credit instruments of 3,000, 1,200 and 600 lire Four credit instruments of 600, 2,100, 2,000 and 200 lire 82 perches, half in Codogno and half at Cassina Grande with 9 hours of water 39 perches + 10 perches

Goods

130 E. C. COLOMBO

5

THE RITUAL ECONOMY: CHARITY AND WORSHIP IN EARLY …

131

This table accounts for the complexity of the ritual construction behind the collegiate. It should also be considered that the chantries do not exhaust the totality of the bequests, since there was also a series of pious legacies that provided a foundation for numerous masses. The assets here are more balanced than those of the Ghemme altar. There are credit instruments, but farms are in equal measure. Bequests may in general seem tenuous in relation to the foundations they bring to life. The first one by Bartolo Martinenghi establishes three chantries on 130 perches of land, a capital of 659 lire, and a plot of 90 perches.11 Evidently, this was enough to provide the annual 150 imperial lire prebend required at the time for creating a chantry. Perhaps it is surprising how a mechanism as complex as a collegiate church can be brought into being by what is, all in all, an apparently small amount of resources. However, they were very valuable resources at the time. The price of land endowed with irrigation rights remained high in Codogno throughout the early modern period,12 which highlights the ease of establishing rents and therefore financing masses and charities.13 One should reflect more in-depth on the relations between the value of the land and worship, two elements that seem to be closely linked especially in this area. The constitution of chantries, but more generally of mass stipends and charities, is certainly favoured, I would say almost driven, by land values that remained high even during the seventeenth century. The rota d’acqua was a key element in irrigation rights.14 The production of religion and charity and the high income from the land are two phenomena proceeding in parallel. As an example, one could consider the foundation of a second-erected canonry in 1698 by Reverend Giulio Belloni, a priest at the Schiappetta,

11 Perches (pertiche) are units of either length or area that vary from region to region. In this case they are units of area used in the Lodi region measuring 716 square metres. 12 See Colombo (2008, pp. 158–166). 13 It should be noted that at the beginning of the fifteenth century, within the village

of Codogno, 97% of the property was owned by rural people, i.e., residents of the community, Roveda (1985, p. 7). 14 That is, the right to a certain canal offtake flow rate (regulated by a weir) for a certain number of hours. At the beginning of the seventeenth century this was generally 16 days. For an explanation of how the rota worked see Roveda (1979, pp. 56–57).

132

E. C. COLOMBO

a farmstead with an oratory outside Codogno.15 The income from 82 perches of land, that he allocates for the purpose, serves to guarantee the canonical prebend (75 lire per year), the residence (180 lire), and also to establish a certain number of masses to be celebrated in the church of the Reverend Fathers of St. George. The masses had to be paid for with the economic surplus remaining each year from the financing of the canonry, which is indeterminate given a series of variable elements such as taxes, maintenance costs, and so on.16 The land was valuable, as it had several and expensive irrigation rights. The use that Giulio makes of the land is at least twofold, namely to both found the canonry and establish a mass within the convent of San Giorgio. Finally, I will consider a charitable work of a community in the Novara countryside, Trecate. In 1762 the charitable institution called LeonardiTornielli had an endowment as follows (Table 3). As can be seen, the endowment has a financial nature, with a clear prevalence of the community of Trecate among the debtors. In 1762, the community’s debt towards the charity reached 3,927 lire of annual income. The public debt played a role of great importance for all charities in Spanish Lombardy, especially starting from the mid-seventeenth century, when it increased significantly. Rural communities, in particular, had released a considerable amount of debt expressed in census contracts (censi), which were almost always perpetual, namely mortgage debt guaranteed by land or future tax collection. Census contracts were credit instruments that could only be redeemed by the initiative of the debtor, who was required to pay the interest regularly (often onerous, especially at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and then in constant decline also thanks to two initiatives of the State, in 1636 and 1668, which fixed public lending rates at 5% and 2.5%, respectively).17 Despite the financial difficulties of many rural communities, the duration of a census contract was typically very long, frequently lasting more 15 Communal Archives of Lodi, Notarile Lodi, notary Pompeo Belloni, 48b–48e,

Testamentum D.R. Julii Belloni, 19/2/1698. 16 Giulio provides “as many masses as can be celebrated with said surplus with alms to be calculated at the rate of 28 imperial lire each month, including in said alms the maintenance of wax, wine, vestments, and other goods necessary for the celebration of said masses”, ibid. 17 Faccini (1988, pp. 54–60).

70.50 28.00

270.00 50.00 447.00

3 4

5 5

150.00

1744

315.00

4.5

5

1741

1,663.00

3

1746

1722

1721

1720

1718

1718

1622

–

25.56

2

– –

Year of stipulation

462.00

Annuity (lire)

3

Interest rate %

The assets of pious work Leonardi-Tornielli in 1762

Noble house in Milan worth 22,000 lire Half of a census contract of 31,800 lire owed by the community of Romentino Half of a census contract of 2,556 lire owed by the Royal Chamber of Milan Half of a census contract of 110,886 lire owed by the community of Trecate Half of a census contract of 14,000 lire owed by Mrs. Margarita Dossena and Ottavio Bianchi, mother and son Half of a census contract of 4,700 lire owed by the community of Galliate Half of a census contract of 700 lire owed by the grandchildren Migliavacca One eighth of rights to the Porto di Boffalora with a value of 1,375 lire Half of a census contract of 10,800 lire owed by the community of Trecate Half of a census contract of 1,000 lire owed by the Monte di San Francesco of Milan Portion of the 18th part that is obtained annually from the rent of stadere by the State of Milan Census contract owed by the community of Trecate, 3,000 lire

Goods

Table 3

(continued)

5 THE RITUAL ECONOMY: CHARITY AND WORSHIP IN EARLY …

133

100.00 560.00 7.36 275.00 35.80 22.28 200.00 1.52 9.05 25.00 120.00

5 4 4 5 5 4 5 4 5 5 4

Census contract owed by Bartolomeo Cristina, 2,000 lire Census contract owed by the community of Trecate, 14,000 lire The Abbot Eriprando Visconti owes the residual price of the Cassina Mirabella, 184 lire Census contract owed by Giuseppe Mora, 5,500 lire Census contract owed by Pietro Bressa, 716 lire, the remainder of a loan of 1,000 lire Fabrizio Rosina owes 557 lire The co-owners of Roggia Mora owe a capital of 4,000 lire Giacomo Perone owes the residual price of 38 lire for 7 pieces of land sold at public auction Isidoro Brambilla owes the residual price of 181 lire for 9 pieces of land sold at public auction Stefano Vecchio owes 500 lire (maybe censo) Census contract owed by the confraternity of S. Antonio de Morti in Galliate, 3,000 lire

Annuity (lire)

Interest rate %

(continued)

Goods

Table 3

1752 1752 increased by 1,000 lire in 1761

1752

1751

1749 1750

1748 1748

1747

1747 renegotiated 1760 1747

Year of stipulation

134 E. C. COLOMBO

644.00 26.00 12.00 32.00 220.00 394.48

50.00 50.00 20.00 35.00 15.80

4 5 4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5 5

Census contract owed by the community of Trecate, 16,105 lire Census contract owed by Francesco Vallone, 520 lire Census contract owed by Ludovico Marchesi, 300 lire, for the purchase of a house Census contract owed by Giuseppe Visigone, 802 lire, for the purchase of a house Census contract owed by the Daughters of Charity of Trecate, 5,500 lire Census contract owed by Giuseppe Mariotta of Grignasco, 9,862 lire, for the purchase of agricultural land Census contract owed by Francesco Ulietto of Pernate, 1,000 lire Census contract owed by the brothers Gaudenzio and Paolo Lorenzoni, 1,000 lire Census contract owed by Pietro Bolla, 400 lire Census contract owed by Michele Zanotto, 700 lire Census contract owed by Marchese Giovanni Giorgio Serponte, 316 lire

Annuity (lire)

Interest rate %

Goods

1760 1760 1760

1760

1760

1759 renegotiated 1762

1757 renegotiated 1759 1759

1755 1755

1754

Year of stipulation

(continued)

5 THE RITUAL ECONOMY: CHARITY AND WORSHIP IN EARLY …

135

4 4 5 4.5 4.5

owed by the community of Trecate,

owed by the community of Trecate,

owed by Carlo Taddo, 300 lire owed by Giuseppe Zeno 400 lire owed by Giovanni Battista Bellazzo,

Census contract 15,000 lire Census contract 1,000 lire Census contract Census contract Census contract 2,000 lire

Source ASDN, Pastoral visitations, bishop Balbis Bertone, vol. 329, 1762

Interest rate %

(continued)

Goods

Table 3

15.00 18.00 90.00

40.00

600.00

Annuity (lire)

1762 1762 1762

1761

1760

Year of stipulation

136 E. C. COLOMBO

5

THE RITUAL ECONOMY: CHARITY AND WORSHIP IN EARLY …

137

than a century. Two important questions are raised here: how did highly indebted communities manage to pay interest for such a long period; and how was it possible that rural communities were able to sell their census contracts quite easily, despite the risk of being insolvent. An answer can be found by looking at investments. There was always a high demand for credit instruments. Why is this? Unfortunately, precise calculations are lacking: we would need a quantitative study on how consolidated debt in the hands of creditors was used. All credit instruments in the Old Regime were freely tradable on the secondary market, but above all they could be used to carry out a series of transactions. The way in which perpetual census contracts are used is linked to their annual interest, which is usually transformed into an annuity. What was this income for? In the Old Regime there was a dynamic conception of rent (contrary to what an outdated historiography has affirmed).18 Credit instruments typically found application in charity and worship, which covered a very wide range: from mass stipends and ecclesiastical benefices to dowries and the financing of the ‘ashamed poor’. In turn, charity and worship had a practical meaning: they served to achieve a variety of purposes, which very often fell within the scope of the household economy.19 In our case, the charity carried out another operation that was sometimes practised by such subjects: it began to redeem the debt of the community held by individuals and families.20 The decision was taken in the context of a synergy between the charity and the community aimed at guaranteeing the operation of the charity, on the one hand, and the liquidity necessary to the community, on the other. For example, in 1747 it received from the noble Antonio Cicogna a loan issued by the community of Trecate for 14,000 lire at 4% stipulated ten years earlier. In 1761 it carried out a similar operation with Giuseppe Fettarappa, from whom it received half of two credits, for a total of 1,000 lire, resulting from a loan sold to his father by the community in 1706 and 1708.

18 See at least Ago (1998), Todeschini (2002), and Fontaine (2008) on the dynamic use of credit instruments. 19 See Ciuffreda (1988), Gavitt (1988), and Cavallo (1995, pp. 173–181). 20 For another case, concerning Lodi, see Colombo and Dotti (2011).

138

E. C. COLOMBO

Afterwards the Caccia-Tornielli charity became the community’s lender of last resort. This made it also the main protagonist of municipal politics, an importance increased by the exclusivity regime in which the charitable institution carried out its welfare and educational activities.

2

For a Sociology of Pious Legacies

What do these three charitable organisations have in common? We can summarise it in a concept: namely, the fact of having ‘purposed capital’, aiming at financing charitable and religious activities. In the early modern period, charity and worship were comparable and to be considered on the same level: historiography has shown that, on an ideological level, both were motivated by the salvation of the souls and connected to the belief in purgatory carrying over from the late Middle Ages.21 According to the currently most influential historiographical interpretation, pious works served to decrease the number of days one’s soul would have to spend in purgatory. The history of the separation between charity and religion is quite recent, and to be found in a series of eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury reforms focusing on social utility, also posing a very significant problem of transformation of the pious legacies considered out of date to social ends.22 But there is a deeper similarity, namely that both charity and worship are founded by means of pious legacies (which, not surprisingly, are sometimes also called ‘lasciti pro anima’, an expression that highlights their spiritual aspect). The pious legacies enjoyed great success during the early modern period, until they became the most used means of providing charity and instituting masses. How did a pious legacy work? The pious legacies were enacted by the wills, and documents connected to them (codicils). The charity of the Old Regime was large of testamentary origin, and therefore subjected to 21 Chiffoleau (1980), Le Goff (1981), Burgess (1998), Cohn (1988), Duffy (1992), Eire (1995), and Tingle (2012). “Most intense charitable activity was manifested in the period when the concepts of purgatory of the efficacy of prayers for the dead and of the spiritual utility of good works were being defined, discussed and more widely taught”, as noted by Rubin (1986, p. 11). For Rousseau (2013, p. 63), “The intrusion of such charitable provision within the frame of chantry foundation was a practical result of the belief in the beneficial aspects of prayers for the salvation of souls resting in purgatory”. 22 For Italy see Brandileone (1911), Lepre (1988), Torre (1995), Farrell-Vinay (1997), and Semeraro and Gregorini (2019).

5

THE RITUAL ECONOMY: CHARITY AND WORSHIP IN EARLY …

139

the typical problems of the will, and in particular that of its execution.23 Charity and testaments are strictly related: wills function (also juridically) as statutes of pious works. A fundamental characteristic of early modern charity is that it was carried out by means of institutions. Starting in the late Middle Ages, direct donations to the poor dwindled and the practice of using an existing institution or founding one to do charity prevailed. Early modern wills are full of pious legacies, many of which have the purpose of founding an institution. Nothing is precluded, and there are provisions that attempt, even with few resources, to found even very demanding entities. Historians have frequently explained this propensity to giving through the idea of intercession, that is, the use of charitable bodies within the context of salvation: the aim is for an institution to intercede (by means of masses or charitable acts) on behalf of the soul of the deceased. However, this interpretation is influenced by a purely cultural analysis of charity, and does not significantly investigate its juridical and economic dimensions. A pious legacy is first of all a contract, which imposes a series of conditions on the institutions that receive it. The patrimony is ‘donated’ but with specific agreements, concerning both the obligations to be carried out (masses, charity) and the control of the assets. On the first point, it should be noted that obligations must obviously fall within a specific juridical perimeter, that of salvation for the soul. Not everything is financeable, of course. There were actually pious legacies that pushed this concept of ultra-earthly salvation to the extreme. Just to give an example, in 1727 Count Casati made a pious legacy aimed to reimburse people who had lost money from investing in Milanese public debt in the previous century.24 More generally, the ranks of the ashamed poor, expanding since the end of the fifteenth century, allowed an enlargement of the charitable perimeter.25 In particular, the pious legacies were more directly aimed at close or extended family members. A typical case 23 On testamentary execution, see Trexler (1971), Kuehn (1994), and Pammer (2000). 24 Colombo (2019). 25 On the ashamed poor, see Trexler (1973), Spicciani (1981), Cavallo (1995, p. 112), and Ricci (1996). Many institutions shifted to financing the ashamed poor during the seventeenth century, among which were major urban confraternities (like the Compagnia di San Paolo of Turin or the Congrega della carità apostolica in Brescia). In spite of its importance, the subject has received little attention from historiographers.

140

E. C. COLOMBO

was to finance dowries for poor girls within the circle of the extended family.26 What were the obligations imposed on social bodies in pious legacies? As mentioned above, there is a charitable perimeter, which consists mainly of two sectors: worship, that is mass stipends, and charity in the strict sense, especially financing of dowries.27 Furthermore, pious legacies can be used in various ways for creating social bodies. Whether a pious legacy as such is or is not endowed with juridical personality is a matter of discussion, but it probably must also be said that the issue of juridical personality is less important than what historians and jurists seem to believe; or, more than anything else, it was taken for granted by the actors of the time, who saw in any resource the possibility of transformation into a social body.28 In this sense, pious legacies can be categorised into two main groups: modal bequests and pious foundations, with the caveat that a modal pious legacy in certain circumstances can easily be converted into a body (the transformation of masses into an ecclesiastical benefice, for example, it is very simple, even if it was not initially foreseen29 ). There could be various kinds of foundations. First, on the side of testator, they can be the result of an universal legacy or one bequest relating to only a part of the estate. Secondly, one can decide to found a body within a larger structure (as in the case of the altar of Ghemme within a parish) or to create a foundation from scratch. Some great universal bequests serve this last purpose: among many other

26 For an example of a dowry fund financed by a family for their own lineage, through aid schemes for the ashamed poor, see Tigrino (2004). 27 On the importance of dowry funds see Cohn (1997, p. 34) and Tikoff (2008, p. 313): in Seville 219 separate dowry funds were identified between 1500 and 1778; for the Florentine case, where a specific credit institution (the Monte delle doti) was created by the State to manage the issue, see Kirshner and Molho (1978). 28 On the problem of juridical personality of causae piae see Casoria (1937), Feenstra (1956), Condorelli (1964) and Otaduy (2015). Imbert (1947, p. 110) notes that, according to canonists, hospitals can only acquire legal personality through the authorisation of the bishop. The theme is connected also to the one of persona ficta. As has been highlighted, the creation of persona fictae was also an answer to the problem of indebtedness: transferring juridical personality to goods was instrumental in recovering credit, see Buono (2020). 29 The typical case found in wills is that of a daily mass convertible into a benefice in the case of a relative who wants to become a priest.

5

THE RITUAL ECONOMY: CHARITY AND WORSHIP IN EARLY …

141

cases, one can mention the Pio Albergo Trivulzio, founded through the universal legacy of Gallo Trivulzio’s family, who remained without direct descendants.30 As mentioned, constituting a body by means of a pious legacy was very easy, and there was no minimum sum required. As regards the cult, the price was based on the cost of the masses fixed by the bishop. The creation of a considerable quantity of bodies also led to a phenomenon of stratification: especially in the larger structures, a myriad of bodies coexisted, each with its own rules. At the end of the seventeenth century, an institution such as the Compagna di San Paolo of Turin boasted thirty-three distinct charitable works, each of which with its own logic of behaviour.31 In this case, a college was also a body which contains other bodies, showing us that, in the Old Regime, collegial and foundational aspects were closely linked. But there were also cases of universal inheritances going entirely to pre-existing entities without coalescing into a body. Here we may cite the Carnevale inheritance, left to the Tortona Hospital in 1625,32 or that of the merchant Giovanni Pietro Carcano (through a very peculiar tutelage mechanism) bequeathed to the Ospedale Maggiore of Milan in 1624. These are inheritances that are even larger than all the pre-existing assets, a fact that upended the administration of the hospitals and completely reworked their management model by imposing a series of important obligations and investments. It is no coincidence that Carcano is said to be the second founder of the Ospedale Maggiore.33 As mentioned above, relatively few resources were enough to set up even complex entities, as in the case of the San Biagio collegiate church of Codogno. At its origin was the testament of Bartolo Martinenghi drawn up by the notary Francesco Maria Zani on 4 December 1618, through which he financed two daily masses to be celebrated at an altar specifically founded for the purpose. The will established that by “the parish church [becoming] a collegiate church with a chapter, provost and canons, it is possible to change the pious legacy into a chantry and in this case only one

30 See Cosmacini and Cenedella (1994). 31 Colombo (2013). This structure refers obviously to the political theory of Althusius. 32 Graziano (2009). 33 Carcano’s bequest has not yet been studied. For references see Cosmacini (1999, p. 101).

142

E. C. COLOMBO

daily mass will be celebrated”. Furthermore, “In the absence of the heirs, half of the assets will go to the Magnificent Community of Codogno with the obligation to transfer the aforementioned assets to the provost and to the canons”.34 When Bartolo died childless in 1623, this is precisely what happened: the community became heir provided they erected a collegiate church. Later documents are absolutely explicit on this point, especially a dispute between the cleric Gio. Batta, a member of Belloni’s family, and the priest Gio. Batta Alberici (last Martinenghi heir). In 1774, the latter argued before the Giunta economale that the patronage belonged by right to Martinenghi’s descendants. Belloni, on the other hand, maintained that it belonged to the community, which intended to appoint him as canon. The community can be considered heir because, by virtue of the replacement codicil in Bartolo’s will, it generated the collegiate church: “when he died childless he re-assigned half of his estate to the Magnifica Comunità with the obligation to erect the aforementioned church of S. Biagio in the collegiate church”. The community became heir by an action that transforms the pious legacy into a complex social body such as a collegiate church. In this way, the bequest is ‘communitarised’ and half of it falls under the patronage of Codogno. Moreover, another portion of the bequest also belongs to the community to endow six girls each year, and finally a fourth to the Rubbiati family (another family lineage). The final reckoning: three out of four parts belong to Codogno. Belloni would win the case before the Giunta economale. Following Bartolo’s bequest, a series of actors helped him found the collegiate church, which was erected on 6 March 1633 by Pope Urban VIII. The first among them was the feudal lord of Codogno, Prince Teodoro Trivulzio, who supplied the income for two other chantries. Don Andrea Cornali (rector of the church), Paolo Martinenghi, and Giacomo Folli did the same in 1624, each for a canonry. A number of other legacies would follow, up to a total of sixteen chantries, eight for the first erection and eight for the second.

34 See Colombo (2015).

5

3

THE RITUAL ECONOMY: CHARITY AND WORSHIP IN EARLY …

143

The Sociology of Obligations

The obligations were able to tie the goods together, converting them to purposed capital. The basic management of a charitable organisation consisted of obtaining the necessary income to satisfy the conditions set out in the pious legacies. The economy of charity is grounded on rent, as it is aimed at exploiting the assets to give a constant return over the years. It should not be forgotten that the most widespread form of pious legacy was perpetual, with eternity as its horizon. A constant income capable of lasting over time acquires even greater importance here. The affirmation of eternity in giving comes together with the removal of the poor individual as a subject who can directly receive bequests, which go instead to the ‘poor in collective name’. The juridical discussion of the obligations was widespread throughout the early modern period. According to Zabarella, the conditions expressed in the pious legacies were almost inviolable (once accepted: we remember that the recipient could refuse them, which happened more frequently than we think) and could only be changed by the Pope: Per solam sedem apostolicam potest res deputata ad unum usum pium, converti ad alium.35 This also explains the frequent pleas sent by churches and charitable works to the Pope to ask for a reduction in the burden of masses.36 Ritual finance was the backbone of the activity of many charitable works during the Old Regime. This could lead to various difficulties. In particular, the resources intended to fulfil the obligations could deteriorate over time. In general, charitable works tried to strike a perfect match between purpose and resources. Not only were the resources aimed at achieving a specific purpose, but the religious or pious purpose could also restore deteriorated assets, allowing them to function again. This is particularly evident in the realm of credit: the juridical status of unpaid instruments improved when transferred to charitable works. In short, we are in the presence of a circularity between resources and obligations, which can be well represented by referring to the case of the Caccia-Tornielli charity. In 1762, the Caccia-Tornielli outlays were distributed among six dowries (300 lire), the salary of the school teacher (400 lire plus a house), the cost of an apothecary and medicines (250 plus 60 lire), of a surgeon 35 “Only through the Apostolic See can things assigned to one pious purpose be converted to another”, Imbert (1947, p. 80). 36 Costa (1972) and Colombo and Dotti (2014).

144

E. C. COLOMBO

(150 lire), and “of a physician to keep a horse to better serve the sick in the countryside” (55 lire). Moreover, the bequests financed four masses every week (104 lire), one mass in the parish every Monday (52 lire), and a perpetual legacy in favour of the chaplain of San Giacinto (10 lire). Finally “4,405 lire, after deducting the necessary repairs to be made to the two houses described above, are dispensed to the poor sick people of the community”. The bond created between community and pious body is of a circular nature. Using loans to communities bends the financial instruments to needs responding to their public nature, namely to finance local assistance. In turn, this could ensure the functioning of the charitable work, which had the money for its activities through a constant and timely payment of interest. At the same time, the charitable work, considering the municipality as a good customer, was willing to provide it with other loans, which would be used to broaden the perimeter of charity. One could define it as a virtuous circle, which starts with credit and reaches the institutions. At the same time, the same credit instruments were more solvent, thanks precisely to this circularity. As they were being used to finance local worship and charity, the community had the greatest interest in meeting the deadline for payments. Under these circumstances, the pressure from residents of the community to pay regularly was evidently very high. Pious legacies were motivated by an idea of improving the remaining assets, as we know from the testament drawn up in 1733 by Giovan Battista Leonardi a few days before his death. He appointed his nephew Carlo Maria Tornielli as heir and his grandsons and co-heirs the Padulli brothers as executors, imagining a complex mechanism for the foundation of two bodies, the opera pia Tornielli and a congregation of nuns. The public debts that had been in the hands of the Leonardi family for at least a century were the core of the bequest. The Leonardi was in fact a family of tax collectors, who had managed the revenues of Trecate and other communities in the Novara area in the most difficult years of the midseventeenth century, when many communities rapidly became insolvent. In this situation, the Leonardi had not been able to fully collect what they were owed and thus decided to consolidate the remaining debt in census contracts towards the community. The establishment of the charitable work years later represents, in a certain sense, the perfect way to manage those credit instruments and to make their payment easier.

5

THE RITUAL ECONOMY: CHARITY AND WORSHIP IN EARLY …

145

In the Leonardi case, the family lineage went extinct in 1733. It should be noted that bequests were frequently subject to a right of patronage (iuspatronatus ), which essentially granted control to the family. This is the case, in particular, in ecclesiastical benefices, in which the patronage was configured as the right of presentation by the testator’s family. The patronage was undoubtedly a powerful and flexible tool and could be used for several purposes: to create a lineage, to reward a particular relative, and to facilitate inheritance. The common theme of all resource transfers via pious legacy is the idea that those resources will be bolstered. Carcano chosen the Ospedale Maggiore and the Fabbrica del Duomo as guardians of his son as he believed that his wealth would be better managed in that way. Many individuals entrusted financial instruments to charitable works so that they could make annuities for their wives, i.e., a possible future widow. Canon law, at various points, seems to prove the testators right, as well as the concrete practice of hospitals, monasteries, and brotherhoods, which were formidable collectors and managed to get paid where a private individual could not. Behind a deteriorated credit, one can always glimpse the possibility that it will be given to a charitable work, or even that it will be used to found one. An example here is the pious legacy left by a canon of the collegiate church of San Biagio in Codogno, Luca Trimerio, in his will drawn up by the notary Paolo Girolamo Ferrari on 7 December 1666.37 In it, there are various dispositions and pious legacies, including the foundation of a college for the education of clerics and an Ursuline monastery. But it is another disposition, concerning a third foundation, that strikes us. Trimerio’s attentions regard an oratory, which he intended to find through an action of recovering the credit entrusted to the institution itself. Trimerio orders that the right to collect has to be returned to the other heirs if the credit is not retrieved within four years: “Leave the oratory to be erected under the title of S. Filippo Neri, within the term of the next four years. All the credit that this testator has against the heirs of the quondam sig. Gio Andrea Torniello has to be collected, with the reason of using it as the testator, on condition that by not recovering

37 State archives of Milan, Culto p.m., cart. 903, fasc. n. 864, Cairo Pietro rappresentante il suo diritto sul beneficio Trimerio in Codogno, reclama contro la nomina fatta ad esso nel chierico Gio. Dragoni, al quale vorrebbe sostituito un suo figlio per nome Ilario e chiede pure gli avanzi di vacanza del beneficio stesso.

146

E. C. COLOMBO

it within said term it will return ipso facto to the heirs without further notice”. Obviously, behind this operation lies the conviction that a credit can be recovered more easily not only by a religious institution, but by virtue of the very fact of founding one. The provision throws a very harsh light on some important issues: the total instrumentality of credit, which must serve some purpose beyond itself; the focus on celebrations (it is an oratory, which would have used the credit for masses); and a true eagerness to create foundations, which shows us how the creation of social bodies in the Old Regime was an everyday operation, extremely simple to carry out. So much so that it can also be based on uncertain credit, and be contingent, i.e., linked to the fulfilment of certain conditions. Obviously, Luca Trimerio was in the ideal conditions to do so, not least of all because he was the mayor of the collegiate chapter.

References Ago, Renata. 1998. Economia barocca: mercato e istituzioni nella Roma del Seicento. Roma: Donzelli. Brandileone, Francesco. 1911. I lasciti per l’anima e la loro trasformazione: saggio di ricerche storico-giuridiche. Venezia: Premiate officine grafiche di C. Ferrari. Buono, Alessandro. 2020. Tener persona: Sur l’identité et l’identification dans les sociétés d’Ancien Régime. Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 75 (1): 75–111. Burgess, Clive. 1998. Fond thing vainly invented: An essay on purgatory and pious motive in late medieval England. In Parish, church and people: Local studies in lay religion, 1350–1750, ed. Stephen Wright, 56–84. London: Hutchison. Burgess, Clive, and Martin Heale, ed. 2008. The late medieval English college and its context. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. Casoria, Giuseppe. 1937. De personalitate juridica piarum causarum in evolutione juris Romanorum usque ad divi justiniani compilationem. Molfetta: Scuola Tip. Per Sordomuti Nell’istituto Prov. Apicella. Cavallo, Sandra. 1995. Charity and power in early modern Italy: Benefactors and their motives in Turin, 1541–1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cerutti, Simona. 2015. La richesse des pauvres. Charité et citoyenneté à Turin au XVIIIe siècle. In Appartenance locale et propriété au nord et au sud de la Méditerranée, ed. Sami Bargaoui and Simona Cerutti. Paris: Open Edition Books. Chiffoleau, Jacques. 1980. La comptabilité de l’au-delà: les hommes, la mort et la religion dans la région d’Avignon à la fin du Moyen Age (vers 1320-vers 1480). Roma: École française de Rome.

5

THE RITUAL ECONOMY: CHARITY AND WORSHIP IN EARLY …

147

Ciuffreda, Antonio. 1988. I benefici di giuspatronato nella diocesi di Oria tra XVI e XVII secolo. Quaderni storici 67: 37–71. Cohn, Samuel. 1988. Death and property in Siena, 1205–1800: Strategies for the Afterlife. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Cohn, Samuel. 1997. The cult of remembrance and the black death: Six renaissance cities in central Italy. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Colombo, Emanuele C. 2008. Giochi di luoghi. Il territorio lombardo nel Seicento. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Colombo, Emanuele C. 2013. La Compagnia di San Paolo e le dinamiche del credito fra età moderna e prima metà dell’Ottocento. In La Compagnia di San Paolo, 1563–2013, vol. I, ed. Walter Barberis, 577–612. Torino: Einaudi. Colombo, Emanuele C. 2015. La fortuna di essere poveri. Carità e servizi a Codogno in età moderna. In Generatività del bisogno. Casi di finanza e servizi in Lombardia (XVII–XX secc.), ed. Pietro Cafaro. Milano: Angeli. Colombo, Emanuele C. 2019. Class action. Convocare il debito pubblico a Milano, XVIII secolo. Quaderni storici 162: 765–799. Colombo, Emanuele C., and Marco Dotti. 2011. Oikonomia urbana. Uno spaccato di Lodi in età moderna (secoli XVII-XVIII). Milano: FrancoAngeli. Colombo, Emanuele C., and Marco Dotti. 2014. L’economia rituale. Dalla rendita alle celebrazioni (Lodi, eta’ moderna). Quaderni storici 147: 871–903. Condorelli, Mario. 1964. Destinazione di patrimoni e soggettività giuridica nel diritto canonico. Contributo allo studio degli enti non personificati. Milano: Giuffrè. Cook, George Henry. 1959. English collegiate churches of the Middle Ages. London: Phoenix House. Cosmacini, Giorgio. 1999. La Ca’ Granda dei milanesi. Storia dell’Ospedale Maggiore. Roma-Bari: Laterza. Cosmacini, Giorgio, and Cristina Cenedella. 1994. I vecchi e la cura. Storia del Pio albergo Trivulzio. Roma: Laterza. Costa, António Domingues de Sousa. 1972. Hospitais e albergarias na documentação pontifícia da segunda metade do século XV. In A pobreza e a assistência aos pobres na Península Ibérica durante a Idade Média. Actas dals Jornadas Luso-espanholas de História Medieval, Lisboa, 25–30 de Setembro de 1972 1: 259–327. Denton, Jeffrey. 1970. English royal free chapels, 1100–1300: A constitutional study. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Dotti, Marco. 2016. Il mercato dell’incertezza: pratiche sociali e finanziarie viste attraverso la lente di una grande confraternita urbana. Bologna: Il mulino. Duffy, Eamon. 1992. The stripping of the altars: Traditional religion in England, c1400–c1580. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

148

E. C. COLOMBO

Edwards, Kathleen. 1969. The English secular cathedrals in the Middle Ages: A constitutional study with special reference to the fourteenth century. New York: Manchester University Press. Eire, Carlos. 1995. From Madrid to Purgatory. The art and craft of dying in sixteenth-century Spain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Faccini, Angelo. 1988. La Lombardia fra ‘600 e ‘700: riconversione economica e mutamenti sociali. Milano: F. Angeli. Fantini, Maria Grazia. 2010. La riflessione medievale sulla persona giuridica: la causa pia. Venezia: Marcianum Press. Farrell-Vinay, Giovanna. 1997. Povertà e politica nell’Ottocento: le opere pie nello stato liberale. Torino: Paravia/Scriptorium. Feenstra, Robert. 1956. L’histoire des fondations. À propos de quelques études récentes. Tijdschrift Voor Rechtsgeschiendensis 24: 381–448. Finn, Margot C. 2003. The character of credit: Personal debt in English culture, 1740–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fontaine, Laurence. 2008. L’economie morale: pauvreté, crédit et confiance dans l’Europe préindustrielle. Paris: Gallimard. Gavitt, Philip. 1988. Charity and children in Renaissance Florence: The Ospedale degli Innocenti, 1410–1536. Ann Arbor: UMI. Graziano, Monica. 2009. Il lascito Carnevale nella storia dell’Ospedale di SS. Antonio e Margherita di Tortona. Iulia Dertona 99: 171–204. Haggh, Barbara. 1996. Foundations or institutions? On bringing the Middle Ages into the history of medieval music. Acta Musicologica 68: 87–128. Imbert, Jean. 1947. Les hôpitaux en droit canonique (du décret de Gratien à la sécularisation de l’administration de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Paris en 1505). Paris: J. Vrin. Kirshner, Julius, and Anthony Molho. 1978. The dowry fund and the marriage market in early Quattrocento Florence. The Journal of Modern History 50: 404–438. Kuehn, Thomas. 1994. Law, family and women: Toward a legal anthropology of Renaissance Italy. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. Le Goff, Jacques. 1981. La naissance du Purgatoire. Paris: Gallimard. Lepre, Stefano. 1988. Le difficoltà dell’assistenza: le opere pie in Italia fra ‘800 e ‘900. Roma: Bulzoni. Michaud-Quantin, Pierre. 1970. Universitas: Expressions du mouvement communautaire dans le Moyen-Âge latin. Paris: Librairie philosophique Vrin. Muldrew, Craig. 1998. The economy of obligation: The culture of credit and social relations in early modern England. London: Macmillan. Otaduy, Javier. 2015. La universitas rerum como soporte de la personalidad en el derecho canónico. Ius Canonicum 55: 47–89.

5

THE RITUAL ECONOMY: CHARITY AND WORSHIP IN EARLY …

149

Pammer, Michael. 2000. Death and the transfer of wealth: Bequest patterns and cultural change in the eighteenth century. Journal of Social History 33 (4): 913–934. Ricci, Giovanni. 1996. Povertà, vergogna, superbia: I declassati fra Medioevo e età moderna. Bologna: Il mulino. Rigon, Antonio. 2007. Scuole, confraternite e ospedali In Pensiero e sperimentazioni istituzionali nella «Societas Christiana» (1046–1250). Atti della sedicesima Settimana internazionale di studio (Mendola, 26–31 agosto 2004), ed. Giancarlo Andenna, 407–427. Milano: Vita & Pensiero. Rousseau, Marie-Hélène. 2013. Saving the souls of medieval London: Perpetual chantries at St. Paul’s Cathedral, c.1200–1348. London: Routledge. Roveda, Enrico. 1979. Una grande possessione lodigiana dei Trivulzio fra Cinquecento e Settecento. Ricerche di Storia moderna, Aziende e patrimoni di grandi famiglie (sec. 15–19), 25–140. Pisa: Pacini. Roveda, Enrico. 1985. La popolazione delle campagne lodigiane in età moderna. Archivio Storico Lodigiano 104, special issue. Rubin, Miri. 1986. Charity and community in medieval Cambridge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schiera, Pierangelo, ed. 1986. Società e corpi. Napoli: Bibliopolis. Semeraro, Riccardo, and Giovanni Gregorini. 2019. Destini legati. Lasciti e pratiche economiche nelle chiese italiane tra XIX e XX secolo: Il caso di Mondovì. Quaderni Storici 162: 801–830. Smail, Daniel Lord. 2016. Legal plunder: Households and debt collection in late medieval Europe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Spicciani, Amleto. 1981. The poveri vergognosi in fifteenth-century Florence: The first 30 years’ activity of the Buonomini di S. Martino. In Aspects of poverty in early modern Europe, 119–182. Firenze: Le Monnier Tigrino, Vittorio. 2004. L’eredità Canevari. Il lascito di Demetrio Canevari da “sussidio” familiare a Opera pia. La storia e il patrimonio documentario. In Saperi e meraviglie. Tradizioni e nuove scienze nella libreria del medico genovese Demetrio Canevari, Catalogo della Mostra, ed. Laura Malfatto and Elena Ferro, 63–72. Genova: Sagep. Tikoff, Valentina K. 2008. Gender and juvenile charity, tradition and reform: Assistance for young people in eighteenth-century Seville. Eighteenth-Century Studies 41 (3): 307–335. Tingle, Elizabeth. 2012. Purgatory and piety in Brittany: 1480–1720. Farnham: Ashgate. Todeschini, Giacomo. 2002. I mercanti e il tempio. La società cristiana e il circolo virtuoso della ricchezza fra Medioevo ed età moderna. Bologna: Il Mulino. Torre, Angelo. 1995. Il consumo di devozioni: religione e comunità nelle campagne dell’ancien regime. Venezia: Marsilio.

150

E. C. COLOMBO

Trexler, Richard. 1971. Death and testament in the episcopal constitutions of Florence (1327). In Renaissance. Studies in honor of Hans Baron, ed. Molho, Anthony and John Tedeschi, 29–74. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press. Trexler, Richard. 1973. Charity and the defense of urban elites in the Italian communes. In The rich, the well born, and the powerful: Elites and upper classes in history, ed. C. Frederic Jaher, 64–109. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Vovelle, Michel. 1973. Piété baroque et déchristianisation en Provence au XVIIIe siècle: les attitudes devant la mort d’après les clauses des testaments. Paris: Plon. Wrightson, Keith. 2000. Earthly necessities: Economic lives in early modern Britain. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

CHAPTER 6

Social Support Systems in Imperial Fiefdoms Luciano Maffi

1 Historiographical and Interpretive Coordinates Historiography has thoroughly studied the social support systems developing since the late Middle Ages in the major north-western cities of the Italian peninsula. In the eighteenth century the social support systems of Milan, Turin, and Genoa were well developed and diversified, addressing numerous temporary or consolidated needs associated with health, microcredit, abandoned children, education for children, elder care, the structural poor, and the contingent poor.1 These systems were quite complex in terms of sources of the services; providers and their 1 Defining the “poor” is very complex and Italian historiographers have long debated the question. The sources themselves, such as fiscal sources, used many different words to indicate and classify them (a high percentage of the population in the modern period belonged to this category). See the discussion in Garbellotti (2013, p. 68). Many people lived at a subsistence level, as defined by Hufton in 1974. In her work on the poor of eighteenth-century France, Hufton identified and explained the concept of “informal relief”; she also argued that an “economy of makeshifts” characterized broad rural areas

L. Maffi (B) Department of Economics and Management, University of Parma, Parma, Italy e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 G. Gregorini et al. (eds.), Social Support Systems in Rural Italy, Palgrave Studies in Economic History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24303-5_6

151

152

L. MAFFI

motivations were many and varied, ranging from individuals (providing services during the course of their life or posthumously via testamentary bequests), families, confraternities, religious orders, or trade corporations to parishes, communities, or regional states.2 Italian historiographers have employed various methodologies in studying these systems.3 The basic needs of rural populations were not per se different from those of city dwellers, but the difference in numbers and density naturally influenced the nature and distribution of support services among different geographical communities.4 And given the dissimilarities in the number of providers of social support and their financial means, with respect to their counterparts in urban areas, the social support systems in rural areas were often less structured and less advanced, rooted in the typical support services existing since the Middle Ages.5 This study reconstructs the social support systems in imperial fiefdoms in the diocese of Tortona.6 The study of imperial fiefdoms in the

of France, where many workers and individuals were forced to make two types of choices: seasonal migration, mendicancy. See also the introduction and essay in Tomkins and King (2009). See a discussions of the poor in McIntosh (2012), Hindle (2004), and Tomkins (2006). 2 On confraternities, see: Dompneir and Vismara (2008), Toscani (2009), Zardin (1981), and Montanari (2001). 3 Reference to the entire bibliography on the theme is beyong the scope of this book, however there are a number of works that bear mention for their historiographic methodological rigour: Torre (1999, 2011), Dotti (2010), Brambilla (2001), Grendi (1983), Cavallo (1995), Pastore (1986), Cerutti (2012), Turchini (1999), and Bressan (1998). For an up-to-date and exhaustive bibliography on these topics, please also consult: Albini (2016) and Garbellotti (2013). 4 English-language historiography has dedicated a great deal of attention to this subject, using a particularly effective vocabulary for expressing the complexity of the problem. See McIntosh (2012), Lloyd (2010), Krausman Ben-Amos (2008), Hindle (2004), Pullan (1988, 1996), and Innes (1999). 5 On social support systems in rural areas, see: Maffi et al. (2018), Maffi (2018), and Maffi and Rochini (2016). 6 In numerous studies Angelo Torre has pointed out a number of issues with pastoral visits as a source of study of philanthropic bequests (luoghi pii), bringing out also the jurisdictional nature of these visits. In this regard see Torre (1999). Similar observations are found in Turchini (1999), who writes on p. 375: “The visits raise problems of recognition of power: institutional conflict is a political question, for the ecclesiastic institution and for the bishop, but equally so for the visited entities, classes, communities, the state; by touching on religious legitimacy […] one touches on the sphere of action of the entities and, before that, the power of those performing the action within the context of

6

SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN IMPERIAL FIEFDOMS

153

area in question was inaugurated by Alessandra Sisto with her work I feudi imperiali del Tortonese published in 1956.7 A foundational study for anyone undertaking research into these estates, it provides a detailed study of the jurisdiction of the fiefs, tracing their political and institutional development from the eleventh to the nineteenth century. It describes how, during the course of the modern period, the feudatory still held significant political power which often led to jurisdictional conflicts with states, wherein imperial fiefdoms had the status of bona fide enclaves. The Italian states (Republic of Genoa, Duchy of Milan, Savoy Piedmont) made repeated efforts to implement strategies to undermine the rights of the feudatories, who only recognized imperial power. Alongside many studies of local history,8 in recent years there has been renewed interest in the historiography of the imperial fiefs. A pioneer in terms of methodology and interpretive lines is Osvaldo Raggio, who dedicated studies to Apennine communities with a particular focus on family structures and the socioeconomic dynamics that characterized them.9 Further methodological and interpretative developments were advanced by Vittorio Tigrino.10 Starting from an examination of imperial fiefdoms in the Tortona region as unavoidable transit points between Genoa and the Po River Valley (Padana Plain), Tigrino studied the political and jurisdictional structure of the fiefs and the implications they had on trade between Genova and the Padana Plain, which was a principal lifeline in the local economy. As regards the study of more specifically economic themes, the essays of Andrea Zanini highlight the complexity of the systems of gathering resources and the role of feudatories.11

the community, their recognizability and internal cohesion, their possibibility for political expression and expression of interests, their very legitimation”. 7 Sisto (1956). 8 Local historiography has reserved particular attention for the study of imperial fief-

doms. These studies tend to favour desciption over criticism but are very important for the prosopographic reconstruction of the feudatories and their territory. See: Crosa di Vergagni (2008), Castignoli (2000), Kleckner (1996–1997), Tacchella (1996), Fiori (1995), Malaspina (1969), Nasalli Rocca (1963), and Artocchini (1963). 9 Raggio (1987, 1990, 2018). 10 Tigrino (2007a, b). See also the studies by Torre (2011, 2020). 11 Zanini (2005, 2011). Andrea Zanini focused specifically on support systems in

imperial fiefdoms in: Zanini (2019).

154

L. MAFFI

Having briefly outlined the historiographical framework and referenced key studies, the objective of this work is to shift attention from the more eminently jurisdictional, political, and religious aspects to those which concern the activities of the feudatories and the intermediate social bodies that gave form to local systems of social support.

