Dispacci reali - Signoria di Filippo II

Item

Country

IT

Name of institution (English)

State Archives of Milan

Name of institution (official language of the state)

Language of name of institution

ita

Contact information: postal address

Via Senato 10, 20121 Milan

Contact information: phone number

0039 027742161

Contact information: web address

Contact information: email

as-mi@beniculturali.it

Reference number

Dispacci reali - Signoria di Filippo II. Folders 7-42

Type of reference number

Archival reference number

Title (English)

Royal dispatches - Lordship of Philip II

Title (official language of the state)

Dispacci reali - Signoria di Filippo II

Language of title

ita

Creator / accumulator

Extraordinary Magistrate

Date(s)

1530/1796

Language(s)

ita

Extent

3 folders

Type of material

Textual Material

Physical condition

Good

Scope and content

The fonds of Royal Dispatches consists of 269 envelopes, dating from 1530 to 1796, with some documents as late as 1816. It contains dispatches sent to the Governor of the State of Milan and subsequently transmitted to the Magistrate indicating the established provision. All dispatches report the sovereign’s order to be executed by the magistrate and sometimes copies of the requests of the parties involved.
The second series (folders 7-42) contains the dispatches of Philip II of Habsburg, king of Spain and duke of Milan by right from 1540 and in fact from 1554 to 1598. It includes 33 envelopes of documentation related to the condotte, the conservators of the Jews and above all the process of expulsion of the Jews from the Duchy of Milan. Folder 20 includes a letter from Philip II, dated Madrid, 30 July 1569 in which the king writes to the governor of Milan, Don Gabriele de la Cueva, Duke of Albuquerque, to express an opinion on the memorandum by the Jews of the Duchy in which they ask for the renewal of the condotta, which had just expired. In this memorandum the Jews referred to the grida of 2 September 1566 which had introduced in the duchy of Milan the obligation for Jews to wear the sign and the prohibition to lend at interest. They considered these as a precursor of a future expulsion, which, they believed, would be extremely damaging to them, but also for the many poor of the duchy and for all the Spanish soldiers who owed them large sums. In the memorandum the Jews linked their request for a renewal of the condotta to economic advantages for the Crown and the Duchy.
The conservators were the two magistrates who had the task of collecting the annual tax due by the Jewish communities to the Ducal Chamber and to check the activity of the Jewish lending desks. In folder 18 there is a dispatch of 10 March 1569 which reports the authorisation to the conservator of the Jews Giacomo Nizzola da Trezzo, who had always exercised this position by proxy, to appoint as his lieutenant Ottaviano Ferrario. In folder 26 we find the dispatch of 16 May 1576, with which Philip II - again at the request of conservator Trezzo - nominates Giovanni Battista Sitoni Lieutenant. In folders 30-31 and 35, there is extensive documentation relating to the payment of the annual tax owed by the Jews to the conservator: on 17 December 1582 king Philip II sent instructions to the Governor of Milan, don Sancio de Guevara and Padilla, to watch over the payment of 250 scudi to the conservator Giacomo Trezzo, which was due from the Jews of the Duchy. The issue was not resolved immediately – relevant documents continue until July 1586.
Documents concerning the issue of expulsion can be found in folders 37 and 40-41. On 3 December 1590, Philip II ordered the governor of Milan, Don Carlo of Aragon, Duke of Terranova, to expel the Jews from the duchy within six months. After several extensions and postponements, the order was executed in 1597. On 22 May 1591 (document in folder 37), Philip II, at the request of the representatives of the Duchy’s Jews, granted a two-month extension at the end of the departure to allow them to collect pending claims. A new extension was requested on 5 November 1591, following the presentation of a detailed memorandum which was followed by a new two-month extension.
Folder 40 contains documentation from 1595-1596, including: dispatch dated 18 April 1595 ordering the expulsion of Jews from the state; dispatch of 18 May 1595 of the Secret Council to the Governor of Milan that returns to the subject; dispatch of 6 September 1595 in which the sovereign orders that the debt to the Jews must be paid by the whole state; dispatch of the Secret Council of 20 October 1595 which orders the ordinary Magistrate to make minor villages pay their debt, under penalty of having their assets seized.
Furthermore, the fonds includes the following: in folders 32, 33 and 38, documents concerning Vitale and Simone Sacerdote of Alessandria, representatives of the Community of the Jews of the Duchy of Milan, who were particularly well connected the court; in folder 22, documents on the conversions of the daughters of Vitale Sacerdote (1559 and 1571) and in folder 29, a dispatch of 31 October 1580 with which Philip II informs the governor of Milan, Don Sancio de Guevara and Padilla, which Elia Nizza requested (and obtained) to be allowed to open a new bank in Alessandria. Nizza intends to lend money, at a moderate interest rate, to Spanish soldiers. Attached is Nizza’s request dated 20 December 1580.

