The research group, consisting of faculty members from different but related historical disciplines, ensures coverage of a wide time span (13th-20th centuries) and for complementary research areas: history of economics, politics, law, culture and archival-documentary preservation. Through the allocation of research grants, specific recruitment of selected personnel is planned to carry out specific in-depth studies.
Directed research will mainly focus on:
- Accounting sources of ecclesiastical bodies and “luoghi pii” in late medieval and Renaissance Tuscany, preserved in large quantities both in the fonds of state archives (e.g., “Conventi soppressi”) and in the original archival locations (e.g., Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence). An expanded comparative look at other Italian realities as well (e.g., Visconti-Sforza Milan with the macroscopic example of the Ospedale Maggiore; Venice and the Venetian mainland with the conspicuous religious and welfare institutions of Padua, Treviso, Vicenza and Verona; pontifical Rome; Naples and the Kingdom with the phenomenon of the Annunziate) will allow for a better contextualization of the results of the documentary sifting.
- Archiepiscopal curia fond in the Diocesan Historical Archives of Cagliari: in particular the two series of ‘Diversorum’ registers (1070-1761), packaged by several hands at different times. The first series consists of original and copied documents concerning privileges, donations, property administration, tithes, and archiepiscopal dispositions. Many of these represent the only records of properties and privileges of the Curia of Cagliari. It is intended to study the extrinsic and intrinsic elements of the ‘Diversorum’, tracing the reasons and moments of creation, the methods of copying and preservation also through collation with other documents.
- Italian synodal constitutions and pastoral visits of the late Middles Ages: their study will help to understand how the issue of managing the patrimony and material wealth of churches was considered a factor in the quality of ecclesiastical institutions. For the Early Modern age, the work will consist of studying the production of Catholic authors (Italian and Iberian) of the 16th and 17th centuries who devoted extensive reflections, between canon law and theology, to the theme of the formation, conservation and use of wealth. Regarding the latter aspect, the topic of artistic patronage will be explored.
- Accounting and legal sources concerning the management of ecclesiastical benefices in the late eighteenth century and pre-unification period, preserved in the Florence State Archives (‘Segreteria del Regio Diritto’, the main safeguard institution of jurisdictionalism). Next, the deliberations of the Mixed Commissions (‘Ministero degli affari ecclesiastici’ 1814-1859 and ‘Ministero di Grazia e Giustizia’: “economical” management of the dioceses) will be crucial. Regarding the treatment of ecclesiastical property in the Concordat of 1929, the fonds of the ‘Ministero di Grazia e Giustizia’ (Central State Archives) and those of the ‘Segreteria di Stato’ in the Vatican Apostolic Archives will be used.
The project will have visibility and concrete implementation through conferences and seminars articulated according to the four guidelines indicated in the general description. On those occasions, each theme will be enucleated thanks to the contribution of both project participants and experts in their respective fields of research, giving special preference to young scholars and recent PhDs who are able to provide significant and, above all, original contributions. Each of the four meetings will result in a publication in the form of a monograph or special section within a scholarly journal. A general conference, with an interpretive and historiographical slant, will pull the concluding strings.