2

Sources

The reconstruction of the development of social support systems in the imperial fiefdoms of the diocese of Tortona has relied on various types of documentary sources. Given that various different bodies were involved in such systems during the Old Regime, we felt it was opportune to make reference to documents produced by various social actors. In the first place, we concentrated on parochial reports, i.e., documents that parsons were required to draft, based on statements issued by the Council of Trent, on the occasion of pastoral visits announced by the local bishop. Among the questions the parson was required to answer, some related to social support works implemented in the parish. The reports also contained other information relating directly to social support and charitable practices. On the basis of the type of activity and the social actor promoting it, it is possible to obtain information regarding the role of the parish and of the parson and the role of the various actors who in some way contributed to social support systems within the parish.12 In order to circumscribe our analysis, we have chosen to limit this study to the parochial reports drafted by parsons in the diocese of Tortona on the occasion of two pastoral visits: the first one in 1741 by Giulio Resta, bishop of Tortona from 1701 to 1743, and the second one in 1743 by the Dominican Giuseppe Lodovico Andujar, bishop of Tortona from 1743 to 1782. Regarding the former, there are 210 extant reports out of a total number of parishes at the time of 218, representing a highly exhaustive 96.3% of such records. Andujar’s visit is more problematic, with 87 reports still existing from the same number of parishes (39.9%). While information is lacking for the majority of the parishes in this case, these reports are highly interesting because they contain a great deal of information lacking in those for the pastoral visit of 1741. In keeping with the zealous, hard-line spirit marking his career as inquisitor, Andujar prepared 12 For the decision to base the study on parochial reports, see: Maffi and Marco Rochini (2015).

6

SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN IMPERIAL FIEFDOMS

155

a much more detailed questionnaire than that distributed by Resta, going so far as to ask the parsons to list the books they possessed and those in the parish library.13 In addition to the parochial reports, other sources produced by actors relating to the social support systems in the area in question were considered. First of all, we analysed documentation regarding the mountain fiefdoms of the Doria Landi family.14 This documentation regards the activity of the feudal camera (body within the ministry of finance having authority over cameral feuds, i.e., feuds granted by a prince and having little jurisdictional or fiscal autonomy) in the eighteenth century. It gives us a broad overview of the activities performed by the feudatory—the predominant social support actor in the southern part of the diocese of Tortona—in structuring social support systems. The complex jurisdictional situation that characterized feudal estates in those areas in the modern period saw some families holding a feudal title and others having rights often as co-feudatories with condominium status in smaller localities. This was the case in towns such as Campi, Cavanna, Ottone, Moglia, Orezzoli, Barchi, Bertassi, Alpe, and Artana, in which in addition to the Doria there were also the Malaspina family of Pozzolo.15 These feudal camera documents regard land rentals and leases (livelli) in the highlands (“terre alte” ) of the Malaspina fiefs.

3

Imperial Fiefdoms in the Diocese of Tortona

The diocese of Tortona in the modern period was characterized by notable political and institutional complexity. The Tortona area was the scene of major political reorganization starting particularly in the eighteenth century. In 1738, following the Peace of Vienna, which put an end to the War of the Polish Succession, the zone fell under the dominion of Carlo Emanuele III of Savoy16 (Fig. 1). Control of the zone of Voghera and Valle Staffora shifted to the Savoy State in 1748 with the Treaty of 13 Maffi and Rochini (2019) and Stella (2006, pp. 191–192). 14 ADP, Scaffale 43, busta 35, int. 1 “Ottone. Imprestanze di grano, 1633-1741”;

ADP, Scaffale 71, busta 62, “Genova, Torriglia e Feudi di montagna, 1572-1745”. 15 Archivio del Comune di Godiasco Salice Terme, Fondo Malaspina di Godiasco, cart. 147; Archivio del Comune di Godiasco Salice Terme, Fondo Malaspina di Godiasco, cart. 149. 16 Ricuperati (1989, 1994, 2001).

156

L. MAFFI

Fig. 1 Imperial fiefdom in the context of North-Western Italy (Source Author and Graziano Bertelegni elaboration based on a 1770s map by Matteo Vinzoni)

Aix-la-Chapelle. The parishes between Rossiglione to the west and Monte Penna to the east were part of the Republic of Genoa at that time. Hence, in the period of the two pastoral visits we are considering, the diocese of Tortona was divided into three different political entities: the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Austrian Empire, and the Republic of Genoa. We must also not forget that the southern part of the diocese, bordering on the Republic of Genoa, was occupied by numerous imperial fiefdoms, political entities of varying size and importance that were autonomous from the bordering or surrounding states.17 Control of these political entities was in the hands of the feudatory who was bound directly by vassalage to the Holy Roman Emperor and administered justice, coined money, and recruited an army.

17 Regarding imperial fiefdoms in Italy, see: Cremonini–Musso (2010). Regarding imperial fiefdoms in the Tortona area, see: Tigrino (2007b, p. 45), Raggio (1990), and Sisto (1956).

6

SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN IMPERIAL FIEFDOMS

157

The parochial reports drafted for the pastoral visits of the bishops Resta and Andujar reveal that the diocese of Tortona was divided into eight ecclesiastic regions characterized by very different geographies. A part of the diocese was on the plain stretching from the Po River to the north and the Voghera and Tortona areas to the south. Another portion was in the foothills of the Apennines, extending from the Oltrepò Pavese through the Tortona hills and on to the hills of Ovada. The remaining part, where the imperial fiefdoms were located, were in the Apennines proper, distributed in the upper Valle Scrivia, Val Trebbia, Val d’Aveto, and Valle Staffora.18 The diocese may also be conceptually divided into two macro-areas by geography, socioeconomic characteristics, and politicalinstitutional features: the part contained within the imperial fiefdoms and the rest, the latter occupying the bulk of the territory. The politicalinstitutional features, whereby the imperial fiefdoms were similar to small rural states subject to direct imperial control, had a significant influence on the social and economic life of these areas. Feudality, which still in the mid-eighteenth century regulated social relations in the areas under imperial control, generated economic dynamics that were completely different from those in the remaining parts of the diocese. This political complexity was compounded by the different geographical and socioeconomic conformation of the areas making up the diocese of Tortona. Our analysis of the associated agrarian resources reveals the degree to which agriculture interacts with place, generating socioeconomic dynamics that are reflected in the development of social support systems. The geomorphological and climatic characteristics of the Apennine zones, which were also less fertile than the alluvial soils of the Padana Plain, conditioned the development of a landownership system and practices and distribution of agriculture that were very different from those on the flatlands. In these highlands, where landownership was primarily in the hands of feudatory families, the most common agricultural system was based on emphyteusis.19

18 For an analysis of the principal communication routes in these territories: Cavallera (2007), Torre (2007), Sisto (1956), and Maffi (2008, pp. 185–189). 19 An emphyteusis is a long-term or even permanent lease, normally relating to church or feudatory properties. It is illuminating in this respect to read the parochial report drafted by the parson of Pregola for the visit by Resta: “But these great numbers of souls are never all here in the parish, because this being a mountainous area and all the subjects emphyteutae of the feudal lords, they usually go, even whole families, to more fertile

158

L. MAFFI

As regards demographic aspects, reference was made to the following document: Status Sanctae Derthonensis Ecclesiae drafted by the episcopal chancery in 1759.20 At that time, the clergy in the diocese of Tortona amounted to 1,578 people out of a total population of 129,483,21 or one priest for every 82 inhabitants. The parochial reports reveal that just within the imperial fiefdoms in the diocese of Tortona, the total population distributed among 70 parishes amounted to 37,843 inhabitants and the number of clergies was 340, or one priest for every 111 inhabitants.

4 “By the Grace of God There Is No monte di carità Here”: The Role of the Clergy in Imperial Fiefdoms In order to understand the development of social support systems in the diocese of Tortona in the eighteenth century it is absolutely necessary to examine the role of the clergy as a body in the Old Regime class society assigned to fulfilling, in addition to its pastoral duties, also a significant civil and social function.22 There were significant differences among the clergy in the various regions composing the diocese of Tortona that did not simply regard the religious functions they performed in the local community, but also—and this is the aspect we seek to emphasize here—the perception that the clergy themselves had of their pastoral function. While there were zones in the large and varied diocese where the clergy clearly showed sensitivity to the socioeconomic problems weighing on life in the parish, in other areas differing by geographical and politicalinstitutional characteristics, this mentality of key player in the social support system appeared to be generally absent.

regions toward Milan to procure a living for about half the year or more, some even ten months, returning only in the summer”. The original citation is found in: ASDT, Visite pastorali, mons. Resta, F. 41, f. 1, cc. 293–299. 20 ASDT, F. 43, f. 8. 21 ASDT, F. 43, f. 8. 22 Regarding the role of the clergy as a social body fulfilling various functions in

Old Regime society, from strictly religious matters to civil concerns, see: Cozzo (2014), Toscani (1979, 1982, 1986), and Allegra (1981).

6

SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN IMPERIAL FIEFDOMS

159

This quantitative/qualitative approach, which accounts both for numerical data and the heterogeneous political-institutional and socioeconomic structure of the area that is the object of this study, is indispensable for going beyond a merely superficial understanding of the interaction that developed in some areas of the diocese of Tortona between the clergy and lay institutions operating within parochial confines. The recruitment system of clergy in the imperial fiefdoms, based principally on lay patronage (jus patronatus ) and thus on the appointment of the parson by the feudatory family,23 was extremely relevant in determining the role played by the parsons in the local communities. It was not by chance that many clerics native to these areas got their training far from their place of origin, either in the diocese of Tortona or prevalently in Genoa, Piacenza, or Milan. With few exceptions, the parsons in imperial fiefdoms were not involved in any social support or charitable activities, playing an exclusively spiritual function. This condition, completely different from that characterizing the role of clergy in the flatland portions of the diocese, where recruitment of clergy was only partly based on lay patronage, reflected significantly on how the Tortona clergy viewed their pastoral function. In this regard, it is particularly interesting to read how the parson of Rovegno, a town within a feudal fiefdom, described the work of the clergy under his control: “in succouring the moribund, they are almost all negligent, some assuring themselves that after performing the sacraments for the ailing, they are not obliged to do anything more”.24 Like the clergy, the confraternities active in parishes within the imperial fiefdoms performed no significant social support functions, creating a completely different situation from that observed in the flatland area of the diocese, where the confraternities played a prominent role both in matters of religion and in social support by operating, for example, grain banks and hospitals. In the area under imperial control, where the difficult economic situation forced the great majority of working-age males to migrate during the growing season to the Duchy of Milan or the Republic of Genoa in search of work, social support was fully in the hands of the feudatory

23 Regarding lay patronages in the modern period, see: Greco (1986). 24 ASDT, Visite pastorali, mons. Resta, Cabella (F. 41, f. 1, 29–35).

160

L. MAFFI

family, which distributed, in a top-down model, the resources necessary to allay possible social conflict caused by widespread poverty. This social support system, which was a component of the governance system of the feudatory families, also represented an insurmountable obstacle to the development of a community identity.25

5

Social Support Systems

The study of parochial reports allows us to analyse the development of the principal activities comprising social support systems in the Old Regime.26 In the seventy parishes we have examined, social support systems constituted by intermediate bodies—such as communities, parishes, corporations, confraternities, family groups, and individuals—appear to be completely absent. Where social support activities are observed, they are principally sponsored by the feudatories, thus granted from above.27 This distinguishes the situation in the imperial fiefdoms in the diocese of Tortona from other mountainous regions, where socioeconomically disadvantaged conditions with respect to the flat areas led to the development of social support networks composed precisely of these intermediate bodies, as was the case around Brescia. As for social support actions by feudatory families, of particular interest are the examples of Cabella Ligure and Carpeneto. In Cabella, a parish with a population of 1,400 and 11 priests, two social support activities are recorded: one was the “Opera di carità o suffragio dei poveri” [Work of charity or succour for the poor] funded by the Centurione Spinola family of princes, consisting of the distribution of sacks of wheat to make bread; the other was a hospital established by Duke Pallavicino with six beds, a physician, a surgeon, a pharmacist, and a chaplain. Cabella is also interesting as regards how the parson viewed his duties in the community. Describing the social support activities in his parish, the parson expressed

25 For more on community identity, see: Del Tredici (2013, pp. 78–82). 26 Regarding devotional practices, see: Garbellotti (2013, p. 90), Toscani (1995,

pp. 267–348), Krausman Ben-Amos (2008, pp. 82–95), and McIntosh (2012). 27 A particularly interesting episode in this regard occurred in 1718, when the marchese Pallavicini, feudatory of Cabella, was obliged to help the inhabitants with seed wheat, after the devastating famine that had stricken those areas in the previous years. This demonstrates the absence in these places of institutionalized social support structures, such as the mounts of piety. See: Sisto (1956, p. 145).

6

SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN IMPERIAL FIEFDOMS

161

his relief that “by the grace of God there is no monte di carità here”.28 This comment in the report for the bishop evidences how differently the parson saw his role in an imperial fiefdom than in other zones where the formal management of the social support systems was often included among the parson’s pastoral duties. Equally interesting is the case of Carpeneto, a parish of 304 inhabitants and one priest, which benefited from a testamentary bequest of 50 Genoese lire for the poor. The benefactor, who died without leaving any male heirs, was a member of the Carpeneto family. The parson’s report includes a description of the role of the local feudal prince in organizing social support systems. Indeed, Prince Doria authorized the seizure of the “possessions pledged” to the daughters, with the obligation of investing them to increase capital and dedicate it to helping poor souls.29 In his 1685 testament, Girolamo Spinola left to his poor subjects in the imperial fiefdom of Cantalupo, in Val Borbera, 1,000 lire to be distributed over the course of ten years “or sooner if deemed appropriate by my wife Girolama”.30 In the mid-eighteenth century, Count Gerolamo Fieschi, a Genoese patrician, ordered a hospital built in his fiefdom in Savignone, in Valle Scrivia, funding the construction and outfitting of a facility and endowing it with a significant annual income of 4,000 lire for operations.31 In Borgo Fornari, also in Valle Scrivia, Carlo Spinola, another Genoese aristocrat, lord of Borgo Fornari and Ronco in Valle Scrivia, and of Roccaforte, Vigo, and Centrassi in Val Borbera (this imperial fiefdom lies partially in the diocese of Tortona and partially in that of Genoa), destined a part of his estate in 1736 to the construction and operation of a hospital to provide care to the sick and aid to the needy. In addition to covering the construction and outfitting costs, Spinola then made binding stipulations regarding the assets from which the funds were to be taken, i.e., the perpetual incomes in his name on bonds from the Hôtel de Ville of Paris. This was a type of public security that was very popular among

28 ASDT, Visite pastorali, mons. Resta, Cabella (F. 40, f. 2, 295–297). 29 ASDT, Visite pastorali, mons. Resta, Carpeneto (F. 41, f. 1, 22–27). 30 ASDT, Visite pastorali, mons. Andujar, Cantalupo, Testament of Gerolamo Spinola

(F. 70, f. 1). 31 ASGe, Prefettura Sarda 249, fasc. 105, Comune di Savignone. See: Zanini (2019, pp. 1389–1390).

162

L. MAFFI

Genoese investors at the time, which the testator evidently felt was suitable for ensuring the necessary funds over time.32 These examples show how nobles did not consider the feudatory role solely in terms of prestige and power, but also intervened in the social and economic life of the lands they administered, showing a capitalist mentality not only when they sought to best exploit available resources, but also when they arranged support systems in favour of their subjects.33 Further evidence of the important role of the feudatory in social support systems is found in documents at the Archivio Doria Pamphilj in Rome. This documentation, dating to the end of the sixteenth century, gives us a long-term perspective on how the socioeconomic and political dynamics characterizing imperial fiefdoms remained largely constant over the centuries. The “Relazione fatta a S.E. da Gio Pietro Ricciardi Reggente delle sue Entrate, del stato dei suoi Feudi di Montagna” [Report to (His Eminence) by regent Gio Pietro Ricciardi of his income and the status of his fiefs in the mountains] dates to 1595. In it, Ricciardi stated that six poor girls in the fiefs of Valditrebbia (1593), Torriglia (1594), and Carrega (1595) were married every year thanks to dowries provided by Prince Doria. The names of ten of the poorest girls were put in a hat and six were drawn.34 The feudatory’s engagement in social support efforts was part of a broader project of social and political control. A fundamental institution by which the feudatory exercised their role is the feudal camera, an institution by which the feudatory exercised their jurisdictional rights. In the socioeconomic context of the imperial fiefdoms, the feudatory boasted monopoly rights over a broad variety of activities, including the milling of wheat, the use of preindustrial workshops and osterias, and leases on urban and rural lands. Based on the content of certain folders kept in the Archivio Doria Pamphilj in Rome we learn that the feudal camera also played the role of “social buffer”, for example, by lending grain in the event of a poor harvest.35 Here it performed a similar function to the grain banks elsewhere. And so it is not surprising that the parochial

32 Zanini (2019, pp. 1401–1402), De Felice (2004). 33 Maffi and Zanini (2022). 34 ADP, Scaffale 71, faldone 62, n. 7. 35 ADP, Scaffale 43, busta 35, int. 1 “Ottone. Imprestanze di grano, 1633–1741”.

6

SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN IMPERIAL FIEFDOMS

163

reports evidence the absence of this sort of formal support system in the imperial fiefdoms. Unlike the grain banks, which relied for their existence on the restitution of borrowed grain with interest in the form of some extra percentage, the main objective of the feudatory was to ensure the sowing and thus a harvest whence to obtain a tithe. Again in this specific case we note that in the area of our study, the social support system was implemented from above, by the feudatory, who sought to ensure some minimum of peace and social order. In the imperial fiefdoms of the Doria there were also hospitals/hostels, as was the case in Garbagna. The report drawn up for the visit of bishop Andujar in 1743 records “the hostel for pilgrims combined with the oratory of San Rocco with the obligation to host them”.36

6

The Belnome Forest

Another social support system implemented by the feudatory was to grant the use of a forested area to a part of the population. The principal use of these common lands was the chestnut harvest. In these mountain environments, the very nutritious chestnuts were a staple that could be eaten fresh or dried and ground into flour.37 An equally important use of the wooded areas was as a source of firewood and leaves, and for grazing livestock. Milk and other dairy products were generally sold to obtain money to pay for the milling of grain and chestnuts in mills owned by the feudal camera. The local population was forbidden to hunt or fish, these activities being reserved for the feudal lord and his functionaries.38 Of particular interest in understanding the relevance of the use of a natural resource such as a forest as a social support system for the local population is the analysis of a jurisdictional dispute over the rights to a wooded area located between Bertone and Belnome, towns situated on either side of Monte Alfeo.39 A demonstration of the role played in imperial fiefdoms by the local populations and by the feudatory may be found in the response to an uprising of the community of Belnome, following an 36 ASDT, Visite pastorali, mons. Andujar, Garbagna (F. 68, f. 11). 37 For a discussion of the importance of chestnuts for mountain communities in the

Old Regime, see Massa (1999, pp. 30–31). 38 Castignoli (2000, p. 335). 39 For the relevance of collective resources in the modern period: Alfani Rao (2011)

and in particular the Introduction, pp. 7–14.

164

L. MAFFI

event occurring on 26 May 1770. On that day, a number of inhabitants of Bertone ventured beyond the Monte Alfeo ridge and onto land claimed by Belnome. A verbal altercation with the inhabitants of this latter village ensued. At that point the joint feudatories intervened and claimed a right to sue.40 This issue of forest use rights had four main players: the prince Giambattista Centurione, feudatory of Bertone, Campi, and Gorreto; the marchesi Antonio Giuseppe Malaspina and Giovanni Carlo Pallavicino, joint feudatories of Belnome; and the count Girolamo Fieschi, feudatory of Savignone, named by the parties in the dispute as “giudice remissario” in 1772,41 i.e., an arbitrator charged with resolving the dispute between the parties and clearly defining the jurisdictional confines within the forest. Beyond the purely juridical and political interest of the decision, what is most important to highlight for our purposes here is the socioeconomic aspect of the issue of contention. Based on documents regarding the dispute, it seems that the forest was the object of collective use by the communities of Bertone and Belnome, whose inhabitants could use it to graze their animals or collect firewood. In this regard it is interesting to read what Giovanni Carlo Pallavicino wrote to Antonio Giuseppe Malaspina on 19 March 1771: “Our position at this time is that our jurisdiction does not extend beyond the Monte Alfeo ridgeline. The opposing position of the lord Prince is that his jurisdiction extends beyond said ridgeline toward Belnome. It is thus quite evident that the question lies entirely in deciding whether he or his subjects in Bertone can go beyond said ridgeline to collect firewood and graze their livestock”.42 As a demonstration of the importance of the jurisdictional and social aspect of the question, in the sentence of 1783, Fieschi, after having determined that the ridgeline of Monte Alfeo marked the boundary between the jurisdictions of the fiefdoms, focused on the use of the forest. The judge instated the prohibition for each community to claim usage rights within the jurisdiction of the other fiefdom: “Lastly, he ruled that it is not permissible for the men of Bertone to trespass onto the portion of the forest declared as above within the jurisdiction of the most excellent lords

40 Archivio del Comune di Godiasco Salice Terme, Fondo Malaspina di Godiasco, cart. 367, b. 149, F. 9. 41 Ibid. 42 Ibid.

6

SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN IMPERIAL FIEFDOMS

165

Marchesi Pallavicini and Malaspina either for grazing their livestock, or for gathering wood, or for any other purpose that may pertain to dominion or possession, and that neither is it permissible for the men of Belnome to do the same in the portion declared above as within the jurisdiction of the most excellent Lord Prince Centurione”.43 The words with which the transcribed document closes attest, even if indirectly, to the relevance that the use of forests under feudal jurisdiction had in the social support system, this use being one of the principal sources of social support in the area of our study.

7

Migration

The most convincing historical investigations regarding the socioeconomic conditions of the area that is the object of this study have evidenced that the local communities in the imperial fiefdoms were affected by migratory flows throughout the year. A particularly interesting confirmation of these social dynamics is a document in the Archivio Doria Landi Pamphilj in Rome dating to the second half of the seventeenth century, in which we read: “The majority of the subjects are poor and many live by going and overwintering in Genoa, Pavia, Piacenza, or other places in Lombardy”.44 Particularly emblematic cases are found in the reports for the pastoral visit by the bishop Resta. For example, the parson of Santa Margherita, commented on a situation that was detrimental to the parish: “[…] in these towns, since they are impoverished, most of the [work] brigades for much of the year migrate, en masse, for much of the year beyond the Po and as a consequence, die there, are born there, with no benefit to their home parish”.45 Equally significant are the words of Giovanni 43 Ibid. 44 ADP, scaf. 43.2. 45 ASDT, Visite pastorali, mons. Resta cfr.: santa Margherita (F. 41, f. 1, cc. 289–

290). There are numerous attestations of this phenomenon, the following is a selection. ASDT, Visite pastorali, mons. Resta cfr.: Cencerate (F. 41, f. 1, cc. 291–292): “My annual income is one bushel per household for a total of twelve sacks of wheat, but it is difficult to claim given the poverty of the village, and the ‘uncertain’ portion of income [that from offerings, donations, etc.—Ed.] amounts to approximately 20 lire a year, because most of the inhabitants go down to the plain for most of the year to eke out a living”; Pregola (F. 41, f. 1, cc. 293–299): “But these inhabitants are never all here in the parish since this place is mountainous and they are all emphyteutae of the feudal lords and so

166

L. MAFFI

Francesco Malaspina, parson of Zerba: “The sure income amounts to 117 bushels of wheat to be paid by the inhabitants of Zerba, Tartago, and Cerreto: one bushel of wheat for each household. But since the village of Zerba with 42 households pays only 29 bushels of wheat because there are some free Malaspina families and some poor families that do not live there except for a couple of months per year; from the village of Cerreto with 27 households they pay only 20 bushels because there are a number of poor souls who do not live there except occasionally during the year, […] from the village of Belnome consisting of 24 households they pay only 10 bushels of wheat and each year some of these households disappear”.46 Other information highlights the principal routes of these seasonal migrations. Luigi Mangini, parson of Fontanarossa, wrote: “The income for the clergy is 40 bushels of wheat from every family, that is, heads of households who, because of the scarcity of the harvest go to spend the winter in Lombardy”.47 Supporting the information provided by the parson of Fontanarossa is the report drafted by the rector of the church of Tonno, Carlo Antonio Ghezzo: “It is true as follows that for many months of the year very few people remain in the parish, going to Lombardy or the territory of Genoa to procure a living begging or labouring”.48 The reports of Nella and Savignone follow the same lines. In the former we read that “The parish of Nenno is under the jurisdiction of the church of Casella, in the imperial fiefdom of His Excellency Girolamo Fieschi, a Genoese aristocrat. The number of souls at communion is 260, with 198 children. There being many widows in this number, because they are very poor, evidencing the inability of the village, not having a way to procure a living, they are forced for much of the year to go elsewhere to procure it, either in the territory of Genoa or in Lombardy”49 ;

they all go, even entire families, to more fertile zones toward Milan to live, and they stay there about half the year or more, actually some even for ten months, returning only in summer”; Colleri (F. 41, f. 1, cc. 300–301): “The income of this church is one bushel of wheat for each household; and there are 140 households, but some are always off on the other side of the Po, and the others are too impoverished to pay, and so, with difficulty, we might get 125 bushels”; Cegni (F. 41, f. 2, cc. 390–392): “Most of the people for most of the year go down to the plain to find sustenance”. 46 ASDT, Visite pastorali, mons. Resta cfr.: 47 ASDT, Visite pastorali, mons. Resta cfr.: 48 ASDT, Visite pastorali, mons. Resta cfr.: 49 ASDT, Visite pastorali, mons. Resta cfr.:

Zerba (F. 41, f. 1, cc. 117–118). Fontanarossa (F. 41, f. 1, cc. 42–45). Tonno (F. 40, f. 2, c. 347). Nenno (F. 41, f. 2, c. 351).

6

SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN IMPERIAL FIEFDOMS

167

in the latter that “The number of souls at communion is 694 with 355 children, and among them very many needy widows, because many are poor, and not being able to make a living, given the scarce capacity of the village, they are obliged to spend a part of the year away from the parish, either in Lombardy, or in the territory of Genoa, to procure a living”.50 The analysis of the documents used as sources shows that, unlike the flat part of the diocese, in the imperial fiefdoms in the southern part of the diocese there are fewer social support systems. In this sense, migration may be considered a response by families to this type of problem. As a consequence, in spite of the activity of the feudatory to provide support, we observe that this activity was not sufficient to resolve the indigence of the Apennine population. It is perhaps not a coincidence that in places with a feudal camera that lends wheat or with a bequest from a feudal family, as in the case of Cabella, the reports do not record similarly intensive migrations as those characterizing life in other parishes.

8

Conclusions

An interpretive perspective centring on social support systems allows us to discern the close relation between social support activities carried out by those systems and the degree and nature of the development of the local communities.51 In other words, in Old Regime contexts where social support systems are widespread and in the hands of intermediate bodies that are constituents of the local community, these systems appear to be much more developed than in other areas. This is evidenced by our study of the imperial fiefdoms in the diocese of Tortona, where such systems are much less developed.

50 ASDT, Visite pastorali, mons. Resta cfr.: Savignone (F. 41, f. 2, cc. 117–118). The Casaleggio report is equally interesting: “The Christian faith is practiced during Lent and in all those times when the children are present, and neglected during the summer and autumn, because the parish is composed of scattered farms and poor people, because in the summer they go to Lombardy and in the autumn gather chestnuts for food”, Casaleggio (F. 40, f. 1, cc. 348–351); as is the Pallavicino report (F. 40, f. 2, cc. 326– 329): “Regarding the ‘uncertain’ part of the income, I can say that we gather little or nothing, at most 8 to 10 lire, because most of the inhabitants go to Lombardy to make their living”. 51 Torre (1995, 2020), Dotti (2010), Brambilla (2001, pp. 379–402), Grendi (1983), and Cavallo (1995).

168

L. MAFFI

The organization of the social support systems is not solely a mere charitable action, but an action with an important economic value, deriving both from real estate and financial income. This economic value, which is manifested in the social support systems, is also an important means of legitimation by which the various social bodies assert their right to “political” existence in the local community. The reports drafted by the parsons of these areas reveal the absence of certain characteristic intermediate social actors who played a prominent role in other areas of the diocese. In this regard, the case of the confraternities is emblematic, being absent from most imperial fiefdoms, and where they do exist—as in Torriglia, Ottone, and Rovegno—, they were hardly active in the social support systems or in the parish. In this regard, it is particularly interesting to highlight, on the basis of the parochial reports from the Apennine zones, the scarcity of common social support systems such as dowries for poor girls, and bread, money, and clothing for the poor generally. Furthermore, while the reports drafted by the parsons of parishes on the flatlands are filled with bequests for the celebrations of mass and support services, the same situation is not found in the reports by parsons in mountain parishes. This is closely related to the question of community identity. Leaving a will to benefit members of the community through philanthropic bequests, or leaving a large sum of money for the celebration of requiem masses for departed members of one’s family—a system that also favours collection of alms for charitable purposes—is a way to perpetuate the memory of one’s family. And this is anything but irrelevant in a context characterized by a strong community identity where perpetuating the name of one’s family represented a strategy with both spiritual and social purposes. However, these dynamics are not observed in the area of this study, where the absence of social support systems hindered the development of a community identity, where willing resources for masses or in philanthropic bequests did not represent a meaningful family strategy. In the area of the imperial fiefdoms, given that the organization of social support was largely in the hands of feudal families, we observe differences among the various fiefdoms in this regard, influenced by the different characteristics of the different feudatory families. In general, the imperial fiefdoms held by families belonging to the Genoese aristocracy— Doria, Spinola, Fieschi, Centurione—appear to have more dynamic social support systems, aligned with the entrepreneurial, speculative culture typical of Ligurian cities in the modern period.

6

SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN IMPERIAL FIEFDOMS

169

The analysis of the social support systems existing in the imperial fiefdoms thus reveals a trend where the initiatives come from above, directly related to the choices of the feudal lord, whose intentions and initiatives, generally aiming to maintain public and social order, are consequentially often inadequate in terms of supporting the community. On the other hand, initiatives originating at “lower” social levels, more immediate and solidary, originating in the community and administrated by institutions that are usually much more active outside of imperial fiefdoms (parishes, confraternities, extended families, etc.) are significantly less common in these fiefdoms. However, there are virtuous examples, such as the hospital of Borgo Fornari, in which the application of criteria typical of capitalist dynamism contrasts with the feudal context in which these examples arose and operated: this would seem to run counter to the prevailing idea of social immobility and economic-administrative backwardness typically associated with feudal institutions in the modern period.

Archival Sources Archivio Archivio Archivio Archivio

Storico Diocesano, Tortona (ASDT), Visite Pastorali. Doria Pamphilj, Roma (ADP). del Comune di Godiasco Salice Terme, Fondo Malaspina di Godiasco. di Stato, Genova (ASGe), Prefettura Sarda.

Bibliography Albini, Giuliana. 2016. Poveri e povertà nel Medioevo. Roma: Carocci. Alfani, Guido, and Riccardo Rao, eds. 2011. La gestione delle risorse collettive. Italia settentrionale, secoli XII–XVIII . Milano: Franco Angeli. Allegra, Luciano. 1981. Il parroco: un mediatore tra alta e bassa cultura. In Intellettuali e potere. Storia d’Italia Einaudi. IV , ed. Corrado Vivanti, 897– 947. Torino: Einaudi, Torino. Artocchini, Carmen. 1963. La legislazione statutaria dei marchesi Malaspina per i Feudi di Val Trebbia (sec. XIV). Archivio Storico per Le Province Parmensi 15: 111–169. Brambilla, Elena. 2001. L’economia morale degli enti ecclesiastici. Questioni di metodo e prospettive di ricerca. In L’uso del denaro. Patrimoni e amministrazioni nei luoghi pii e negli enti ecclesiastici in Italia, ed. Alessandro Pastore and Marina Garbellotti, 379–402. Bologna: Il Mulino. Bressan, Edoardo. 1998. Carità e riforme sociali nella Lombardia moderna e contemporanea. Storia e problemi. Milano: NED.

170

L. MAFFI

Castignoli, Piero. 2000. La condizione giuridico economica degli abitanti del feudo di Ottone (sec. XVII–XVIII). Archivum Bobiense. Rivista degli archivi storici bobiensi 22: 313–336. Cavallera, Marina, ed. 2007. Lungo le antiche strade. Vie d’acqua e di terra tra stati, giurisdizioni e confini nella cartografia dell’età moderna. Busto Arsizio: Nomos Edizioni. Cavallo, Sandra. 1995. Charity and power: Benefactors and their motives in Tourin 1541–1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cerutti, Simona. 2012. Étrangers. Études d’un condition d’incertitude dans une société d’ancien régime. Montrouge: Bayard. Cozzo, Paolo. 2014. Andate in pace: parroci e parrocchie in Italia dal Concilio di Trento a papa Francesco. Roma: Carocci. Cremonini, Cremonini, and Riccardo Musso, eds. 2010. I feudi imperiali in Italia tra XI e XVIII secolo. Roma: Bulzoni. Crosa di Vergagni, Giovanni Battista. 2008. I diplomi imperiali per i Feudi di Savignone, Mongiardino, Vergagni. Genova: Frilli. De Felice, Marco, ed. 2004. Savignone storia, tradizioni e cultura di un antico borgo feudale. Genova: Brigati. Del Tredici, Federico. 2013. Comunità, nobili e gentiluomini nel contado di Milano nel ‘400. Milano: Unicopli. Dompneir, Bernard, and Paola Vismara, eds. 2008. Confréries et dévotions dans la catholicité moderne (XV – XIX siècle). Roma: École française de Rome. Dotti, Marco. 2010. Relazioni e istituzioni nella Brescia barocca. Il network finanziario della Congrega della Carità Apostolica. Milano: Franco Angeli. Fiori, Giorgio. 1995. I Malaspina: castelli e feudi nell’Oltrepo piacentino, pavese, tortonese. Piacenza: Tip.Le.Co. Garbellotti, Marina. 2013. Per carità: poveri e politiche assistenziali nell’Italia moderna. Roma: Carocci. Greco, Gaetano. 1986. I giuspatronati laicali nell’età moderna. In La Chiesa e il potere politico dal Medioevo all’età contemporanea, in Storia d’Italia, Annali 9, ed. Giorgio Chittolini and Giovanni Miccoli, 534–573. Torino: Einaudi. Grendi, Edoardo, ed. 1983. Sistemi di carità: esposti e internati nella società di antico regime. Quaderni storici 53. Hindle, Steve. 2004. On the Parish? The micro-politics of poor relief in rural England c. 1550–1750. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hufton, Olwen H. 1974. The poor of eighteenth-century France 1750–1789. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Innes, Joanna. 1999. The state and the poor: Eighteenth century England in European perspective. In Rethinking Leviethan: The eighteenth century state in Britain and Germany, ed. John Brewer and Eckhart Hellmuth, 225–280. London and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

6

SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN IMPERIAL FIEFDOMS

171

Kleckner, William H. 1996–1997. Ottone, giurisdizione degli «Stati di Montagna» dei Doria. Archivum Bobiense. Rivista degli archivi storici bobiensi 18–19: 223–238. Krausman Ben-Amos, Ilana. 2008. The culture of giving: Informal support and gift-exchange in early modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lloyd, Sarah. 2010. Charity and poverty in England, c. 1680–1820: Wild and visionary shemes. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Maffi, Luciano. 2008. Sancta Terdonensis Ecclesia. Notizie sulla Chiesa tortonese nell’alto medioevo. In Dertona, Istoria patrie. Vol. 3, T. 1. Storia di Tortona dalla preistoria ad oggi, ed. Società Storica Pro Iulia Dertona, 177–226. Tortona: Società Storica Pro Iulia Dertona. Maffi, Luciano. 2018. “A’ misura del bisogno”. Il sistema del dare nel basso Piemonte. Il caso della diocesi di Tortona. In I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, 209–227. Milano: Franco Angeli. Maffi, Luciano, Giovanni Gregorini, and Marco Rochini. 2018. La pluralità dei modelli del dare. Dai corpi sociali all’organizzazione statuale nell’Italia rurale del Settecento, In I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, 11–22. Milano: Franco Angeli. Maffi, Luciano, and Marco Rochini. 2015. Corpi intermedi e “reti di supporto sociale” in Italia nell’età moderna: Il sistema del dare a Voghera nel XVIII secolo. Nuova Rivista Storica 99 (3): 773–796. Maffi, Luciano, and Marco Rochini. 2016. Poor relief systems in rural Italy: The territory of the diocese of Tortona in the eighteenth century. Continuity and Change 31: 211–239. Maffi, Luciano, and Marco Rochini. 2019. Reti di supporto sociale nei feudi imperiali in area appenninica. Signori, comunità, corpi intermedi e conflitti giurisdizionali in età moderna. In Oltrepò Pavese. Percorsi storico-archeologici per la valorizzazione del territorio, ed. Silvia Lusuardi Siena e Simona Sironi, 161–171. Mantova: SAP Società Archeologica S.r.l. Maffi, Luciano, and Andrea Zanini. 2022. Feudal institution and rural markets in North-Western Italy (seventeenth-eighteenth centuries). The Journal of European Economic History51/3: 47–81. Malaspina, Giuseppe. 1969. Gli Statuti dei Doria di Ottone. Archivio Storico per Le Province Parmensi 21: 143–201. Massa, Paola. 1999. Banchi ebraici e monti di pietà in Liguria. Bilancio storiografico e prospettive di ricerca. In Monti di pietà e presenza ebraica in Italia (secoli XV–XVIII), ed. Daniele Montanari, 17–33. Roma: Bulzoni. McIntosh, Marjorie. 2012. Poor relief in England, 1350–1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

172

L. MAFFI

Montanari, Daniele, ed. 2001. Il credito e la carità. Milano: Vita e Pensiero. Nasalli Rocca, Emilio. 1963. Osservazioni storico-giuridiche sugli Statuti di Cariseto. Archivio Storico per Le Province Parmensi 15: 170–173. Pastore, Alessandro. 1986. Strutture assistenziali fra Chiesa e Stati nell’Italia della Controriforma. In La Chiesa e il potere politico dal Medioevo all’età contemporanea, in Storia d’Italia, Annali 9, ed. Giorgio Chittolini and Giovanni Miccoli, 431–465. Torino: Einaudi. Pullan, Brian S. 1988. Support and redeem: Charity and poor relief in Italian cities from fourteenth to the seventeenth century. Continuity and Change 3: 177–208. Pullan, Brian S. 1996. Charity and poor relief in early modern Italy. In Charity, self-interest and welfare in the English past, ed. Martin Daunton, 65–89. London: London UCL Press. Raggio, Osvaldo. 1987. Strutture di parentela e controllo delle risorse in un’area di transito: La Val Fontanabuona tra Cinque e Seicento. Mélanges de l’Ecole française de Rome. Moyen-Age, Temps Modernes 99: 1017–1028. Raggio, Osvaldo. 1990. Faide e parentele. Lo Stato genovese visto dalla Fontanabuona. Torino: Einaudi. Raggio, Osvaldo. 2018. Feuds and state formation, 1550–1700. The backcountry of the Republic of Genoa. Cham: Palgrave. Ricuperati, Giuseppe. 1989. I volti della pubblica felicità. Storiografia e politica nel Piemonte settecentesco. Torino: Albert Meynier. Ricuperati, Giuseppe. 1994. Le avventure di uno stato “ben amministrato”. Rappresentazioni e realtà nello spazio sabaudo tra ancien régime e restaurazione. Torino: Tirrenia Stampatori. Ricuperati, Giuseppe. 2001. Lo stato sabaudo nel Settecento. Dal trionfo delle burocrazie alla crisi d’antico regime. Torino: UTET. Sisto, Alessandra. 1956. I feudi imperiali del tortonese. Torino: Stabilimento Tipografico Editoriale. Stella, Pietro. 2006. Il giansenismo in Italia. Vol. II. Il movimento giansenista e la produzione libraria. Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura. Tacchella, Lorenzo. 1996. Il feudo imperiale di Cremonte di Cabella Ligure nella storia dei Feudi imperiali liguri. Genova: Accademia Olubrense. Tigrino, Vittorio. 2007a. Giurisdizione e transiti nei «Feudi di Montagna» dei Doria-Pamphilj alla fine dell’Antico Regime. In Per vie di terra. Movimenti di uomini e di cose nelle società di antico regime, ed. Angelo Torre, 151–174. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Tigrino, Vittorio. 2007b. Giurisdizione e transiti nel Settecento. I Feudi imperiali tra il Genovesato e la Pianura Padana. In Lungo le antiche strade. Vie d’acqua e di terra tra stati, giurisdizioni e confini nella cartografia dell’età moderna, ed. Marina Cavallera, 45–94. Busto Arsizio: Nomos Edizioni.

6

SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN IMPERIAL FIEFDOMS

173

Tomkins, Alannah. 2006. The experience of urban poverty, 1723–82: Parish, charity and credit. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Tomkins, Alannah, and Steven King, eds. 2009. The poor in England 1700–1850: An economy of makeshifts. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Torre, Angelo. 1995. Il consumo di devozioni. Religione e comunità nelle campagne dell’Ancien Régime. Venezia: Marsilio. Torre, Angelo. 1999. Vita religiosa e cultura giurisdizionale nel Piemonte di antico regime. In Fonti ecclesiastiche per la storia sociale e religiosa d’Europa: XV–XVIII secolo, ed. Cecilia Nubola and Angelo Turchini, 181–211. Bologna: Il Mulino. Torre, Angelo, ed. 2007. Per vie di terra. Movimenti di uomini e di cose nelle società di antico regime. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Torre, Angelo. 2011. Luoghi: La produzione di località in età moderna e contemporanea. Roma: Donzelli Editore. Torre, Angelo. 2020. Production of locality in the early modern and modern age: Places. Abingdon-New York: Routledge. Toscani, Xenio. 1979. Il clero lombardo dall’Ancien Régime alla Restaurazione. Bologna: Il Mulino. Toscani, Xenio. 1982. Il clero della Lombardia veneta nella prima metà del secolo XVIII. In Cultura, religione e politica nell’età di A. M. Querini, ed. Gino Benzoni and Maurizio Pegrari, 225–246. Brescia: Morcelliana. Toscani, Xenio. 1986. Il reclutamento del clero (XVI–XIX). In La Chiesa e il potere politico dal Medio Evo all’età contemporanea. Storia d’Italia Einaudi. IX , ed. Giorgio Chittolini and Giovanni Miccoli, 575–626. Torino: Einaudi. Toscani, Xenio. 1995. La Chiesa di Pavia in età moderna. In Diocesi di Pavia, ed. Adriano Caprioli, Antonio Rimoldi, and Luciano Vaccaro, 267–348. Brescia. Editrice La Scuola. Toscani, Xenio. 2009. A misura d’uomo. L’assistenza nella campagna bresciana in Antico Regime. In Istituzioni, assistenza e religiosità nella società del Mezzogiorno d’Italia tra XVIII e XIX secolo, ed. Giovanna Da Molin, 45–63. Bari: Cacucci. Turchini, Angelo. 1999. I ‘loca pia’ degli antichi stati italiani fra società civile e poteri ecclesiastici. In Fonti ecclesiastiche per la storia sociale e religiosa d’Europa: XV–XVIII secolo, ed. Cecilia Nubola and Angelo Turchini, 369–409. Bologna: Il Mulino. Zanini, Andrea. 2005. Strategie politiche ed economia feudale ai confini della Repubblica di Genova (secoli XVI–XVIII). “Un buon negotio con qualche contrarietà”. Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria 119: 7–239. Zanini, Andrea. 2011. Feudi, feudatori ed economie nella montagna ligure. In Libertà e dominio. Il sistema politico genovese: le relazioni esterne e il controllo del territorio, ed. Matthias Schnettgera and Carlo Taviani, 305–316. Roma: Istituto Storico Germanico di Roma.

174

L. MAFFI

Zanini, Andrea. 2019. Filantropia o controllo sociale? Le opere assistenziali di un feudatorio del Settecento. Quaderni della Società Ligure di Storia Patria 7: 1387–1408. Zardin, Danilo. 1981. Confraternite e vita di pietà, nelle campagne lombarde tra ‘500 e ‘600. Milano: NED.