Archival history

The law of 1875, included in the Regulation of 1911, established that the archives of the central magistracies of pre-unification states should form, within the individual Archives, the section of State Acts. The other fonds had to be divided into three more sections, namely Judicial Documents, Administrative Documents, Notarial Deeds. All the remaining archives should form special sections.
Until 1963 the fonds of the State Archives of Milan were then assigned to the various sections, which changed over time [among them we point out the Historical-diplomatic, the Administrative and Financial, the Judiciary, the Military, the Confidential archive; in 1919, after the management of Luigi Fumi, sections of State Acts and Administrative Acts, Judicial Proceedings, Archives of the reigns of the Visconti and Sforza, Religion fonds and collections; in 1950 the First sections (State Acts i.e. Peronian Government Acts), Second (Administrative Acts), Third (Judicial Acts), Fourth (Special Collections), Fifth (Purchases, Gifts, Transfers)].
Following the loss of a large quantity of documents, series and entire fonds during the Second World War and with the transfer of new large archives, including the Notarial Archive and the Cadastral Archive, the fonds were reorganised.
The General Guide to the State Archives describes the fonds of the AS MI in the 1980s, grouping them, where possible, according to the historical period (Ancien Régimes, Napoleonic, Restoration, Post-unitary). The Acts of Government fonds (15th-19th century) could be inserted in any of these historical periods, for its peculiar characteristics, and is considered in its own right. The Diplomatic fonds is also presented in its own right, including the Diplomatic Archive (consisting of the fonds with the oldest documentation) and the Historical Section (containing miscellaneous material and collections). The remaining fonds are identified by type or according to the creator body (Fascist archives, Notaries, Cadastres, Pious and Charitable institutions, Religious corporations; Family and individuals' archives, Different archives, Collections and miscellaneous).
In terms of order and arrangement, the archival history of the pre-unification fonds of the AS MI was characterised by the so-called Peronian system, a particular type of organisation by subject implemented in the 18th and 19th centuries by the Milanese archivists, who created the complex of fonds named Government Acts; to the latter were added the documentary aggregations carried out in the 18th and 19th centuries that produced collections and miscellaneous sections.
According to the Annuario dell'Archivio di Stato di Milano (Yearbook of the Milan State Archive), the documents probably derived from the Chamber Magistrate's archive which transmitted it to the Government Council and to the Chamber's political Magistrate. Subsequently, the archivists of the Government Archive (called "national" during the Napoleonic period, 1797-1814) made additions covering the period from the end of the duchy until the year 1816.

Administrative / Biographical history

According to what was reported in the Yearbook of the Milan State Archive, the oldest nucleus of the "Royal dispatches" series probably derives from the archive of the extraordinary Revenue Magistrate, one of the bodies of the financial administration of the State of Milan, together with the ordinary revenue magistrate. Among the tasks attributed to the Extraordinary Magistrate (1541-1749) was the management of the assets of the prince and extraordinary income assets such as fiefdoms, gifts, confiscations, pecuniary sentences; vacant inheritances; the cleaning of lakes and royal rivers; important economic functions, such as controlling exports of basic necessities.
To this office, from 1563, the Office of the biade was added, which assumed jurisdiction in supervision of the food supply.
In 1749, during the rule of the Empress Maria Theresa, the ordinary and extraordinary magistrate were united into a single body, the Chamber Magistrate (see http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/archivi/soggetti-produttori/ente/MIDB000782/). From the Chamber Magistrate the documentation passed to the Governing Council and was finally increased by the Chamber political magistrate, effectively covering all the years of Spanish and Austrian domination in Italy from 1530 to 1796.
Later the archivists of the Government Archive (called "national" during the Napoleonic period, 1797-1814) made additions from the end of the duchy until the year 1816.
In the years between 1909 and 1910 the fonds - called Royal Dispatches and consisting of 279 envelopes (1530-1816) - was subjected to a summary inventory (Annuario AS MI (1911-1919), vol. 1/1911, pp. 15 and 52-53).
In 1912, following the discovery of gaps in the inventory of the 18th century relating to the period of reign of Philip III, provision was made for the reintegration of some missing pieces and for a new, partial inventory for the incomplete years (Annuario AS MI (1911-1919), vol. 3/1913, p. 44 ).
The series thus collects the documentation of the Extraordinary Magistrate of the period between 1554 and 1558, characterised by the reign of Philip II of Habsburg, King of Spain and Duke of Milan by right from 1540. Philip II (1527-1598) was the son of Emperor Charles V, who had inherited from his father, at the time of his abdication, the crown of Spain to which were tied other possessions in Europe: the Kingdom of Naples, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Sicily, the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Lordship of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Portugal. The title of Emperor passed instead to the brother of Charles V, Ferdinand.

Access points: locations

Access points: subject terms

Access points: document types

System of arrangement

The documentation is organised in 16 chronological series, named after the reigning ruler of the period. It ends with a 17th series, containing chronological indexes. 1. Lordship of Charles V (1530-1554); 2. Lordship of Philip II (1554-1598); 3. Dominion of Philip III (1598-1621); 4. Dominion of Philip IV (1621-1665); 5. Dominion of Charles II (1665-1700); 6. Philip V (1700-1706); 7. Charles III then VI (1706-1710); 8. Charles VI (1711-1733); 9. King of Sardinia - Franco-Sardinian occupation (1733-1736); 10. Charles VI (1736-1740); 11. Maria Theresa (1740-1780); 12. Maria Theresa and Joseph II (1780); 13. Joseph II (1781-1785); 14. Leopold II (1791); 15. Francis II (later Francis I) (1792-1793); 16. Emperor Bonaparte and Francis I (1796-1816); 17. Chronological indexes.

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Archivio di Stato di Milano Collections (official language of the state)