CHAPTER 7

Rural Microcredit in the Sharecropping Northern Provinces of the Papal States (Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries) Mauro Carboni and Omar Mazzotti

1

General Overview

For centuries non-monetary means of payment have been crucial to the economic life of agrarian societies, where both available money and credit services were in short supply. For instance, community grain banks (monti frumentari) played a pivotal role in the rural economy of several Italian regions until the late nineteenth century. They promoted trust and pioneered a new and effective form of local mutual assistance within a single village, or even within a single parish. Despite the small scale of operation, grain banking was of fundamental importance to both the common good by shared norms of communities and the survival of rural households: agrarian economic fluctuations and seasonal cycles

M. Carboni (B) · O. Mazzotti University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 G. Gregorini et al. (eds.), Social Support Systems in Rural Italy, Palgrave Studies in Economic History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24303-5_7

175

176

M. CARBONI AND O. MAZZOTTI

could throw families into temporary crises causing dislocation, hunger, and distress. Grain banks could help remedy food insecurity, providing some relief in the form of short-term credit in kind. Even in modern times in many developing countries, cereal banks are effective tools to help communities have a year-round supply of food. Yet these institutions have received little attention from economic historians, who have often seen grain banking as just an offshoot of pawn-banking and have overlooked its original features and vital role in the subsistence economy of rural communities.1 The territory of Romagna provides a good example of this prevailing approach: to date, a veritable wealth of studies has been devoted to monti di pietà (“mounts of piety” or pawn banks), while the development and spread of monti frumentari (grain banks) have received scant attention. Admittedly, the task is complicated by territorial patterns and the modest size of grain banks, which were mainly located in small towns and villages. In addition, archives of frumentari differ in that their locations or repositories are diverse, often difficult to access, and over the years records have frequently suffered severe damage or dispersal. Building on previous mappings of monti frumentari active in the northern provinces of the Papal States,2 local studies, and new sources from municipal archives, we have tried to outline a more complete picture of the actual distribution of grain banks. Our field reconnaissance has allowed to update the grain bank map in the region, expanding considerably the number of communities served by a monte frumentario. Results are summarised in Table 1.3 Overall we have documented thirty-four active grain banks. They multiplied rapidly during the early modern period, yet the heterogeneity, dispersion, and poor record preservation in local archives make it difficult to trace a reliable chronology of most institutions. For instance, a large number of active institutes is documented for the nineteenth century, but often it is impossible to know the date of foundation with a reasonable

1 Checcoli (2015). 2 See the online register of the monti di pietà posted by the Centro studi sui Monti

di Pietà of the Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna: https://www.fondazionede lmonte.it/centro-studi-monti-di-pieta/storia. 3 Archival references to grain banks are not always accurate. At times they actually refer to Annona institutes (public granaries).

7

Table 1

RURAL MICROCREDIT IN THE SHARECROPPING …

177

Overview of the monti frumentari in Romagna

Community

Chronology

Current province

Geographical location (Coastline, plains, hillside)

Local population (1728)

Imola Bagnara di Romagna Brisighella Cervia Castiglione di Cervia S. Agata sul Santerno Cusercoli

1709 1790 1713 1622 1714 Before 1848 Early modern period 1619 1625 Early modern period Before 1696

Bologna Ravenna Ravenna Ravenna Ravenna Ravenna Forlì-Cesena

P P H C C P H

24.814

Forlì-Cesena Forlì-Cesena Forlì-Cesena

C H H

1.494

Forlì-Cesena

H

Early modern period Early modern period 1713 1712 1712 1626 Early modern period Early modern period Early modern period Early modern period XVI century Early modern period 1838 Before 1632

Forlì-Cesena

H

Forlì-Cesena

H

Forlì-Cesena Forlì-Cesena Forlì-Cesena Forlì-Cesena Rimini

H P H H P

Rimini

P

Rimini

H

Rimini

C

Rimini Rimini

H H

962 988

Rimini Rimini

H H

1.497 3.515

Gatteo Meldola Mercato Saraceno—Linaro Mercato Saraceno—Monte Castello Montiano Rocca San Casciano Roncofreddo S. Mauro Pascoli Sogliano al Rubicone Teodorano Coriano—Malazzano Coriano—Passano Gemmano Misano Mondaino Monte Colombo Monte Gridolfo Montefiore Conca

7.923 2.752

625

867 1.150 822

1.192

(continued)

178

M. CARBONI AND O. MAZZOTTI

Table 1

(continued)

Community

Chronology

Current province

Geographical location (Coastline, plains, hillside)

Local population (1728)

Montescudo Poggio Berni Saludecio San Clemente

? 1600 Before 1597 Early modern period Early modern period Early modern period Early modern period Early modern period Early modern period

Rimini Rimini Rimini Rimini

H H H P

1.199

Rimini

P

Rimini

P

Rimini

P

Rimini

H

Rimini

H

San Clemente—Agello San Clemente—Castelleale S. Giovanni in Marignano Sassofeltrio Torriana—Scorticata

1.747 1,775

1,648

558

degree of accuracy. From this point of view, the statistical surveys on charitable institutes carried out in the post-unification period remain essential to document the broad presence across Italy of early credit institutions with social aims, both in urban areas (monti di pietà) and in rural settings (monti frumentari). From our reconnaissance it can be argued that the spread of monti frumentari in the northern provinces of the Papal States did not occur as late as previous studies assumed. At the same time, a rather irregular geographical distribution emerges: a relatively modest presence in the northern plain and a strong concentration in the southern hillside, especially in the Rimini hinterland. In fact, fourteen institutes (41%) operated in villages located in the plains and in coastal areas, while twenty monti (59%) were active in rural hillside communities. It is likely that the size of farms and forms of land tenure played a role: the need for grain banks must have been higher across the hills, where small independent farms were dominant, and lower in the fertile lowlands, where large aristocratic and clerical farms prevailed. From the operational perspective, there are no specific differences between the institutions scattered throughout the region, all of which acted both as seed and grain banks. With rare exceptions, they had the

7

RURAL MICROCREDIT IN THE SHARECROPPING …

179

task of providing grain loans to the poor of the community for their subsistence during the winter months and to farmers for sowing. They were expected to reclaim the loans in the summer after the harvest. Also typical of monti frumentari was the rule that required applicants to present a guarantee (sicurtà), that is, the name of someone who would act as a guarantor in case the borrower failed to pay back the loan. There were no distinguishing features from the point of view of the origins of institutions: there were in fact cereal banks established by municipal authorities, others by parishioners, and still others founded by individuals through testamentary bequests. Victualling offices or public granaries sometimes coexisted with monti, usually in a cooperative relationship and with institutional ties (such as sharing of administrators), while in other cases grain banks were sister institutions to local pawn banks. For instance, this was the case in the townships of Imola, Brisighella, and Meldola. This essay has several aims: first, it provides an overview of the territorial distribution of monti frumentari across Romagna; second, it charts the development of a few community grain and seed banks to discuss their actual working as well as key institutional features; third, it devotes attention to a case study, the monte of Imola, one of the largest, most successful, and best-documented grain banks in the region.

2

The Early Modern Period

Monti frumentari were common in the Papal provinces across central Italy—a broad region of high hills where sharecropping was common— and in the main they had Medieval origins.4 In Romagna an accurate timeline remains hard to plot, although we are able to determine that most grain banks had early modern roots. Their origins were diverse. Several monti, such as Montiano’s (near Cesena), had clerical roots: it provided grain on credit to the poor in winter and the loan was to be repaid in kind at the time of harvest with 5% interest on the original loan of seeds.5 Grain banks could be founded by donation or bequest. The monte founded in Cervia, a town of salt workers on the Adriatic coast, had a testamentary origin. In his 1622 will, the canon Bertoni left the

4 Moroni (2009). 5 Appari Boiardi (1980, pp. 318–319).

180

M. CARBONI AND O. MAZZOTTI

usufruct of his property to his niece, but in the event of her death without heirs, he arranged for the sale of his estate to start a community grain and seed bank.6 At the end of the eighteenth century the soundness of the institution was strengthened further by the local cathedral chapter.7 On the same coastline, the small monte frumentario of Pietra Fitta, a parish in the community of San Giovanni in Marignano, was established by local parishioners8 —“un cumulo dei grani che I parrocchiani fusero assieme” (a heap of grain that parishioners put together)—and was run solely by them with the aid of the parish priest.9 Considerably more complex is the history of the grain bank of yet another coastline community: Gatteo. Known as “Legato di Spagna Antonelli”, the monte derives its name from the charitable bequest of Battista Antonelli, a military engineer in the service of the Spanish monarchs Philip II and Philip III in the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. Together with his brother Giovanni Battista, he became famous for numerous military fortresses built in Africa and South America. Notwithstanding the long absence from his homeland—he spent many years in the Americas, before returning to Madrid (1604), where he died in 1616—Battista Antonelli bequeathed part of his estate to establish a model seed and grain bank in his hometown. Specific testamentary provisions dictated not only the managerial structure of the institution but the allocation of the paid-in capital as well, detailing the sum to be set aside to purchase wheat to be provided on an annual basis on credit to poor people, widows, and orphans; the sum needed to purchase a warehouse for the storage of wheat; and an additional sum to set aside either in mortgage investment or real estate to provide regular and adequate

6 ASFC, PN, b. 38. Lettera della Congregazione di Carità di Cervia, 6 May 1811. 7 ASFC, PN, b. 30. Memoria, 20 May 1796. A legal dispute that arose in those years

between local and state institutions about the allocation of revenue from a farm that was to subsidise the fee to the administrators, the rent of the facility and the warehouse revealed how state authorities had claimed managerial control of the + to the detriment of the local Congregazione di carità, even through the requisition of all documentation prior to 1798. ASFC, PN, b. 30. Memoria, 24 May 1810. 8 ASFC, PG, b. 858, Notizie statistiche sui monti frumentari, 24 January 1865. 9 ASFC, PG, b. 940, Opere pie – Relazione annuale, 1872. In modern times the monte

continued to operate in a fashion similar to other grain banks, assisting from 50 to 100 people per year. ASFC, PG, b. 858, Notizie statistiche sui monti frumentari, 11 December 1863.

7

RURAL MICROCREDIT IN THE SHARECROPPING …

181

compensation to monte officials.10 The institution started to operate in 1619 and its micro-banking activities thrived, including consumer loans, seed loans, and mortgage loans.11 Responding to the economic difficulty of the community, the Monte’s operations expanded considerably in the last decade of the seventeenth century. In turn, this led to financial difficulties attributable to non-performing loans during the eighteenth century, but the institution managed to survive and continued to operate until the late nineteenth century when it was incorporated into the local Congregation of Charity. Several grain banks were established during the second decade of the eighteenth century. In 1712 monti were established in two settlements (San Mauro Pascoli12 and Sogliano al Rubicone) located halfway between the towns of Cesena and Rimini. Just a year later, two other monti started to operate: one in the village of Roncofreddo in the hills of Cesena, thanks to the Chierici bequest13 and another one in Brisighella, a small town south of Faenza, on the initiative of Monsignor Carlo Piancastelli, who provided a safe warehouse for the purchase and storage of grain that could be loaned out to local farmers in distress.14 In 1714 yet another grain bank was founded in the village of Castiglione di Cervia, thanks to the bequest of Sante Brazanti, who in his will named as universal legatee the priest Don Giovanni Antonio Darderi with the clause that he would set aside 30 bushels of grain that poor peasants could borrow every year at Easter and repay at harvest time.15 The hill and mountain villages in the south-western hinterland of Rimini present the densest network of monti frumentari. In the small hill-town of Montefiore, where the oldest monte di pietà in the region (established in 1471) was also located, a grain bank operated in the tiny community of Serbadone since at least 1632.16 Late nineteenth-century 10 ASCGA, Armadio sala consiliare, f. 130, Promemoria od Epitome sul Legato Antonelli cosiddetto di Spagna, redatto il 20 gennaio 1828, dal Gonfaloniere Francesco Garavelli. 11 Paolucci (2005). 12 ASCSMP, Atti consiliari, 4 November 1712. 13 Appari Boiardi (1980, pp. 312–313). 14 Stefani (1856, p. 163). 15 ASFC, PN, b. 38. Testamento di Sante Branzanti, 22 May 1717; Lettera della

Congregazione di Carità di Cervia, 6 May 1811. Consiglio della Congregazione di Carità di Cervia, session dated 7 November 1810. 16 Meneghin (1986) and Vitali (1828).

182

M. CARBONI AND O. MAZZOTTI

records attest to the existence of a monte frumentario in Monte Colombo since the late eighteenth century.17 In the municipality of Coriano two very old grain banks were active at the time of national unification: one was run by municipal authorities in the parish of Malazzano and had assets of approximately 78 hl. of wheat, the other was located in the parish of Passano and had ca. 59 hl.: both institutions regularly lent out stored wheat and served an average clientele of 32 and 47 people per year, respectively. They charged an annual interest rate of 8.33% to provide salaries for officials. One of the oldest grain banks on record operated in Mondaino, in the same hinterland. It dated back to the time of the creation of the socalled Giuspatronato del Tavollo, i.e. to 1500.18 It was the result of the philanthropy of local notables and was later put into the trust of the local council, which appointed two officials (montisti) as keepers every year. Grain loans to the poor in the territory of Mondaino were to be repaid in kind at the first harvest, with an interest of ten bowls of wheat per sack (equal to 2.5%). The charge went to cover the expenses the institution incurred for wheat storage and bookkeeping. The decrees of 9 July 1682 introduced new norms for both the monte and the local victualling office: these rules had become necessary because of the “great confusion and inconvenience affecting the public administration as well as the monte frumentario and community victualling office” (molte confusioni et inconvenient toccanti tanto l’amministrazione degli effetti di quell pubblico, quanto del Monte Frumentario et Abbondanza), as noted on the occasion of the inspection of the Apostolic Visitor. At the time of Italian unification the grain bank was still active and had assets of 203 hl. of grain. As the Old Regime drew to a close, some grain banks suffered serious setbacks. Such was the case of the monte of Rocca San Casciano, in the high hills south of Forlì: it was terminated by the duke Pietro Leopoldo in 1775, to issue bonds on behalf of the community with the sale of accumulated grain.19 Other institutions went through just modest 17 ASFC, PG, b. 932 (1871). Lettere della Sottoprefettura del Circondario di Rimini, 20 September 1870, 4 February 1871. 18 ASFC, Municipalità di Mondaino, Ente Comunale di Assistenza. Stabilimenti di Pubblica Beneficenza esistenti nella Terra di Mondaino, no date. 19 Bandi e ordini da osservarsi nel Granducato di Toscana pubblicati dal dì 11 luglio 1774 al dì 27 giugno 1776 raccolti posteriormente per ordine successivo di tempi con il

7

RURAL MICROCREDIT IN THE SHARECROPPING …

183

administrative reforms. In Mercato Saraceno20 , up in the hills south of Cesena, the norms of the monte serving the small community of Linaro were updated in 1760. Statutory changes addressed operational problems,21 such as holding delinquent borrowers accountable, and improving bookkeeping standards. They also ended the very unusual practice of demanding money when a grain loan was repaid and introduced the rule of charging a small interest in kind equal to one paolo (papal groschen, one-tenth of a scudo) per bushel, calculated according to the market price of wheat. Grain distribution continued to take place according to a three-step timetable, i.e. the main share at the time of sowing, a smaller portion at Christmas, and another at Easter. On the other hand, as can be seen from the monte’s accounting books between 1783 and 1799, most grain repayments occurred in August.22 Borrowed amounts per household ranged from a minimum of one quartarola (quarter of a bushel) to a maximum of ten, with most loans ranging from two to four. In the main, the number of beneficiaries ranged between 40 and 50 people per year. The overall amount of wheat disbursed gradually increased from 189 quartarole in 1783 to over 200 at the turn of the century.

3

The Napoleonic Era

During the Napoleonic period the Papal Legates issued an Istruzione to take a census of active charities and to obtain fresh information about their operations through a questionnaire which also contained a list of grievances to be addressed. In particular, the Istruzione lamented that monti frumentari were affected by “molti disordini” (great disorder), mainly due to “cattive pratiche” (poor management): many monti had squandered their capital and a large percentage of their loans were either overdue or uncollectible. State authorities urged charitable congregations to try to recover lost capital, sorting out and sanctioning abuses by insolvent debtors. At the same time, an attempt was made to reconsider the social role of grain banks, to use their resources more effectively, and “to sommario dei medesimi disposto con ordine alfabetico di materie e di tribunali, Codice settimo. Firenze, Stamperia Granducale, 1776. 20 In the community of Mercato Saraceno there was another grain bank, active till the end of the eighteenth century (Fabbri 2003, p. 150). 21 ASFC, Comunità di Linaro, Lettere ricevute, 1760–1797. 22 ASFC, Comunità di Linaro, Dispensa del grano del Monte Frumentario, 1783.

184

M. CARBONI AND O. MAZZOTTI

better preserve their assets” (o che meglio provveda alla conservazione della sostanza di cui sono dotati).23 In the second half of the nineteenth century, in the hinterland of Faenza, there was just one active grain bank, in the hamlet of Bagnara di Romagna. In the main rural towns and villages of the lower Romagna, such as Lugo, grain banks were conspicuously absent. The monte of Bagnara was established in 1790 as an adjunct to the local Abbondanza (victualling office).24 For this reason grain loans were exclusively intended to subsidise needy peasant families, while seed loans were forbidden: “no grain shall be dispensed except to those who harvest grain” (non si potrà dispensare grano se non a chi raccoglie grano). In order to supply more loans, only one loan per family of a maximum amount of ten bushels could be granted each year. The administration of the institute was entrusted to a special congregazione (management committee), but operationally it was run by two abbondanzieri (officials of the victualling administration). The congregazione was in charge of evaluating and accepting (by a majority vote) the requests of needy peasants, who were also expected to submit adequate sicurtà. Abbondanzieri held their office for one year, at the end of which they would be replaced by another set of officials drawn by lot. The handover was concurrent with the verification of the actual quantities of grain paid back and the calculation of the surplus. The interest, necessary to meet the institute’s expenses was set, according to a well-established tradition, on the basis of the payment of grain with “the full measure”, as opposed to the “shaved measure” of the loan. The repayment of the grain received was a prerequisite for the granting of any new loan, and a delay in repayment would result in formal notices to peasants in arrears and the opening of procedures aimed at forcibly collecting the debt.25 After the establishment of the monte demand for grain loans increased: this led to a debate within the congregazione between those who argued that it was necessary to accumulate enough grain first and those who—like the abbondanzieri—argued that it was necessary to meet the needs of the rural population, provided 23 ASFC, PN, b. 38. Letter of Cervia’s della Congregazione di Carità, 6 May 1811. 24 ASCBA, DCDA, Libro per le congregazioni del Monte Frumentario, Atto di

costituzione, 14 August 1790. 25 ASCBA, DCDA, Libro per le congregazioni del Monte Frumentario, Capitoli da osservarsi inviolabilmente dalla Communità di Bagnara, e particolarmente dagli Abbondanzieri pro tempore nell’amministrazione del Monte Frumentario, 3 April 1794.

7

RURAL MICROCREDIT IN THE SHARECROPPING …

185

that applicants had adequate guarantees. The latter view prevailed and the monte went on expanding its activity.26

4 The Restoration Period: From Recovery to Renewal During the Restoration period grain and seed banks staged a significant comeback across the peninsula. For instance, in southern Italy not only were older inactive institutes revived but new ones were established. Both local authorities and Economic Societies welcomed and encouraged such activity as an effective way to tackle both food insecurity and stem the endemic phenomenon of usury in rural areas.27 In Romagna the revival of grain banks went hand in hand with administrative reform: at times this was to adapt procedures to new political and economic contexts, at other times it was to address thorny operational issues. Since early modern times three small monti were active in the parishes of the village of San Clemente, i.e. San Clemente, Castelleale, and Agello. These grain banks, established and financed by the municipality,28 lent grain for sowing or domestic consumption to the poor inhabitants of the community. They were managed by two or three councillors elected every two years by the council itself.29 In 1825 the three institutes were aggregated into one,30 and in 1830 a new statute was drafted to update managerial and administrative practices.31 New regulations included statutory norms, common to other monti, such as the presence of trustees picked among council-members, and their obligation to reclaim and store loaned grain. Other aspects were instead more peculiar: the interest rate set at 2% per annum; a minimum (one cassella, about 26 ASCBA, DCDA, Libro per le congregazioni del Monte Frumentario, Verbale consiglio,

17 October 1790. Martelli claims that an endowment of 400 scudi had been bequeathed by Don Astolfo Frontali only on 8 December 1799 and entrusted to the administration of the priests of the community and the pro tempore archpriest of Bagnara (Martelli 1971). 27 Avallone (2010, 2013). 28 ASFC, PG, b. 932 (1871). Statuto organico del Monte Frumentario di San

Clemente, 15 June 1869. 29 ASFC, PG, b. 986, Relazione, 30 November 1864. 30 ASFC, PG, b. 986, Relazione, 30 November 1864. 31 ASFC, PG, b. 858, Notizie statistiche sui monti frumentari, 11 November 1864 and

7 April 1863.

186

M. CARBONI AND O. MAZZOTTI

1.5 bushels) and a maximum (two bushels) of wheat that each family could borrow; the duty to provide two municipal auditors with a report on the activities carried out at the end of every year; directors’ remuneration set at 2.5% of monte revenues to be deducted from the annual profits.32 Setbacks were not uncommon. For instance, in the mountain community of Civitella di Romagna there was a monte frumentario housed in the castle of Cusercoli. According to late-nineteenth-century records, this institute, still well stocked in the eighteenth century, was stripped of most of its means during the Napoleonic period. The grain bank was revived in the 1820s thanks to the intervention of Mayor Colinelli, who managed to get repayments of loans of wheat by old debtors. As a result the monte was able to resume its grain lending activity to local peasants on a regular basis at a 6.25% rate of interest. Mismanagement, abuse, and fraud were frequent ills. In the first half of the nineteenth century the monte frumentario in Teodorano, established in 1626, was compromised by poor management. Troubles dated back at least to the 1830s, and in a year of food shortage such as 1838, there was an open call for the Cardinal Legate to intervene to make sure farmers had seeds at the time of sowing, and preventing the monte assets from being squandered. Mismanagement was mainly blamed on the institute’s caretaker, Archpriest Giunchi, who “one week collected and the next disbursed for all sorts of motives but the regular distribution of subsidies. To farmers facing a critical shortage of seeds he would abruptly reply that he had no grain left to lend to anyone” (una settimana riscuote e nell’altra si vede a detrarsi l’esatto per tutt’altro che per le regolari sovvenzioni, perché presentandosi un qualche bisognoso per sementare, gli risponde bruscamente non aver grano da dare ad alcuno).33 From 1830 the keeper had progressively reduced the periods of loan disbursement, first eliminating May, then Easter, then Christmas, and finally even the month of October, so that by 1838 subsidies ceased altogether. Little by little, Giunchi acted increasingly “as a despot” (da desputa), “making expenditures at whim” (facendo spese a capriccio), “suing in court people who were not debtors” (citare chi non è debitore), “keeping unnecessary account books” (far fare 32 ASFC, PG, b. 858, Notizie statistiche sui monti frumentari, 7 April 1863. Capitolato da osservarsi nell’amministrazione del MF del comune di S. Clemente. 33 ASFC, PG, b. 986 (1878). Proposta governativa per invertire questo Monte Frumentario in altra opera di beneficenza, 15 October 1876.

7

RURAL MICROCREDIT IN THE SHARECROPPING …

187

impianti di libri d’amministrazione senza bisogno), “providing wheat even to the lords of Forlì, without ever bothering to claim it back” (somministrare delle quantità di grano anche a Signori di Forlì, senza più ritirarlo). In addition, the same keeper had failed to provide either annual reporting of activities or suitable guarantees, indeed, there were many calls for change, which went mainly unheeded.34 Thus fewer and fewer loans were performed and financial paralysis gripped the monte in the second half of the nineteenth century.

5

National Unification and New Trends of Institutional Reform

Several monti came through the political transition to the new Kingdom of Italy successfully: at the end of the 1860s the three institutes located in San Clemente served more than 130 people a year and had an asset portfolio which included over 260 hl of wheat and mortgage loans.35 More limited were the assets of the monte of Cusercoli: in 1862, on the eve of its transfer to the Congregazione di carità, the institute listed 23 hl of wheat and 186.17 lire in cash.36 In the 1860s the issue of poor grain bank management again gained prominence. The national legislation on charities of 1862 did not represent a dramatic break with previous rules and norms. However, it aimed at standardising and formalising operational procedures that were previously left to customary practice rather than statutes and regulations. The goal of new national legislation can be appreciated at the local level by the new 1867 Statute of the old monte frumentario in Gemmano, yet another village in the hinterlands of Rimini. The new set of norms had precisely the task of updating and translating into written rules customary managerial habits that had guided the administration up to that time, “changing only what was contrary to our legislation and the spirit of the times” (modificandola soltanto in ciò che fosse contrario alla nostra legislazione ed

34 ASFC, Legazione Apostolica di Forlì, b. 233 (1838). Lettera al legato firmata da alcuni abitanti di Teodorano, 12 August 1838. 35 ASFC, PG, b. 858, Notizie statistiche sui monti frumentari, 7 April 1863. Copia del capitolato. Capitolato da osservarsi nell’amministrazione del MF del comune di S. Clemente. 36 ASFC, PG, b. 858, Inventari delle opere pie, Inventario del Monte frumentario esistente nel castello di Cusercoli, Comune di Civitella, 14 December 1866.

188

M. CARBONI AND O. MAZZOTTI

allo spirito dei tempi).37 The main task of the monte was to lend grain for sowing to peasants in distress, as well as to the poor during the winter season. Borrowers were expected to pay back wheat of good quality at harvest time, “with a slight increase in quantity” (con un leggier aumento nella quantità). An executive, who received an annual compensation in kind, was in charge of operations. No member of the supervisory board could take money or withdraw wheat, nor could he be appointed official, even without compensation. Despite the fact that local authorities were responsible for overseeing the monte, over the years it had received little care from the municipal administration. As a result the institution’s assets had suffered losses, weakening lending activities and calling for significant managerial improvements.38 In the mid-1860s grain banks went through a review process, as illustrated by the case of the monte of Gemmano. Many institutes started to be perceived as useless: as poor farmers found increasingly hard to provide adequate guarantees, lending declined, and therefore to store grain in warehouses brought significant expenses without providing any benefit in return. This problem even led some administrators to take the unusual step of lending wheat to landowners.39 Despite a solid financial situation in the 1850s—over 30 scudi in cash and 314.12 bushels of wheat in assets40 —the monte frumentario of Bagnara experienced a serious crisis in the post-unification years: its business turnover contracted so much that it was no longer able to meet farmers’ credit needs.41

6

A Case Study: Imola

Imola’s monte frumentario stands out among Romagna’s grain banks. Its size and the wealth of archival records, particularly significant for the nineteenth century, contrast sharply with the norm of small and poorly documented institutes across the region. The close ties of Imola’s grain and pawn banks probably contributed to both the formation and the

37 ASFC, PG, b. 1029 (1884). Statuto (handwritten), 4 August 1867. 38 ASFC, PG, b. 1029 (1884). Verbale dell’assemblea della Congregazione di carità di

Gemmano, 24 January 1867. 39 ASFC, PG, b. 858, Notizie statistiche sui monti frumentari, 30 January 1865. 40 Martelli (1971). 41 Biffi (1880).

7

RURAL MICROCREDIT IN THE SHARECROPPING …

189

survival of a larger body of recorded materials. In keeping with the pattern of monti frumentari throughout Romagna, the grain bank started to operate much later (1709) than the pawn bank (1512).42 In fact, it was established on 20 October 1709 by the bishop of Imola, Cardinal Filippo Gualtieri with a starting capital of 500 scudi drawn on the local pawn bank.43 The purpose of the Monte frumentario was to help the rural population by granting loans in kind through grain advances to peasants in need of the diocese of Imola, including inhabitants of the hinterland’s communities of Bagnara, Torrano, and Poggiolo. However, due to the high price of wheat on the local market, the institute’s lending activity began only in 1717, with the purchase of 600 bushels of wheat, at a cost of 603.62 scudi.44 Up to this date, monte assets had been profitably put to use by funding loans to the community’s victualling office. From its inception the Monte frumentario was placed under the supervision and the protection of the bishop, so that no other party could interfere in its management. From an administrative point of view, the monte was headed by a board of four officials, two appointed by the bishop and two chosen by the city council. Not surprisingly, the governing body was modelled on the organisation of the local Monte di pietà, of which the frumentario was a sister institution and with which it cooperated in exercising its policy of support for the poor. However, the relative simplicity of the monte frumentario administration with respect to that of the monte di pietà mirrored not only “the different degree of

42 Carboni and Mazzotti (2012). 43 “The most distinguished Legate before departing from this city and Province wished

to make a remarkable and permanent gift to this Community, such as the foundation of a grain bank. To this end he invited the General Council to combine sums earned from judicial proceeds during his tenure and 218 scudi, from the Spazzate lawsuit, deposited by Monsignor Zani Bishop of Imola in the Monte di pietà, for an overall capital of 500 scudi” (L’Eminentissimo Legato prima di partire da questa città e dalla Provincia voleva fare un beneficio rimarcabile e perpetuo a questo Pubblico, qual era l’erezione d’un monte formentario per il quale desiderava, che ad alcune puoche condanne da lui fatte nel tempo della Legazione, il Generale Conseglio unisse li scudi 218 depositati da Monsignore Zani Vescovo d’Imola nel S. Monte proveniente dalla causa delle Spazzate, che tutti uniti insieme formarebbero un Capitale di scudi 500). ASCI, CC, n. 46, cc. 230–231, year 1709. However, the actual sum allocated for the first purchase of wheat was higher, amounting to about 647 scudi. 44 According to local standards a bushel (corba) was equal to 0.688686 hl.

190

M. CARBONI AND O. MAZZOTTI

complexity of urban and rural economic relations”45 but also the different economic and financial weight of the two institutions. Officials had the right to appoint—with the bishop’s approval—a caretaker or keeper (custode) who had to be an esteemed professional, equipped with adequate guarantees. He had the task of properly storing the wheat at his own expense and lending it to the needy according to orders signed by the four officials.46 Reappointments took place on an annual basis by secret vote by the officials. The statutes stipulated excluding the wealthy and recommended giving preference in lending to the neediest. However, grain lending could not be granted without the borrowers being able to provide a sufficient guarantee of repayment.47 At the time of repayment of the loaned grain, the amount of “alms” (i.e. interest)—designed to increase assets—had to be calculated. The caretaker had the task of collecting the loans and making sure that the wheat was of good quality. The importance of paying close attention to the quality of the returned grain was stressed in an additional norm, which gave the keeper the right to appoint two assistants, a porter and a sifter.48 The latter had the task of carefully and impartially inspecting the grain, without accepting any compensation from those who returned it. He was expected to accept only “high-quality crop” (ridotto a stato di ottima qualità).49 All wages were paid in kind: the keeper was entitled to a share of 2% of the grain lent, the notary and the porter to six bushels of wheat, and the sifter to five bushels. The statutes called for accurate accounting: the collector had the task of keeping track of orders and recording relevant information for 45 Bonazzoli (1999). 46 Two surviving handwritten copies of the original 1709 Statutes of the Monte frumen-

tario can be found in: ADI, Tit. XV, b. XIV, f. 3, Erezione e capitoli del Monte Frumentario, e in BIM, ASCI, CA, b. 299, a. 1833. Capitoli del Monte Frumentario erretto dall’Eminentissimo, e Reverendissimo Sig. Cardinale Gualterio già Vescovo d’Imola, e Legato di Romagna l’anno 1709. 47 In order to prevent fraud, officials were barred from taking any amount of wheat from the Monte. On the issue of frauds and shortfalls in charitable credit institutes see Tasca (2017). 48 Keepers were expected to claim back and store in the warehouse all the loaned wheat by the month of August. BIM, ASCI, CA, b. 299, a. 1833. Capitoli del Monte Frumentario erretto dall’Eminentissimo, e Reverendissimo Sig. Cardinale Gualterio già Vescovo d’Imola, e Legato di Romagna l’anno 1709. 49 Ibid.

7

RURAL MICROCREDIT IN THE SHARECROPPING …

1722

1723

191

900 800 700 600

Bushels

500 400 300 200

1740

1739

1738

1737

1736

1735

1734

1733

1732

1731

1730

1729

1728

1727

1726

1725

1724

1721

1720

1719

1718

0

1717

100

Fig. 1 Grain loans disbursed by the monte frumentario of Imola, 1717–1740 (Source ADI, Stanza IV, palch. XXIX, Monte Frumentario)

each transaction in a register: date and amount of the loan, name and surname of the borrower and his guarantee, date and amount of partial repayments, and final balance. Little has been preserved of the eighteenth-century accounting records, allowing us only to sketch a rough picture of the loans the Monte handed out to farmers in the first half of the eighteenth century. In the first period of activity, spanning over almost a quarter of a century, from 1717 to 1740, there is an almost constant increase in the amount of loaned grain, from a minimum of 500 bushels in 1717 to a maximum of 821 bushels in 1740, with just one drop in 1726 (Fig. 1).50 Sources are mostly silent until the end of the Napoleonic period, during which the authorities of the Cisalpine Republic took the Monte out of clerical control and subjected it to a lay administration. Its social mission changed as well: no longer loans to the poor populace in general, but just to farmers, either for their subsistence or for sowing in case of bad harvest.51 The heavy economic crisis of 1816 made it difficult for the monte customers to repay in full the loans taken out the previous year and resulted in defaults that were added to the hard-to-collect debts that 50 During the first two years of activity the Monte purchased 600 bushels of wheat but provided loans of just 500 bushels. No reliable data are available for the years 1732–1734. 51 Cane (1958) and Galassi (1989).

192

M. CARBONI AND O. MAZZOTTI

had been piling up for years on the institution’s balance sheet.52 The difficult economic situation gave the monte officials the opportunity to introduce a number of administrative reforms. Compared to the statutory changes that had affected the local monte di pietà in the early 1820s, the process of reforming the frumentario proceeded at a slower pace and led to the issuance of new statutes only in 1833. However, the delay was only apparent since the new rules formally sanctioned the outcome of a process of renewal that had started to take shape as early as 1816.53 This renewal affected various aspects of the life of the institution, starting with the reform of the payroll system, which shifted from fixed to flexible pay. Whereas “in accordance with traditional practices” (come da antica consuetudine) notary, sifter, and porter received a standard remuneration of seven bushels of wheat per year, in 1818 trustees opted for a pay mechanism that would automatically adjust wages to the actual amount of wheat handled by the institution, mirroring the amount of work required to operate the institute.54 They stipulated that officials’ annual compensation was to be calculated according to the monte “annual business turnover” (giro annuo), i.e. the overall stock of wheat stored in the warehouse, the number of wheat loans, and the quantity of uncollected wheat from previous years. Officials were to receive one percent of the actual turnover: 0.5% to the notary and 0.25% each to sifter and porter. As a result, in 1818, the notary received a remuneration of eight bushels, the sifter and the porter four bushels each.55 Access to loans was limited and a number of restrictions applied. First of all, starting in 1817 loans could not exceed 6 bushels per family, and

52 Trustees and parish priests made numerous heartfelt pleas, but “the current hardship

makes difficult and very burdensome for borrowers to pay back their loans in full”. AMFI, VC, serie 54.1, verbale, 9 July and 13 September 1816. 53 “Indeed, having just practically modified some [early regulations] and having increased the number of employees without adopting new formal provisions” (Essendone anzi alcuni [primitive regolamenti] stati riformati in fatto ed accresciuti gli impiegati senza che abbia avuto una ordinate redazione delle adottate massime messe in pratica). AMFI, VC, serie 54.1, verbale, 28 April 1818. 54 Other institutional changes were also introduced at that time: the cost of taking out a loan dropped from 5 to 4 baiocchi, (one baiocco was 1/100 of a scudo) while loan extensions—not to exceed two years—would be free of charge. The cost of weighing grain was set at one baiocco per bushels, to be borne by the borrowers. 55 AMFI, VC, serie 54.1, verbale, 12 March 1818.

7

RURAL MICROCREDIT IN THE SHARECROPPING …

193

loans in excess of that amount were to be recalled. Penalties and restrictions were introduced to discourage customers from trying to secure more wheat than they were entitled to and the keeper was empowered to refuse additional loans to former borrowers. Second, in order to be eligible for a loan, it was necessary to show a certificate from the parish priest, proving one’s “absolute poverty […] or the need for a subsidy due to exceptional circumstances” (povertà assoluta […] oppure il bisogno della sovvenzione per qualche particolare circostanza).56 Third, loan recipients had to be local residents. Outsiders were not eligible. From this point of view the activities of the monte frumentario were strictly held at the municipal level, unlike the monte di pietà, which could and did extend its pawn lending services beyond the city limits.57 Both the weekly and monthly schedules of service activities had also changed to some extent by 1818: Tuesday and Saturday were set for sealing contracts; Monday and Thursday were set for collecting lent grain from borrowers; Wednesday and Friday were set for handing out grain to customers. The entire month of July was devoted to collection, while wheat delivery went from mid-July to the end of October. Another important provision was introduced to weigh grain paid back: since wheat could suffer a decrease in weight due to poor storage conditions, it was decided to abandon the traditional “full bowl” system (scodella colma) by switching to the “level bowl” (scodella rasa) system: 4.5 level bowls were thus levied per bushel of loaned wheat instead of the previous 4 full bowls, “so that in this way there would be fair treatment to those who borrowed wheat as well as to those who paid it back”.58 After the intense 1816–1818 reform years, the monte frumentario went through a second period of renewal with the issuance of new rules in

56 He should have given first and last name, the name of the farm he tilled, and the

annual crop yield. AMFI, VC, serie 54.1, verbale, 12 March 1818. 57 Carboni and Mazzotti (2012). 58 Changes were introduced in bookkeeping procedures: an alphabetical receipt book

(vacchetta) was to be drawn up. Scribes entered the bushels of wheat to be loaned in the book and handed a signed receipt to the borrower. AMFI, VC, serie 54.1, verbale, 12 March 1818.

194

M. CARBONI AND O. MAZZOTTI

1833.59 Firstly, there was a severe restriction on the maximum disbursement of a single batch of wheat for each family. Those who were already in debt to the Monte were consequently excluded from new loans. The amount of grain that could be borrowed had to be strictly related to the number of individuals in the applicant’s family and the size of the farm. Such data had to be certified by the parish priest. Additional downward or upward adjustments could be introduced, based on the economic situation: higher quantity in lean years and lower amounts in years of plenty. For each loaned bushel of grain, the new rules required borrowers to pay back five bowls, but registers show that, as a matter of fact, the interest rate on the loan had increased as early as 1827.60 The three periods of loan disbursement were also updated as follows: end of August was the deadline to borrow grain for sowing (i.e. operating credit), by the end of May the deadline related to harvesting, and by the end of December the so-called winter credit deadline (i.e. consumer credit, popularly known as “sfamo”—food).61 Comparison of the 1833 rules with the original statute of 1709 highlights the change from the earlier Old Regime customary administrative procedures: the organisational chart had grown considerably more complex, while wages, although still paid in kind—except for the legal officer—were calculated in a different way: the grain collector was now the highest paid employee (18 bushels of wheat per year), the secretary, the warehouseman, and the sifter followed (7 bushels), last came the messenger (3 bushels). The sharper definition of the tasks of the various officials and the “care” (premura) they were expected to take in carrying out their duties speak volumes on the greater importance attached to managerial roles. The secretary, a newly introduced position, had to perform several key tasks: framing contractual obligations, collecting loan repayments, posting transactions in the journal, keeping meeting minutes, and submitting documents and payments to the collector, who would in turn enter all transactions into the ledger. The job of the messenger was also new, and it 59 BIM, ASCI, CA, b. 299, Copia del Regolamento del Monte Frumentario d’Imola sanzionato da Sua Eccellenza Rma Mons. Giovanni Maria de’ Conti Mastai Ferretti meritassimo Arcivescovo Vescovo di detta Città e diocesi, li 5 agosto 1833 che servir deve per l’Ill.mo Magistrato Imolese. 60 AMFI, MA, 1824–1918. 61 BIM, ASCI, CA, b. 299, Copia del Regolamento del Monte Frumentario d’Imola, cit.

7

RURAL MICROCREDIT IN THE SHARECROPPING …

195

had been added to keep track of repayments and issue and deliver receipts of returned grain lots to debtors.62 Reforms were not associated with significant changes in governance though. As a matter of fact the administrative renewal of the monte frumentario during the Restoration period was entrusted to leading members of the city’s elite. Even the location of council meetings— regularly held at the palace of the counts Della Volpe—is revealing. In 1816 the four curators were Canon Primicerio Orazio de’ Gregori, Count Giulio Mazzi Gigli, Count Antonio Alessandretti (replaced in 1817 by Count Antonio Zampieri), and Captain Battista Costa Marconi (later replaced by Count Francesco Gamberini).63 The key position of the caretaker was held for several years by Count Gian Francesco Della Volpe,64 later replaced by his son Giovanni Battista, and thereafter it remained in the same family until at least 1843. Overall, aristocratic governance provided an element of institutional continuity, and new bourgeois members started to be co-opted only in the late 1820s.65 Closer scrutiny of the number of monte customers in the preunification period provides insight into the actual dimension and importance of credit services the institute was able to provide to the rural population: from the mid-1820s the number of grain borrowers recorded in the ledgers kept climbing to beyond 300 per year, to post just a slight decline in the 1840s and 1850s. In the period under consideration, the percentage of borrowers who managed to pay back their debt within a year was low (with the notable exceptions of 1824 and 1831). In most cases loans were not repaid before two years, and often not in full. For most of the years for which ledgers are available it is possible to assess the amount of grain that was on loan at the beginning of the fiscal year and the amount stored in the warehouse (Fig. 2). Year after year, the overall quantity was fairly constant at ca. 1,500 bushels. What changed was the balance between the two: with few exceptions—most likely linked to unusually good harvests—the wheat in stock was far less than the grain loaned out. However, it must be noted that the overall amount of wheat available to subsidise the poorer

62 Ibid. 63 AMFI, VC, serie 54.1, Verbali, 6 June 1817 and 22 September 1818. 64 AMFI, VC, serie 54.1, Verbale, 9 July 1816. 65 Marcelli (2011).

amount of loaned wheat

1859

1858

1857

1856

1855

1854

1853

1852

1851

1850

1849

1848

1847

1846

1845

1844

1843

1842

1841

1840

1839

1838

1837

1836

1835

1834

1833

1832

1831

1830

1829

1828

1827

1826

1825

2000 1900 1800 1700 1600 1500 1400 1300 1200 1100 1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0

M. CARBONI AND O. MAZZOTTI

1824

Bushels

196

amount of stored wheat

Fig. 2 Wheat stored and wheat loaned by the Imola monte at the end of each business year, 1824–1859 (Source ADI, MA, 1824–1918)

section of the rural population kept slowly decreasing. From the 1840s grain loans also declined, while, conversely, the share of stored wheat kept increasing.66

Epilogue The data collected in the 1861 statistics of charitable institutes are a valuable source in reviewing the spread of grain banks in pre-modern Romagna.67 The statistics reveal a much higher presence of such institutions in the rural continental south and Sardinia as compared to the centre-north of the peninsula, with the notable exception of the former Papal provinces in Umbria and Marche. Perhaps not surprisingly, the ratio was reversed in the case of pawn banks, mirroring the denser urban network in the northern regions (again with the exception Umbria and Marche). The high number of monti frumentari seems to be associated not simply with a principally rural economy marked by collectively owned farmland and absentee landlords,68 but also key to a combination of

66 After its establishment the monte did not receive donations to increase its assets. 67 Avallone (2013). 68 Ibid.

7

RURAL MICROCREDIT IN THE SHARECROPPING …

197

additional factors such as the prevalently hilly and mountainous topography of the cultivated areas, widespread sharecropping contracts, and few urban centres of any significance. This was exactly the case in Umbria and Marche. It is probably no coincidence that within the northern provinces of the Papacy the closer one got to those areas—see, for example, the Rimini area—the greater the number of monti frumentari. Further north, the presence of large ecclesiastical landholdings may have had a significant influence in reducing the need to activate grain banks: relief to poor farming families could be guaranteed by the regular clergy. The large estates owned by the abbeys of Ravenna may have played a role in preventing the establishment of grain banks in the fertile north-eastern area of Romagna. A possible interpretative hypothesis stems precisely from the geographic distribution of seed and grain banks: they were nearly absent in areas characterised by large landholdings, whether secular (in the provinces of Bologna and Ferrara) or clerical (Ravenna). In these areas, the task of providing grain in times of need—for consumption or sowing—to farmers and rural communities was likely performed by landowners. In the years just after unification monti frumentari were still felt to fulfil a particularly relevant and useful role, “especially in those places whose geographical location made communication with commercial centres difficult”.69 But prevailing views soon shifted and they started to lose an appeal, “given improved communications and the removal of the obstacles obstructing trade” and the rise of new credit services catering to rural communities. Other interrelated reasons also contributed to the swift decline of grain banks. The monte frumentario of Scorticata, in Rimini’s hinterland, provides a model story. Revived in 1869, after a period of limited activity, it began to perform a twin role: it acted as a victualling office, tied to bread-making at a subsidised price, and as a provider of cheap credit, lending not only grain but also small amounts of cash to poor families.70 Thanks to the efficiency and ingenuity of the officials who managed it during the 1870s, the monte of Scorticata had evolved into a multipurpose institute. In response to a governmental proposal to disband it, it 69 ASFC, Prefettura generale, b. 986 (1878). Proposta governativa per invertire questo Monte Frumentario in altra opera di beneficenza, 15 October 1876. 70 ASFC, PG, b. 974 (1876). Verbale del consiglio comunale di Scorticata, 14 October 1876.

198

M. CARBONI AND O. MAZZOTTI

was defended by the entire community, but to no avail. In a matter of a few years, a similar fate befell most Italian grain banks. The institution was increasingly perceived as outdated, no longer adequate or suitable for the purpose for which it had been created, and of no use to the effort of economic and social modernisation of the country. In the late nineteenth century, the progressive overhaul of the system of public charity and the rapid spread of a new versatile breed of credit institutions—such as rural credit unions—with the specific social mission to help those who were “unbanked” contributed to the final demise of grain banks.

Archival Sources Archivio di Stato di Forlì-Cesena (ASFC) Prefettura Generale (PG) Prefettura Napoleonica (PN) Archivio Diocesano di Imola (ADI) Archivio Storico del Comune di Imola (ASCI) Campioni Comunali (CC). Carteggio amministrativo (CA) Archivio del Monte Frumentario di Imola (AMFI) Verbali delle sedute del Consiglio del Monte Frumentario, 1816-1843 (VC) Mastri (MA) Archivio Storico Comunale di Bagnara (ASCBA) Deputazione comunale di abbondanza (DCDA) Archivio Storico Comunale di Gatteo (ASCGA)

References Andreoni, Luca, and Marco Moroni. 2021. The wealth of periphery? Food provisioning, merchants, and cereals in the Papal States: The case of the March of Ancona. In Italian victualling systems in the early modern age, 16th to 18th century, ed. Luca Clerici, 177–211. London: Palgrave. Boiardi, Appari, and Anna, eds. 1980. Gli statuti delle Opere Pie dell’Emilia e della Romagna: Profili storici e funzioni attuali. Bologna: IBC Regione Emilia-Romagna. Avallone, Paola. 2006. Il denaro e il grano. I Monti frumentari nel Regno di Napoli nella seconda metà del XVIII secolo. In Assistenza, previdenza e mutualità nel Mezzogiorno moderno e contemporaneo, ed. Ennio De Simone, Vittoria Ferrandino, 129–156. Franco Angeli: Milano.

7

RURAL MICROCREDIT IN THE SHARECROPPING …

199

Avallone, Paola. 2010. Alle origini del microcredito nel Mediterraneo. Monti di pietà e Monti Frumentari nel Mezzogiorno preunitario. In Crocevia Mediterranei, ed. G. Biorci, P. Castagneto, 45–76. Isem: Cagliari. Avallone, Paola. 2013. Il credito. In Il Mezzogiorno prima dell’Unità. Fonti, dati, storiografia, ed. Paolo Malanima, and Nicola Ostuni, 257–282. Soverio Mannelli: Rubettino. Battaglini, Gelsimo. 1976. I Monti frumentari della diocesi di Ancona nel secolo XVIII . Atti e Memorie. Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Marche, 8th series 10: 7–24. Bellagamba, Velia. 1991. I Monti frumentari. In La Marca e le sue istituzioni al tempo di Sisto V , ed. Pio Cartechini, 303–308. Roma: Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali. Biffi, Luigi. 1880.Memoria intorno alle condizioni dell’agricoltura e della classe agricola nel circondario di Faenza. Faenza: Tipografia Pietro Conti. Bolognesi, Dante. 1986. Una “regione” divisa. Economia e società in Romagna alla fine del Settecento. In Spazi ed economie. L’assetto economico di due territori della Padania inferiore, ed. Fabio Giusberti and Alberto Guenzi, 137–271. Bologna: il Mulino. Bonazzoli, Viviana.1999. Banchi ebraici, Monti di pietà, Monti frumentari in area umbro-marchigiana: un insieme di temi aperti. In Monti di Pietà e presenza ebraica in Italia (secoli XV-XVIII), ed. Daniele Montanari, 181–214. Roma: Bulzoni Editore. Brigaglia, Manlio, and Maria Grazia Cadoni. 2003. La Terra, il Lavoro, il Grano. Dai Monti Frumentari agli anni Duemila. [s.l.]: Banco di Sardegna. Broad, Anton, and John Schuurman, eds. 2014. Wealth and Poverty in European Rural Societies from the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Century. Turnhout: Brepols. Cane, Luciano. 1958. La vita economica d’Imola durante la Rivoluzione francese e il periodo napoleonico (1789–1815). Tesi di laurea, Facoltà di Economia e Commercio, Bologna, dattiloscritto. Cannalonga, Clara. 1989. Le istituzioni di credito nel Salernitano: dai Monti Frumentari alle Casse di prestanza agraria. Rassegna storica lucana, anno IX (9/10): 279–302. Carboni, Mauro. 2005. Altri Monti di pietà documentati. In Sacri recinti del credito. Sedi e storie dei Monti di pietà in Emilia-Romagna, ed. Mauro Carboni, Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Vera Zamagni, 311–325. Venezia: Marsilio. Carboni, Mauro, and Omar Mazzotti. 2012. Il Monte di Pietà di Imola. Cinque secoli di storia cittadina. Imola: La Mandragora. Checcoli, Ippolita. 2015. I Monti frumentari: nuovi approcci e materiali per una riconsiderazione del tema. In I Monti frumentari e le forme di credito non monetarie tra Medioevo ed Età contemporanea, ed. Ippolita Checcoli, 9–26. Bologna: il Mulino.

200

M. CARBONI AND O. MAZZOTTI

Clerici, Luca, ed. 2021. Italian victualling systems in the early modern age, 16th to 18th century. London: Palgrave. Cunningham, Andrew, and Ole Peter Grell, eds. 2005. Health care and poor relief in 18th and 19th century Southern Europe. Aldershot: Routledge. Fabbri, Pier Giovanni. 2003. L’età moderna. In Storia di Mercato Saraceno, ed. Edoardo Tucci, 111–188. Cesena: Il Ponte Vecchio. Galassi, Nazario. 1989. Dieci secoli di storia ospitaliera a Imola, vol. II. Imola: Editrice Galeati. Garrani, Giuseppe. 1966. Gli antichi istituti di credito agrario. I Monti frumentari. Economia e credito 1: 560–606. Ivone, Diomede. 1983. I Monti Frumentari in una provincia del Mezzogiorno: il Principato Citeriore (1845–1859). In Studi in onore di Gino Barbieri. Problemi e metodi di Storia ed Economia, vol. II. Salerno: Ipem Edizioni. Maffi, Luciano, and Marco Rochini. 2016. Poor relief systems in rural Italy: The territory of the diocese of Tortona in the eighteenth century. Continuity and Change 31 (2): 211–239. Marcelli, Umberto. 2011. Imola nel Risorgimento. Un inedito Ottocento imolese. Imola: Angelini Editore. Martelli, Mino. 1971. I dodici secoli di Bagnara di Romagna (secc. IX-XX). Faenza: Fratelli Lega. Meneghin, Vittorino. 1986. I Monti di Pietà in Italia dal 1462 al 1562. Vicenza: LIEF. Moroni, Marco. 2009. Il sistema assistenziale di una città della Marca pontificia tra basso Medioevo ed età moderna. Proposte e ricerche, XXXII, 63: 97–118. Paolucci, Mara. 2005. Giovanni Battista Antonelli e il Monte Frumentario di Gatteo. Unpublished dissertation, Faculty of Economics in Forlì, University of Bologna, Chair Prof. Bernardino Farolfi. Pretelli, Sergio. 1991. Il credito dai monti frumentari alle casse rurali. Proposte e ricerche, XXVII: 133–146. Rabotti, Giuseppe, ed. 1991. Archivi Storici in Emilia-Romagna. Guida generale degli Archivi storici Comunali. Bologna: Edizioni Analisi. Sanna, Piero. 1988. Dai Monti Frumentari alle banche dell’Ottocento. In La Sardegna, ed. by Manlio Brigaglia, vol. 3, 219–223. Sassari. Sensi, Mario. 1971. Tre monti frumentari del secolo XV. In Civiltà del Rinascimento nel Maceratese, ed. The Centro di Studi Storici Maceratesi, 285–305. Macerata: Centro di Studi Storici Maceratesi. Sensi, Mario. 1972. Fra Andrea da Faenza istitutore dei Monti frumentari. Picenum Seraphicum 9: 162–257. Sensi, Mario. 1980. Monti frumentari. In Dizionario degli istituti di perfezione, ed. Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca, vol. VI, 115–119. Milano: Edizioni Paoline.

7

RURAL MICROCREDIT IN THE SHARECROPPING …

201

Stefani, Guglielmo. 1856. Dizionario corografico dello Stato Pontificio. Verona and Milano: Tip. Civelli G. e C. Strangio, Donatella. 1993. Il Monte Frumentario di Anagni. Un modello di gestione del grano in una comunità del basso Lazio nell’età moderna (1636– 1718). Latium. Rivista di Studi Storici X: 251–272. Strangio, Donatella. 2015. Ripensare le food crises: lo Stato Pontificio (1750– 1800). In “Moia la carestia”. La scarsità alimentare in età preindustriale, ed. Maria Luisa Ferrari and Manuel Vaquero Piñeiro, 65–91. Bologna: il Mulino. Tasca, Cecilia. 2017. I Monti frumentari in Sardegna nel XIX secolo: un’istituzione al bivio fra “errori, frodi, abusi e mancamenti”. In Storie di frodi. Intacchi, malversazioni e furti nei Monti di pietà e negli istituti caritatevoli tra Medioevo ed Età moderna, ed. Righi, Laura, 327–356. Bologna: il Mulino. Vitali, Gaetano. 1828. Memorie storiche risguardanti la terra di M. Fiore seguite da molte notizie concernenti altri luoghi della Diocesi di Rimino nella Romagna raccolte dal dottor don Gaetano Vitali professore emerito di logica, e metafisica nel Seminario di Rimino etc. Rimini: Stamperia Albertini.

CHAPTER 8

Instruments and Strategies of the Social Support System in Rural Brescia During the Eighteenth Century Giovanni Gregorini

1

Brescia in the Eighteenth-Century Veneto

For a long period, from 1426 to 1797, Brescia was under the dominion of the Republic of Venice, within which it represented, after Padua and on a par with Verona, one of the major cities in terms of population and economy. The city and its province covered an area of over 4,800 square kilometres, making it the Republic’s second-largest mainland region after Fruili. The very large area was considered by contemporaries to be a sort of duchy in its own right, not particularly blessed as regards geography, having extensive mountainous areas penalized by rather inefficient internal connections and furrowed by streams subject to torrential/dry cycles. According to the 1766 census, the population was 315,161 inhabitants,

G. Gregorini (B) Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 G. Gregorini et al. (eds.), Social Support Systems in Rural Italy, Palgrave Studies in Economic History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24303-5_8

203

204

G. GREGORINI

growing by 5.5% to 332,583 in 1790, placing it among the least dynamic nationally, due both to a rather high death rate and a rather high marriage age, with all the attendant implications for fertility. As opposed to the capital city and the valleys, the rural areas on the plain were the principal source of population growth. At the end of the 1780s, in addition to the capital (whose population oscillated around 38,000 inhabitants) there were at least eight other cities on the plain with notable populations, demonstrating the progressive establishment of the polycentric configuration that would continue to characterize the Brescia area in the following years.1 In terms of fiscal revenues, the Brescia region was considered a workhorse; at the same time, in virtue of its highly strategic geographical position, both militarily and commercially, it maintained clear autonomy as an area of interconnection between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan2 Hinterland of the north-west and forecourt of the north-east, Brescia nurtured this autonomous identity also in the development of a series of social support activities promoted both by secular organizations and by religious bodies. The Republic of Venice was well known for its political flexibility, allowing the adoption of specific solutions in different urban and territorial areas under its control. Particularly broad concessions were reserved for places of strategic military or economic importance. In this vein, almost as if to balance the inevitable power of the city, the Republic granted the status of “separate lands” [terre separate] to the three valleys near Brescia (Val Camonica, Val Trompia, Val Sabbia), to Salò, capital of the Lake Garda riviera, and to the fortresses of Asola and Lonato. In substance, these “separate lands” enjoyed some tax exemption privileges while on the jurisdictional level, they did not depend on city magistratures but were directly subject to Venice, which implanted its local representatives.3 In the non-privileged rural areas, the political-bureaucratic authority of the so-called “Corpo territoriale” [Territorial Body] was established, with jurisdiction over approximately one-third of the entire province, thus determining a non-homogeneous organizational scheme. This reflected a

1 Mocarelli (1996, pp. 343–344). 2 Montanari and Pegrari (2013, pp. 358–359). 3 Montanari (1996, pp. 18–19).

8

INSTRUMENTS AND STRATEGIES OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

205

part of the Venetian strategy of counterbalancing the excessive power of urban areas and combating the spread of tax exemptions. By recognizing the local identities, the Republic sought to retain the support of certain social classes and communities. This was the context for the consolidation of a particularly dynamic popular, devotional, and social Catholicism both in the capital and in the rural areas, as significantly embodied in the figure of Giambattista Guadagnini, arch-priest in Cividate Camuno, one of the most authoritative representatives of Jansenism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As we read in the relevant literature, the history of the Church makes up a large part of the history of Brescia. During the eighteenth century— thanks particularly to the initiative of the bishop Cardinal Angelo Maria Querini (1727–1755)—the diocese seemed to flourish like never before, thanks especially to certain manifestations of religious life conditioned by a cultural atmosphere of study and debate, a very high number of priests, and to the credible and solid prospects that the continual construction or restoration of churches and monasteries throughout the area represented for the people of Brescia in those years.4 Catholicism in Brescia was characterized by a growing polarization of religious life around the parish, especially in the rural zones: here the strongly rooted parochial ecclesiastic structure was certainly an element favouring the persistence of religious codes and resistance to interventions by civil authorities in religious matters. At the same time, it was a role recognized in the civil arena; the delicate task of providing for the education of young people, and also for coordinating certain functions of the social support system, was often entrusted to the parson, especially in small communities.5 The extensive Brescia territory showed marked morphological and economic diversity, with a western plain mainly oriented to cereal crops, silk production, and manufacturing favoured by the Oglio River; a more diversified eastern plain, influenced in part by the city markets for flax, paper, and weaponry; a hilly zone characterized by mulberry cultivation and winegrowing; and a mountainous area with proto-industrial steel production supported by hydropower and firewood (associated

4 Cairns (1991, pp. 87–88). 5 Vismara Chiappa (1996, pp. 44–45).

206

G. GREGORINI

with structural emigration) integrating into a context of subsistence agriculture. After the difficult first thirty years of the eighteenth century, which were characterized by climate-related catastrophes, livestock diseases, and the devastation caused by the War of the Spanish Succession, a more favourable period began in 1732, marked, if not by high prices, certainly by abundant harvests allowing the exportation of notable quantities of grain. This generally positive trend in the agricultural economy grew even stronger in the second half of the century, with a phase of rising prices for the most important staples, consolidating the vital role of agriculture in the local economy.6

2 Protagonists and Realms of the Social Support System: Hospitals Historical literature on the social support systems in the Brescia area shows a certain weakness, mainly in quantitative terms, in the analysis of the eighteenth century. With respect to the two previous centuries,7 there are in effect fewer studies on the eighteenth century, especially as regards the rural sphere (both on the plain and in the mountainous zones). As a consequence, the analysis of nineteenth-century modernization appears almost isolated in time due to gaps in research into its origins, inevitably involving the previous century.8 The problems associated with the preservation of the sources9 combined with a prevailing interest in the urban area of the capital. This is compounded by the clear historiographical compression regarding social systems in eighteenth-century Brescia as a topic in its own right. It often takes the status of a footnote in research dedicated, on the one hand, to the transformations in the centre of the Venetian Republic, and on the other, to the Habsburg lands and thus Milan, subject to the social engineering of illuminated absolutism.10

6 Mocarelli (1996, pp. 345–346). 7 Montanari (2014). 8 Taccolini and Gregorini (2013, pp. 407–409). 9 Nubola and Turchini (1999). 10 Bressan (1998, p. 189).

8

INSTRUMENTS AND STRATEGIES OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

207

With the goal of remedying this historiographical scarcity, which also extends to the European dimension,11 we do well to return to existing studies, enriching them with new archival materials in order to further develop knowledge and enliven debate on the topic. On the basis of the available historiographical literature, some of the international scope, Brescia in many ways represents an exemplary welfare system,12 shaped by an original perspective on social reform grounded in substantial accord among different practical orientations manifesting over time within political power, the diocesan church, and the local communities.13 This model has hitherto been presented as a social support system whose network, “diversified and territorially widespread, was supplemented by the structures of the parishes and religious orders, local communities, and families”.14 The preponderant role of the communities and the overall network structure stand out as distinctive features of the system, which was destined to last at least until the end of the eighteenth century, or until the breakdown of the consolidated equilibrium among emerging needs and demands for reform that had characterized earlier periods. Spreading and taking root mainly in the rural areas of the province Brescia in the eighteenth century, this system responded to different social needs and called forth different institutional protagonists. Each parish, however miniscule, could boast at least one or more institutes of beneficence, whether they were called disciplines, congregations, confraternities, schools, charities, mercies, mounts of piety, grain banks, consortia of the poor, commissaries, religious charities, dowries, philanthropic bequests, or hospitals. Regarding hospitals, the work of Sergio Onger confirms that “hospital care is something relatively recent in the West. Indeed, in order to practice it, from the eighteenth century on, it was necessary first of all to distinguish between illness and indigence. During the Old Regime, illness and indigence were not yet commonly separated, and it was more

11 As noted by Hindle (2004); regarding Italy see Brambilla (2001) and Garbellotti (2013). 12 Bressan (1996, pp. 21–22). 13 Bianchini (1988, pp. 258–259). 14 Bressan (2000, p. 441).

208

G. GREGORINI

to pauperism rather than to sickness that a remedy was sought. […] It was only in the eighteenth century that hospitals began to be configured as a ‘therapeutic’ organism with its own rules, order, and scientific and didactic purposes. But while the concept of social support was transforming, the ‘guests’ of the hospital continued to be the indigent, the marginalized, the dregs of society”.15 In addition to Orzinuovi and Chiari, whose history is among the most richly documented in the province of Brescia16 there were also hospitals in Verolanuova, Rovato, and Castrezzato. While the city of Brescia alone had a total of 600 beds (350 in the Ospedale maggiore and 250 in the women’s hospital), the facilities in the other towns amounted overall, in the late 18th and early nineteenth century, to “261 beds, of which 153 (58.6%) in the south-western plain. Out of a population on the western Brescia plain of 83,123 inhabitants, there was one bed per every 543.3 inhabitants, as opposed to one bed for every 1,676 inhabitants in the rest of the province, excluding the city and the suburb”.17 These hospitals were instituted as autonomous entities that had to cover the costs of care with their own income. The principal revenue items were yield on land, donations, and credit activities.18 In the management practices of these facilities, there was a progressive shift from a preference for acquiring and holding real estate assets to financial investments, especially in public debt.19 The hospitals could thus survive and assure themselves substantial financial independence, at times receiving local support from civil administrations that set aside annual sums in their balance sheets for healthcare.20 The parallel affairs of the cited hospitals reveal the importance of the eighteenth century, during which the economic and financial bases for these institutions were consolidated. In the case of the Tribandi Hospital of Orzinuovi, a fundamental development was the acquisition in 1722 of the convent of San Domenico to provide new facilities. Up to then, the hospital had been housed in the 15 Onger (1984, pp. 243–244). 16 Gregorini (2010, pp. 9–40). 17 Onger (1984, p. 244). 18 Pegrari (2004). 19 Pastore (2001, pp. 26–27). 20 Onger et al. (1990, p. 32).

8

INSTRUMENTS AND STRATEGIES OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

209

San Marco military hospital, which had negative effects on its operations: unclear administrative and financial boundaries, chaotic operation of the pharmacy, and general inadequacy of the building. In Chiari, the instructions in the testament left fifty years earlier by the wealthy landowner Mellino Mellini were finally implemented in 1714, establishing the first rooms in the hospital, followed the next year by the infirmary, the chapel, and the hiring of necessary healthcare personnel (dispensary staff, barber, apothecary, nurse, and an agreement with the municipal physician).21 The establishment of the Verolanuova Hospital was the work of Elisabetta Grimani Gambara, who purchased a house and land in 1728 that was renovated to serve as facilities for the institute. The hospital quickly became very active, and at the end of the century, it was declared a national hospital by the provisory government after the arrival of Napoleon’s troops. In 1762, in Rovato, it was the community council to institute a special commission to assess the need for a local hospital. This was followed in 1763 by authorization from the Senate of the Republic of Venice to build the facility, supported at the beginning by a few “alms” and a growing number of philanthropic bequests. Lastly, in Castrezzato, a bequest in 1767 from Alessandro and Camillo Maggi provided the initial spark for a project to create a hospital in town, later supported by numerous private charitable donations. The institution’s initial services included house calls with medicines and food.22 However, the care and support provided to the elderly in rural areas were much weaker than in the capital.23 The eighteenth-century Brescian reality, as documented to this point in a small number of studies of a primarily descriptive nature,24 corresponded to the dominant thesis in Italian historiography, whereby production arrangements and agrarian contracts favoured the development of complex domestic aggregates in rural areas, thus ensuring a place within the family group for the elderly.

21 Gregorini (2010, pp. 10–13). 22 Onger (1984, pp. 248–252). 23 Gregorini (2013a, b). 24 Onger (1999b).

210

G. GREGORINI

3

For the Local Poor

Daniele Montanari has observed that “one of the most significant elements in the organization of charitable efforts within rural parishes in the province of Brescia was the presence of one or more confraternities, often with noteworthy financial endowments. Over the decades, bequests and donations by confreres had created a stock of lands and buildings that produced reliable income, allowing the confraternity to meet their prime liturgical/religious obligations without neglecting inter-confraternal solidarity and charity to the poor of the parish”.25 This charity took the form of money in case of need or illness, distribution of goods (wine, wheat, bread, salt, clothing, medicine), dowries for nubile girls, and scholarships. These were very flexible forms of support that could be tailored to the immediate, sometimes unexpected needs of individuals and families. They could be calibrated to the size of the community and modulated on the basis of the local production system, which added to their effectiveness.26 Some information in this respect was obtained from ministerial surveys conducted in the early years of the nineteenth century, by which the French wanted to learn something about the social support systems existing at the local level.27 But more important are the reports in the Brescia Diocesan Historical Archive, written by parsons on the occasion of pastoral visits by bishops, which are very valuable yet underexploited documents in this regard, especially given their frequency.28 In the case of Brescia, we may consider the documentation prepared for the visits by the bishops Daniele Marco Dolfin, Giovanni Alberto Badoer, Gianfranco Barbarigo, Fortunato Morosini, Angelo Maria Querini, Giovanni Molin, and Giovanni Nani in the period 1701–1793.29 As regards the purposes herein, “parochial reports offer a rather exhaustive view of the relations between the parson and the local community and of the conflicts that could arise among the many societystructuring intermediate bodies in terms of administration of schools,

25 Montanari (1988, p. 167). 26 Montanari (1999, pp. 257–268). 27 Toscani (2009, pp. 45–63). 28 Taccolini (2003, pp. 211–222). 29 Gamba (1991, pp. 431–432).

8

INSTRUMENTS AND STRATEGIES OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

211

mounts of piety, grain banks, and philanthropic bequests”.30 For example, a report was drawn up in 1737 regarding the pastoral visit of Cardinal Querini to the parish of Coccaglio, an important farming and manufacturing centre on the western Brescian plain, numbering 1,523 inhabitants in 1792.31 During the eighteenth century, Coccaglio witnessed a period of economic, social, ecclesiastic, and urban recovery: in particular, between 1718 and 1737, a new parish church was built next to the old country church of San Pietro in the open countryside and three other churches were built in various parts of the territory. As regards the local social support system, the existence of a grain bank (Monte frumentario, Monte biade) is documented although it is not known when it was established.32 However, it was part of the enormous development of grain banks in the Brescia area: they “were established with the specific function of providing seed and provender and to rescue farmers from usurers and from being forced to choose between seed or food harvest during the recurring subsistence crises. This variant of monte was quite similar to the other type (monte di pietà – mount of piety), the only difference being the context in which it operated, the technical instrument of credit, and the mode of operation, in these cases significantly more complex because of the onus of storing large quantities of grain. The grain was distributed from January to June, and had to be returned no later than October–November, again in [viable seed] and with a modest interest amounting to around 5%”.33 Drafted in 1737, this parochial report adds to our knowledge of the social support context of which the grain bank was part.34 Various schools and fellowships/congregations were active in Coccaglio. The first cited was the Scuola del Santissimo Sacramento, instituted in 1523 as documented in its “libro vecchio” [old book]. Since its inception, it was headed by a president and a number of board members elected annually by the members of the Scuola. At that time it had an annual income of 1,100 lire, inherited lands, agreements with individuals,

30 Rochini (2018, p. 139). 31 Fappani (n.d., pp. 259–262). 32 Montanari (Milan 2001, p. 16). 33 Ibid., pp. 4–5. 34 ASDBS, VP, no. 128, “Relazione dello stato de pii luoghi di Coccaglio”, 10 September 1737.

212

G. GREGORINI

and was obliged to organize masses per specific bequests; it also covered expenses for articles necessary for important religious celebrations (wax, oil, vestments). The second school was that of the Immaculate Conception of Virgin Mary, established in 1663 and endowed with an annual income of 1,850 lire. It assumed the same obligations as the above school. The third school cited in the sources was dedicated to the Santissimo Rosario and instituted in 1538. Administrated by a prior and internally elected board members, it had an annual income of 1,730 lire, with obligations similar to those of the other schools. Lastly, there was also the Fellowship or Congregation of Santa Maria del Suffragio dei Morti with revenues of 2,700 lire and, again, obligations to maintain ritual religious celebrations. There was “also a religious institute of charity known as Luogo pio della Carità, governed by two provosts or deputies elected by the Community. No information is available regarding its establishment. It has a yearly income of 3,500 lire”.35 This was the religious charity with the largest financial endowment in the local area, administrated by people elected by the Community and thus not on the basis of bylaws with approval by the Church. Among its purposes, together with that of “having masses celebrated”, were obligations regarding response to the social malaise of the time. On the basis of the terms of specific bequests, each year the religious charity had to provide 30 lire apiece “as dowries to two poor girls”, 50 lire to another four nubile young women, and the rest of its income “to the poor of that land, especially the ailing”. Furthermore, “this religious charity also includes a grain bank composed of 80 bushels of wheat, 40 bushels of rye, and 60 bushels of millet. It is not known when it was founded, and yearly administration is in the hands of a farm manager elected by the Community. It dispenses grain to the local poor”.36 A religious charity thus administrated a grain bank, with the inevitable connections of a financial nature.

35 Ibid. 36 Ibid.

8

4

INSTRUMENTS AND STRATEGIES OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

213

Institutional and Informal Credit

Credit was also an issue in rural communities in the time period and geographical areas under consideration. Especially “starting in the second half of the sixteenth century, the rapid proliferation of mounts of piety in the territory of Brescia represented an effort to rework inadequate social support institutions to meet the growing needs of the working class. In a social fabric suffering from a lack of liquidity, in which artisans and small-scale retailers needed small but frequent loans, quite often absorbed by daily expenses, the mounts of piety provided the most appropriate response to the economic mindsets and needs of the time: small loans could be drawn at an equitable interest rate to overcome momentary difficulties in unfavourable economic conditions. Mounts of piety witnessed their maximum expansion toward the end of the sixteenth century, when there were no fewer than 44 in the diocese, some with significant capital, allowing them to issue pawn loans at conditions similar to those found in the city”.37 However, given the difficulties arising in the second half of the seventeenth century of maintaining these financial institutions, other types of organizations represented the most effective means of providing the much-needed credit in rural areas, especially during the eighteenth century. In effect, in line with the position of Giuseppe De Luca, “for more than twenty years now, the historiographical monument to the indispensability of banks in producing wealth and economic growth has been challenged by a current of research that has highlighted that large quantities of capital in some areas were mobilized even prior to the establishment of modern banking institutes. And this was thanks to a credit market based on the activity of operators who had a different statutory function and thus ended up playing their ‘financial’ role in an informal manner. Indeed, the same neo-institutionalist thought attributes to the institutions and to the informal rules (‘which consist only of informal constraints, not enforceable by law’38 ), as well as to interpersonal trust relations, a central role in reducing, within the mechanisms of financial intermediation, transaction costs deriving from information asymmetries”.39 37 Montanari (1988, pp. 172–173). 38 North (1985, p. 559). 39 De Luca (2021, pp. 23–24) and Hoffman et al. (2000).

214

G. GREGORINI

To this dynamic situation, which we may term pre-bank and microcredit, the above-mentioned confraternities contributed, especially in the rural, peripheral areas. Small landowners thus had an assurance of a honest interest rate and protection from the risk of falling into the hands of loan sharks. This type of informal credit was a practice in use since the Middle Ages, and witnessed an upsurge precisely in the sixteenth century, increasing gradually to the end of the eighteenth century. Since the mid-seventeenth century, credit in the rural areas “was a polymorphic reality, difficult to circumscribe within precise taxonomic confines or in rigid instruments and specialized institutions. Instead it was integrated into a network of relations characterized by values proper to people in the modern period, it itself becoming paradigmatic of the complexity and peculiarity of a world that was resistant to our economic archetypes and characterized by an interweave of political and family, social and religious, considerations”.40 Informality, relationality, and values (mainly religious) were the distinctive features of the Brescia area—city41 and countryside42 —in the early modern period, also manifesting in microcredit practices. It was a land of dynamic financial traditions that were recognizable well into the late modern period,43 traditions that were anything but extraneous to the configurations assumed by the social support systems in different zones.44 The studies examining Chiari,45 Castrezzato, and Calvisano46 evidence the capillary role of credit intermediation played by these confraternities to provide financial support to rural communities struggling under difficult economic conditions that otherwise found no remedy in a structurally static economy.47 Maurizio Pegrari too has remarked that these organizations represented an impressive credit network that demonstrated the adaptability of associations and the versatility of the charity/social support concept 40 De Luca (2021, p. 24). 41 Pegrari (2014a, p. 196) and Pegrari (1983). 42 Pegrari (2014b, pp. 315–356) and Pegrari (2007). 43 M. Taccolini and G. Gregorini (2019). 44 Gregorini (2007, pp. 227–238). 45 Onger (1999a). 46 Onger et al. (1990). 47 Pegrari (2014a, pp. 212–213) and Muzzarelli (2014, p. 24).

8

INSTRUMENTS AND STRATEGIES OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

215

existing in that region. The ramified credit network they constituted was both extensive and effective: “the figures expressed by the study conducted by the magistrate on monasteries in the twilight years of the Republic of Venice (1783) allow us to evaluate the breadth of the credit activities practiced in the city and the surrounding province by religious and charity/social support institutions. In the city, 188 entities finance 4,256 ‘clients’ with a total of 2,574,251 scudi. In the province, there were 1,286 ‘lenders’ meeting the needs of 29,274 people with 2,847,990 scudi, out of a ‘working’ population of 44,533 people. A clear presence is the role played by the confraternities, starting with those of the Santissimo Sacramento, 157, which alone, with 602,762 scudi distributed to 6,565 people, represent 21.16% of lending activities. Together with the Santissimo Rosario, 353,742 scudi to 4,224 people, and others variously named, the weight of confraternal associations, with 43.14%, proves to be deeply rooted in society”.48 As regards the practical operations of these entities we still know too little, especially in reference to rural areas, both on the plains and in the mountains, in spite of their stated importance. A concrete example will help us better understand the role they effectively played.

5

Financial Dialogues in the Mountains

Eno was a tiny—and the highest—village in the community of Degana, in Val Sabbia in the province of Brescia. It was located 10 kilometres from Vobarno, and a three-hour walk from Treviso Bresciano. Documents record a population of 150 in 1756, but the village was able to maintain a social support system composed of two confraternities (of the Santissimo Sacramento and of the Santo Rosario, the latter merging into the former at the end of the sixteenth century), a mount of piety (founded in 1657), and a school for elementary education run by the local chaplain.49 A document rich in information in the Historical Diocesan Archive of Brescia allows us to reconstruct, in an entirely novel way, the financial activities of the confraternity known as the Scuola del Santissimo Sacramento, i.e., the money it granted to support the needs of local

48 Pegrari (2014b, p. 317). 49 Fappani (1978, pp. 274–275).

216

G. GREGORINI

development.50 What is revealed is a dynamic network of financial relations, and it has been possible to document the people and the practices involved in the various operations, the legal form they prevalently took, and the financial stability of the confraternity. The cited document, the “libro della Scola”, is a large register divided into three sections. The first reports the “instruments”, i.e., the formal papers drawn up for specific operations in the years 1675–1741: a total of 42 were transcribed. The second section contains the minutes of the “congregations” of the School, i.e., of the periodic member meetings in the period 1698–1773: a total of 207 were listed. The third part contains copies of the bookkeeping accounts with annual cash flows for the years 1698–1737: a total of 49 were included. The Scuola del Santissimo Sacramento, instituted in the parish church of Santo Zeno in Eno, was composed of a variable number of people, with 65 recorded in 1707.51 The assembly of the confreres, which recorded an average attendance of between 12 and 22 members, was led by a president, with the support of two provosts and two farm managers, each of whom was paid for his role. The parties involved in the “instruments” drafted by the confraternity were the local inhabitants in some cases, but in other cases also residents of larger towns toward the valley such as Vobarno, Vestone, Provaglio Val Sabbia, Odolo, and Treviso Bresciano. The first document available in the register is dated 5 February 1675 and regards Giovanni Maria Andrioli, resident of Eno, who received a loan of 50 lire from the Scuola, having “need of money for his business”.52 The section contains analogous papers continuing to the year 1741 regarding individuals or sometimes siblings in a given family belonging to the indicated communities, which were the principal towns in the geographical area in consideration: Val Sabbia down to the shore of Lake Garda. In certain situations, the Scuola financed the civil community of the “Terra di Eno” [Land of Eno] in their cash needs, as attested in the meeting of 18 May 1750 among “the confreres of the most venerated Scuola del Santissimo Sacramento” to deliberate the request by the

50 ASDBS, P, “Eno – Scuola del Santo Sacramento. Libro istrumenti e congregazioni della Scuola del SS.Sacramento anno 1675 atque 1773”. 51 Ibid., foglio no. 161. 52 Ibid., foglio no. 1.

8

INSTRUMENTS AND STRATEGIES OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

217

community of “approximately 120 lire, or all the non-invested money on hand”, applying an interest rate of 5% “until it is repaid, and guaranteeing the debt, submitting as collateral to said School all its present and future assets”.53 The principal form of credit in the period and geographical area under consideration was known as a census consignativus. The census, like the livello, was in substance a contract for “a consumption loan with interest and real collateral”.54 There were two types of census contracts: reservativus (or dominicale) and consignativus (or bollare). In a census reservativus, ownership of property was transferred to another in exchange for the right to a perpetual annual income deriving from the property. More common— partly because they more effectively concealed their true nature as interest-bearing loans—were the census consignativus and the livello. In the former, the owner of capital (creditor, the Scuola of Eno) granted its use to a person (debtor Giovanni Maria Andrioli in 1675), “who pledges to pay a yearly sum [the ‘census’] from the income on an asset belonging to him; in the case of the census consignativus, the obligation to pay the census or income was borne by the owner of the property on which the obligation to pay rested. […] Three elements thus constituted the backbone of the census consignativus: the initial capital, the annual income, and the property generating the income”.55 As has been noted, “once it has been ascertained that the ‘census consignativus’ is not based on any contract or lease, what it actually made possible was an extremely simple credit mechanism within reach of a large segment of society: all that was necessary was to own a house or a plot of land that could be hypothecated”.56 It was a credit mechanism, for that matter, that did not correspond to an interest-bearing loan since the object of the transaction was not money but rather the right to receive an income. The procedure adopted in Eno implied the use of the census consignativus as a means for accessing larger sums than those obtainable from the rental of any locally available piece of land, using the Scuola as a

53 Ibid., foglio no. 102. 54 Pertile (1966, pp. 589–600). 55 Vaquero Piñeiro (2007, pp. 62–63). 56 Ibid., p. 63.

218

G. GREGORINI

convenient instrument for advancing the sums necessary to finance other economic activities, including commercial activities. In substance, the census consignativus made it possible for a private individual (or public corporation)—the borrower—to gain access to capital held by the confraternity. The borrower paid for the loan by paying the census directly to Scuola. This was a financial practice in use in Italy only starting in the first half of the sixteenth century,57 in which the creditors were “prevalently ecclesiastic bodies, the only ones to whom artisans and farmers could turn in the event of an urgent need for money. It was better to place a census on a house, a workshop, or a plot of land than to turn to a professional moneylender for a loan with much higher interest that would also have to be paid within a rather short timeframe”.58 Every year one or more accounting notes, varying greatly in form, were drawn up. They were essentially prospectuses recording cash flows in a given timeframe, without corresponding information about the assets effectively held, whether moveable or real estate.59 In most cases, income and expense items were recorded, referring to the principal operations performed by the Scuola according to a general schema based on the type of income or expense that we may sum up as follows (Table 1). Interesting observations may be drawn from various annual prospectuses compiled in this manner and their many items. They highlight the credit function exercised via the instrument of the census consignativus and also money lent to the civil community, they record the existence of a minimal amount of leased real estate, and they show that the Scuola was the recipient of philanthropic bequests. The outlays evidence the religious functions guaranteed over time and the role of the Scuola in the local social support system. Other notes found directly in the documentation we have analysed are worth underscoring. For example, the account recorded on 8 September 1722, where the expense column included 31 lire paid “to the Mount of Piety in the Territory of Eno for a debt held by said Scuola”.60

57 Vaquero Piñeiro (2007, p. 72). 58 Ibid., p. 74; for the Brescia area see also Pegrari (1983, pp. 179–189). 59 Brambilla (2001, p. 390). 60 ASDBs, P, “Eno—Scuola del Santo Sacramento. Libro istrumenti”, op. cit., foglio no. 141.

8

INSTRUMENTS AND STRATEGIES OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

Table 1 Types of income and expense items on the balance sheets of the Scuola del Santissimo Sacramento of Eno, 1675–1737

219

Income

Expenses

Censi

Wax + oil + and holy liturgical articles Maintenance of the chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento Wheat for bread Celebration of mass

Rents

Alms Charitable dispensation of bread Philanthropic bequests Interest on loans (Communities) Donations by confreres

Share of debt to the Mount of Piety “Payments to various mendicants”

Source ASDBS, P, “Eno—Scuola del Santo Sacramento. Libro istrumenti e congregazioni della Scuola del SS.Sacramento anno 1675 atque 1773”

Similarly, starting on 31 May 1700 (with an initial entry of 25.13 lire out of a total for the year of 175.08 lire) offerings were listed “from various parties for the charitable dispensation of bread”.61 There were also frequent references to “alms” and to “wheat for making bread”, as well as to monies paid out “to various mendicants”, evidencing the social support function exercised by the Scuola in the local area.

6

Primary Education

The question of education was also keenly felt and there were initiatives to promote schooling in the diocese—more in the mountains than on the plain—thanks to specific “bequests and foundations in favour of public education”.62 As we know, “the ‘schools of Christian doctrine’, established everywhere in the decades after the Council of Trent, driven by the renewed pastoral concerns of the Church hierarchs, took root widely in the dioceses of Brescia. […] The educational and cultural contribution of these scholae was unquestionable and destined to endure through time as can be deduced from studies of literacy rates in the Lombardy area 61 Ibid., foglio no. 120. 62 Franzoni (1996, p. 139).

220

G. GREGORINI

in the early nineteenth century: places where there were more of such schools had a lower rate of illiteracy”.63 From this point of view, another Brescian mountain area, Val Camonica, was characterized in the modern period by a widespread and documented predisposition to employ resources, even quite significant resources, for public education in order to attempt to find a “remedy for a general condition of poverty, which prevented most Camonica families from providing their children with adequate schooling”.64 There were two specific ways that the local community responded to this situation. One was the work of the local parson, who established a primary school mainly to help the poorest children in the community: in this case, the economic support came from income on the parochial benefice that was used to maintain a teacher and a school building.65 The other, which extended for some period of time, was philanthropic bequests, left by a parson, a private citizen, or the civil community as a whole and explicitly dedicated to the establishment of primary schools, especially in the mountainous areas in Lombardy-Veneto, including the three Brescian valleys: Val Sabbia (as documented for Eno), Val Trompia66 and Val Camonica.67 Some studies have explored the sudden and thus novel upsurge of such philanthropic bequests in Val Camonica and it is worthwhile taking a moment to examine them. The parochial reports prepared for the pastoral visits by Cardinal Querini in 1732 and 1736 recorded 37 communities out of a total of 65 having a primary school (57%). In the years of the subsequent pastoral visits by the bishop Nani, 40 parishes out of 50 (80%) had a primary school. In the same period, documents show an increase from 9 to 19% of parishes that had a figure dedicated to the education of underage girls.68 An immediately post-unification source records the presence in Val Camonica of 70 bequests “in support of public education” (in some parishes more than one), the oldest dating to 1445 in the Rino contrada 63 Montanari (1988, p. 175). 64 Rochini (2018, pp. 150–151). 65 Franzoni (1996, p. 139). 66 Toscani (2009, p. 46). 67 Franzoni (1996, pp. 139–141). 68 Rochini (2018, p. 150).

8

INSTRUMENTS AND STRATEGIES OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

221

of Sonico, the most recent in località Costa of Edolo in 1816, and most happening in the eighteenth century (approximately 50%),69 which thus demonstrates a phase of significant investments in social causes. Equally important is the growing interest by historiographers in the theme of philanthropic bequests,70 their widespread use, and their tendency to be channelled into institutional frameworks that might be a parish, a confraternity (as in Eno), or the diocesan treasury at the bishop’s seat.71 Their studies have led to the recognition of these institutional containers as actors well integrated into the territorial financial market, bona fide endowment funds which financed the fulfilment of the donors’ wishes with the “yields” from the bequests, while the accumulated capital could be used for various further purposes. This was all rooted in the economic practice of bequeathing characteristic of Catholic culture, whereby the recipient of the donation assumed the obligation to perform some service in exchange for the yield on an asset. Generally speaking, the yield was more than sufficient to fulfil the service and a surplus thus remained that the institution could use for various purposes. Hence, while individuals and communities invested significant resources in human capital—a sort of “credit for the future” of local society—they also channelled those resources into relatively complex, decentralized structures that administered assets of different types and dimensions. The result was a sort of broad-spectrum, Christian-inspired microcredit centring on the parish and nourished by specific donations from individuals or families. The philanthropic bequests specifically slated for education in Val Camonica in the eighteenth century show, with particular intensity, the capacity of this form of investment to give concrete form to the economic value system assumed by the ecclesiastic institutions in this historical phase. They valued “dynamizing capital otherwise at risk of inactivity, [capital that] charity makes it possible to keep alive through the cause. […] The destiny of philanthropic bequests is to be directed into financial organisms that preserve or even update their nature”.72

69 Franzoni (1996, p. 140). 70 Colombo (2016, pp. IX–XXIV). 71 Semeraro and Gregorini (2019, pp. 801–829). 72 Semeraro and Gregorini (2019, p. 122).

222

G. GREGORINI

We must not forget, furthermore, that in some cases, documented precisely in rural areas, a philanthropic bequest allowed the establishment of a Mount of Piety, as happened in Pescarzo, another town in Val Camonica, by means of a specific bequest by a local benefactor.73

7

Conclusions

As sources clearly show, the variegated structure of social support systems, organized in parishes, allowed the province of Brescia to address the socioeconomic issues associated with local development into the eighteenth century: each parish, large or small, had at least one social support organization. The active role of the communities and the network structure are distinctive traits of the welfare system in Brescia, which exhibited certain notable preferences that continued into the following historical phase: a widespread use of microcredit as financial infrastructure (often informal) enabling local development; investment in education as a long-term instrument to promote a new sort of social intelligence; the communities’ quest for independence in the practice of charity, not only from the central political power but also from the clergy within the Church.74 Charity sustained the local social support systems, which were able to provide a flexible response to the various specific needs expressed by the local communities (e.g., hospital care, dowries for nubiles, salt, bread, and money). At the same time, it vitalized financial resources available in the province, not taking them from the local circles and networks that expanded from the outskirts toward the centre.75 Microcredit was thus closely linked to the possibility of micro-charity, with the community—especially the religious community—playing a leading role in these dynamics. In this sense, the yield on assets and charity were nearly synonymous in a society such as that of the Old Regime, not simply because one served to establish the other, but because they reciprocally supported one another, also in legal terms.76

73 Rochini (2018, p. 148). 74 Gregorini (2016). 75 Gregorini (2014a, pp. 99–128). 76 Cafaro (2015).

8

INSTRUMENTS AND STRATEGIES OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

223

The documented cases evidence a capacity to set aside, accumulate, and manage credit that extended from small—even tiny—communities toward larger population centres: from the remotest highlands to the valley floor, which was more closely interconnected with the rest of the province. Equally documented is the non-casual interrelation among entities issuing credit locally, formally or informally77 : the confraternities that administrated (Coccaglio) or financed themselves via (Eno) mounts of piety, or lent money to the civil community (again in Eno); philanthropic bequests that provided the basis for the establishment of a mount of piety (Pescarzo) or funded confraternities (Eno); the presence in Bienno (in Val Camonica) of no fewer than three mounts of piety in the mideighteenth century (established by the parish, a confraternity, and the rural community, respectively), which attested not only to the agricultural and manufacturing wealth of the area but also to the complex social structures in place at the time.78 However, the relation between charity and the force behind local economic development extended beyond the dimension of credit, touching on the “classic premises of economic action”79 : the proactive role of investment in human capital ensured by the choice, widespread in the case of Val Camonica, to invest resources in primary education of the young generations. This investment (in truth, a fundamental constant in Lombard social support systems80 ) clearly evidenced the strength of this choice for the future, which characterized the province of Brescia generally and some of its more decentralized areas more particularly.81 In many ways, these situations are analogous to the historiographical theme of endowment funds. From Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome to the late British Middle Ages,82 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries’ England, and the most modern charitable trusts, the historical record

77 Brambilla (2001, p. 386). 78 Rochini (2018, p. 154). 79 Maifreda (2017, p. 463) and Muaary (2013, pp. 146–155). 80 Taccolini (2009, pp. 133–147). 81 Caimi (2018). 82 Terpstra (2000, pp. 153–173).

224

G. GREGORINI

shows broad spaces for the existence of funds (or groups of funds) instituted by one or more benefactors to meet the needs of an institution, especially an educational institution.83 The affairs documented in this chapter and other evidence in the historiographical literature affirm a constantly fuelled desire to emancipate management of the financial resources circulating within the Church from the dominating authority of the clergy. This is attested in numerous pastoral visit reports by parsons, where priests lamented the “lack of information” regarding the affairs, especially economic affairs, of certain locally active confraternities. In other cases, the same clergy highlighted the poor administration of the mounts of piety by laymen whom they accused of “negligence”.84 To this quest for autonomy, which entailed a willingness to assume responsibility in social life within the church, women would also contribute at the beginning of the nineteenth century with the birth of the movement of women’s religious congregations. The movement was extremely advanced in terms of both authority85 and economic and financial management.86 Organized laity would again contribute later in the century and also in the twentieth century, this time to the modernization of the national credit system, with the spread of rural banks and the establishment of new ordinary credit institutes.87 Here again, we find the affirmation of that “singular naturalness with money” which Giorgio Rumi attributes to the enterprising civil religiosity of modern and contemporary Lombardy.88

Archival Sources Archivio Storico Diocesano, Brescia (ASDBS) Visite Pastorali (VP) Parrocchie (P) https://www.diocesi.brescia.it/archivio-storico-diocesano-brescia

83 Allen (1982) and Gelderblom and Jonker (2009). 84 Rochini (2018, pp. 147–149). 85 Gregorini (2017). 86 Gregorini (2012, pp. 323–342). 87 Gregorini (2014b, pp. 433–459). 88 Rumi (1988, p. 119).

8

INSTRUMENTS AND STRATEGIES OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

225

References Allen, D.G. 1982. In English ways: The movement of societies and the transferal of English local law and custom to Massachusetts bay in the seventeenth century. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Bianchini, Marco. 1988. Bene comune, ragion di Stato e felicità pubblica nella pratica assistenziale della prima metà del Settecento. In La società bresciana e l’opera di Giacomo Ceruti, ed. Maurizio Pegrari, 249–259. Brescia: Comune di Brescia – Comitato Giacomo Ceruti. Brambilla, Elena. 2001. L’economia morale degli enti ecclesiastici. Questioni di metodo e prospettive di ricerca. In L’uso del denaro, Patrimoni e amministrazioni nei luoghi pii e negli enti ecclesiastici in Italia, ed. Alessandro Pastore and Marina Garbellotti, 379–402. Bologna: Il Mulino. Bressan, Edoardo. 1996. Dalla crisi dell’antico regime alla Restaurazione. In Tra storia dell’assistenza e storia sociale. Brescia e il caso italiano, ed. Edoardo Bressan, Daniele Montanari, and Sergio Onger, 21–31. Brescia: Fondazione Civiltà Bresciana. Bressan, Edoardo. 1998. Carità e riforme sociali nella Lombardia moderna e contemporanea. Storia e problemi. Milano: NED. Bressan, Edoardo. 2000. Eliminazione del controllo religioso sull’assistenza e creazione delle Congregazioni di carità in epoca napoleonica. In Povertà e innovazioni istituzionali in Italia. Dal Medioevo ad oggi, ed. Vera Zamagni, 441–465. Bologna: Il Mulino. Cafaro, Pietro, ed. 2015. Generatività del bisogno. Casi di finanza e servizi in Lombardia (XVII-XX secc.). Milano: FrancoAngeli. Caimi, Luciano. 2018. Carità educatrice. Riscontri e testimonianze nell’Italia dell’Ottocento. Milano: Vita e pensiero. Cairns, Christopher. 1991. Il dominio veneziano. In Diocesi di Brescia, ed. Antonio Caprioli, Antonio Rimoldi, Luciano Vaccaro, 65–92. Brescia: La Scuola. Colombo, Emanuele Camillo. 2016. Prefazione. In Carità barocca. Opere pie e luoghi pii nello Stato sabaudo fra XVII e XVIII secolo, ed. Elisabetta Lurgo, IX–XXIV. Torino: Fondazione 1563 della Compagnia di San Paolo. De Luca, Giuseppe. 2021. Capitali dei privati, notai e modernizzazione economica a Milano tra Sette e Ottocento. In Borghesie nazionali, borghesie cosmopolite. Banca privata, finanza, reti (Italia, secoli XVIII-XX ), ed. Giovanni Gregorini and Marina Romani, 23–34. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Fappani, Antonio. n.d. Coccaglio. In Enciclopedia bresciana, vol. II, 259–262. Brescia: La voce del popolo. Fappani, Antonio. 1978. Eno. In Enciclopedia bresciana, vol. III, 274–275. Brescia: La voce del popolo. Franzoni, Oliviero. 1996. Fonti per la storia sociale della montagna. In Tra storia dell’assistenza e storia sociale, Brescia e il caso italiano, ed Edoardo Bressan,

226

G. GREGORINI

Daniele Montanari, and Sergio Onger, 131–150. Brescia: Fondazione Civiltà Bresciana. Gamba, Giovanna. 1991. Visite pastorali. In Diocesi di Brescia, ed. Antonio Caprioli, Antonio Rimoldi, Luciano Vaccaro, 431–432. Brescia: La Scuola. Garbellotti, Marina. 2013. Per carità. Poveri e politiche assistenziali nell’Italia moderna. Roma: Carocci. Gelderblom, O., and J. Jonker. 2009. With a view to hold: The emergence of institutional investors on the Amsterdam securities market during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In The origins and development of financial markets and institutions, ed. J. Atack and L. Neal, 123–146. Cambridge: Cambridge university Press. Gregorini, Giovanni. 2007. La storiografia sull’assistenza a Brescia tra età moderna e contemporanea. Contributo per un dibattito. Civiltà bresciana 4: 227–238. Gregorini, Giovanni. 2010. Dal vecchio al nuovo: l’ospedale Mellino Mellini di Chiari e la sua storia. In Dalla carità alla cura. 100 anni di storia dell’ospedale di Chiari, ed. Anna Maria Archetti, 9–40. Brescia: Grafo. Gregorini, Giovanni. 2012. The organization and economics of religious congregations in North Italy (1861–1929). In The economics of providence/L’economie de la providence. Management, finances and patrimony of religious orders and congregations in Europe, 1773 - ca.1930/ Gestion, finances et patrimoine des orders et congregations en Europe, 1773 - ca.1930, ed. M. Van Dijck, J. De Maeyer, J. Tyssens, and J. Koppen, 323–342. Leuven: Leuven university press. Gregorini, Giovanni. 2013a. Anziani e assistenza nel Bresciano in età contemporanea: note e documenti per una storia. Società e storia 36 (139): 113–137. Gregorini, Giovanni. 2013b. Welfare, società, istituzioni: elementi per una storia dell’assistenza agli anziani nel Bresciano in età contemporanea. In L’anziano e la sua casa, ed. Mario Taccolini and Marco Trabucchi, 3–21. Milano: Vita e pensiero. Gregorini, Giovanni. 2014a. Church and finance in modern Italy: Some historiographical comments. The Journal of European Economic History 3: 99–128. Gregorini, Giovanni. 2014b. Nascita e organizzazione del credito bancario in età contemporanea. In Moneta, credito e finanza a Brescia, ed. Maurizio Pegrari, 433–459. Brescia: Morcelliana. Gregorini, Giovanni. 2016. Économie de la pauvreté et transformation sociale en Lombardie orientale: hommes, institutions, idées du movimento cattolico (1850–1929). Les études sociales. Revue publiée par la Société d’économie et de science sociales 164 (2° semester): 159–178. Gregorini, Giovanni, ed. 2017. For the needy youth that we care. Teresa Verzeri and the religious congregations in modern Europe. Milano: Vita e pensiero.

8

INSTRUMENTS AND STRATEGIES OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

227

Hindle, Steve. 2004. On the parish? The micro-politics of poor relief in rural England c.1550–1750. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hoffman, P.T., G. Postel-Vinay, and J.-L. Rosenthal. 2000. Priceless markets. The political economy of credit in Paris, 1660–1870. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Maifreda, Germano. 2017. Religione, istituzioni, cambiamento economico. Storia Economica 2: 453–466. Mocarelli, Luca. 1996. Una realtà in via di ridefinizione: l’economia bresciana tra metà Settecento e Restaurazione. In Brescia e il suo territorio, ed. Giorgio Rumi, Gianni Mezzanotte, Alberto Cova, 343–372. Milano: Cariplo. Montanari, Daniele. 1988. I luoghi della carità. La diocesi di Brescia fra XVII e XVIII secolo. In La società bresciana e l’opera di Giacomo Ceruti, ed. Maurizio Pegrari, 169–193. Brescia: Comune di Brescia – Comitato Giacomo Ceruti. Montanari, Daniele. 1996. Il rapporto capoluogo-territorio nel declino veneto. In Brescia e il suo territorio, ed. Giorgio Rumi, Gianni Mezzanotte, and Alberto Cova, 11–39. Milano: Cariplo. Montanari, Daniele. 1999. Tra preghiera e solidarietà. Organizzazione confraternale e sistema caritativo-assistenziale sulle rive del fiume. In Rive e rivali. Il fiume Oglio e il suo territorio, ed. Carla Boroni, Sergio Onger, Maurizio Pegrari, 257–268. Roncadelle (BS): La compagnia della stampa. Montanari, Daniele. 2001. Introduzione. In Il credito e la carità, vol.II, Monti di pietà del territorio lombardo in età moderna, ed. Daniele Montanari, 3–20. Milano: Vita e pensiero. Montanari, Daniele. 2014. I poveri della città. Carità e assistenza nella Brescia moderna. Brescia: Morcelliana. Montanari, Daniele, and Maurizio Pegrari. 2013. Religione, povertà ed economia nella storiografia bresciana sull’età moderna. In Brescia nella storiografia degli ultimi quarant’anni, ed. Sergio Onger, 345–380. Brescia: Morcelliana. Muaary, John E. 2013. Economic history and religion. In Routledge handbook of modern history, ed. Robert Whaples and Randall E. Parker, 146–155. New York: Routledge. Muzzarelli, Maria Giuseppina. 2014. «Per ussire de affanno»: il credito informale, improprio, nascosto. In Reti di credito. Circuiti informali, impropri, nascosti (secoli XIII-XIX), ed. Mauro Carboni and Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, 11– 26. Bologna: Il Mulino. North, Douglass C. 1985. Transaction costs in history. The Journal of European Economic History 14 (3): 557–576. Nubola, Cecilia, and Angelo Turchini, eds. 1999. Fonti ecclesiastiche per la storia sociale e religiosa d’Europa: XV-XVIII secolo. Bologna: Il Mulino. Onger, Sergio. 1984. Gli ospedali “meschini”: malattie e luoghi di cura nella pianura bresciana occidentale (secoli XVIII-XIX). In Atlante della Bassa. 1. Uomini, vicende, paesi dall’Oglio al Mella, 240–260. Brescia: Grafo.

228

G. GREGORINI

Onger, Sergio, ed. 1999a. Le carte dei poveri. L’Archivio della Congregazione di carità e la beneficenza a Chiari in età moderna e contemporanea. Brescia: Comune di Chiari – Grafo. Onger, Sergio. 1999b. Gli anziani nelle famiglie povere tra Settecento e Ottocento. In Storia della Casa di riposo di Orzinuovi nel suo primo centenario, ed. Sergio Onger, 23–46. Orzinuovi: Casa di riposo di Orzinuovi. Onger, Sergio, Giovanni Spinelli, Bruna Ferri, Giordano Cavagnini, Gloria Ruzzenenti and Gabriella Parma. 1990. Luoghi incerti. Gli ospedali nel Bresciano e il caso Castrezzato (1767–1920). Brescia: Grafo. Pastore, Alessandro. 2001. Usi ed abusi nella gestione delle risorse (secoli XVIXVII). In L’uso del denaro, Patrimoni e amministrazioni nei luoghi pii e negli enti ecclesiastici in Italia, ed. Alessandro Pastore and Marina Garbellotti, 17– 40. Bologna: Il Mulino. Pegrari, Maurizio. 1983. Prestiti e dinamiche sociali nella Brescia moderna: Il caso del monastero di San Francesco (secc.XVI-XVIII). Studi storici Luigi Simeoni 33: 179–189. Pegrari, Maurizio. 2004. La finanza e la fede. Le attività creditizie degli enti religiosi e laici nella Terraferma veneta. Il caso di Brescia (XVIII secolo). In Confische e sviluppo capitalistico. I grandi patrimoni del clero regolare in età moderna in Europa e nel Continente Americano, ed. Fiorenzo Landi, 215– 233. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Pegrari, Maurizio. 2007. Le ricchezze della Chiesa, la Chiesa delle ricchezze. Economia e Ordini regolari nella Repubblica di Venezia alla fine del Settecento. Studi storici Luigi Simeoni 57: 211–259. Pegrari, Maurizio. 2014a. La città e il credito. Attori e credito relazionale a Brescia in età moderna e contemporanea. In Reti di credito. Circuiti informali, impropri, nascosti (secoli XIII-XIX), ed. Mauro Carboni and Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, 195–220. Bologna: Il Mulino. Pegrari, Maurizio. 2014b. Le reti del credito. In Moneta, credito e finanza a Brescia. Dal Medioevo all’età contemporanea, ed. Maurizio Pegrari, 267–394. Brescia: Morcelliana. Pertile, Antonio. 1966. Storia del diritto italiano dalla caduta dell’Impero Romano alla codificazione. In Storia del diritto privato, vol. IV 589–600. Bologna: A.Forni. Rochini, Marco. 2018. Formazione delle identità sociali tra azione assistenziale e rivendicazione dei diritti giurisdizionali: il sistema del dare nella Valcamonica del XVIII secolo. In I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini, Giovanni Gregorini, 137–156. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Rumi, Giorgio. 1988. Lombardia, libertà o dominanza? In La formazione della Lombardia contemporanea, ed Giorgio Rumi, 111–126. Milano-Bari: CariploLaterza.

8

INSTRUMENTS AND STRATEGIES OF THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

229

Semeraro, Riccardo, and Giovanni Gregorini. 2019. Destini legati. Lasciti e pratiche economiche nelle Chiesa italiane tra XIX e XX secolo: il caso di Mondovì. Quaderni storici n 3: 801–829. Taccolini, Mario. 2003. Le fonti ecclesiastiche per la storia economica. In Studi di storia moderna e contemporanea in onore di monsignor Antonio Fappani, ed. Mario Taccolini e Sergio Onger, 211–222. Brescia: Grafo. Taccolini, Mario. 2009. Chiesa ed economia. In Nuovi percorsi della storia economica, ed. Mario Taccolini, 133–147. Milano: Vita e pensiero. Taccolini, Mario and Giovanni Gregorini. 2013. La ricerca storica bresciana sull’età contemporanea. In Brescia nella storiografia degli ultimi quarant’anni, ed. Sergio Onger, 381–423. Brescia: Morcelliana. Taccolini, Mario, and Giovanni Gregorini. 2019. Banco di Brescia, vent’anni nel futuro. Uomini e istituzioni del sistema creditizio bresciano da Banca Credito Agrario Bresciano e Banca San Paolo a Ubi Banca. Brescia: Morcelliana. Terpstra, Nicholas. 2000. The politics of confraternal charity: centre, periphery, and the modes of confraternal involvment in early modern civic welfare. In Povertà e innovazioni istituzionali in Italia. Dal Medioevo ad oggi, ed. Vera Zamagni, 153–173. Bologna: Il Mulino. Toscani, Xenio. 2009. A misura d’uomo. L’assistenza nella campagna bresciana in Antico Regime. In, Istituzioni, assistenza e religiosità nella società del Mezzogiorno d’Italia tra XVIII e XIX secolo, ed. Giovanna Da Molin, 45–63. Bari: Cacucci. Vaquero Piñeiro, Manuel. 2007. I censi consegnativi. La vendita delle rendite in Italia nella prima età moderna. Rivista di storia dell’agricoltura 47 (1): 57–94. Vismara Chiappa, Paola. 1996. Società e vita religiosa tra la fine del dominio veneto e l’Unità. In Brescia e il suo territorio, ed. Giorgio Rumi, Gianni Mezzanotte, Alberto Cova, 41–64. Milano: Cariplo.

CHAPTER 9

At a Distance. Social Support in Friuli in the Early Modern Period: First Notes Claudio Lorenzini

1

Introduction

In 1987 the Friulian architect Francesco Tentori published a short essay titled La struttura insediativa friulana. I villaggi come rete per l’assistenza e la solidarietà [The settlement structure of Friuli: Villages as a network for assistance and solidarity], the result of his participation in a historical conference held in Udine two years earlier dedicated to the Storia della solidarietà in Friuli [History of Solidarity in Friuli]. The conference addressed the history of hospitals and brotherhoods (the latter in some cases having promoted and managed the former), the intake of abandoned children whom the hospice of Santa Maria Maddalena of Udine adopted at least from the beginning of the fifteenth century, the two monti di pietà [mounts of piety] in Udine and San Daniele, which were active since the late fifteenth century, and the spread of

C. Lorenzini (B) University of Turin, Turin, Italy e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 G. Gregorini et al. (eds.), Social Support Systems in Rural Italy, Palgrave Studies in Economic History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24303-5_9

231

232

C. LORENZINI

devotions to the poor and sick.1 The themes developed in that essay, briefly summarized herein, describe how research conducted in the late 1980s on forms of social support in Friuli in the medieval and early modern periods focused almost exclusively on formal urban institutions, with particular regard to Udine, and that attention to informal support activities, extending in a capillary network—and perhaps for this reason not necessarily formalized—remained secondary. In that conference, Tentori was asked, both as an urban planner and historian,2 to illustrate and explain the establishment of hospitals in the Friuli area, starting from their emplacement or from the first accounts of their presence. Documentation of this type began to accumulate starting in the second half of the thirteenth century. Work had already begun to organize these materials into summary frameworks, said Tentori, who argued that further progress in understanding how social support was provided to the population could be made by “exploiting the significant value of meanings carried by terms such as ‘solidarity’ and ‘hospitality’”. He would therefore have directed his interest to villages: “Regarding the form of collective spaces, I believe these villages offer us the oldest visual image we can have today” of the forms of settlement which had originally adopted a centralized form and maintained it over time. They are found throughout the Friuli territory with all its variety of topography and landscape between mountains, plains, and coastal areas. The pre-eminence of the centralized form of the villages was the material foundation from which the network of solidarity and hospitality that characterized coexistence in the communities of Friuli was woven.3 Tentori was pursuing research that started from this assumption in order to build a cartography of settlement types and rural architecture in the Friuli territory.4 Thus, rather than providing answers, his essay contributed many pertinent questions regarding a pivotal theme: the centralized ‘village form’, as well as the composition of the surrounding landscape, responded to a solidarity function with deep historical roots.

1 Tentori (1987) and Storia della solidarietà (1987). 2 In those same years he focused on the urban and architectural history of both the

whole of Friuli and its main city, Udine: Tentori (1983b, 1988). On Tentori, see Avon (2011). 3 Tentori (1987, pp. 189–190). 4 Some of the results of that research were presented in Tentori (1983a, 1986).

9

AT A DISTANCE. SOCIAL SUPPORT IN FRIULI IN THE EARLY …

233

The centralized format of villages as an interpretative key to the settlement system of Friuli was obviously not a universal solution that could be applied to all time periods and also not the fruit of the various dominant cultural currents originating in antiquity and characterizing the way in which this north-eastern region of Italy was populated. Above all, the hypothesis that it was an urban design that facilitated the social support and solidarity network in the communities is as useful as it is difficult to document. Mere observation is not sufficient. For example, if we fail to account for the real population distribution, the composition of domestic groups, and the function and extent of family ties, we risk placing the architecture before the inhabitants. Yet this suggestion by an architect contains several elements that can help us to recognize the social support system in Friulian society in the early modern period. The following notes are an attempt in that direction.

2

Social Support and Solidarity in Friuli: Historiography

The conference where Tentori delivered his essay is an important chapter in a body of studies dedicated to social support and solidarity systems in Friuli. There are two other important works regarding local historiography. One is the book Ospitalità sanitaria in Friuli [Healthcare Hospitality in Friuli] edited by Luciana Morassi and published in 1989. The themes addressed at the Storia della solidarietà in Friuli conference were significantly developed in this book, which dedicated greater attention to the beneficiaries of the forms of hospital care: the sick, abandoned children, students, and new mothers. Moreover, the book investigated the economic foundations that allowed hospital institutions to function, starting from landholdings, which were significantly consolidated during the early modern period.5 The other work is perhaps even more important: the first volume of the series Sanità e società in Italia [Healthcare and Society in Italy], edited by Alessandro Pastore and published in 1987. It is entirely dedicated to the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in the early and late modern periods. It intertwines the themes of social support and solidarity systems with infrastructural aspects, such as the road system, and economics, including trade

5 Morassi (1989).

234

C. LORENZINI

with lands in Central Europe that characterized the economy of Friuli since ancient times. The need to protect against the spread of epidemics on either side of the Alps had forced the states to create a complex system of human and veterinary healthcare structures. In addition to that experience, the book investigates popular therapeutic practices and the meanings of health and disease up to the advent of ‘total institutions’ such as the psychiatric hospitals of the nineteenth century.6 There is a precise reason for this accentuated historical interest in the issues of health, social support, and solidarity concentrated within a short time span: the earthquakes of 6 May, and 11 and 15 September 1976, which hit Friuli hard, causing over 900 deaths. At that juncture, the solidarity that came from all over Italy and from many other parts of the world, often via bonds established by Friulian emigration, was manifested both in the form of immediate help and as prudent investments to support (and renew) the economy and the welfare network, starting from the reconstruction of hospitals. These research initiatives were a way to return at least a portion of what was received. Also on this historiographical front, the earthquake has represented a watershed moment for the Friulian society, a line of demarcation between before and after.7

3

Communities

While having its limits, Tentori’s essay has the merit of having raised a question that is still largely unresolved. Research on the social support and solidarity network of a group, such as a community, based on village infrastructure and developing economic, social, and cultural relations, is absent for all of Italy, not just for Friuli. Until recently, forms of solidarity in rural areas have received relatively little attention compared to hospitals, the main urban social support institutions.8 In the acceptation proposed by Tentori, the conformation of the villages constituted the territorial expression of the village community found throughout the Friuli region in the early modern period. This community was the fundamental governmental organ and representative 6 Pastore (1986). On the theme of assistance and solidarity in the territory of the Republic of Venice, I refer to the classic studies by Pullan (1971) and Panciera (2010). 7 Geipel (1982). 8 Maffi et al. (2018) and Maffi and Rochini (2015, 2016). See also Ammannati (2013).

In general, see Hindle (2004) and Krausman Ben-Amos (2011).

9

AT A DISTANCE. SOCIAL SUPPORT IN FRIULI IN THE EARLY …

235

body in relations with the Republic of Venice. Community life, and the forms of social support and solidarity expressed also through institutions or intermediate bodies within it, was regulated by the decisions taken by the assembly. The assembly, known as the vicinia, was composed of vicini [neighbours], i.e., the heads of families representing fuochi [“hearths” metonym for families].9 The word itself [the root adjective vicino means “close” or “near”] expresses the fact that these communities, composed in both habitational and legal terms of vicini [neighbours], lived in close proximity. The neighbourhood (vicinanza), especially if not composed of extended family members, was the basic operational element of the community, held together by social ties that were sufficiently strong to allow social support systems to develop and grow, promoting reciprocity. The neighbourhood functioned as a possible form of social support in both form and substance.10 However, proximity also had its negative side. It was also the architecture allowing the proliferation of beliefs relating to malevolence and responsibility for misfortune, which was often attributed to neighbours or other members of the community. The enduring belief in witchcraft in the land of the benandanti 11 is a clear demonstration, on the symbolic level, with concrete personal and collective consequences.12 This interpretation of the social nature of the centralized community makes clear reference to the religious sociology of Gabriel Le Bras, who— simplifying, obviously—identified the church and the bell tower as the physical and social centre of the community, around which the town developed concentrically, with production facilities located in an outer ring. The material and symbolic bonds that united the land and the population with its centre—the church—constituted a founding and generative peculiarity of European villages in the long term.13 Indeed, one of the conditions (though not binding) for recognition as a village community 9 Bianco (1985) and Perusini (1961). 10 Wood (2020). On the theme of communities, including their solidarity function, I

refer to Di Tullio (2014). 11 Visionaries in farming communities in Friuli in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who claimed to travel out of their bodies while asleep to struggle against the malandanti (malevolent witches) and thus ensure a good harvest for the coming season. 12 Ginzburg (1983), Gri (2001), and Lorenzini (2020b). 13 Le Bras (1979, pp. 69–93).

236

C. LORENZINI

was the presence of a church and an organized body to conduct its functions. In early modern period Friuli, benefices (benefici) for parishes and curacies were a prerogative of the community, or groups of communities, as they were for the country churches (pievi) whence parishes and curacies were generated. The ‘popular patronage’ (giuspatronato popolare), as it was defined, corresponded to the ability and willingness of the communities to sustain their own institutions, support the priest who celebrated the rites, and manage the assets that guaranteed and perpetuated the survival of these bodies since the late Middle Ages.14 I will focus on just one example among many, which will allow us to introduce topics that will be developed later. In 1783, after a long struggle, the small community of Tualis, a village in the mountains of Carnia in the valley of Gorto, in the parish of the Pieve of San Giorgio of Comeglians, obtained the right to appoint its own chaplain for the church of San Vincenzo martyr. For this right to be recognized by the bishop of Udine, the community had to describe the assets they would use to provide the ecclesiastical benefice, an annuity amounting to 70 lire and 8 soldi. In addition to the monies paid by each neighbour (vicino) for the services rendered by the pastor—religious celebrations, administration of the sacraments, blessings, religious instruction to children—there were the proceeds from two high mountain pastures, Crostis and Taront, from which the community of Tualis, who enjoyed these resources, declared that it would set aside 46 lire annually: well over half the required amount.15 This case, quite characteristic in the mountains, highlights how the proceeds from collective resources such as the pastures could be used by communities: each family group that held the right to use those assets gave up a share of the proceeds to invest it in a service that was indispensable to the community. There was more, of course. By requesting and obtaining a priest for their village, the communities strengthened their autonomy from the institutions of which they were and continued to be part, from the parishes as well as from the civil aggregates in the valley (‘districts’ in Carnia). Thus the intra-community giving strengthened internal bonds that helped to distinguish one community from another, while also more clearly distinguishing within the community between so-called ‘original’

14 Bertolla (1957–1960) and Tilatti (2016). In general, see Greco (1986). 15 ACAU, Chiese e paesi, b, 160, f. Tualis.

9

AT A DISTANCE. SOCIAL SUPPORT IN FRIULI IN THE EARLY …

237

groups and ‘foreigners’ (forestieri). In social support systems, these forms thus also constituted a concrete method for exclusion, as we will see below.16

4

Landscapes

In his essay, Tentori also lamented the lack of studies that would help him in his attempt to investigate the forms of solidarity through the urban design of the villages. For Friuli, he stated, there was little interest in the development of ‘village forms’ or the history of the landscape. The few studies he did find were part of a research approach originating in the 1930s, regarding agrarian legal norms. Indispensable here were not only the production reports but also the role and prerogatives of village communities, investigated on the basis of their statutes, which began to be shared only in the second half of the sixteenth century.17 In addressing these issues for the Friuli region, characterized by varied topography ranging from the peaks of the Alps to the Adriatic Lagoon and by differentiation of land ownership between mountain valleys and the plains, we must inevitably discuss the function of ‘collective resources’. According to Venetian law, risorse collettive was State land entrusted to the communities, which obtained the right to use the land via formal investiture. This arrangement was adopted at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the Republic of Venice undertook an inventory of its assets based on knowledge and testimony from the communities themselves.18 These collective resources accounted for most of the Friuli territory until the second half of the seventeenth century. Since they were entrusted to the communities as a source of livelihood and prosperity by gracious benevolence of the ‘Most Serene Republic’ (Serenissima), these lands were defined as ‘communal’ (comunali). The vast majority of these lands consisted of pastures in the mountains or on the plains. It was manifest and declared that the subsistence of the communities and animals raised there was guaranteed by the possibility of using the communal lands.19 16 On these issues, see Pastore (2004) and especially Garbellotti (2013, pp. 51–64; 2021). 17 I refer to the pioneering studies of a folklorist and anthropologist, Gaetano Perusini (1961), on whom see Gri (2013). 18 Barbacetto (2008). 19 Barbacetto and Lorenzini (2017).

238

C. LORENZINI

The sale of these lands made necessary starting in 1646 to cover the large and continuing costs of the war of Candia, resulted in increasingly large private landholdings on the plain. In the mountains, where such sales were prohibited, the communities continued to make use of pastures and woodlands but also had the right to rent them, which brought in potentially large sums.20 The scheme described above, which took form in the second half of the seventeenth century, reflects a clear differentiation between mountain and plains communities. While communal property constituted the material basis for the very survival of communities and access to these resources formally ensured egalitarian sharing among all family groups, thus contributing to social stability, this all had to change abruptly when the lands were sold. Landholdings were concentrated into fewer and fewer hands on the plains, widening the gap between landowners and the landless, who were called upon to work the land in order to survive. In the mountains, where arable land was scarce and relatively infertile and pastures and woods constituted at least two-thirds of all available agricultural land, greater equality within the communities was preserved.21 The centralized nature of villages, therefore, can also be considered as an adaptive solution to this social and economic context: on the plain, it respected the concentration of ownership of fields and meadows and pastures, mainly in the hands of private individuals; in the mountains, it sought to maintain a balance, fragile by definition, between meadows (private), woods, and pastures (public, community). However, the vital function performed by the commons in both contexts was safeguarded by jealous management: only those with the status of neighbour (vicino) could use them, thus excluding those in the villages who had come from elsewhere. In this characteristic of the functioning of communities, one can recognize a further correspondence with the model proposed by Tentori: that of the ‘closed corporate community’, strictly segmented between those who benefited from the redistribution of these assets and those who were excluded, even if they lived together.22

20 Bianco (1994a, pp. 51–99) and Beltrami (1961). 21 Bianco (1985, pp. 23–53) and Lorenzini (2020a). In general about the Republic of

Venice, see Alfani and Di Tullio (2019). 22 Wolf (1957).

9

AT A DISTANCE. SOCIAL SUPPORT IN FRIULI IN THE EARLY …

239

Inclusion was subject to a formal act: aggregation. One example, again referring to the Friuli mountains. On 10 August 1760, the community of Ravascletto welcomed Giovanni Gressani from Vinaio, a village in another valley in Carnia, one of its ‘neighbours’. He was close to marrying Orsola Chittera, whose father had died. He was planning to move in with his wife in an uxorilocal arrangement. This was not uncommon but nevertheless viewed unfavourably by the community, which might often disapprove. Perhaps aware of this, before tying the knot he wanted “to try living closely among the original inhabitants”. His wish was accepted because he was deemed to be a man “of honest repute and upright character”, but with the condition of having to contribute the relatively large sum of 25 ducati, 12 of which was to be paid that same day before the notary on behalf of the community. The remaining 13 ducati were to be used to support the “multiple burdens” that would have to be borne once he entered the house of his wife, “mainly for the infirmity of Cattarina”, Orsola’s mother, who was ill and therefore in need of assistance.23 With this choice, the community wanted to benefit itself while preserving the new family group that was being set up, forcing the new member of the community to contribute to his family even before becoming part of it. By requiring assistance to be provided to a person in need, the community promoted a collective interest. The material basis of the community represented by the collective resources becomes manifest when the resources are used to support neighbours in unfavourable economic circumstances.24 On 25 September 1759, the community of Monaio, the valley settlement of which Ravascletto was part, decided to rent the beech wood of Terranegra for 400 lire, given the needs that the community had due to ongoing disputes and, above all, “for food in these very penurious years … not knowing how to find a way to satisfy [this need]”. The woods, it was said, had been “saved for a long time for the greatest urgencies” and had been rented to a villager, Giovanni Odorico Fabbro, to whom it was granted only “for the emergencies of the neighbourhood itself … otherwise it would not have been thusly resolved”.25

23 ASU, Ana, b. 479, Nicolò De Crignis di Campivolo, n. 59, cc. 69v.–70r. For a general review of these aspects see Groppi (2010). 24 Bianco (1985, pp. 57–67). 25 ASU, Ana, b. 479, Nicolò De Crignis di Campivolo, n. 51, c. 63.

240

C. LORENZINI

Some arrangements were even more explicit. The rent for 22 ducati per year of the Montemaggiore pasture of the community of Forni di Sopra, established on 19 March 1650 for a duration of 9 years to their countryman Antonio De Odorico, served exclusively to provide “the needs of the poor”.26

5

Population

In July 1585 the lieutenant (luogotenente) of the Patria del Friuli, Pietro Gritti, was in Venice before the Senate to present his report. The lieutenants (or rectors, rettori) were members of the Venetian patriciate. They were sent to the provinces as representatives of the State government for at least 18 months, after which they had to explain the conditions in which they left the territories.27 Friuli, Gritti explained, is characterized by being at least one-third barren mountainous territory. The plains were often compromised by the action of the waters of rivers and streams, which threatened to cover the land with stones and gravel. Some 190,000 inhabitants lived there and he wanted to illustrate three aspects of their lives: how they lived, if they were prospering, and if they were safe. On the first aspect, the infertility of the land, the impossibility for most of the population to engage in activities other than agriculture, and the difficulty in making use of the water placed them in a universally miserable condition. However, they lived well because they were all Catholics, although placed “at the frontier of heretics”. Lastly, they were safe, since “the poor […] are aided, and much of the revenue of the community of Udine … is used to benefit them”.28 This last characteristic, namely that the main social support structures were sustained by the institutions of the city of Udine, highlights a structural aspect of the population of Friuli into the late modern period: that of being a territory without cities. Unlike the entire Republic of Venice, one of the areas on the Italian peninsula with the greatest urban concentration already in the sixteenth century, throughout the early modern period Friuli did not have any cities with a population of more than 15,000 26 ASU, Comune di Forni di Sopra, b. 4, by date. 27 Knapton (2007). 28 Relazioni dei rettori (1975, pp. 101–102). The ideas of the Protestant Reformation, unlike what the rector claimed, were widely welcomed in Friuli. For a general overview see Felici (2016, pp. 176–177).

9

AT A DISTANCE. SOCIAL SUPPORT IN FRIULI IN THE EARLY …

241

inhabitants, the sole exception being Udine.29 This feature allows us to extend our survey of social support systems to almost the entire territory, which must be considered a single rural area composed of about 900 communities. However, alongside and in complementary form to the centre of Udine, the Friulian territory was dotted with small ‘almost cities’ (‘quasi città’),30 with a population rarely exceeding 5,000 inhabitants, but with urban prerogatives and tasks, starting with their administrative and judicial duties extending to the neighbouring counties. These small towns were distributed evenly between the pre-Alpine area and the coastal area along, or close to, the two main roads: the one to Carinthia and the one to modern-day Slovenia. The former arrived from the south and passed through Portogruaro, Pordenone, San Vito al Tagliamento, Spilimbergo, San Daniele, Gemona, Venzone, and Tolmezzo; the second passed through Cividale. Both led to Venice and did not pass through Udine.31 The location of hospitals, social support institutions (Pia loca) to serve travellers and pilgrims, and lazarettos were closely associated with the location of the more urbanized centres and thus tended to be found along those roads.32 We may presume that the benefits deriving from a healthcare system distributed in this manner were not intended exclusively for the members of the institutions that governed hospitals and hospices, but also for all those who transited on those roads.

29 Fornasin and Zannini (1999). In 1569 the total population reached 220,000 inhabitants. The data presented by the luogotenente is the result of the effects of the pandemics of the 1570s. The pandemics of 1628–1630 also contributed to the decline of the population, which, however, by the end of the eighteenth century it had reached 320,000 inhabitants: Fornasin (2001) and Fornasin and Lorenzini (2016). 30 I refer to the observations of Chittolini (1990), which are particularly applicable to the Friuli area. On the link between the presence of hospitals and cities, see Berengo (1999, pp. 604–626). 31 Fornasin (1999). 32 Caracci (1968).

242

C. LORENZINI

6

Giving and Teaching

One of the measures that best establishes the validity, endurance, and effectiveness of the social support system is bequests to charitable institutions. In Friuli as in other contexts, donating all or a part of one’s estate to collective benefit meant sustaining community institutions, both the community itself (and thus the parish) and intermediate bodies, such as confraternities. I will not dwell on these associations except to recall two of the most important functions they performed. The first was to ensure credit—obviously limited to the capital held—at a relatively low rate with respect to the market. The second involved a crucial aspect, strengthened especially after the Council of Trent, for community life: the management of rituals and devotions, with particular regard to rites associated with the deceased.33 The purely charitable activities exercised by the confraternities, addressed to beggars and alms-seekers, were strongly curtailed especially during the eighteenth century, in favour of requiem rites and worship services. This process did not compromise the enduring practice of distributing food (the bread of the dead) in the holiday celebrations of individual confraternities and in some specific festivities in the liturgical year, such as Lent, for the suffrages during funerals and anniversaries of the confreres who had named the associations of which they were part in their wills.34 In the range of legacies that might be left by a testator, charitable bequests (legati pii) probably represent one of the choices that most conditioned the policy of the communities. The benefits deriving from these bequests extended over time, on the basis of the ability of the community to administrate the assets they inherited. In this context, it is particularly useful to focus on a specific form of a bequest, common in the mountains since the beginning of the eighteenth century, namely those that stipulated the establishment of or support for a school in the village. During the early modern period, a good portion of the active male population of Carnia, one of the largest mountain regions in the Friuli Alps, left their villages at the end of summer to practice their trades elsewhere, returning at the beginning of the following spring. Those 33 Giorgiutti (2003, 2005–2006). On these aspects in general, see Torre (1995). 34 Gri (1985, pp. 390–391).

9

AT A DISTANCE. SOCIAL SUPPORT IN FRIULI IN THE EARLY …

243

from northern Carnia travelled to central-eastern Europe to peddle spices, medicines, and fabrics; those from the southern part went to Venice and the Venetian mainland, Istria, and Trentino to work as weavers. These seasonal migrations continued into the early nineteenth century.35 Some families, especially merchants, earned a good income and often dedicated a part of it to their communities. Testators often stipulated binding conditions, specifying that their assets go to a parish, setting up a fund (mansioneria) to support priests dedicated to teaching children. For example, Giuseppe Samassa of Frassenetto (but a citizen of Ljubljana) created two such funds by bequest in 1742, one of which expressly required the parish priest “to teach … the poor … for free, and the others to continue the work they had been doing”.36 At other times, the capital in charitable bequests was used to establish and maintain schools for boys and also for girls. In 1726 a merchant from Monaio, Leonardo De Infanti, who had made his fortune and settled in the Dillingen district of Swabia (Bavaria), bequeathed 4,000 fiorini to his community to pay for a tutor who would educate “boys and girls … in the Doctrine and in Letters” and “in the basic sciences with good discipline”. The capital was also to be used to build a house for the lessons and for the tutor. Participation in the school was free for the children of those who had the status of neighbours, while foreigners were required to contribute money. School began on 19 October 1726.37 The school was dutifully maintained and administrated by the community of Monaio through ongoing ties with Bavaria, where the assets were invested and managed by a compatriot, Ferdinando De Crignis. In August 1744 the parson Ferdinando Soher was in Augsburg, probably a guest of relatives, and wrote to other relatives who lived in Monaio to reassure them to “have no doubts about the reliability of these assets, which will certainly be wisely invested”.38 However, in August 1769 the community took the decision to close the school, which remained closed for a decade. The investments had not been managed well. Nevertheless, the community did not want to transfer the funds into the territories of the Republic

35 Ferigo and Fornasin (1997) and Fornasin (1998). 36 Ferigo (2002, p. 15). 37 Casanova (1996, pp. 46–47). 38 Perusini and Pellegrini (1972–1973, p. 233).

244

C. LORENZINI

of Venice because much would have been lost to currency exchange.39 The money was invested in the Collegiate Church of Sankt Mauritius in Augsburg and then on 29 March 1789 the community decided to transfer it to the Monte di Pietà in Udine.40 They delegated Antonio Pit of Cercivento di Sopra, a village near Monaio, who would “with the help of God … soon leave for Augsburg to deal with certain pressing interests”, to go to Giuseppe De Infanti, a member of the family of Leonardo De Infanti, the testator, to “plead for disbursement”.41 The following year the community met in assembly (vicinia) to update the list of obligations that the school’s tutor had to fulfil, “Having … observed, during the past years … little progress in either science or the fear of God on the part of the youths attending the school”. The school year began on 12 or 13 November and ended on 24 August, on the feast of Saint Bartholomew. During the school year, the tutor was to remain available “by day and night … always keeping an eye on the pupils”.42 We could discuss any number of important aspects of this story to illustrate how the social support system worked in these communities. I shall conclude by examining two of them. One regards the ability to manage, even at a distance, capital that was essential to community life and activities.43 The prudent care with which the community of Monaio conserved the received bequest demonstrates that they intended to honour the decision taken by a neighbour, whom the affairs of life had led to live and die far from his community, feeling obliged to fulfil his last wishes.44 The trades practiced by people of Carnia on a migrant basis in the early modern period demanded a basic level of education. Indeed, the early surveys by the French administration recorded high levels of literacy of men and women in these communities, especially in comparison with the plain, levels that would remain high throughout the nineteenth century.45

39 ACAU, Chiese e paesi, b. 217, f. Monaio. 40 Cargnelutti (1994, 1996). 41 ASU, Ana, b. 3043, Nicolò De Crignis di Monaio, f. 11. 42 ASU, Ana, b. 3043, Nicolò De Crignis di Monaio, f. 11. 43 I refer to the papers collected in Pastore and Garbellotti (2001), in particular Pastore

(2001). 44 On the obligation to accept the gift, see Davis (2000, pp. 11–22). 45 Piseri (2012) and Stefanelli (1996). For a comparison with other alpine areas, see at

least Rochini (2018) and Toscani (2012).

9

AT A DISTANCE. SOCIAL SUPPORT IN FRIULI IN THE EARLY …

245

It was not possible to leave one’s village and remain abroad without knowing how to read, write, and perform basic accounting operations. Those who remained, including women,46 also required these skills since family communication mainly took the form of letters.47 Investing in education therefore meant being able to preserve the economy and social security of their communities. The charitable bequests established in favour of schools are an example of how such gifts are able to continue bearing fruit, at a distance and over time.

Archival Sources Archivio di Stato di Udine (ASU) Archivio notarile antico (Ana) Comune di Forni di Sopra Archivio della Curia arcivescovile di Udine (ACAU) Chiese e paesi

References Alfani, Guido, and Matteo Di Tullio. 2019. The Lion’s share: Inequality and the rise of the fiscal state in preindustrial Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ammannati, Francesco, ed. 2013. Assistenza e solidarietà in Europa, secoli XIII– XVIII / Social assistance and solidarity in Europe from the 13 th to the 18 th centuries. Florence: Firenze University Press. Avon, Gianni. 2011. Tentori Francesco, architect. In Nuovo Liruti. Dizionario biografico dei friulani, vol. 3, ed. Cesare Scalon, Giuseppe Bergamini, and Claudio Griggio, L’età contemporanea, 3307–3310. Udine: Forum. Barbacetto, Stefano. 2008. “La più gelosa delle pubbliche regalie”. I “beni communali” della Repubblica veneta tra dominio della signoria e diritti delle comunità (secoli XV–XVIII). Venice: Istituto veneto di Scienze, lettere ed arti. Barbacetto, Stefano, and Claudio Lorenzini. 2017. Contare i fuochi e gli animali. Sul peso economico dei beni comunali in Friuli al principio del Seicento. Quaderni storici 155: 349–381. Beltrami, Daniele. 1961. Forze di lavoro e proprietà fondiaria nelle campagne venete dei secoli XVII e XVIII. La penetrazione economica dei veneziani in Terraferma. Venice and Rome: Istituto per la collaborazione culturale.

46 Bianco (1994a, b). See, in general, Cavallo (2000). 47 Ferigo (2002) and Cescutti (1996).

246

C. LORENZINI

Berengo, Marino. 1999. L’Europa delle città. Il volto della società urbana europea tra medioevo ed età moderna. Turin: Einaudi. Bertolla, Pietro. 1957–1960. Il giuspatronato popolare nell’Arcidiocesi di Udine. Atti dell’Accademia di scienze lettere e arti di Udine s. 7 (1): 197–311. Bianco, Furio. 1985. Comunità di Carnia. Le comunità di villaggio della Carnia (secoli XVII–XIX). Udine: Casamassima. Bianco, Furio. 1994a. Le terre del Friuli. La formazione dei paesaggi agrari in Friuli tra XV e XIX secolo. Mantua and Verona: Astrea-Cierre. Bianco, Furio. 1994b. Interni di villaggio: donne e comunità rurali in età moderna. In Interni di famiglia. Patrimonio e sentimenti di figlie, madri, mogli, vedove. Il Friuli tra medioevo ed età moderna, ed. Roberta Corbellini, 143–150. Udine: Archivio di Stato di Udine. Caracci, Piercarlo. 1968. Antichi ospedali del Friuli. Udine: Arti grafiche friulane. Cargnelutti, Liliana. 1994. Istituti di pegno e comunità. Guida dell’archivio del Monte di Pietà di Udine, 1496–1942. Udine: Arti grafiche friulane. Cargnelutti, Liliana. 1996. Il Monte di Pietà di Udine tra assistenza, beneficenza e credito, 1496–1942. Udine: Forum. Casanova, Patrizia. 1996. Attraverso il tempo. In Valcalda. Il tempo, i luoghi, le voci, ed. Ead, 23–64. Monfalcone: Edizioni della Laguna. Cavallo, Sandra. 2000. Assistenza, genere e costruzione della famiglia tra Cinque e Settecento. In Povertà e innovazioni istituzionali in Italia. Dal medioevo ad oggi, ed. Vera Zamagni, 279–293. Bologna: Il Mulino. Cescutti, Maria Cristina. 1996. L’istruzione in Carnia. In La lavagna nera. Le fonti per la storia dell’istruzione nel Friuli-Venezia Giulia, ed. Grazia Tatò, 217–232. Trieste: Associazione nazionale archivistica italiana, Sezione FriuliVenezia Giulia. Chittolini, Giorgio. 1990. “Quasi-città”. Borghi e terre in area lombarda nel basso medioevo. Società e storia 47: 3–26 (now in Id. 1996. Città, comunità e feudi negli stati dell’Italia centro–settentrionale (XIV–XVI secolo), 85–104. Milano: Unicopli. Davis, Natalie Zemon. 2000. The gift in sixteenth-century France. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press (Italian edition 2022. Il dono. Vita familiare e relazioni pubbliche nella Francia del Cinquecento. Milan: Feltrinelli). Di Tullio, Matteo. 2014. The wealth of communities. War, resources and Cooperation in Renaissance Lombardy. Farnham: Ashgate (original edition 2011. La ricchezza delle comunità. Guerra, risorse, cooperazione nella Geradadda del Cinquecento. Venice: Marsilio). Felici, Lucia. 2016. La riforma protestante nell’Europa del Cinquecento. Rome: Carocci. Ferigo, Giorgio. 2002. Dire per lettera… Alfabetizzazione, mobilità, scritture popolari dalla montagna friulana. Metodi e ricerche n.s. 21 (2): 3–57 (now in

9

AT A DISTANCE. SOCIAL SUPPORT IN FRIULI IN THE EARLY …

247

Id. 2012. Morbida facta pecus… Scritti di antropologia storica della Carnia, ed. Claudio Lorenzini, 103–165. Udine: Forum). Ferigo, Giorgio, and Alessio Fornasin, eds. 1997. Cramars. Emigrazione, mobilità, mestieri ambulanti dalla Carnia in età moderna. Udine: Arti grafiche friulane. Fornasin, Alessio. 1998. Ambulanti, artigiani e mercanti. L’emigrazione dalla Carnia in età moderna. Verona: Cierre. Fornasin, Alessio. 1999. Tra Vienna e Venezia. La viabilità dalla Patria del Friuli in età moderna. Studi veneziani n.s. 38: 15–36. Fornasin, Alessio. 2001. La popolazione del Friuli in età moderna. Conferme e nuove evidenze. Memorie storiche forogiuliesi 81: 207–235. Fornasin, Alessio, and Claudio Lorenzini. 2016. La popolazione del Friuli veneto tra XV e XVI secolo. In La popolazione italiana del Quattrocento e Cinquecento, ed. Guido Alfani, Angela Carbone, Beatrice Del Bo, and Riccardo Rao, 41–55. Udine: Forum. Fornasin, Alessio, and Andrea Zannini. 1999. Crisi e ricostruzione demografica nel Seicento veneto. In La popolazione italiana nel Seicento, 103–122. Bologna: Clueb. Garbellotti, Marina. 2013. Per carità. Poveri e politiche assistenziali nell’Italia moderna. Rome: Carocci. Garbellotti, Marina. 2021. Dare a chi ha “loco et foco”. Le carità collettive nelle comunità rurali trentine di età moderna. In Oltre la carità. Donatori, istituzioni e comunità fra medioevo ed età contemporanea, ed. Mauro Carboni and Edward Loss, 167–185. Bologna: Il Mulino. Geipel, Robert. 1982. Disaster and reconstruction. The Friuli (Italy) earthquakes of 1976. London: Allen & Unwin. Giorgiutti, Michela. 2003. Tra carità e credito rurale: le attività delle confraternite nella Pieve di S. Margherita del Gruagno. Ce fastu? 79: 261–296. Giorgiutti, Michela. 2005–2006. Confraternita, Chiesa, comunità nel Friuli centro-orientale: un intreccio di competenze, un reticolo di giurisdizioni (1604–1806). PhD thesis, Udine: Università degli Studi di Udine. Ginzburg, Carlo. 1983. The night battles. Witchcraft and agrarian cults in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. London: Routledge (ed. orig. 19722 . I benandanti. Stregoneria e culti agrari tra Cinquecento e Seicento. Turin: Einaudi). Greco, Gaetano. 1986. I giuspatronati laicali nell’età moderna. In La Chiesa e il potere politico dal medioevo all’età contemporanea, ed. Giorgio Chittolini and Giovanni Miccoli, 531–572. Turin: Einaudi (Storia d’Italia. Annali, 9). Gri, Gian Paolo. 1985. Ricchi e poveri, morti e minestre. In Fagagna. Uomini e terra, ed. Carlo Guido Mor, 379–407. Udine: Arti grafiche friulane (now in Id. 2007. Dare e ricambiare nel Friuli di età moderna, ed. Gianni Colledani, 27–56. Montereale Valcellina: Circolo culturale Menocchio).

248

C. LORENZINI

Gri, Gian Paolo. 2001. Altri modi. Etnografia dell’agire simbolico nei processi friulani dell’Inquisizione. Trieste and Montereale Valcellina: Edizioni Università di Trieste-Circolo culturale Menocchio. Gri, Gian Paolo. 2013. Perusini Gaetano, ethnologist. In Nuovo Liruti. Dizionario biografico dei friulani, vol. 3, ed. Cesare Scalon, Giuseppe Bergamini, and Claudio Griggio, 2704–2709. L’età contemporanea. Udine: Forum. Groppi, Angela. 2010. Il welfare prima del welfare. Assistenza alla vecchiaia e solidarietà tra generazioni a Roma in età moderna. Rome: Viella. Hindle, Steve. 2004. On the Parish? The micro–politics of poor relif in rural England, c. 1550–1750. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Knapton, Michael. 2007. “Dico in scrittura… quello ch’a bocha ho refertto”. La trasmissione delle conoscenze di governo nelle relazioni dei rettori veneziani in Terraferma, secoli XVI–XVII. In L’Italia dell’Inquisitore. Storia e geografia dell’Italia del Cinquecento nella Descrittione di Leandro Alberti, ed. Massimo Donattini, 532–554. Bologna: Bononia University Press. Krausman Ben-Amos, Ilana. 2011. The culture of giving. Informal support and gift-exchange in early modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Le Bras, Gabriel. 1979. La chiesa e il villaggio. Turin: Bollati Boringhieri (original edition 1976. La église et le village. Paris: Flammarion). Lorenzini, Claudio. 2020a. Montagne diseguali? Il ruolo regolatore delle risorse collettive nella montagna friulana, secoli XVII–XVIII. In Disuguaglianza economica nelle società preindustriali: cause ed effetti [Economic inequality in pre-industrial societies: Causes and effects], ed. Giampiero Nigro, 231–253. Florence: Firenze University Press. Lorenzini, Claudio. 2020b. Un pezzo di scorza d’arancia. Attorno a marginalità e disuguaglianza delle Alpi in età moderna. In Le Alpi di Clio. Scritti per i venti anni del Laboratorio di Storia delle Alpi (2000–2020), ed. Luigi Lorenzetti, 103–115. Locarno: Dadò. Maffi, Luciano, and Marco Rochini. 2015. Corpi intermedi e “reti sociali di supporto” in Italia settentrionale nell’età moderna: il sistema del dare a Voghera nel XVIII secolo. Nuova rivista storica 99 (3): 773–795. Maffi, Luciano, and Marco Rochini. 2016. Poor relief systems in rural Italy: The territories of the diocese of Tortona in the eighteenth century. Continuity and Change 31 (2): 211–239. Maffi, Luciano, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, eds. 2018. I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo. Milan: Angeli. Morassi, Luciana, ed. 1989. Ospitalità sanitaria in Udine. Dalle origini all’ospedale della città, secoli XIV–XVIII . Udine: Casamassima.

9

AT A DISTANCE. SOCIAL SUPPORT IN FRIULI IN THE EARLY …

249

Panciera, Walter. 2010. Carità, ospedali e confraternite in età moderna. In “Custode di mio fratello”. Associazionismo e volontariato in Veneto dal medioevo a oggi, ed. Francesco Bianchi, 133–211. Venice: Marsilio. Pastore, Alessandro, ed. 1986. Sanità e società, Vol. 1. Friuli-Venezia Giulia, secoli XVI–XX . Udine: Casamassima. Pastore, Alessandro. 2001. Usi ed abusi nella gestione delle risorse (secoli XVI– XVII). In Id. and Garbellotti, 17–40. Pastore, Alessandro. 2004. Scegliere a chi donare. La selezione dell’assistenza nell’Italia moderna. Annali dell’Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento 30: 49–70. Pastore, Alessandro, and Marina Garbellotti, eds. 2001. L’uso del denaro. Patrimoni e amministrazione nei luoghi pii e negli enti ecclesiastici in Italia (secoli XV–XVIII). Bologna: Il Mulino. Perusini, Gaetano. 1961. Vita di popolo in Friuli. Patti agrari e consuetudini tradizionali. Florence: Olschki. Perusini, Gaetano, and Rienzo Pellegrini. 1972–1973. Lettere di emigranti. Ce fastu? 48–49: 217–261. Piseri, Maurizio. 2012. La scuola di montagna nelle Alpi Orientali nell’inchiesta napoleonica 1810 (Dipartimenti del Piave e del Passariano). In L’alfabeto in montagna. Scuola e alfabetismo nell’area alpina tra età moderna e XIX secolo, ed. Id., 37–64. Milan: Angeli. Pullan, Brian. 1971. Rich and poor in the Renaissance Venice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (Italian edition 1982. La politica sociale della Repubblica di Venezia, 1500–1620. Rome: Il Veltro). Relazioni dei rettori. 1975. Relazioni dei rettori veneti in Terraferma. Vol. I. La Patria del Friuli (Luogotenenza di Udine). Milan: Giuffrè. Rochini, Marco. 2018. Formazione delle identità sociali tra azione assistenziale e rivendicazione dei diritti giurisdizionali: il sistema del dare nella Valcamonica del XVIII secolo. In Maffi, Id. and Gregorini, 137–153. Stefanelli, Lucia. 1996. L’organizzazione delle scuole elementari in Friuli (1818– 1923). In La lavagna nera. Le fonti per la storia dell’istruzione nel FriuliVenezia Giulia, ed. Grazia Tatò, 31–43. Trieste: Associazione nazionale archivistica italiana, Sezione Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Storia della solidarietà. 1987. Storia della solidarietà in Friuli. Milan: Jaca Book. Tentori, Francesco. 1983a. La casa in Friuli. Note per una ricerca. Identità n. 4: 82–97; n. 6: 84–97; n. 7, 94–119. Tentori, Francesco. 1983b. Udine. Mille anni di sviluppo urbano. Udine: Casamassima. Tentori, Francesco. 1986. I villaggi del medio Friuli come tipo insediativo. Atti dell’Accademia di scienze lettere e arti di Udine 79: 215–253. Tentori, Francesco. 1987. La struttura insediativa friulana. I villaggi come rete per l’assistenza e la solidarietà. In Storia della solidarietà, 189–198.

250

C. LORENZINI

Tentori, Francesco. 1988. Udine. Rome and Bari: Laterza (Le città nella storia d’Italia). Tilatti, Andrea. 2016. I conti in ordine. Primi approcci per una ricognizione e una interpretazione dei libri contabili di pievi e parrocchie friulane (XIV–XV secolo). Quaderni di Storia religiosa 21: 9–46. Torre, Angelo. 1995. Il consumo di devozioni. Religione e comunità nelle campagne dell’ ancien régime. Venice: Marsilio. Toscani, Xenio. 2012. Le scuole nelle valli bergamasche e bresciane nel Sei e Settecento. In L’alfabeto in montagna. Scuola e alfabetismo nell’area alpina tra età moderna e XIX secolo, ed. Maurizio Piseri, 109–148. Milan: Angeli. Wolf, Eric R. 1957. Closed corporate peasant communities in Mesoamerica and Central Java. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 13: 1–18 (now in Id. 2001. Pathways of powe: Building an anthropology of the modern world, 147–159. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press). Wood, Andy. 2020. Faith, hope and charity: English neighbourhoods, 1500–1640. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

CHAPTER 10

Ties of Solidarity: Charity in Rural Communities in the Prince-Bishopric of Trent (Seventeenth to Eighteenth Centuries) Marina Garbellotti

1

Introduction

Scholarship on the history of charitable relief in Italy has tended to focus on hospital structures and the forms of charity present in medium-large sized urban centres (Milan, Florence, Venice, Turin, Naples, Genova, Brescia, Verona, Bologna).1 This historiographical trend is mainly due to the institutional approach adopted by these studies, which were carried 1 Ferrando (2022, in press), Bonato (2015), De Pinto (2013), Groppi (2010), Henderson (2006), Terpstra (2005), Montanari and Onger (2002), Pastore et al. (1996), Cavallo (1995), and Pullan (1982).

M. Garbellotti (B) University of Verona, Verona, Italy e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 G. Gregorini et al. (eds.), Social Support Systems in Rural Italy, Palgrave Studies in Economic History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24303-5_10

251

252

M. GARBELLOTTI

out in the final decades of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first. This research was especially interested in looking at the disciplinary aspects of the aid policies promoted by government authorities. Within this framework a variety of institutional players were studied—hospitals, confraternities, corporations, health offices, and religious organisations—who played a leading role in the management of assistance, as well as the profiles of the needy at whom their efforts were aimed. What these studies revealed was that there was a selective concept of charitable assistance. Especially from the sixteenth century onward, the poor to be aided were “chosen” on the basis of criteria that were more cultural than material in nature, such as having a work ethic, or protecting female honour.2 This orientation may be found in the provisions adopted by municipal administrations, in the regulations of charitable institutions and in the arrangements made in the wills of men and women of the period who gave increasingly precise instructions as to which of the needy would receive help. Support was given to adult males unable to work and to individuals considered socially vulnerable, that is, children and various females of different ages and social status (honest young women, girls at risk of losing their honour and women who needed to recover it, widows), for whose benefit special establishments began to appear in Italy’s urban centres. Interest in these aspects meant that charitable systems operating in rural areas received less attention, where hospitals, confraternities played a marginal role and in some areas were completely absent. In recent years the historiography in Italy has drawn attention to the forms of relief available in rural regions while pointing out that it is a simplification to reduce the difference between urban charitable networks and those in the country to merely a question of “scale”.3 Systems of relief delivery in peripheral areas had specific characteristics of their own that were influenced by the institutional, economic, and social context in

2 On the different aims of the charitable act, which is never neutral, see Pastore (2004) and Colombo (2019, pp. 601–617). 3 For a recent collection of studies comparing informal support networks in Italy see,

Maffi et al. (2018a). The editors, besides discussing the sources and methodologies used to investigate these systems of giving, argue that the scholarship in Italy was ‘late’ compared to England in dealing with these forms of aid, Maffi et al. (2018b, pp. 11–22). See also: Garbellotti (2021), Maffi and Rochini (2016), Colombo (2015), Torre (1995), and Nubola (1999, pp. 457–464).

10

TIES OF SOLIDARITY: CHARITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES …

253

which they developed. While in urban centres forms of charity predominated that were “regulated by formal legislation, whether that be the law of the State, the statutes of a confraternity, of a trade guild or a legacy left in a will”, in rural areas we see mainly informal charitable practices including those that “were, for example, performed by neighbours, family members and practices of alms giving”.4 Unlike urban centres where aid policies were aimed at including only certain categories of the needy, in rural areas the forms of relief were regulated by principles of solidarity that tended not to distinguish between different types of needy persons. This did not mean that these forms of assistance could not coexist, though clearly informal forms of charity based on notions of solidarity were more deeply rooted in the countryside.5 The aim of this paper is to embrace these recent findings and to study the networks of informal charitable support that existed in the rural communities of the Prince-bishopric of Trent in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries whose geographical and political structure makes them well suited for this kind of investigation (Fig. 1).6 Located in the north-east of the Italian peninsula and belonging politically to the Holy Roman Empire, it contained many small-sized rural communities characterised by a subsistence economy and only a few urban centres. In many of these villages, there were no hospitals and evidence of confraternal associations is sporadic. Undoubtedly, most communities could not afford the cost of maintaining a hospital; however, it is misleading to ascribe the absence of these forms of support to merely economic reasons. Preference for informal relief networks stemmed mainly from the fact that in these villages political, social, and economic dynamics were based on community principles. In these places 4 Maffi et al. (2018a, pp. 12, 13). 5 While not underestimating the disciplinary aspects of charity, M.H.D. van Leeuwen,

emphasises its solidarity enhancing function and argues that: “Philanthropy was indeed as much an attempt to strengthen a community as it was an expression of belonging to it. It was an attempt to soften social divisions and to keep the social fabric intact” (2012, p. 332). The persistence and pervasiveness of informal support in both urban centres and rural areas in the middle of the early modern period also emerges in Krausman BenAmos (2008). On the importance of informal networks in communities, also valid are the observations of Levi (1989, p. 280). 6 For an overview of the history of the early modern Episcopal Principality of Trent from institutional, economic, religious, and social perspectives, see the contributions collected in Bellabarba and Olmi (2000).

254

M. GARBELLOTTI

Fig. 1 Prince-Bishopric of Trent in eighteenth century (Source Tirolensis Comit. et Brixiensis Episc. novissimus atque accuratissimus typus complectens etiam confinia Bavariae, Helvetiae, Tridentin. ac Venetiar. Schenk Peter, 1707, Amsterdam, Biblioteca Comunale di Trento, GG1 at a 2-0144)

the predominant form of aid was community charity arising from the generosity of members of the community. Motivated by values such as sharing and belonging, when the residents of these villages dictated their wills, they bequeathed donations to those who took part in the life of the community, creating a circular aid distribution. In order to fully understand the ideology that supported collective forms of charity, we need to look at the rules that governed the lives of the Trent hinterland communities (I §); investigate the profiles of the benefactors and the beneficiaries of aid (II §); the material value of forms of charity whose memory residents jealously guarded (III §); and the symbolic meaning of the donations (IV §).

10

TIES OF SOLIDARITY: CHARITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES …

255

2 Neighbours, Foreign Residents, and Foreigners: Rights and Duties Political, economic, and social life in rural Trent hinterland communities was governed by charters of rules that had to be submitted for approval to the prince-bishop, the highest authority in the Prince-Bishopric of Trent.7 The prince-bishop’s agreement gave the communities a high degree of autonomy in managing political, economic, and even religious activities. Even if the charters give a more orderly and stable picture of community life than was actually the case, they remain an essential source for understanding the internal dynamics of these rural contexts, given that they “are not so much a description of practices or a record of ancient customs, as an aspect of the practices, a framework for interpreting facts, a model of social and economic relationships”.8 Both in Trent hinterland communities and in territories in other parts of Italy, this model was founded on the concept of belonging, which also involved obligations such as participating in community activities and contributing to the common good, and rights, such as the privilege of obtaining a share of collective resources and charity.9 What established the full membership of an individual in a community was the right of vicinia (legal neighbour) which was acquired at birth and exercised by only one member of the family, usually the eldest male. Persons not in possession of the title of “neighbour” were considered foreigners (“forestieri”); they could obtain the title through marriage or by submitting a petition to the community assembly or through a gradual process of integration which allowed them to acquire the status of a foreign resident.10 Only neighbours enjoyed active and passive political rights and only they could participate in the general assembly and appoint representatives of the community. In some villages, community offices were assigned 7 For an examination of the charters of rules of the Tridentine territory, see Nubola (2002), Nequirito (1988), and Capuzzo (1985). The charters of rules of the Tridentine territory are published in Giacomoni (1991). 8 Raggio (1995, pp. 182–183). 9 On the administrative organisation and political, economic and social dynamics of rural

communities, see Bianco (2002), Barbacetto (2002), Guzzi (1992), Viazzo (1990), and Tocci (1989). In particular, for the Trentino territory: Garbellotti (2006, pp. 337–364), Nubola (2002), and Nequirito (1988). 10 For a case study on the rules established by rural Trent hinterland communities to obtain the title of neighbour, see Giacomoni and Stenico (2005a, b).

256

M. GARBELLOTTI

on a rotating basis, obliging every neighbour to play an active role in governing the community. There were various ways neighbours were required to contribute to the community: holding community offices, participating in the general assembly, paying taxes, and rendering services such as maintaining roads and other public works. In the community of Dimaro (Val di Sole), for example, “each and every one of the neighbours is obliged to heed the call of the saltaro, to render services to the community, to intervene in regola (meetings), and to perform each and every task necessary for the commune whenever requested under penalty of a fine of two pounds of denari to be shared among those who were present at the regola or were performing community services”.11 The vicinia also conferred rights on members, the most important of which concerned access to community resources assigned on the basis of “hearths”, that is, the smallest unit in the community, a symbol of the home and family. To grasp the significance of this right we need to remember the features of the Tridentine territory, which was composed of a small percentage (28%) of productive soil (arable, meadows, and pastures), woodlands were 35%, and the remaining 37% was unproductive land.12 Thus, especially in rural areas, inhabitants worked small holdings that yielded little and from which they barely eked out enough to procure the basic necessities. We have useful testimony on the state of poverty in which many of these families found themselves from fiscal sources dating back to the eighteenth century.13 In the community of Vezzano (Valle dei Laghi), for example, the percentage of the population that was indigent hovered at around 62%. Out of 280 souls only 14 families, amounting to 80 persons, could be considered mediocri while the rest were variously designated as poor, paupers, or beggars. In another community in the Valle dei Laghi, the indigent population stood at around 81.3% and except for a couple of villages (Ciago and Vigolo Baselga), where

11 “Tutti ed ognuno dei vicini siano obbligati alla chiamata del saltaro, a prestare i servizi della comunità, ad intervenire alla regola, a compiere tutte e singole le prestazioni occorrenti nel comune quando ne siano richiesti sotto pena di due libbre di denari da dividersi fra coloro che saranno stati presenti alla regola o alle prestazioni comuni”; the charter of rules is from 1586, Fantelli (1990, cap. 56, p. 156). 12 Monteleone (1964, p. 13) and Coppola (1991). 13 This is a survey conducted by the mayors of the respective communities in 1717 to

establish the tax burden of the inhabitants in relation to a tax, the testatico, which had to be paid to the city of Trento, ASCTn, ACT1-10.075.

10

TIES OF SOLIDARITY: CHARITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES …

257

the poor accounted for around a quarter of the population, families designated with adjectives referring to poverty (poor, pauper, beggar) represented on average more than half the inhabitants. On the opposite, eastern side of the Tridentine territory, on the Piné plateau, in the village of Bedollo, indigent inhabitants amounted to 70.5% of the population. Poor, very poor, pauper, and indigent are the adjectives used by the regolano, the representative of this tiny hamlet, to describe the 60 households that comprised it, and only 13 families, or 61 souls, were not included in these categories. To supplement their incomes, people resorted to seasonal migration or to practicing modest commercial activities, but more than anything, they relied on community resources. For that reason community statutes, in the territory around Trent, as well as in similar communities elsewhere in Italy, contained many articles devoted to the careful husbanding of collective resources. Moreover, in order to protect the fragile relationship between community assets and number of hearths, there existed a clear demarcation in the villages between neighbours, those who possessed the right of vicinia, and foreigners, who were excluded from the community and, as a result, could not participate in the general assembly, hold any office, or enjoy any rights, including that of using collective resources. A cursory survey conducted on the statutes of Tridentine villages reveals that there were significant limitations imposed on “forestieri” as regards the exploitation and enjoyment of resources, mainly prohibitions on cutting wood, pasturing, and fishing.14 Foreign residents, who in legal terms were halfway between neighbours and foreigners, were treated with greater flexibility. The foreign resident possessed “foco e loco” (home and hearth), an expression that proved his wish to reside in the village and contribute to the collective good. In the community of Ballino (valli Giudicarie), for example, foreign residents had to help maintain the roads and common spaces and contribute to regular expenses, while in Aldeno they were required to participate in processions and observe religious festivals, just like legal neighbours.15 Working for the common good favoured integration; in exchange for these services, foreign residents acquired a number of the prerogatives 14 Giacomoni (1991, II, p. 19, chap. 8–11; I, pp. 275–276, chap. 4, 8); Casari and Lisciandra (2011). Similar restrictions on the use of common recourses are found in all communities on the peninsula, see for example Alfani and Rao (2011) and Tigrino (2017). 15 Giacomoni (1991, III, chap. 29, p. 682); Carta di regola della magnifica comunità di Aldeno, chap. 60, p. 41.

258

M. GARBELLOTTI

of vicinia, such as access to a portion of collective resources and the possibility of benefiting from assistance, as was the case in the community of Roncone. In considering which persons deserved to receive “the alms and legacies the community dispenses” the drafters of the charter of rules (1761) decided to distribute community alms “only to those who do public works”.16 Participation in the village’s administrative and economic activities also included the religious sphere. According to a custom we see elsewhere in Italy and Europe, the community often had the right to appoint the parish priest and to manage the local church’s assets and accounts, expenses for religious services, the furnishing and maintenance of churches, and the distribution of alms. Often residents were required to contribute to the purchase of candles and vestments and to take part in special processions, as in the community of Valle di Fiemme where at least one neighbour in every family had to perform this task or be liable to a fine “to obtain from almighty God peace of mind or rain or any other grace”.17 The degree of mutual interpenetration between the two spheres was so intense that sacred and profane often converged to the point that communities could be considered both religious and civil entities at the same time.18

3

Giving to Those Who Help the Community

Many villages could not afford to bear the expenses of maintaining a hospital. Sometimes they hired a doctor, perhaps in cooperation with other communities in order to divide the costs, or they set up an infirmary, like the one in the community of Roncone (valli Giudicarie), which consisted of a room with a few beds for residents who could not count on the support of family members.19 In these places with very small populations—sometimes no more than fifty to seventy households, including neighbours and foreign residents, there was also a low presence of confraternities.

16 Giacomoni (1991, III, pp. 461–462). 17 Giacomoni (1991, II, p. 495, chap. 103, 104). 18 Nubola (1999, p. 441). 19 ASCR, n. 18, cc. 9r–10r.

10

TIES OF SOLIDARITY: CHARITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES …

259

During times of food crisis, residents could count on welfare relief: communities procured grain in order to sell it at affordable prices. Sometimes neighbours and foreigners were aided indiscriminately as long as the latter possessed a “home and hearth” though often foreigners were excluded from any charitable measures. In the wake of a recent period of “dearth and scarce provender” in the summer of 1759, the representatives of Castel Tesino (Valsugana) gathered together in an assembly and decided to “commission the neighbours to provide possible relief” by delivering provender.20 Distribution took place in the rectory where the representatives of the community gave out one and a half staia (bushels) to one member from each family, equivalent to around 45 kilos. In this case, only the legal neighbours were able to benefit from community relief. This was not the first time the community of Castel Tesino intervened to help neighbours by contributing donations of money. In some cases the amounts paid out did not have to be reimbursed and thus were merely subsidies for the purpose of rescuing the community, in other cases, they were burdened by interest. In 1693 the representatives of the community, who had lent 15 troni (Venetian lire) to every hearth, decided to request an annual interest from every family of around 5%.21 In addition to these extraordinary interventions, reading the account ledgers we find sporadic expenditure items that attest to targeted charitable activity also for people outside the community: a few pennies given to transient paupers, a soldier, a man who was lame, and several residents, especially widows who were among the most economically vulnerable.22 These forms of aid were one-off measures and not sufficient to support the needs of persons who often were just barely surviving. Inhabitants of rural communities depended on other kinds of relief which may be seen in the periodic distribution of alms, mostly foodstuffs, provided by the communities themselves. The residents were the originators of these donations, and in their wills, they allocated part of their wealth to the community, so that it could be redistributed to its members. The prerequisite for receiving support was not determined by the economic need of the potential recipient but by the degree to which they belonged to 20 ASCCT, DDG, 68, c. 1r. 21 ASCCT, DDG, 64. 22 ASCCT, Rese di conto dei sindaci comunitativi, n. 54, Libro del cavar e spendere

della magnifica comunità di Castello (1740–1755), cc. 204v, 208r; ASCBV, 1, cc. 122r– 123r; 168r.

260

M. GARBELLOTTI

the community. While, at first sight, this approach may appear to be egalitarian, since everyone possessing the title of neighbour was considered on an equal footing, it was, in fact, unfair given that it failed to take into account people’s real state of need. According to the charitable ledgers of Castel Tesino, every household in the village received the same amount, regardless of their economic condition. In 1772, for example, recipients of the 40 troni distributed by community officials “into their own hands” included the wife of a “respectable notary”, the guardian of an orphan boy, a deaf servant who accepted the contribution for his master, a girl who was living with her widowed mother, a woman named Domenica on behalf of her brother who was head of the family.23 The respectable notary, the guardian of an orphan, and a family headed by a widow were thus all considered as deserving of the same support. The list of domestic units contained in this little book are also useful for another reason. It provides a picture of the various types of family arrangements that existed at the time, the result of high mortality rates and frequent mobility, especially among men, in these rural communities where scarce resources drove people to move elsewhere. Alongside so-called traditional families, both nuclear and extended, we also see widows and wives who lived alone or with children and who through special circumstances had assumed the role of head of the family; aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews; in-laws who had decided to live together under the same roof and families composed of brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews. Again as regards the criteria for distributing charity, one recurring condition was residence. Often the only ones to benefit from this form of aid were “smoking hearths”, that is, people who at the time of distribution were actually living in the village. Based on this principle the representatives of the community of Bocenago rejected the protests raised by several residents who complained that they had not received alms because at the time the charity was being distributed they were not living in the village.24 Neighbours who chose to move away and who therefore did not contribute to the community, lost the right to receive charity.25 23 ASCCT, DDG, 67 (1742). 24 ASCB, LP, 3, c. 2 (1783). 25 According to the charter of rules (1776) of the community of Mortaso (Val Rendena), neighbours who had moved to other villages and had sold their property in Mortaso, proving that they had “no intention of repatriating” (“l’animo di non più

10

TIES OF SOLIDARITY: CHARITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES …

261

Recipients of support were not the poor but active members of the community. Legacies were one of the clearest manifestations of the feelings of solidarity that characterised the daily life and social relationships of the community.26 This form of aid, in fact, created a closed circle in which benefactors and beneficiaries ended up identifying with each other. Expressions like “to the neighbours”, “to the smoking hearths of the neighbourhood”, and “to the neighbourhood” frequently recur in wills and confirm the fact that charity was a privilege reserved for those who contributed to the common good. In some provisions, however, the concept of “belonging” is extended to include those who were living in the community. The foreigner who had been residing for several years and who agreed to respect the community’s rules and render services gradually acquired several “minor” rights such as benefiting from charity. These opportunities were sometimes recognised by the neighbours themselves who included foreigners in their wills, provided that they possessed a “home and hearth” in the villages at the time of distribution. In the registry of perpetual charitable legacies left to the community of Borzago (val Rendeva) besides bequests allocated exclusively for the “smoking hearths of the neighbourhood”, we also see legacies destined for resident foreigners. Antonia la Frera, for example, bequeathed an income to the community with the obligation of celebrating annually three requiem masses for her soul and of acquiring salt to be distributed to the smoking hearths of both neighbours and foreigners; the co-villager Giuseppe Tersi arranged that his legacy could be used by “neighbours and foreigners who live in Borzago and have a hearth there”.27 Representatives of the community were well aware that some individuals were needier than others, in fact, in some registries they clearly designated certain persons or family nuclei as paupers. Rarely, however, did they allot these people a larger share of commodities. Specially targeted forms of relief for the poor, such as those delivered by the community of Borzago proved to be episodic. Here in the 1740s, after

rimpatriare”), lost the right to receive any contribution, including the annual charity distributions (Giacomoni 1991, I, p. 584, art. I). 26 Angelo Torre notes in referring to the communities: “The size of the territorial segment involved, the social identity of the participants, and the language in which they express themselves may vary, but one aspect seemed constant to me: the use of a precise language—that of charity—to build specific community bonds” (Torre 1995, p. 74). 27 ASCS, ALP, 40, c. 19v.

262

M. GARBELLOTTI

having distributed to each hearth the customary share of bread, charity officials once again knocked on the doors of ten hearths—three widows, two women and five men, one of whom was designated as poor and ill— to offer them a supplementary portion of bread.28 Three widows were shown the same consideration during the charitable distribution of oil. After the officials had completed the rounds of all the village’s hearths the widows were given an extra share of oil.29 But these were only isolated episodes and the impression one gets from the sources is that this special generosity had more to do with doling out what was left over than any systematic relief plan. Moreover, this practice of allocating surplus resources to the needy was not always followed; more often than not, leftovers were divided up equally. For example, in 1703, in order to decide who would receive surplus charitable bread, officials of the community of Condino opted to draw “lots for those who would receive the extra bread and fate fell to the districts of the village”, so they began distributing bread again to these dwellings and when they had finished they wrote down in a special ledger the name of the last family that had received the extra portion: from here the charity officials would begin the next round of distribution of alms for the feast of San Lorenzo.30 This egalitarian and circular form of solidarity was so deeply entrenched that it interfered with the delivery of selective forms of relief, which was the basis for charitable policies implemented in urban areas. Especially in the sixteenth century, urban administrations, confraternities, charitable organisations, and private individuals began directing aid through arrangements in their wills not to an indefinite mass of poor, but rather towards certain categories of the needy, seen as deserving of support. In addition to children and adults unable to work, particular attention was reserved for women and individuals who were weak by constitution and needing protection. During the early modern period special charitable institutions were created for these people and numerous dowry provisions were made to help poor, honest young women marry and raise their social condition by acquiring the status of a wife.31 Traces of this gender-based

28 ASCS, ALP, 41, c. 35v. 29 ASCS, ALP, 41, cc. 141v–142r (1764). 30 ASCC, ALP, 142, c. 7v. 31 To understand how welfare institutions played a significant role in encouraging female and male role models, see Cavallo (2000) and Garbellotti (2013, pp. 121–141).

10

TIES OF SOLIDARITY: CHARITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES …

263

assistance, which reflects a patriarchal model of society, were very weak among rural Tridentine communities. In this sense, the decision by the priest Giovanni Olivieri of Roncone to bequeath a dowry with a value of 20 troni looks to be an exception. In his will, after arranging for a series of requiem masses to be celebrated for his soul and that of his mother, Olivieri requested the consuls of Roncone and of Breguzzo, where for some years he had been curate, to identify every year some poor girl “of good morals” who was hoping to get married and to contribute to her dowry.32

4

The Material Value of Charity

In a will drawn up in 1673, the widow Agnese, resident of Condino, left to the community two loads of grain with which to prepare bread and one load of salt to be distributed to every household. As a source of income for this legacy she also bequeathed a plot of land to the community.33 A few years later, her co-villager, Antonio Chemioli, in his will of 1679 left the neighbours of Condino some grain for the purpose of making bread to be distributed “from hearth to hearth according to the custom” and two lire of salt, leaving instructions that should his sons die without male heirs, the officials should sell or rent out his home and its plot of land and with the proceeds acquire salt to be distributed annually.34 Instances of these forms of charity are taken from books of charitable legacies containing lists of donations bequeathed by the inhabitants of Condino for the benefit of the community, and examples like this recur in other rural communities. Scholars have made little use of wills and lists of legacies to uncover informal support networks and in studying this type of aid they have tended to concentrate on sources of a religious nature such as accounts of pastoral visits and parish reports.35 But it was the communities and not the parishes who administered the kinds of relief we are looking at and, as a result, they do not always appear in parish reports or in accounts of pastoral visits.

32 ASCR, 20, cc. n.n. 33 ASCC, ALP, 132, cc. nn. 34 ASCC, ALP, 132, c. 5v. 35 Farina (2018) and Rochini (2018).

264

M. GARBELLOTTI

Registries of charitable legacies list the testator’s name and information relating to the donation: type (usually commodities such as grain, bread, wine, salt, and rarely money), quantity, and period (“every once in a while” or in perpetuity); the way it should be distributed (whether the task should be performed by the testator’s heirs or by community officials); sometimes there is a reference to the will which was the origin of the bequest. In most cases, the heirs faithfully carried out the testator’s instructions. It was only rarely that incidents occurred such as the one involving the descendants of the nobleman Francesco Quarta, whose huge legacy to the community and Condino and Brione (Valle del Chiese), consisting of some thirty parcels of land and several buildings, led them to challenge the will through a court case against the community.36 Confirming the close relationship between religious and secular spheres that existed in these communities, aid was often distributed during religious feasts, such as Easter or Good Friday, All Souls’ Day, Christmas Eve, the patron saint’s day, or during processions, or at times when food stocks were depleted, such as at the end of winter. The origins of certain support, the oldest, dating back to the previous century, were not known but the obligation to distribute bread, salt, and oil annually was passed down from generation to generation. These commodities were purchased from the proceeds of rents on plots of land that the community had accumulated over time thanks to residents’ legacies or by auctioning the products obtained from cultivating these plots. For the families in these villages who were often living on the threshold of poverty, the prospect of receiving support was reassuring. Thanks to the generosity of deceased residents, the hearths of the community of Borzago could count on receiving at least five distributions of charity every year: two lire of oil at Easter; charity of the Cross (the type of donation is not specified), which was distributed in May, as well as the charity of the Corpus Domini; in August cheese was distributed and on 2 November, the day commemorating the dead, salt was given out in variable quantities (in the 1680s and 1690s this was on average 15 pounds).37 The hearths of the community of Bocenago also received a significant series of donations annually. Some days before Christmas 1777

36 ASCC, ALP, 129; ALP, 130. The trial ended in 1656 with an arbitral ruling, see ALP, 131. 37 ASCS, ALP, 39.

10

TIES OF SOLIDARITY: CHARITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES …

265

officials distributing legacies gave out bread relief, six “pieces of bread”; on March 8 they distributed two lire of oil; on Good Friday bread was again distributed, 11 pieces per hearth and a few days before All Soul’s Day salt was distributed in the amount of 18 lire.38 Quantities might vary from year to year and distribution was not always at regular intervals, however, the significance of these donations should not be underestimated. In May 1737, the community of Borzago gave to each of sixty hearths 2 mosse of wine, corresponding to approximately 2 litres, for a value of 44 troni and five pieces of bread.39 Of considerable size was the amount of salt distributed in 1739 to 56 families of neighbours and foreigners: altogether the salt amounted to 85 pesi, 6 libbre, so that every family received 36 libbre of salt or around 12 kilos; a lesser quantity of oil was distributed per hearth in 1765, equivalent to 2 libbre, 3 once (0.68 litres).40 Besides these periodic dispersals, village residents also received annual donations or one-off gifts set out in the wills of men and women who did not forget to bequeath alms to their co-villagers with whom they had shared their lives and had had relationships. Village residents were aware of the material value of these gifts and they made sure that distributions were carried out and that the memory of these legacies was diligently passed on to future generations. Losing traces of a will or forgetting a customary legacy meant reducing the quantity of charitable support, a resource that for material and symbolic reasons people were unwilling to give up. Convinced that the community of Bocenago was not distributing all the bread, oil, and salt bequeathed by the testators, and that it had squandered part of the capital intended for this purpose, several neighbours levelled serious allegations. In order to silence these accusations (“shut the mouths of the suspicious”), a meeting was urgently called to assign several trusted men the task of carefully examining the legacy records, which were found to be in “great disarray”. The examiners remarked with resignation that “many of these legacies having their origins and aims in the fifteenth century and that in most cases even the names of the properties to the assets having been lost … it is not possible to figure out or determine how and in what manner the community substituted for these properties the capital that presently

38 ASCB, LP, 2, cc. 28r–30r. 39 ASCS, ALP, 41, c. 10v. 40 ASCS, ALP, 41, cc. 20r., 145r.

266

M. GARBELLOTTI

exists”.41 The inquest ruled in favour of the “suspicious”—clearly the memory of the charitable bequest, handed down from generation to generation was more reliable than the sources—and evidence was found that the income earned from more than a few plots should have gone for the purchase of bread and wine. Research into the oldest legacies made it possible to restore charitable support that was registered for the benefit of future generations such as the arrangements made by Giacomo Fostin, who had instructed that a perpetual donation of salt be distributed on the feast of Saint Michael with the obligation to celebrate three masses. With no indication of the quantity involved but knowing “from the traditions of the eldest that the capital allocated was 200 ragnese”, this was the amount spent.42 So as not to lose the memory of the charitable legacies the administrators of the community of Borzago decided to record in a single ledger “legacies for which no original document could be found but only old memories”.43 We once again observe that custom was enough to justify the existence of charitable bequests, even if there was no written proof. Collective memory was therefore worth more than a document, although in the eighteenth century, many communities felt the need to systemise their records of legacies. The possibility that negligence on the part of some official or the dispersal of documents might erase traces of perpetual donations from the collective memory also led the representatives of Brione to write them down in the charter of rules, which the community would be extremely careful to preserve and protect over time. Exceptionally, in fact, the statutes of Brione contain the details of the largest bequests and much emphasis is placed on the duty of consuls to “be vigilant, especially when reckoning accounts, that the charitable legacies to the aforementioned vicinia and community of Brione be diligently carried out in keeping with the pious intentions of the testators”.44

41 “… avendo questi legati il lor principio e fine nel secolo decimo quinto, e di questi beni nominati nella maggior parte si ha persino perso il nome delle pertinenze … non è possibile venirne a capo, né rilevare come e in qual modo s’abbia dalla comunità a questi beni sostituito il capitale che ora presente esiste”, ASCB, LP, 3, c. 1v (1785). 42 A ragnese (also rainese) or Rhenish gulden was roughly equivalent to 4.5 Venetian lire. ASCB, LP, 3, c. 3r. 43 ASCS, ALP, 40, c. 20v. 44 The charter of rules is from 1751, Giacomoni (1991, III, pp. 356–357).

10

5

TIES OF SOLIDARITY: CHARITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES …

267

The Symbolic Value of Charity

The care taken by residents to perpetuate the precise memory of bequests was not merely out of material necessity, even if the total amount of the donations represented a considerable contribution. Charitable bequests also had non-material aims: circulating them served to reinforce relationships among members of the community as well as strengthen bonds between the world of the living and the dead. As Jan Assmann has pointed out “the rites embodied a concept of time completely different from that of monuments: not irremovable presence and immutable duration but transformation […] both aspects, immutable duration and infinite renewal integrate into a concept of time we may translate as eternity”.45 Faced with mutability and transience, the repetition from generation to generation of a rite in its original form, as in the case of distributing charity, acquired the character of a ceaseless practice, one that was therefore eternal. Members of the community who succeeded each other from generation to generation ended up becoming part of a single community that existed over centuries and that continued to refresh the memory of its ancestors. Whoever receives a good, regardless of its value, will inevitably associate it with its donor, and alms given in the form of salt, bread, and oil, especially if bequeathed in perpetuity, allowed the benefactor’s memory, their presence—even if virtual—to be projected through time. What emerged was a culture of memory, of commemoration, and exchange. What the testators were implicitly requesting was to be remembered by the community and to be commemorated as benefactors. They knew their names would be written down in the registries of legacies for future memory and on distribution days the neighbours would commemorate the community’s deceased. Thus, the bequests also served to keep the memory of the testator alive.46 Men and women in the early modern period were aware of the fact that charity had both a religious and a secular dimension. In dictating their wills, besides arranging for intercessory prayers to be said for the salvation of their souls, they did not neglect to confer benefits on community members with the twin aims of fulfilling the Christian duty of charity

45 Assmann (2002, ed. or. 1999, p. 59). 46 Zemon Davis (2002, pp. 11–20).

268

M. GARBELLOTTI

and perpetuating their own names in the collective memory.47 These aims were met above all in the bequests of perpetual legacies. For two centuries after the will of Maddalena Amistadi, dated 1586, the community of Roncone distributed bread for a value of 3 soldi annually to every hearth until 1719, and thereafter every three years due to a deterioration in productivity of the plots that were the basis for the donation.48 Another resident of Roncone, Paola Pollana, in her will of 1590, instructed that wine should be acquired from the proceeds of plots of land she had bequeathed to the community and that this wine should be distributed to whoever took part in processions commemorating her soul.49 There were some people who, unable to leave a perpetual legacy, allocated their bequest in two or three instalments in an attempt to keep their memory alive as long as possible. The neighbours of Condino, for example, thanks to the generosity of the widow Giacoma Tomasi, received a gift of salt within one year after her death, while the grain for baking bread, according to her last will, was to be distributed three years after her death. Similarly, the requiem masses she had ordered for her soul were celebrated during the year of her death and after three years.50 With the same aim of keeping their memory alive, most people entrusted the community with the task of distributing a gift some time after their decease. A good example of this is the bequest of the widow Domenica Squarzer of Condino who designated half a load of grain to be used to make bread and half a load of salt to be given to the neighbours of Condino and Brione “in the usual one-off form” within three years of her decease.51 In these peripheral areas charity did not have the selective character found in urban aid systems, where, with the aim of keeping public order, charitable measures were directed only to those poor who respected established social norms, such as work ethic and upright, honest, and devout 47 The yearning for eternity stems mainly from religious feelings, but alongside this dimension, “which keeps the individual’s name alive or is concerned with the salvation of his soul, there is the secular dimension, fame, which aims at an imperishable memory among posterity”, where the term ‘fame’ is to be understood in its original meaning of “to make people talk”, Assmann (2002, ed. or. 2000, p. 41). 48 ASCR, 16, c. 2r. 49 ASCR, 16, c. 2r. 50 ASCC, ALP, 128, c. 125v (1649). 51 “Secondo il solito per una sola volta”, ASCC, ALP, 128, c. 130v.

10

TIES OF SOLIDARITY: CHARITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES …

269

behaviour. Without these disciplinary aspects, the acts of charity that emerge from the wills of the men and women living in these communities reveal their desire to weave a web of reciprocity between the deceased and the social group that survived them. Reciprocity is the basis of every human relationship and may be found in every society, though it manifests itself more clearly in smaller demographic communities. Close ties of kinship, friendship, and work bound members of the community together and made them part of a single “family”. It was this extended kinship that the testators were addressing so that they would not be forgotten, and it was through charity, either perpetual or limited in time, that they engendered a system of general reciprocity.52 Once again Condino’s quite comprehensive registries of legacies offer some examples in this direction. Domenico Tornieri, in addition to leaving three loads of wheat for bread to be given to every hearth, ordered to give one loaf worth half a lira to anyone, not just the neighbours, who attended his funeral.53 Unique, but replete with symbolism, was the form of charitable distribution devised by another resident of Condino, Angelo. Unlike most testators who arranged to have their donations distributed to every hearth, Angelo gave instructions that within twenty days of his death the neighbours should come to his house (“to the door of the said testator Anzolo’s house”) to receive salt.54 We can picture Angelo’s neighbours, a few days after his death in August 1696, queuing up in front of his home to receive salt, as if it were himself who was distributing it. To keep his memory alive longer in the minds of his fellow villagers, Angelo also left the community a quantity of fodder and wheat for the preparation of bread to be offered to the neighbours one year after his death. Most of the charitable legacies left to the community were in the form of foodstuffs (grain, salt, wine, and oil), real estate, or money which the testator arranged to have converted into consumables. The practice of donating foodstuffs is connected to the economic system in rural communities, which was mainly based on the exchange of agricultural products rather than the use of money. It is important to note that most of the bequests consisted of the distribution of bread and salt. For the deceased’s

52 I take the definition from Sahlins (1972, p. 186). 53 ASCC, ALP, 132, c. 42v (1724). 54 ASCC, ALP, 132, c. 7v.

270

M. GARBELLOTTI

family members, as well as for charity administrators, it would have been easier to distribute grain or sell what was produced by the plots of land assigned in the legacy in order to purchase salt. These two commodities were also chosen because they met powerful symbolic needs. The distribution of bread evokes the ritual of collective meals, an event during which the community comes together in the spirit of conviviality to refresh the memory of the deceased while strengthening the interaction between the world of the living and the dead: in every culture eating together is a sign of friendship and solidarity. Moreover, bread is imbued with deep religious meaning and refers to the symbol of the Eucharist.55 The same may be said for bequests of salt. In the Tridentine territory, salt—like oil, another product that appears in collective donations, though less frequently—had to be imported. Until the fifteenth century the salt available in the lands around Trent came mainly from Venice, the quintessential salt trading city in north-eastern Italy, which obtained its supplies mainly from Sicily and Cyprus. In later centuries it was Tyrol, and especially the city of Hall, that supplied the lands of the princebishopric.56 Salt was seen as an indispensable commodity by people of the time. Preserving meat and cheese, even butter, as well as tanning hides required large amounts of salt. Salt was also used every day in food and added to the feed of certain animals and thus always had to be on hand in the pantry. As an essential commodity to be donated to members of the community, salt was also highly symbolic: with its use dating to preChristian times and amplified in the Old and New Testament traditions, salt was seen as the gift of life, a symbol of friendship and solidarity.57

6

Conclusions

In rural areas there were only weak echoes of the relief culture that developed starting in the early sixteenth century oriented towards helping

55 The observations expressed for the medieval age by Albini on the religious value

of bread donations and their function in consolidating the community of Christians also apply to the early modern period, Albini (3, 2015). 56 Hocquet (1990) and Hilfiker (2000, p. 70). 57 Until a few decades ago, salt was used in the Catholic liturgy during the administra-

tion of baptism to signify a covenant but also wisdom, see Hocquet (1985) and Bergier (1984, ed. or. 1982, pp. 141–144).

10

TIES OF SOLIDARITY: CHARITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES …

271

precise categories of the needy: disabled men who could not work, abandoned children, and women. Available charitable resources were assigned based on the recipient’s degree of membership and effective participation in the community. Those who benefited were neighbours and those who, like foreign residents, showed that they were ready to work for the community. Charity was, in fact, an instrument for asserting and strengthening feelings of fellowship within the group and it represented one of the first privileges to be granted to those wishing to acquire the title of neighbour. Belonging took precedence over the needs of the individual and it was by virtue of their belonging that paupers, the disabled, widows, orphans, and the elderly obtained assistance. These people ended up being assimilated into the community’s mechanisms of relationships and social protection, which superseded their specific differences. While the fragmentary nature of the sources does not allow us to determine the total amount of donations distributed annually, a study of samples has revealed significant amounts for family nuclei in these communities, who eked out a living from low-yield agricultural and pastoral activities. The inhabitants of villages preserved the memories of these forms of aid, some of which dated back centuries and which consisted mainly of bread and salt, commodities imbued with symbolism. Moreover, the way they were distributed has shown the presence of a circular form of charity. In observing the custom of bequeathing legacies of charity to the village hearths, the men and women who made up the community both gave and received. Through this practice of informal support, collective forms of charity gave substance to the invisible fabric of mutual aid, solidarity, and memory that held the community together. They may, in fact, be considered “an example of the integration and symbolic redistribution of resources inside the communities, customs that are both social and religious”.58

Archival Sources Archivio Storico Comune di Bocenago (ASCB) Registri dell’amministrazione dei legati pii, n. 3, Registro de legati del sal, olio e pane rinovato l’anno 1785 (1785–1872) (LP/3) Registri dell’amministrazione dei legati pii, n. 2, Registro dell’amministrazione dei legati pii (1787–1816) (LP/2) 58 Nubola (1999, p. 457).

272

M. GARBELLOTTI

Archivio Storico del Comune di Borgo Valsugana, delibere del consiglio (1747 – CTRL), n. 1 Archivio Storico del Comune di Cloz (ASCCl) Atti degli affari della comunità, n. 3, fasc. 8, Legati a favore della comunità (1689–1802) (AAC/3, 8) Archivio Storico del Comune di Castel Tesino (ASCCT) Rese di conto dei sindaci comunitativi, Libro del cavar e spendere della magnifica comunità di Castello (1740–1755) Distribuzione di denaro e di generi alimentari, n. 64 (DDG/64) Distribuzione di denaro e di generi alimentari, n. 65 (DDG/65) Distribuzione di denaro e di generi alimentari, n. 67 (DDG/67) Archivio Storico Comune di Cavedine (ASCCa) n. 18, Libro della fredalia dei laici, statuto, rese di conto (1625–1810) (ASCCa/18) Archivio Storico Comune di Condino (ASCC) Amministrazione dei legati pii, Lascito di Francesco Quarta di Condino alla comunità di Condino e Brione (a. 1653) (ALP/129) Amministrazione dei legati pii, n. 130, Causa tra la comunità di Condino da una parte e Antonio Mazzola e consorti dall’altra per l’eredità di Francesco Quarta (a. 1655) (ALP/130) Amministrazione dei legati pii, n. 131, Sentenza arbitrale nella causa per l’eredità di Francesco Quarta (ALP/131) Amministrazione dei legati pii, n. 132, Libro dei legati pii (1658–1795) (ALP/132) Amministrazione dei legati pii, n. 142, Libro del pane delle rogazioni e di Natale (1694–1795) (ALP/142) Archivio Storico Comune di Roncone (ASCR) SERIE n. 16, Inventario delle antiche scritture della comunità di Roncone compilato l’anno 1712 dal sacerdote don Pietro Antonio Bazzoli. Elenco degli antichi legati pii e degli oneri della comunità Archivio Storico Comune di Spiazzo, ex Archivio del Comune di Borzago (ASCS) Amministrazione dei legati pii, n. 39, Amministrazione dei legati pii (1680–1732) (ALP/39) Amministrazione dei legati pii, n. 40, Registro dei legati pii (1686–1770) (ALP/40) Amministrazione dei legati pii, n. 41, Registro dell’amministrazione dei legati (1736–1800) (ALP/41) ASCTn, ACT1–10.075 (s.p.).

10

TIES OF SOLIDARITY: CHARITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES …

273

References Albini, Giuliana. 2015. Il pane della carità aiuto ai poveri e simbolo religioso (secoli XI–XIV). In La civiltà del pane. Storia, tecniche e simboli dal Mediterraneo all’Atlantico, ed. Gabriele Archetti, 3, 1717–1738. Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo. Alfani, Giudo and Riccardo Rao, eds. 2011. La gestione delle risorse collettive. Italia settentrionale, secoli XII-XVIII . Milano: FrancoAngeli. Assmann, Aleida. 2002 (ed. or. 1999). Ricordare. Forme e mutamenti della memoria culturale. Bologna: il Mulino. Assmann, Jan. 2002 (ed. or. 2000). La morte come tema culturale. Bologna: il Mulino. Barbacetto, Stefano, et al., eds. 2002. Comunità Alpine: linguaggi, identità e comunicazione politica (secoli XIV–XVIII) (numero monografico di «Archivio storico Ticinese», XXXIX). Bellabarba, Marco and Giuseppe Olmi, eds. 2000. Storia del Trentino. IV: L’età moderna. Bologna: il Mulino. Bianco, Furio. 2002. Strutture e pratiche comunitarie nelle Alpi centrali. Identità e autonomie nella montagna friulana in età moderna. Archivio Storico Ticinese 39: 131–150. Bergier, Jean-François. 1984 (ed. or. 1982). Una storia del sale. Venezia: Marsilio. Bonato, Cinzia. 2015. Molto più che pazienti. L’ospedale di Pammatone e la popolazione della Repubblica di Genova nel XVIII secolo. Torino: Zamorani. Carta di regola della magnifica comunità di Aldeno XVIII sec. (Bollettino della biblioteca). Trento: Biblioteca Comunale di Aldeno 1977. Capuzzo, Ester. 1985. Carte di regola e usi civici nel Trentino. Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche 54: 1–35. Casari, Marco, and Maurizio Lisciandra. 2011. L’evoluzione della trasmissione ereditaria delle risorse collettive in Trentino tra i secoli XIII e XIX. In La gestione delle risorse collettive. Italia settentrionale, secoli XII–XVIII , ed. Alfani Guido and Rao Riccardo, 17–31. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Cavallo, Sandra. 1995. Charity and power in early modern Italy. Benefactors and their motives in Turin, 1541–1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cavallo, Sandra. 2000. Assistenza, genere e costruzione della famiglia tra Cinque e Settecento. In Povertà e innovazioni istituzionali in Italia. Dal Medioevo ad oggi, ed. Vera Zamagni, 279–285. Bologna: il Mulino. Colombo, Emanuele. 2015. La fortuna di essere poveri. Carità e servizi a Codogno in età moderna. In Generatività del bisogno. Casi di finanza e servizi in Lombardia (XVII–XX secc.), ed. Pietro Cafaro, 57–113. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Colombo, Emanuele. 2019. Premessa. In Carità (numero monografico di "Quaderni Storici", 162, LIV/3): 601–617.

274

M. GARBELLOTTI

Coppola, Gauro. 1991. Equilibri economici e trasformazioni nell’area alpina in età moderna. Scarsità di risorse ed economia integrata. In Lo spazio alpino alpino: area di civiltà, regione cerniera, ed. Gauro Coppola and Pierangelo Schiera, 203–223. Napoli: Liguori. De Pinto, Annamaria. 2013. Il Real Albergo dei poveri di Napoli. Dall’emarginazione all’assistenza (secc. XVIII–XIX). Bari: Cacucci. Fantelli, Uldarico. 1990. Dimaro la carta di regola. Calliano (Tn): Centro studi per la Val di Sole. Farina, Gianraimondo. 2018. Il sistema del dare in una comunità della Brianza rurale del XVIII secolo: Missaglia e il suo territorio. In I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, 169–189. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Favole, Adriano. 2002. Resti di umanità. Vita sociale del corpo dopo la morte. Roma and Bari: Laterza. Ferrando, Francesca. 2023. Assistere, correggere, rieducare. I ricoveri per mendicanti a Genova, Bologna e Venezia (secoli XVII–XVIII). Roma: Viella. Garbellotti, Marina. 2006. Le risorse dei poveri. Carità e tutela della salute nel principato vescovile di Trento in età moderna. Bologna: il Mulino. Garbellotti, Marina. 2021. Dare a chi ha “loco et foco”. Le carità collettive nelle comunità rurali trentine di età moderna. In Oltre la carità. Donatori, istituzioni e comunità fra Medioevo ed Età moderna, ed. Mauro Carboni and Edward Loss, 167–185. Bologna: il Mulino. Garbellotti, Marina. 2013. Per carità. Poveri e politiche assistenziali nell’Italia moderna. Roma: Carocci. Giacomoni, Fabio, ed. 1991. Carte di regola e statuti delle comunità rurali trentine, 3 vols. Milano: Jaca Book. Giacomoni, Fabio, and Marco Stenico. 2005a. ‘Vicini et forenses’. La figura del forestiero nelle comunità rurali trentine di antico regime. Parte prima. Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche 84: 3–76. Giacomoni, Fabio, and Marco Stenico. 2005b. Vicini et forenses’. La figura del forestiero nelle comunità rurali trentine di antico regime. Parte seconda. Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche 84: 163–252. Groppi, Angela. 2010. Il Welfare prima del Welfare. Assistenza alla vecchiaia e solidarietà tra generazioni a Roma in età moderna. Roma: Viella. Guzzi, Sandro. 1992. Autonomies locales et systèmes politiques alpins: La Suisse italienne aux XVII et XVIII siècles. Itinera XII: 229–255. Henderson, John. 2006. The renaissance hospital: Healing the body and healing the soul. New Haven: Yale University Press. Hilfiker, M., 2000, Artigianato e industria, traffico e commercio. In Storia dei Grigioni, II: L’età moderna, 57–89. Belinzona: Edizioni Casagranda Hocquet, Jean-Claude. 1985. Le sel et le pouvoir: de l’an mil à la Révolution française. Paris: Albin Michel.

10

TIES OF SOLIDARITY: CHARITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES …

275

Hocquet, Jean-Claude. 1990. Il Trentino all’incrocio dei sali tirolese e veneziano tra il XII e il XV secolo. Atti dell’Accademia roveretana degli Agiati, a. 238 (1988), s. VI, v. 28 (1988), f. A, 1990: 387–402. Krausman Ben-Amos, Ilana. 2008. The culture of giving: Informal support and gift-exchange in early modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Leeuwen van, Marco H.D. 2012. Giving in early modern history: Philanthropy in Amsterdam in the Golden Age. Continuity and Change 27 (2): 301–343. Levi, Giovanni. 1989. Tre storie di famiglia: i fronti parentali. In Le comunità negli stati italiani d’antico regime, ed. Giovanni Tocci, 277–288. Bologna: Clueb. Maffi, Luciano, and Marco Rochini. 2016. Poor relief systems in rural Italy: The territory of the diocese of Tortona in the eighteenth century. Continuity and Change 31 (2): 211–239. Maffi, Luciano, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, eds. 2018a. I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Maffi, Luciano, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini. 2018b. La pluralità dei sistemi del dare. Dai corpi sociali all’organizzazione statuale nell’Italia rurale del Settecento. In I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, 11–22. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Montanari, Daniele, and Sergio Onger, eds. 2002. I Ricoveri della città. Storia delle istituzioni di assistenza e beneficenza a Brescia (secoli XVI–XX). Brescia: Grafo. Monteleone, Renato. 1964. L’economia agraria nel Trentino nel periodo italico (1810–1813). Modena: Mucchi. Nequirito, Mauro. 1988. Le carte di regola delle comunità trentine. Introduzione storica e repertorio bibliografico. Mantova: Arcari. Nubola, Cecilia. 1999. Chiese delle comunità. Diritti consuetudinari e pratiche religiose nella prima età moderna. In Fonti ecclesiastiche per la storia sociale e religiosa d’Europa: XV–XVIII secolo, ed. Cecilia Nubola and Angelo Turchini, 441–464. Bologna: il Mulino. Nubola, Cecilia. 2002. Comunità rurali nel Principato vescovile di Trento. Carte di regola e diritti di vicinia (secoli XVI–XVIII). Archivio storico Ticinese XXXIX: 221–236. Pastore, Alessandro. 2004. Scegliere a chi donare. La selezione dell’assistenza nell’Italia moderna. Annali dell’Istituto storico italo-germanico XXX: 49–70. Pastore, Alessandro, et al., eds. 1996. L’Ospedale e la città. Cinquecento anni di arte a Verona. Verona: Cierre. Pullan, Brian. 1982. La politica sociale della Repubblica di Venezia 1500–1620, vol. 2. Roma: il Veltro.

276

M. GARBELLOTTI

Raggio, Osvaldo. 1995. Norme e pratiche. Gli statuti campestri come fonti per una storia locale. Quaderni Storici N.S. 30 (88/1): 155–194. Rochini, Marco. 2018. Formazione delle identità sociali tra azione assistenziale e rivendicazione dei diritti giurisdizionali: il sistema del dare nella Valcamonica del XVIII secolo. In I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, 137–153. Milano: FrancoAngeli. Sahlins, Marshall. 1972. Stone age economics. Chicago and New York: AldineAtherton. Terpstra, Nicholas. 2005. Abandoned children of the Italian renaissance. Orphan care in Florence and Bologna. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Tigrino, Vittorio, ed. 2017. Risorse comuni (numero monografico di «Quaderni Storici», 2017, n. 155, a. LII, 2017). Tocci, Giovanni, ed. 1989. Le comunità negli stati italiani d’antico regime. Bologna: Clueb. Torre, Angelo. 1995. Il consumo di devozioni. Religione e comunità nelle campagne dell’ancien régime. Venezia: Marsilio. Viazzo, Pier Paolo. 1990. Comunità alpine. Ambiente, popolazione, struttura sociale nelle Alpi dal XVI secolo a oggi. Bologna: il Mulino. Zemon Davis, Natalie. 2002 (ed. or. 2000). Il dono. Vita familiare e relazioni pubbliche nella Francia del Cinquecento. Milano: Feltrinelli.

CHAPTER 11

Parish Priests and Parishes in the Social Support Systems of Early Modern Rural Italy Paolo Cozzo

1

Introduction

Thanks in part to recent research and new papers, the role of secular, clerical, and ecclesiastical institutions in the social support systems of early modern Italy is well known.1 Indeed, the birth of new religious congregations in the sixteenth century led to a significant increase in the clergy’s participation in social welfare activities. Medieval orders—both monastic orders enclosed in “castles of prayer”2 and mendicant orders moving “between the hermitage and the city”3 —were mainly interested in the contemplative and homiletical sphere. Unlike these orders, the 1 Maffi, Rochini and Gregorini (2018) and Zardin (2022). 2 Cantarella (2020). All English translations of original Italian texts are by the author. 3 Merlo (20072 ).

P. Cozzo (B) Department of Historical Studies, University of Turin, Turin, Italy e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 G. Gregorini et al. (eds.), Social Support Systems in Rural Italy, Palgrave Studies in Economic History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24303-5_11

277

278

P. COZZO

regular clerical congregations created between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries displayed a marked propensity for practical action to aid the needy, always accompanied by prayer and preaching.4 Practices of social solidarity—such as distributing alms, caring for the sick, educating poor children, and helping orphans, “exposed” children, “at risk” virgins, elderly people without families, beggars, and other disadvantaged categories—became hallmarks of many new orders.5 From the Theatines to the Barnabites, Camillians, Fatebenefratelli, Jesuits, and Somaschi, in the century of the Council of Trent one of the public faces of the Catholic Church was a clergy ready to touch with their own hands—and without fear of dirtying them—the many forms that need, poverty, and suffering had taken in that period. This willingness was not limited to religious orders or regular clerics. Even the secular clergy paid attention to the many manifestations of distress. This was particularly noticeable among the clergy in charge of cura animarum, those most closely engaged with the community of the faithful (or at any rate supposed to be so)—since, as established by the 1215 Lateran Council IV, the parish priest served as the sacerdos proprius of every Christian.6 It is not surprising, therefore, that beginning in the Middle Ages “the parish was committed to the poor”.7 In practice, however, this commitment was impeded by the poor conditions parish clergy faced in most of Catholic Europe before the Council of Trent. One of the areas that the Council Fathers dealt with most zealously was the parishes: parish leadership was to be entrusted to resident priests who were culturally prepared and morally impeccable. At that point in history, however, such qualities were largely lacking in the vast majority of the personnel serving the parishes, as most tasks were entrusted to parish priests who were absent or only occasionally present, lacking in adequate training, often ignorant, and with moral attitudes, sexual behaviour, and lifestyle incompatible with the severitas imposed by ecclesiastical robes.8 The measures established in Trent to reform the figure of the parish priest and his pastoral activity (an obligation to remain in residence, training 4 Rurale (2008). 5 Garbellotti (2013, pp. 85–86). 6 Larson (2018). 7 Geremek (1995, p. 32). 8 Cozzo (2014, pp. 17–32).

11

PARISH PRIESTS AND PARISHES IN THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

279

in seminaries, strict observance of celibacy, and abstention from work and profane forms of sociability) were not applied immediately, nor did they have the same efficacy everywhere. Indeed, the measures drafted at the Council of Trent, in this matter as in others, were implemented “patchily”.9 Limiting our focus to the Italian case, it has been shown that in areas such as Milan, served by the pastoral activity of zealous bishops such as Carlo Borromeo,10 the parishes appear to have been profoundly reinvigorated as early as the second half of the sixteenth century; however, it is also well known that there were other areas in which it proved difficult to implement the Tridentine model in parishes until at least the beginning of the eighteenth century.11 Although the process of parish reform was far from linear or homogeneous, in the long run it was ultimately implemented and contributed to making this institution—identified as early as the Middle Ages as the foundational cell of every community of the faithful—the core of clerical activity in local areas.

2

The Centrality of the Parish

The Tridentine Church “invested” in parishes and those in charge of them and continued to do so for much of the early modern period. This investment inevitably also had repercussions in the sphere of managing poverty in its multiform expressions. It was effective not only because parishes were strengthened in terms of their role as ecclesiastical reference points for the faithful throughout their earthly existence (the parish priest remained the sacerdos proprius of every Christian, accompanying him or her through the sacraments from cradle to grave); it also had consequences because a certain idea was becoming consolidated and emphasised in manuals defining the “good parish priest”: the idea that “corporal charity is a most noble and commanded virtue, from which no Christian, much less a parish priest, may be exempt” since “spiritual needs are often closely connected to corporal needs, so that the latter often give rise to the former”, and therefore “care for the poor was always considered to be one of the main duties of the shepherds of souls”.12 This was

9 O’Malley (2018). 10 Zardin (2010). 11 Niccoli (20173 ). 12 Frassinetti (1868, p. 89).

280

P. COZZO

the case, for example, in the parish of Voghera. As was clear on the occasion of the pastoral visit by the bishop of Tortona in 1741, the parish priest here distributed “the alms collected in the sacks from the sermons of Advent and Lent” to the poor “and especially those of ashamed-poor families in proportion to their respective forms of indigence”.13 The centrality assumed by the parish (a shift that reignited tensions with the regular clergy)14 also had repercussions on those sectors of society that had acted to ameliorate the problems of hardship and need independently of ecclesiastical institutions. In Italy, the variegated universe of lay associations had contributed significantly to social welfare beginning in the late Middle Ages. Confraternities, fellowships, and pious sodalities had established a vast network committed to offering practical solutions to the many social problems produced by poverty using a wide range of instruments.15 These expressions of “lay piety”16 were influenced by the multifaceted orientations of the early modern Church17 — the confraternities were described as a “mosaic of devotions”.18 By their very nature, these entities tended to present themselves as transversal phenomena cutting across boundaries, both socially (alongside corporations and guilds, there were many other associations to which people from different social classes could belong) and geographically (membership was open to people residing in different parishes, or belonging to particular “segments” of parishes).19 Beginning in the sixteenth century, as parish jurisdiction tended to shift from fluid (as in the Middle Ages) to more rigid and well-defined (also geographically, with ecclesiastical authorities establishing intangible but firm boundaries), the relationship changed between Church actors and the lay associations proliferating in local areas. While before the Council of Trent lay organisations (especially in rural areas) had often performed a “supplementary function”20 in relation to the shortcomings and deficiencies of parish clergy, with the 13 Maffi (2018, p. 225). 14 Cozzo (2014, pp. 18–19). 15 Albini (2016, pp. 167–177). 16 Comino (2002). 17 Dompnier and Vismara (2008). 18 Serra (2016). 19 Torre (2011, p. 38). 20 Greco (1999, p. 158).

11

PARISH PRIESTS AND PARISHES IN THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

281

progressive application of the Tridentine decrees the resulting process was in some ways the opposite: a “parochialisation” of the confraternal institutions and their activities, including charitable and welfare activities. This process was anything but linear or homogeneous, given the different degrees of juridical evolution of these entities. In the countryside of southern Piedmont, there was “progressive control of the parish institution over a territory previously subject to different laws”.21 Here companies such as the confraternity of Santo Spirito whose “language of charity” was expressed via sharing ritual meals and foodstuffs on the occasion of Pentecost,22 had an extremely labile institutional profile as attested to by the absence of statutes or assets. Elsewhere, from Lombardy to southern Italy, the countryside was instead “teeming with solidly structured entities”.23 Everywhere—as in Borromeo’s Milan—“episodes of dispute”24 occurred daily, revealing that cooperation could often be challenging among different subjects (laity, ecclesiastical institutions, and political authorities) whose interests tended to intersect and overlap.

3

Parishes and Confraternities: A Complex Relationship

Over the long term, it is possible to discern a tendency towards osmosis between parishes and confraternities, a process that took place on a large scale, albeit not without points of tension and resistance. The declaration issued by the parish priest of Rozzano (in the Milan area) at the end of the eighteenth century provides a window into this process. According to the document, the goods held by the parish included 200 lire per year belonging to the local confraternity, “that is, the parish church”.25 Here as in other places, the assimilation process involving parishes and religious confraternities had led many curates to consider the confraternity goods and property used over time to support the pious associations’ charitable activities as belonging to the parish. It was for this reason that many parish priests at the end of the eighteenth century did not declare these assets 21 Torre (1999, p. 204). 22 Barale (2018). 23 Greco (1999, p. 179). 24 Zardin (2005, p. 393). 25 Pederzani (2002, p. 136).

282

P. COZZO

to the Cisalpine Republic civil authorities seeking to conduct a census of them. As expressed for example by the parish priest of Binasco, in the Milan area, they considered such goods to be “church property”26 and therefore, from their point of view, exempt from state jurisdiction. When the old confraternal institutes failed to be progressively absorbed into the parish, confraternities explicitly incardinated in the parish were created. This is what happened in the Milanese Church beginning with the period of Carlo Borromeo, when new devotional societies were instituted—such as the Eucharistic societies founded in the Swiss valleys belonging to the Ambrosian diocese—“to support parish worship” and with charitable purposes “to be exercised indiscriminately in favour of all the parish poor”.27 It is not surprising, therefore, that the parish priest was given a direct and active role in managing the pious association and overseeing its finances. This phenomenon also occurred in southern Italy and over a very long time span. In 1720, the bishop of Benevento, Vincenzo Maria Orsini (the future Pope Benedict XIII), instituted a confraternity in the parish church of Ginestra, while in the second half of the eighteenth century in Calabria—in Platì, Roccella Jonica, Portigliola, Sant’Agata del Bianco, San Giovanni di Gerace, Sant’Ilario dello Jonio, Siderno Superiore and other localities—a number of pious associations dedicated to the Rosary were established in the chapels of parish churches and administered by the parish clergy.28 In Italian society shaped by the Tridentine Council, the parson played a leading role in organising and managing the life of the confraternities— although they did so amidst tensions and positional manoeuvring. They felt authorised to intervene in both the spiritual and material affairs of the confraternities even though these entities did not belong to them legally; the affairs in which they intervened included the organisation and management of assistance to the needy. The fact that the propensity of parish priests to take action in this field was, to a certain extent, inherited from the confraternal tradition can clearly be seen in the Swiss parishes of the diocese of Milan. Beginning in the early modern age, many of these parishes had special funds (“caloniche pauperum”) earmarked for the

26 Ibid., p. 137. 27 Adamoli (2015, pp. 83–84). 28 Cozzo (2014, p. 84).

11

PARISH PRIESTS AND PARISHES IN THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

283

poor, a situation that can be seen as representing the evolution of older forms of lay charity already documented in the fourteenth century.29 What is clear is that—either as a direct initiative of the clergy or as a consequence of previous lay initiatives absorbed (and therefore controlled) by those in charge of the cura animarum—in the early modern period the phenomenon of assistance to the needy came to be increasingly framed by and incorporated into the workings of the parish.

4

The Parish as Social Welfare Filter

It should be pointed out that the process outlined above was not limited to Italy. Everywhere in Europe people perceived the parish as “an entity that they could turn to in hard times or obtain relief”.30 It is known, for example, that beginning in the 1530s an imperial decree ordered all parishes in the Netherlands to set up a receptacle to collect the offerings of the faithful in favour of the poor: the sums collected were to be controlled and managed by a committee comprising the parish priest and lay representatives of the community. The same committee was then to draw up—again on a parish basis—lists of the poor deserving of aid.31 The important role the parish played in the process of selecting aid recipients is evident in another Hapsburg area, Philip II’s Spain. Here, an attempt was made to implement a reform conceived by the court physician Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera aimed at differentiating between legítimos and fingidos (legitimate and fake) poor people. In this case as well, the parish was the natural context of intervention for the reform. The curate clergy and special diputados operating in the subzones of the parish areas implemented the initiative, leading to a marked reduction in the number of people entitled to aid; those judged eligible were each given a special marker of legitimacy. In the Madrid parish of San Martín alone, 650 verdaderos (true) poor were identified with this method as compared to five times that many (more than 3,000) fingidos, who were deprived of assistance and thus induced to leave the city.32

29 Ostinelli (1998, pp. 264–267). 30 Sharpe (2015, p. 169). 31 Bruneel (2012). 32 Cavillac (1998, pp. 200–201).

284

P. COZZO

Records show parish priests were involved in identifying the poor deserving of support in Italy throughout the early modern period. This selection process was based on the principle that assistance (aimed at compensating for momentary and transitory conditions of indigence due to causes beyond the control of those who suffered them and not as a consequence of misguided or inappropriate actions) should only go to those who belonged to the community. The poor were not all the same, and “charity was not an act owed to every person in need”.33 In fact, a significant difference was perceived between locals and out-of-towners, between natives and immigrants, and between community insiders and outsiders (and the community tended to be identified increasingly in reference to the parish, its boundaries and jurisdiction). People who, for various reasons, managed to prove that they were part of the community (by virtue of having lived in it for a long time, or having left it only occasionally or sporadically) could hope to benefit from the forms of assistance made available by civil and ecclesiastical institutions or bestowed by pious members of the laity under the increasingly strict control of the local clergy. Those who were strangers to the community, and thus considered vagrants (a category that the authorities gradually targeted more rigidly and harshly) were instead denied aid. Even in this logic, promoted primarily by the civil powers (the same authorities who had lowered the social status of pilgrims in modern times, comparing them to vagrants and limiting the traditional structures of reception and hospitality for them),34 the role of parish priests was fundamental. Inclusion in the parish network became synonymous with belonging to the community, whose patron saint not coincidentally began to be featured on the begging certificates issued to legitimate mendicants. As far as assistance to the needy was concerned, being a member of a parish meant enjoying citizenship and the rights associated with it. This is why parish priests (already involved in issuing “certificates of morality” required for specific “professional” categories, as was the case for nannies in the Papal States35 or the mountains of Savoy36 ) were used extensively to obtain “proof” that the subjects to be helped were truly poor and not simply vagrants. On the basis of their

33 Garbellotti (2013, p. 53). 34 Cozzo (2021, pp. 192–197). 35 Carboni (2018, p. 121). 36 Meyer (2014, p. 166).

11

PARISH PRIESTS AND PARISHES IN THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

285

direct knowledge of the faithful, parish priests were called on to judge the actual state of indigence that might have befallen people living within the perimeter of the cura animarum. If the word of a man of the Church was in itself considered reliable, all the more so was that of the parish priest. Who was better positioned to sift through rumours and information about the reputation and conduct of those who asked for help? Who more than the sacerdos proprius had access not only to the consciences of parishioners, but also to their homes, and thus knew how many hungry mouths there really were to feed, what their health conditions were, what their standard of living was? It should come as no surprise, therefore, that civil authorities made enormous use of the curate clergy in procedures for issuing begging licences on the basis of which the poor were allowed to ask for and obtain alms and, if possible, assistance. One such example is Valcamonica, a land that remained under Venetian rule until the end of the eighteenth century. Here, poverty licences issued by parish priests were required for accessing the forms of help—from food distribution to the right to abandon new-born babies at hospitals—offered by both the political and ecclesiastical authorities.37 Even in cases where the parish was not a part of the formal procedural chain for issuing certificates, it nonetheless played a decisive practical role in orienting assistance. In the mid-seventeenth century in Pamparato (diocese of Asti, Piedmont) the parish priest, together with the delegates of the community and confraternities, was in charge of deciding who could benefit from the aid generated by the income of the town’s two hospitals, both managed by local lay associations.38 In Pescarzo, Valcamonica, in the 1730s, the testamentary will of the local monte di pietà benefactor—a member of one of the most influential families of the community—established that the parish priest be entrusted with distributing money obtained from the institute. He had the right to select the subjects considered most in need of help (“not only the ill but also the healthy people, provided that they be equally poor”).39 Such “care of the poor” was, therefore, a task that parish priests were called upon to manage on a daily basis with zeal and rigour, as shown by the attention paid to this theme by the precepts addressed to priests responsible for

37 Rochini (2018, p. 145 [note 21]). 38 Torre (1995, p. 91). 39 Rochini (2018, pp. 147–148).

286

P. COZZO

the care of souls. This task was not only a matter of discerning between the poor and vagrants (a task that was easier for country curates than for city ones, seeing as the latter had no direct or personal knowledge of all the people there). Parish priests were also in charge of identifying the poor who were “idle and vicious, who would be able to earn their own bread” and “support themselves with their own efforts”. The latter were to be denied alms.40 The discernment required of parish priests was anything but simple. They dealt with people (especially women) who were experts in dissimulation and deception, not to mention that some of them might have reacted badly to the parish priest’s refusal to give undeserved alms or issue an untruthful certificate. It was better, therefore, to adopt a cautiously ambiguous attitude towards the false poor. “Rather than admonishing and correcting them”, which might risk provoking unmanageable “anger and spite”, parish priests preferred to declare themselves unable to help at that moment, inviting the applicants “with good grace” to return on another occasion, and to proceed in this way until these people had given up.41 If, in the end, the priest was not able to avoid issuing licences of poverty, he had at least to draw up a simple and perfunctory document that would enable those poised to lend aid to its bearer to understand that it was a pro forma declaration, not written “with real commitment” on the part of the parish priest and thus spurious.42 Criticism levelled against the “criminal” poor was even harsher: the parish priest was not to exercise any kind of charity towards them at all. This proscription was not only instituted because any help would easily have been interpreted as a form of “connivance to vice and scandal”, but also because it was believed that “the straits of indigence” might push poor people who persisted in sin (and therefore deserved poverty) “to a change of life”.43 We know that, despite the precautions suggested for parish priests and the filters put in place by authorities to select those deserving of charity and assistance, in daily practice it was extremely difficult to distinguish among the variegated throng of those asking for help. The value of

40 Frassinetti (1868, p. 91). 41 Ibid., pp. 93–94. 42 Ibid., p. 95. 43 Ibid., p. 96.

11

PARISH PRIESTS AND PARISHES IN THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

287

deeds in terms of facilitating the salvation of the soul—an idea the postTridentine Church had emphasised in response to the sola fide claimed by the Protestant and Reformed world—led the faithful to privilege charitable actions regardless of other considerations. In the collective mind, fulfilling an evangelical precept essential for possibly gaining access to eternal life came first, and this prioritisation went beyond the verification of requirements, licences and certificates.

5

Parishes and the Administration of Charity

This “spontaneous” trend towards charity was difficult to regulate or frame, and it was partly in reaction to it that, beginning in the sixteenth century, civil and ecclesiastical authorities implemented systems designed to channel alms for the poor towards social structures and organisations committed to providing assistance to the indigent. Rather than giving alms directly to those seeking help, with all the risks associated with the ambiguous figure of the poor, it was better to invest in the institutions already organised to take charge of the needs of the wretched such as parishes or monasteries over which parish priests asserted some form of control. The effort was to promote such an approach, in Italy and in Europe generally, in the belief that almsgiving should shift “from being an individual and voluntary contribution to a collective obligation decided by central authorities”.44 At times, this led to the creation of a true taxation system explicitly designed to address the problem of poverty, and such systems also involved parishes as places and instruments for tax collection or the fruition of coercively collected resources. This was the case, for example, in Venice. Beginning from the sixteenth century, having banned all forms of begging and expelled poor foreigners, the city senate imposed a “tax on poverty” which the parish priests were tasked with collecting and also, to a certain extent, managing, since the poor of Venice had to apply to their parishes to seek and receive support.45 The regulations adopted in the Lagoon (which “strengthened the powers of the parishes with regard to the control, identification and aid of the resident poor”)46 seem to anticipate the poor laws imposed in England at the end of the

44 Coccoli (2017, p. 20). 45 Ibid., pp. 20–21. 46 Panciera (2010, p. 156).

288

P. COZZO

sixteenth century47 (here as well, organised on a parochial basis)48 or in several French cities (including Paris and Lyon) and Flemish cities (such as Ypres and Bruges).49 Even beyond the Alps, institutional interventions were aimed at rationalising the provision of charity with a view to using the resources collected for social support systems managed at the community and parish level. Whatever the institutional framework in which they were inserted, “social giving systems” were a tangible response to the material needs of the destitute as well as the spiritual needs of that “Christian people” who lived every single worldly experience in relation to their destinies in the afterlife. The proliferation of instruments, sites, and activities matching the demand for charity with its supply should be understood in this “religious” perspective. Indeed, even when adopting a “socio-political” perspective on charity as a legitimising jurisdictional language50 and thus understanding it as “a vertical action that establishes a relationship of subordination between the benefactor and beneficiary” and, as such, an instrument serving to “safeguard the social order” and “maintain unchanged the existing system of social groups”,51 it is important not to underestimate the importance of the religious context. In the modern age, mechanisms for matching charity supply and demand operated with an intensity and frequency never seen before and—varying in this case as well from local area to local area—involved mainly the fabric of the parish. A situation in which “every single parish, even the smallest one, boasted at least one or more charitable institutions”52 (as with the Brescia area in the eighteenth century) was not uncommon in central-northern Italy, although with distinct local specificities. In Valcamonica more than other parts of Lombardy, for example, there was a widespread system of social assistance at the parish level including, among other elements, early education for the most disadvantaged social classes. In the eighteenth century, many parishes in the Camonica area expressly allocated part of their parish resources to supporting teachers (mainly priests) for poor 47 Lees (2006). 48 Friar (1998, pp. 353–355) and Snell (2006, pp. 89–149). 49 Coccoli (2018). 50 Torre (1995). 51 Garbellotti (2013, p. 95). 52 Quoted in Gregorini (2018, p. 129).

11

PARISH PRIESTS AND PARISHES IN THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

289

children. As evidenced by records of the pastoral visits conducted between 1732 and 1736, in those years more than half of the parishes maintained a primary school. This phenomenon became so well consolidated over time that, half a century later, almost 80% of parishes offered primary education services (free for the children of poor families, and for the price of a “reasonable salary” paid to the teacher for all the others). In light of these services, it is not surprising that literacy rates for Valcamonica were significantly higher in the long run than those of other Lombard areas.53

6

The Parish and “Poor Man’s Wheat”

While the case of Valcamonica is distinctive in many ways and thus difficult to generalise to other contexts, it is easy to find examples of activism by the parish clergy in the complex management of social support systems in many other areas. The monti frumentari (grain banks) represent one of the most pertinent and interesting (as well as widespread throughout the peninsula) cases of such systems and might be considered the most significant form of non-monetary credit developed in the early modern period.54 These were different from the monti di pietà, pawnshops instituted mainly in urban areas under the direction of mendicant orders to prevent—often with anti-Jewish purposes—usury by granting monetary credit at very low rates.55 Monti frumentari were instead created “at the threshold to the market”56 and constituted a typically rural phenomenon. This “poor man’s wheat”57 for planting (potentially combined with barley and legumes, especially in northern Italy) was normally given out in autumn to farmers who had not been able to collect and store the necessary quantity, either because of a poor harvest the previous year or because hunger had forced them to consume their seed stocks. What they borrowed (wheat for sowing, and sometimes even flour to feed themselves) had to be returned at the end of the harvest (that is, by the end of the agricultural season) along with a small additional amount. This small amount of wheat added at the time of repayment represented a 53 Rochini (2018, p. 150). 54 Checcoli (2015). 55 Vismara (2015, pp. 381–383). 56 Andreoni and Moroni (2021, p. 186). 57 Osbat (2014).

290

P. COZZO

sort of in-kind interest on the loaned capital, thereby sidestepping the complex ethical and regulatory implications of the lengthy theologicaldoctrinal debate on pecuniary interest that developed during the early modern period.58 The first monti frumentari took form at the end of the fifteenth century in central Italy59 and remained active in that area until the mid-nineteenth century,60 at which point they spread, especially in southern Italy (during the eighteenth century in particular),61 Veneto, and Piedmont.62 All across the Italian peninsula, the monti frumentari “were mainly the expression of the parishes”, and in the south “they effectively carried out their function to support farming families” until at least the middle of the eighteenth century. In fact, prior to the 1741 Concordat between the Holy See and Kingdom of Naples, they were “managed locally by people appointed by the parish priest and required to account for their management to the bishop’s authority, as indicated by Pope Benedict XIII”.63 Pope Orsini (1724–1730) was not the only one to pay attention to these forms of support to indigent peasants. Benedict XIV (1740–1758) also promoted the establishment of monti frumentari in the Papal States, to be entrusted to the control of parish priests.64 As in the case of alms for the poor, the main criterion for allocating grain to be lent to needy farmers was parish membership, applied with varying levels of rigour depending on the context. In the Legations of the Papal States, for example, the requirement of being a parish member was very strict: it is thus not surprising that, in eighteenth-century Imola, access to the services of monte frumentario was limited to only the faithful residing in the three rural parishes of the local area.65 Although rooted in the jurisdictional network of the parishes, monti frumentari were rarely managed directly by the parish priests; they preferred to exercise control (or, more likely, claim control) over the social bodies in charge of administering them, mostly confraternities. This 58 In relation to this debate see Vismara (2009 [2019]). 59 Bonazzoli (1999). 60 Tosti (1986). 61 Avallone (2014). 62 Avallone (2018, p. 37). 63 Ibid., pp. 27, 29. 64 Strangio (2018, pp. 111, 114). 65 Carboni (2018, p. 125).

11

PARISH PRIESTS AND PARISHES IN THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

291

is the case, for example, of the diocese of Tortona: here, only 4 out of the 37 monti recorded in the pastoral visit of 1741 were managed directly by the parish priest, while 17 were managed by confraternities (in Voghera, the number was actually 8 out of 10) and 14 by unspecified subjects.66 This mixture of jurisdictions was a harbinger of the tensions and contrasts that emerged when parish priests condemned what they perceived as the degradation of these institutions in cases in which they were managed by the laity (or as a result of such secular management). For instance, to cite another case in the diocese of Tortona, in the eighteenth century in Rivanazzano the parish priest accused the local monte (founded in the mid-seventeenth century by the parish) of having “fallen into dispersion” after “the community had intruded”.67 Similar cases can be found in various towns of Valcamonica (Incudine, Cemmo, and Braone) where priests often repeatedly denounced the “serious states of disorder” characterising monti frumentari that had freed themselves from parish control.68

7 The Parish and “Intermediate Social Bodies”: A Difficult Balance The conflictual dynamic between parish priests and the variegated universe of intermediate social bodies extended well beyond the monti frumentari. These intermediate entities were reluctant to give up their prerogatives and responsibilities in managing social support networks,69 even in the face of increasingly evident attempts by the Church and reforming governments to “channel local identities into the parish institution”70 in the eighteenth century. Similar disagreements and tensions also emerged around the management of hospitals. In the mid-eighteenth century, the diocese of Tortona contained 17 hospitals, yet only one was administered directly by the parish. The parish priests held a formal rather than substantial right of control over the activities of the other hospitals (managed by communities, confraternities, and religious orders), and 66 Maffi (2018, pp. 215–216). 67 Maffi, Rochini (2016, p. 227). 68 Rochini (2018, p. 147). 69 Maffi and Rochini (2015). 70 Torre (1995, p. 149).

292

P. COZZO

this often led to misunderstandings, controversies, and conflicts.71 Ecclesiastical and civil authorities in the eighteenth century tended to seek remedies for this situation by setting up, in some areas more than others, a parallel corrective function. In Savoyard Sardinia, for example, the government made extensive use of bishops to intervene in the disagreements between parishes and communities that frequently arose around the management of monti frumentari. After all, it had been the bishops to promote and disseminate these institutions in Sardinia beginning in the late seventeenth century, when the island was under Spanish rule. Even after the change in sovereignty, the episcopal class—largely an expression of the Piedmontese elites serving on the island—often turned to the parishes to implement the reforms decided by the court of Turin.72 The bishops’ efforts to reorganise Sardinia’s monti frumentari (as in the case of the archdiocese of Sassari in the 1960s) did continue to privilege the parish level, but at the same time they also suggested a desire to ensure those institutions were run by bureaucratically organised and hierarchically structured mixed administrations (i.e., made up of both laymen and ecclesiastics) explicitly oriented towards the state.73 This shift towards mixed administrations was in keeping with the evolution of relations between the clergy and civil authorities in the sense that eighteenth-century civil authorities tended to prioritise “public happiness” in their relations with Church authorities. In the systems prefigured by the reforming governments of the eighteenth century (such as the Lorraine government in Tuscany, for example), parish priests were tasked not only with administering the sacraments but also with “doing good for people” and “being useful to them”.74 In these contexts, the social assistance initiatives traditionally managed by and in parishes were increasingly conducted on behalf of the state rather than in its absence or as a replacement for it. This is clearly what happened in southern Italy and, in a more nuanced way, in many areas of the north where the intermediate bodies retained their social function. Whereas the parish clergy had once played a supplementary or compensatory role in this and other areas abandoned for centuries by civil institutions, in this period the

71 Ibid., pp. 783–785. 72 Tasca (2020). 73 Zichi (2011, pp. 165–169). 74 Cited in Cozzo (2014, p. 111). English translation mine.

11

PARISH PRIESTS AND PARISHES IN THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

293

priests’ role was progressively incorporated into a dynamic that valued— in both theoretical discourse and the practice of government—the care of souls as a fundamental component of the social, economic, and religious structure of a community. The parish shifted from serving as a laboratory of charity and aid to representing a cell in the fabric of welfare woven by public power. Although the shift itself was fully completed only in the late modern period, this evolution cannot be grasped without also understanding the significant weight that, even amidst the variegated contexts and structures of early modern rural Italy, parish priests, and parishes managed to exercise in the complex and heterogeneous field of social support systems.

References Adamoli, Davide. 2015. Confraternite fra Alpi e laghi lombardi. Carlo Borromeo e l’uso dello strumento confraternale per la riforma delle terre ambrosiane dei baliaggi svizzeri-italiani. In Norma del clero, speranza del gregge. L’opera di san Carlo Borromeo tra centro e periferia della diocesi di Milano. Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Milano 21 maggio 2010, Rocca di Angera (VA), 22 maggio 2010, Zardin, Danilo, Pagani, Fabrizio, ed. Carlo A. Pisoni and Valerio Cirio, 73–88. Germignana: Magazzeno Storico Verbanese. Albini, Giuliana. 2016. Poveri e povertà nel Medioevo. Rome: Carocci. Allegra, Luciano. 2013. Il Monte di Pietà di Torino. In La Compagnia di San Paolo, vol. 1 (1563–1852), ed. Walter Barberis (with Cantaluppi, Anna), 137– 165. Turin: Einaudi. Andreoni, Luca, and Marco Moroni. 2021. The wealth of periphery? Food provisioning, marchants, and cereals in the Papal States: The case of the March of Ancona. In Italian victualling systems in the early modern age, 16th to 18th century, ed. Luca Clerici, 177–209. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Avallone, Paola. 2014. Alle origini del credito agrario: i monti frumentari nel Regno di Napoli e le riforme di fine ‘700. Napoli: Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche, Istituto di studi sulle società del Mediterraneo. Avallone, Paola. 2018. Dare per produrre. I monti frumentari nel Regno di Napoli (secc. XVII–XVIII). In I sistemi del dare, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, 23–49. Barale, Lorena L. 2018. Le confrarie del Santo Spirito: un linguaggio della carità? In Politiche di misericordia tra teoria e prassi: confraternite, ospedali e monti di pietà (XIII–XVI secolo), ed. Pietro Delcorno, 133–152. Bologna: Il Mulino. Bonazzoli, Viviana. 1999. Banchi ebraici, Monti di Pietà, Monti frumentari in area umbro-marchigiana: un insieme di temi aperti. In Monti di Pietà e

294

P. COZZO

presenza ebraica in Italia: secoli XV–XVIII , ed. Daniele Montanari, 181–214. Roma: Bulzoni. Bruneel, Claude. 2012. La réforme de l’assistance dans l’espace belge au XVIe siècle. In Giginta. De la charité au programme social, ed. Alexandre Pagès, 87–106. Perpignan: Presses universitaires de Perpignan. Cantarella, Glauco M., ed. 2020. I castelli della preghiera: Il monachesimo nel pieno Medioevo (secoli X–XII). Rome: Carocci. Carboni, Mauro. 2018. Fra città e campagna: assistenza e pratiche caritative in età moderna nelle Legazioni pontificie di Bologna, Ferrara e Romagna. In I sistemi del dare, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, 115–125. Cavillac, Michel. 1998. La reformación de los pobres y el círculo del doctor Pérez de Herrera (1595–1598). In Felipe II (1527–1598): Europa y la monarqíua católica, Congreso Internacional “Felipe II (1598–1998), Europa dividida, la monarquía católica de Felipe II (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 20–23 abril 1998), ed. José Martínez Millán, 197–204. Madrid: Parteluz. Checcoli, Ippolita, ed. 2015. I monti frumentari e le forme di credito non monetarie tra Medioevo ed età contemporanea. Bologna: Il Mulino. Coccoli, Lorenzo. 2017. Il governo dei poveri all’inizio dell’età moderna: riforma delle istituzioni assistenziali e dibattiti sulla povertà nell’Europa del Cinquecento. Milan: Jouvence. Coccoli, Lorenzo. 2018. “Non come nemici ma come fratelli”. Carità e disciplinamento nei dibattiti cinquecenteschi sull’assistenza. In Politiche di misericordia tra teoria e prassi: confraternite, ospedali e monti di pietà (XIII–XVI secolo), ed. Pietro Delcorno, 311–330. Bologna: Il Mulino. Comino, Giancarlo, ed. 2002. La pietà dei laici, fra religiosità, prestigio familiare e pratiche devozionali: il Piemonte sud-occidentale dal Tre al Settecento, sulle tracce di Mons. Alfonso Maria Riberi (1876–1952). Atti delle giornate di studio (Demonte - Villafalletto, sabato 28 e domenica 29 settembre 2002). Cuneo: Società per gli studi storici, archeologici ed artistici della provincia di Cuneo. Cozzo, Paolo. 2014. Andate in pace. Parroci e parrocchie in Italia dal Concilio di Trento a papa Francesco. Rome: Carocci. Cozzo, Paolo. 2021. In cammino. Una storia del pellegrinaggio cristiano. Roma: Carocci. Dompnier, Bernard, and Paola Vismara, eds. 2008. Confréries et devotions dans la catholicité modern (mi-XV e –début XIX e siècle). Rome: Ecole Française de Rome. Frassinetti, Giuseppe. 1868. Manuale pratico del parroco novello. Operetta utile anche agli altri ecclesiastici specialmente confessori e predicatori. Genoa: Tipografia della gioventù. Friar, Stephen. 1998. A companion to the English Parish Church. Stroud: Alan Sutton.

11

PARISH PRIESTS AND PARISHES IN THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

295

Garbellotti, Marina. 2013. Per carità. Poveri e politiche assistenziali nell’Italia moderna. Rome: Carocci. Geremek, Bronislaw. 1995 (ed. 1986). La pietà e la forca. Storia della miseria e della carità in Europa. Rome-Bari: Laterza. Greco, Gaetano. 1999. La Chiesa in Italia nell’età moderna. Rome-Bari: Laterza. Gregorini, Giovanni. 2018. Comunità e rete nella storiografia sul sistema del dare in area bresciana durante il XVIII secolo. In I sistemi del dare, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, 127–136. Larson, Atria A. 2018. Lateran IV’s Decree on Confession, Gratian’s De Penitentia, Confession to One’s Sacerdos Proprius: A re-evaluation of omnis Utriusque in Its canonistic context. The Catholic Historical Review 104 (2018): 415–437. Lees, Lynn H. 2006. The solidarities of strangers: The English poor laws and the people, 1700–1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Maffi, Luciano. 2018. ‘A misura del bisogno’. Il sistema del dare nel Basso Piemonte. Il caso della diocesi di Tortona. In I sistemi del dare, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, 209–227. Maffi, Luciano, and Marco Rochini. 2015. Corpi intermedi e «reti sociali di supporto» in Italia settentrionale nell’età moderna: il sistema del dare a Voghera nel XVIII secolo. Nuova Rivista Storica 99 (3): 773–796. Maffi, Luciano, and Marco Rochini. 2016. Poor relief systems in rural Italy: The territory of the diocese of Tortona in the eighteenth century. Continuity and Change 31: 211–239. Maffi, Luciano, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, eds. 2018. I sistemi del dare nell’Italia rurale del XVIII secolo. Milan: Franco Angeli. Merlo, Giovanni G. 20072 . Tra eremo e città: studi su Francesco d’Assisi e sul francescanesimo medievale. S. Maria degli Angeli (Assisi): Edizioni Porziuncola. Meyer, Frédéric. 2014. La foi des montagnes. Culture et religion dans la Savoie d’Ancien Régime. Annecy: Adadémie salésienne. Niccoli, Ottavia. 20173 . La vita religiosa nell’Italia moderna (secoli XV–XVIII). Rome: Carocci. O’Malley, John W. 2018. What happened and did not happen at the Council of Trent. In The Council of Trent: Reform and controversy in Europe and beyond (1545–1700), vol. 1, Between Trent, Rome and Wittenberg, ed. Wim François and Violet Soen, 49–68. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Osbat, Luciano. 2014. Il grano dei poveri. I «Monti frumentari» nell’Alto Lazio tra XVI e XIX secolo. In Reti di credito: circuiti informali, impropri, nascosti (secoli XIII–XIX), ed. Mauro Carboni and Maria G. Muzzarelli, 233–260. Bologna: Il Mulino. Ostinelli, Paolo. 1998. Il governo delle anime: strutture ecclesiastiche nel Bellinzonese e nelle Valli ambrosiane (XIV–XV secolo). Locarno: Dado.

296

P. COZZO

Panciera, Walter. 2010. Carità, ospedali e confraternite in età moderna. In “Custode di mio fratello”. Associazionismo e volontariato in Veneto dal medioevo a oggi, ed. Francesco Bianchi, 135–201. Venice: Marsilio. Pederzani, Ivana. 2002. Un ministero per il culto: Giovanni Bovara e la riforma della Chiesa in età napoleonica. Milan: Franco Angeli. Rochini, Marco. 2018. Formazione delle identità sociali tra azione assistenziale e rivendicazione dei diritti giurisdizionali: il sistema del dare nella Valcamonica del XVIII secolo. In I sistemi del dare, ed. Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini 137–155. Rurale, Flavio. 2008. Monaci, frati, chierici: gli Ordini religiosi in età moderna. Rome: Carocci. Serra, Alessandro. 2016. La mosaïque des dévotions: confréries, cultes et société à Rome (XVI–XVIII siècles). Louvain: UCL Presses Universitaires de Louvain. Sharpe, Pamela. 2015. Parish women: Maternity and the limitations of Maiden settlement in England 1662–1834. In Obligation, entitlement and dispute under the English poor laws, ed. Peter Jones and Steven King, 168–192. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Snell Keith, D.M. 2006. Parish and belonging: community, identity, and welfare in England and Wales, 1700–1950. New York: Cambridge University Press. Strangio, Donatella. 2018. Credito e network sociali. I Monti di pietà e Monti frumentari nello Stato romano (XVI–XVIII secolo). In I sistemi del dare, Luciano Maffi, Marco Rochini, and Giovanni Gregorini, 99–114. Tasca, Cecilia. 2020. “Per un fermo stabilimento de’ Monti granatici”: i progetti di riforma del credito agrario nella Sardegna sabauda. Perugia: Morlacchi. Torre, Angelo. 1995. Il consumo di devozioni: religione e comunità nelle campagne dell’ancien regime. Venezia: Marsilio. Torre, Angelo. 1999. Vita religiosa e cultura giurisdizionale nel Piemonte di antico regime. In Fonti ecclesiastiche per la storia sociale e religiosa d’Europa: XV–XVIII secolo, ed. Cecilia Nubola and Angelo Turchini, 181–211. Bologna: Il Mulino. Torre, Angelo. 2011. Luoghi: la produzione di località in età moderna e contemporanea. Rome: Donzelli. Tosti, Mario. 1986. Tra carità e piccolo credito agrario. I Monti Frumentari in Umbria nell’Ottocento. In Studi sull’episcopato Pecci a Perugia (1846–1878), ed. Elena Cavalcanti, 301–333. Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane. Vismara, Paola. 2009. Questioni d’interesse: la Chiesa e il denaro in età moderna. Milan: Bruno Mondadori (French ed. 2019: L’église et l’argent à l’époque moderne, présentation Frédéric Meyer, traduction Stafano Simiz, Lyon-Grenoble: Laboratoire de Recherche Historique Rhôn-Alpes). Vismara, Paola. 2015. Cristianesimo e denaro. In Storia del Cristianesimo, III, L’età moderna (secoli XVI–XVIII), ed. Vincenzo Lavenia, 379–400. Rome: Carocci.

11

PARISH PRIESTS AND PARISHES IN THE SOCIAL SUPPORT …

297

Zardin, Danilo. 2005. Tra Chiesa e società laica: le confraternite in età moderna. In Storia della Chiesa in Europa, ed. Luciano Vaccaro, 389–399. Brescia: Morcelliana. Zardin, Danilo. 2010. Carlo Borromeo. Cultura, santità, governo. Milan: Vita e Pensiero. Zardin, Danilo. 2022. La città e i poveri. Retidi protezione tra Italia e realtà lombarda agli inizi delpercorso moderno. Milan: EDUCatt. Zichi, Giancarlo. 2011. Le riforme sabaude nel carteggio inedito tra il ministro Bogino e l’arcivescovo di Sassari Viancino (1763–1772). Sassari: Istituto superiore di Scienze Religiose di Sassari.

Index

A Acqui, 71 Adriatic sea, 21 Africa, 180 Agello, 185 Alba, 71 Alberici, Gio. Batta, 142 Aldeno, 257 Alessandretti, Antonio, count, 195 Alessandria, 71 Alfani, Guido, 4, 5, 72, 103, 104, 163, 257 Alps, 234, 237, 242, 288 Amistadi, Maddalena, 268 Andora, 112 Andrioli, Giovanni Maria, 216, 217 Andujar, Giuseppe Lodovico, bishop of Tortona, 76, 77, 154, 157, 163 Antonelli, Battista, 180 Antonelli, Giovanni Battista, 180 Aosta, 71 Apennines, 7, 18, 72, 73, 157

Archdiocese of Sassari, 292 Artana, 155 Asola, 204 Assmann, Jan, 267, 268 Asti, 71 Augsburg, 243, 244 Austrian Empire, 156 Avallone, Paola, 5, 11, 99, 185, 196, 290

B Badoer, Giovanni Alberto, bishops of Brescia, 210 Bagnara, 184, 185, 188, 189 Bagnara di Romagna, 184 Ballino, 257 Barbarigo, Gianfranco, bishops of Brescia, 210 Barchi, 155 Barnabites, 278 Baroni, Giovannino, 35 Battilani, Patrizia, 6, 7

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 G. Gregorini et al. (eds.), Social Support Systems in Rural Italy, Palgrave Studies in Economic History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24303-5

299

300

INDEX

Bavaria, 243 Bedollo, 257 Belloni, Gio. Batta, 142 Belloni, Giulio, 131 Belnome, 163–166 Benassi, Corrado, 6, 7 Benedict XIII, pope, 282, 290 Benedict XIV, pope, 290 Bertassi, 155 Bertone, 136, 163, 164 Bertoni, canon, 179 Bianco, Antonio, 55, 235, 238, 239, 245, 255 Bicchieri, Guala, cardinal, 17, 36 Bicocca, Antonio, 55 Bicocca, Bartolomeo, 55 Bicocca, Bonino, 55 Biella, 71 Bienno, 223 Binasco, 282 Bocenago, 260, 264, 265 Bologna, 19, 197, 251 Bonassola, 110 Borgo Fornari, 110, 161, 169 Borromeo, Carlo, Archbishop of Milan, 279, 282 Borzago, 261, 264–266 Boundaries, 16, 34, 37, 43, 49, 53, 66, 72, 164, 209, 280, 284 Braone, 291 Brazanti, Sante, 181 Bread, 3, 22, 42, 68, 82, 83, 110, 160, 168, 197, 210, 219, 222, 242, 262–271, 286 Breguzzo, 263 Brescia, 20, 139, 160, 203–211, 213–215, 218–220, 222, 223, 251, 288 Bressan, Edoardo, 6, 14, 152, 206, 207 Brione, 264, 266, 268 Brisighella, 179, 181

Broad, John, 11 Brotherhoods, 3, 8, 20, 145, 231 Bruges, 288 Brugnato, 107, 113–115, 117

C Cabella Ligure, 160 Caccia-Tornielli, charitable institution, 138, 143 Cafaro, Pietro, 6, 222 Calabria, 282 Calvisano, 214 Camillians, 278 Campi, 155, 164 Cantalupo, 161 Carboni, Mauro, 19, 99, 189, 193, 284, 290 Carcano Giovanni, Pietro, 141, 145 Carinthia, 241 Carlo Emanuele III of Savoy, 155 Carnevale, Nicolò, 141 Carnia, 236, 239, 242–244 Carpeneto, 160, 161 Carpeneto, family, 161 Carrega, 162 Carrodano Inferiore, 104 Carrodano Superiore, 104, 107 Casale, 71 Casati, count, 139 Casella, 166 Castelleale, 185 Castelletti, Clemente, Capuchin, 105 Castel Tesino, 259, 260 Castiglione di Cervia, 181 Castrezzato, 208, 209, 214 Catholic Church, 8, 278 Cattaneo, Carlo, 31, 32 Cavanna, 155 Cemmo, 291 Centrassi, 161 Centurione, family, 160

INDEX

Centurione, Giambattista, 164 Centurione Spinola, family, 160 Cercivento di Sopra, 244 Cerexia, Perrino, 52 Cerreto, 166 Cervia, 179–181, 184 Cesena, 179, 181, 183 Charitable organizations, 17, 109, 111, 112, 117 Chemioli, Antonio, 263 Chiari, 208, 209, 214 Chiffoleau, Jacques, 69, 126, 138 Chittera, Orsola, 239 Ciago, 256 Cicogna, Antonio, 137 Cisalpine Republic, 191, 282 Cividale, 241 Cividate Camuno, 205 Civitella di Romagna, 186 Clothing, distribution, 42, 68, 69, 168, 210 Coccaglio, 211, 223 Codogno, 128, 129, 131, 132, 141, 142, 145 Cohn, Samuel, 126, 127, 138, 140 Colombo, Emanuele C., 10, 18, 68, 127, 131, 137, 139, 141–143, 221, 252 Comeglians, 236 Communities of neighbours, 65 Compagna di San Paolo of Turin, 141 Condino, 262–264, 268, 269 Confraternities, 10, 15, 16, 65–67, 69, 70, 72–74, 86, 89, 111, 139, 152, 159, 160, 168, 169, 207, 210, 214, 215, 223, 224, 242, 252, 258, 262, 280–282, 285, 290, 291 Confraternity of Our Lady of the Assumption, 84 Confraternity of the Santissimo Nome di Gesù, 79

301

Congregations of Charity, 70, 71 Coriano, 182 Cornali, Andrea, 142 Corporations, 65, 152, 160, 218, 252, 280 Costa Marconi, Battista, captain, 195 Costa of Edolo, 221 Council of Trent, 65, 70, 74, 84, 89, 154, 219, 278–280 Counter-reformation period, 75 Cozzo, Paolo, 22, 158, 278, 280, 282, 284, 292 Cusercoli, 187 Cusercoli, castle of, 186 Cyprus, 270

D Daniele, Vittorio, 5 Darderi, Giovanni Antonio, priest, 181 de Alberto, Perrono, 52, 54 de Bondonno, Pietro, 36, 38 De Crignis, Ferdinando, 243 de Eusebio, Albertono, 44 Degana, 215 De Infanti, Giuseppe, 244 De Infanti, Leonardo, 243, 244 de la Mota, Perrino, 52 de Lanterio, Nicolò, 37 Della Volpe, Gian Francesco, count, 195 Della Volpe, Giovanni Battista, 195 De Luca, Giuseppe, 213, 214 De Odorico, Antonio, 240 Deputatione pro elemosine, 106, 114 Deputatione pro elemosine pauperum dominii, 106 Deputazione (later Magistrato) delle Chiese Rurali, 106 de Roncarolio, Enriono, 52, 54, 55 de Roncarolio, Iacobino, 54

302

INDEX

de Roncarolio, Nicolino, 54 di Larizzate, Oliverio, 53 Dillingen, 243 Dimaro, 256 Diocese, 3, 15, 16, 65, 67, 72, 73, 75, 76, 78, 80, 92, 156–159, 167, 168, 189, 205, 213, 219, 282 Diocese of Asti, 285 Diocese of Genoa, 106 Diocese of Milan, 282 Diocese of Tortona, 16, 64, 71–73, 75, 76, 78, 80, 82, 85, 89, 91, 92, 152, 154–161, 167, 291 di Piero, Ghezzo, 35 di San Savino, Maffeo, 50 Dolfin, Daniele Marco, bishops of Brescia, 210 Doria, family, 155 Doria Landi, family, 155 Doria, prince, 161, 162 Duchy of Milan, 7, 18, 153, 159, 204 Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, 7 Durazzo, Francesco, Bishop of Genoa, 113, 114 E Early modern period, 3, 6, 33, 39, 43, 101, 108, 117, 128, 131, 138, 143, 176, 214, 232–234, 240, 242, 244, 253, 262, 267, 270, 279, 283, 284, 289, 290 Emilia Romagna, 19 Emphyteusis, 72, 157 England, 2, 3, 223, 252, 287 Eno, 215–221, 223 Europe, 2, 18, 70, 101, 125, 234, 243, 258, 278, 283, 287 F Fabbro, Giovanni Odorico, 239

Faenza, 181, 184 Fatebenefratelli, 278 Felice, Emanuele, 5, 6 Felloni, Giuseppe, 102, 103 Ferrara, 19, 197 Ferrari, Paolo Girolamo, 78, 80, 84, 85, 87, 145 Fettarappa, Giuseppe, 137 Fieschi, family, 164, 168 Fieschi, Gerolamo, 161, 164, 166 Flanders, 2 Florence, 251 Folli, Giacomo, 142 Food distribution, 285 Forlì, 182, 187 Forni di Sopra, 240 Fossano, 71 Fostin, Giacomo, 266 Frassenetto, 243 Friuli, 20, 231–237, 239–242

G Gallo Trivulzio, family, 141 Gambara, Cesare, apostolic visitor, 80 Gamberini, Francesco, count, 195 Garbagna, 163 Garbellotti, Marina, 11, 14, 21, 77, 151, 152, 160, 207, 237, 244, 252, 255, 262, 278, 284, 288 Gatteo, 180 Gattinara, 17, 47 Gemmano, 187, 188 Gemona, 241 General Provincial Congregations, 71 Genoa, 4, 17, 65, 99, 103, 105, 116, 118, 151, 153, 159, 161, 165–167 Genoese dominio, 117 Ghemme, 18, 126, 131, 140 Ghezzo, Carlo Antonio, 166 Giovanni Battista Gaetta, 80

INDEX

Giunchi, archpriest, 186 Godiasco, 85–90 Gorreto, 164 Grain bank, 3, 5, 8, 11, 19, 20, 22, 32, 73, 74, 76–91, 159, 162, 163, 175, 176, 178–189, 196–198, 207, 211, 212, 289 Gregorini, Giovanni, 6, 10, 20, 33, 99, 138, 152, 206, 208, 209, 214, 221, 222, 224, 234, 252, 253, 277, 288 Gressani, Giovanni, 239 Grimani Gambara, Elisabetta, 209 Gritti, Pietro, 240 Guadagnini, Giambattista, arch-priest, 205 Guala Bicchieri, cardinal, 17, 36 Gualtieri, Filippo, cardinal, bishop of Imola, 189 Guido, Piccolomini, 34

H Hall, 270 Hapsburg Empire, 72 Hindle, Steve, 2, 10–12, 14, 152, 207, 234 Historical-Diocesan Archive of Tortona, 80 Holy Roman Empire, 7, 253 Holy See, 290 Hospice of Charity, 70 Hospice of Santa Maria Maddalena, 231 Hospital, 3, 5, 8, 17, 20–22, 32, 34–44, 47–49, 51–53, 55, 57, 58, 76, 91, 100, 108–112, 114–116, 125, 140, 141, 145, 159–161, 163, 169, 207–209, 222, 231–234, 241, 251–253, 258, 285, 291 Hospital of Sant’Andrea–Vercelli, 17

303

I Imola, 179, 188, 189, 191, 196, 290 Imperial fiefdoms, 110, 152–154, 156–163, 165–169 Incudine, 291 Innes, Joanna, 2, 11, 14, 152 Istria, 243 Italy, 5–7, 9–11, 22, 32, 33, 63, 67, 72, 77, 84, 99, 138, 156, 178, 179, 185, 187, 207, 218, 233, 234, 251, 252, 255, 257, 258, 270, 277, 280–284, 287, 290, 292, 293 Ivrea, 71 J Jesuits, 278 Jones, Colin, 10 K Kingdom of Naples, 290 Kingdom of Sardinia, 7, 64, 67, 70, 72, 73, 117, 156 Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, 5 King, Steven, 2, 11, 152 Krausman Ben-Amos, Ilana, 11, 14, 152, 160, 253 L L’Ago, 104, 107 La Frera, Antonia, 261 Lake Garda, 204, 216 Lambrecht, Thijs, 1, 2 Larizzate, 17, 35–43, 47–50, 53, 57 Le Bras, Gabriel, 235 Lees, Lynn Hollen, 10, 288 legati pii, 69, 242 Leonardi, Giovan Battista, 144, 145 Leonardi-Tornielli, charitable institution, 132, 133 Levanto, 111, 114

304

INDEX

Liguria, 17, 19, 101, 107, 113 Ligurian Sea, 102 Linaro, 183 Lindert, Peter, 2, 10, 11 Ljubljana, 243 Loca pia, 17, 20 Lombardy, 6, 19, 32, 132, 165–167, 219, 220, 224, 281, 288 Lomellini, Niccolò Leopoldo, Bishop of Genoa, 114–116 Lonato, 204 Lorenzini, Claudio, 20, 235, 237, 238, 241 Lugo, 184 Luogo pio, 125 Lurgo, Elisabetta, 6, 10, 71, 91 Lyon, 288

M Madrid, 180, 283 Maffi, Luciano, 10–13, 18, 33, 72, 73, 76, 79, 80, 99, 152, 154, 155, 157, 162, 234, 252, 253, 277, 280, 291 Maggi, Alessandro, 209 Maggi, Camillo, 209 Magistrato delle Comunità, 102, 105, 109, 111, 112 Malanima, Paolo, 4, 5 Malaspina Aizaga family, 85, 86 Malaspina, Antonio Giuseppe, 153, 155, 164–166 Malaspina, family, 155 Malazzano, 182 Mangini, Luigi, 166 Marche, 196, 197 Marfany, Julie, 2, 11 Martinenghi, Bartolo, 131, 141 Martinenghi, Paolo, 142 Massari, 111, 112, 114–116 Mattarana, 107

Mazzi Gigli, Giulio, count, 195 Mazzotti, Omar, 19 Meldola, 179 Mellini, Mellino, 209 Micro-historical investigation, 64 Milan, 33, 145, 151, 158, 159, 166, 206, 211, 251, 279, 281, 282 Moglia, 155 Molin, Giovanni, bishops of Brescia, 210 Monaio, 239, 243, 244 Monastery of San Benigno di Fruttuaria, 37 Mondaino, 182 Mondovì, 71 Money distribution, 68, 168, 285 Montanari, Daniele, 6, 11, 14, 15, 77, 152, 204, 206, 210, 211, 213, 220, 251 Monte Alfeo, 163, 164 Monte Colombo, 182 Monte di pietà, 11, 74, 105, 181, 189, 192, 193, 211, 244, 285 Montefiore, 181 Monte frumentario, 176, 180, 182, 186–189, 191, 193, 195, 197, 211, 290 Monte Penna, 156 Montiano, 179 Morassi, Luciana, 233 Mora, Zanono, 55 Morosini, Fortunato, bishops of Brescia, 210 Mount of piety, 11, 74, 77, 78, 111, 211, 215, 218, 222 N Nani, Giovanni, bishops of Brescia, 220 Naples, 251 Napoleonic codices, 65 Nella, 166

INDEX

Netherlands, 2, 3, 283 Nizza, 71 Northern Italy, 3–7, 9–11, 16, 43, 82, 101, 104, 288, 289 O Odolo, 216 Oglio River, 205 Old Regime society(ies), 65, 66, 68–70, 74, 75, 81, 90, 91, 100, 158 Olivieri, Antonio, 16, 36, 37, 43, 52, 63 Olivieri, Giovanni, 263 Oltrepò Pavese, 72, 157 Onger, Sergio, 14, 207–209, 214, 251 Opera di San Lazzaro e Ospedale, 114, 117 Oratory of the Beata Vergine del Gonfalone, Tortona, 80 Orazio de’ Gregori, canon primicerio, 195 Orezzoli, 155 Orsini, Vincenzo Maria, bishop of Benevento, 282 Orzinuovi, 208 Ospedale Maggiore, 141, 145, 208 Ospedale Maggiore of Milan, 141 Ottone, 155, 168 Ovada, 110, 111, 157 P Padana Plain, 153, 157 Padua, 203 Pallavicino, duke, 160 Pallavicino, Giovanni Carlo, 164 Pammatone hospital, 116 Pamparato, 285 Papal legations, 7, 19 Papal States, 19, 176, 284, 290

305

Paris, 161, 288 Parish(es), 2, 3, 10, 11, 15, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23, 42, 65–70, 72–76, 78, 85, 86, 89, 106, 111, 112, 126, 140, 141, 144, 152, 154–161, 165–169, 175, 180, 182, 185, 192–194, 205, 207, 210, 211, 216, 220–223, 236, 242, 243, 258, 263, 278–293 Passano, 182 Pastoral visits, 8, 15, 16, 20, 74–78, 111, 115, 126, 152, 154, 156, 157, 165, 210, 211, 220, 263, 280, 289, 291 Pastore, Alessandro, 15, 76, 152, 208, 233, 234, 237, 244, 251, 252 Pavia, 42, 50–52, 165 Pawnbrokers, 3 Pegrari, Maurizio, 6, 11, 204, 208, 214, 215, 218 Pérez de Herrera, Cristóbal, 283 Pescarzo, 222, 223, 285 Philip II, 180, 283 Philip III, 180 Piacenza, 159, 165 Piancastelli, Carlo, monsignore, 181 Piccolomini, Accorsino, 34, 35 Piccolomini family, 33 Piccolomini, Rinaldo, 34 Piccolomini, Viviano, 34 Piedmont, 19, 64, 281, 285, 290 Pietra Fitta, 180 Pietro Leopoldo, duke, 182 Pinerolo, 71 Pio Albergo Trivulzio, charitable institution, 141 Pious legacies (Loca pia), 21, 128, 131, 138–140, 143–145 Pit, Antonio, 244 Platì, 282 Poggiolo, 189 Pollana, Paola, 268

306

INDEX

Ponte d’Orcia, 34 Pordenone, 241 Po River, 72, 157 Po River Valley, 19, 36, 153 Po Valley, 51, 102 Portigliola, 282 Portogruaro, 241 Portovenere, 110, 111 Pozzolo Formigaro, 84, 86 Pre-industrial age, 65, 66, 69, 118 Primary and Chief Congregation, 71 Prince-Bishopric of Trent, 253–255 Provaglio Val Sabbia, 216 Province of Novara, 18 Q Quarta, Francesco, 264 Querini, Angelo Maria cardinal bishops of Brescia, 205 R Raggio, Osvaldo, 66, 70, 153, 156, 255 Ravascletto, 239 Ravenna, 176, 197 Regazzoni, Gerolamo, apostolic visitor, 80 Republic of Genoa, 7, 17, 72, 99, 101–103, 106, 108–110, 118, 153, 156, 159 Republic of Venice, 7, 20, 77, 203, 204, 215, 234, 235, 237, 238, 240, 244 Resta, Giulio, bishop of Tortona, 75, 77, 78, 154, 155, 157–159, 161, 165, 166 Ricciardi, Gio Pietro, 162 Rimini, 178, 181, 182, 187, 197 Rinaldo, son of dominus Turchio of Siena, 33 Rivanazzano, 291

Roccaforte, 161 Rocca San Casciano, 182 Roccella Jonica, 282 Rochini, Marco, 10–13, 16, 33, 72, 73, 76, 79, 80, 99, 152, 154, 155, 211, 220, 222–224, 234, 244, 252, 263, 277, 285, 289, 291 Romagna, 19, 176, 177, 179, 184, 185, 188, 189, 196, 197 Rome, 162, 165, 223 Ronco, 161 Roncofreddo, 181 Roncone, 258, 263, 268 Rossiglione, 156 Rovato, 209 Rovato, hospital, 208 Rovegno, 159, 168 Rozzano, 281 Rumi, Giorgio, 6, 224 Rural township, 65, 66

S Salò, 204 Salt, 22, 42, 68, 179, 210, 222, 261, 263–271 Saluzzo, 71 Salvemini, Raffaella, 5 Samassa, Giuseppe, 243 San Clemente, 185, 187 San Daniele, 231, 241 San Giovanni di Gerace, 282 San Giovanni in Marignano, 180 San Mauro Pascoli, 181 San Quirico d’Orcia, 34, 35 San Quirico hospice, 35 San Savino church, 50 San Savino, priory in Larizzate, 37 Sant’Agata del Bianco, 282 Santa Maria della Scala Hospital, 33, 57

INDEX

Sant’Eusebio, cathedral, 36, 37 Sant’Ilario dello Jonio, 282 San Vito al Tagliamento, 241 Saraceno, Mercato, 183 Sardinia, 196, 292 Sassello, 111 Savignone, 161, 164, 166 Savoy, 70–72, 77, 92, 284 Savoy Piedmont, 8, 153 Savoy State, 64, 155 Schiappetta, 131 Scorticata, 197 Seed, distribution, 68, 82–85, 87–90, 197 Semeraro, Riccardo, 6, 138, 221 Senate of Genoa, 113 Senate of the Republic of Venice, 209 Serbadone, 181 Serravalle Scrivia, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86 Sestri Levante, 110, 115 Sibono, Giovanni, 52 Sicily, 270 Siderno Superiore, 282 Siena, 33, 35, 36, 52, 126 Slovenia, 241 Sogliano al Rubicone, 181 Soher, Ferdinando, 243 Somaschi, 278 Sonico, 221 South America, 180 Spilimbergo, 241 Spinola, Carlo, 161 Spinola, family, 160 Spinola, Girolamo, 161 Squarzer, Domenica, 268 State of Milan, 127 Strangio, Donatella, 5, 290 Susa, 71 Swabia, 243 T Tartago, 166

307

Tatis, Domenico, Bishop of Genoa, 115 Tentori, Francesco, 231–234, 237, 238 Teodorano, 186 Tersi, Giuseppe, 261 Testaments, 57, 69, 139, 141, 144, 161, 209 The “corporate” nature of the social support system, 63 Theatines, 278 The feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 87 Tigrino, Vittorio, 140, 153, 156, 257 Tolmezzo, 241 Tomasi, Giacoma, 268 Tomkins, Alannah, 11, 12, 152 Tonno, 166 Tornielli, Carlo Maria, 144 Torniello, Gio. Andrea, 145 Tornieri, Domenico, 269 Torrano, 189 Torre, Angelo, 75 Torriglia, 162, 168 Tortona Hospital, 141 Trade guild, 3, 8, 10, 11, 253 Trecate, 132, 137, 144 Trent, 251, 253–255, 257, 270, 278 Trentino, 21, 243, 255 Treviso Bresciano, 215, 216 Tribandi Hospital, 208 Tridentine decrees, 75, 281 Trimerio, Luca, 145, 146 Trivulzio, Teodoro, prince, 142 Tualis, 236 Turin, 63, 70, 71, 139, 151, 251, 292 Tyrol, 270

U Udine, 20, 231, 232, 236, 240, 241, 244

308

INDEX

Umbria, 196, 197 Urban VIII, pope, 142

V Val Borbera, 161 Val Camonica, 204, 220–223 Valcamonica, 285, 288, 289, 291 Val d’Aveto, 157 Val d’Orcia, 33–35, 40, 57 Val di Sole, 256 Valle dei Laghi, 256 Valle del Chiese, 264 Valle di Fiemme, 258 Valle Scrivia, 157, 161 Valle Staffora, 86, 155, 157 Valley of Gorto, 236 Valli Giudicarie, 257, 258 Val Rendeva, 261 Val Sabbia, 204, 215, 216, 220 Valsugana, 259 Val Trebbia, 157 Val Trompia, 204, 220 Van den Broeck, Nick, 1, 2 Vara River valley, 113 Venetian Republic, 20, 206 Veneto, 203, 220, 290 Venice, 4, 21, 204, 240, 241, 243, 251, 270, 287 Venzone, 241 Vercelli, 35, 36, 39–44, 47–53, 71

Verolanuova, 208 Verolanuova, Hospital, 209 Verona, 203, 251 Vestone, 216 Vezzano, 256 Vigo, 161 Vigolo Baselga, 256 Vinaio, 239 Vittorio Amedeo II, 64, 70–72 Vittorio Vinzoni, 110 Viverone, 17, 51 Vobarno, 215, 216 Voghera, 72, 76, 78, 79, 86, 155, 157, 280, 291 W War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), 72 Winter, Anne, 1, 2 Y Ypres, 288 Z Zampieri, Antonio, count, 195 Zani, Francesco Maria, 141 Zanini, Andrea, 17, 101, 102, 109–113, 118, 153, 162 Zerba, 166