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Country
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BE
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Name of institution (English)
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National Archives of Belgium (State Archives of Belgium)
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Language of name of institution
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fra
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dut
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deu
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Contact information: postal address
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Vaartstraat, 24, 3000 Leuven
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Contact information: phone number
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0032 (0)16314954
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Contact information: web address
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https://www.arch.be/index.php?l=fr&m=en-pratique&r=nos-salles-de-lecture&d=louvain
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Contact information: email
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rijksarchief.leuven@arch.be
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Reference number
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Archives Ecclésiastiques 19283
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Type of reference number
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Call number
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Title (English)
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Ecclesiastical Archives: Inquisition of Florence
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Title (official language of the state)
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Archives Ecclésiastiques: Inquisition de Florence
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Language of title
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fra
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Creator / accumulator
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Inquisition of Florence
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Date note
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16th century/18th century
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Language(s)
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ita
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Extent
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4 volumes
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Scope and content
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The Archives Ecclésiastiques fonds comprises extensive documentation on dozens of religious institutions. The documentation is dispersed through several reading rooms, which are part of the State Archives of Belgium. This collection includes four volumes that originally belonged to the Inquisition of Florence and were later transported to Belgium and are now stored at the Archives générales du Royaume/National Archives of Belgium.
This four-volume collection is composed of letters, gathered by subject and designated as "decrees," addressed by the cardinals of the Roman Congregation to the Inquisitor of Florence, as well as a few trials, and numerous printed edicts ranging in date from the late 16th century to the late 18th. Its scope is mainly centred in parts of Tuscany, including the cities of Livorno and Pisa. Therefore, throughout these four volumes, it is possible to find some scattered information regarding Jews and conversos settled in these cities as well as other locations. Some examples are the following:
Archives Ecclesiastiques, 19283, II, fols. 64r-112v.: collection entitled "Decreta contra Haebreos" (decrees against Jews) that exclusively contains information on the apostasy of Jews converted to Christianity and obstacles raised against the proselytising activities of the Church.
Archives Ecclesiastiques, 19283, II, fols. 108r-110v.: manuscript called "Minuta d'Istruzione per il Padre Inquisitore di Firenze circa gli Abusi deg'Ebrei" (Minute of the Instruction for the Father Inquisitor of Florence on the Abuses of the Jews), addressed against the Jews residing in Pisa and Livorno, who were suspected of not living according to canonical prescription and, in particular, of "promiscuously fraternizing" with Christians.
Archives Ecclesiastiques, 19283, III: this volume concerns the inquiry that began in 1726, conducted by the Florentine Inquisitor and other ecclesiastical authorities regarding Caterina Teresa Antinori, a member of a prominent Florentine patrician family, suspected of apostasy to Judaism. The charges against her date from the time she was a nun in the convent of San Martino in Florence. Then, she was accused of maintaining a surreptitious relationship within the cloister walls with a clandestine visitor, a Jewish linen merchant named Daniele Levi.
Archives Ecclesiastiques 19283, IV: this volume is essentially composed of fragmentary printed materials. It contains the opinions of ecclesiastical authorities opposing the baptism of minor Jewish children without parental consent.
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The Inquisition of Florence, whose origins date back to the 13th century, was reorganised after the accession to power of Cosimo I and the creation of the Congregazione cardinalizia del Sant'Uffizio in 1542. Following the example of other sovereigns, the Grand Duke considered crimes of heresy as political crimes against the sovereign and tried to exercise control over the tribunal. In 1551, a papal brief nominated canon Alessandro Strozzi and the Benedictine monk Isidoro da Montauto "commissari sopra l'eresia" (commissaries for crimes of heresy), with the mission of supervising the Inquisition's activity on behalf of the Grand Duke. In 1560, a permanent nuncio was established in Florence, with special powers as a judge delegate in cases of heresy. The privileged relationship of the Grand Duke with the papacy allowed him to achieve gains in subsequent tensions with the Inquisition. It was the case of the protection he guaranteed to the Jews in the Grand Duchy by the approbation of the so-called "Livornine laws".
The Florentine Inquisitor was bound to keep the Grand Duke constantly informed of the tribunal's activities and provide information on procedures. The sovereign also tended to intervene in the appointment of the inquisitors, thus creating another source of conflict. This tension is apparent in the correspondence exchanged with the Congregazione Romana del Sant'Uffizio, in which the complaints on the abusive interference of secular authorities in the activity of the Inquisition in Florence can be found. Under the government of Cosimo III, the Inquisition of Florence was granted its own jails and the right to arrest suspects without informing the state authorities. Still, the conflicts between the Grand Duke and the Inquisition did not vanish.
Over the course of the first half of the 18th century, the Inquisition showed the first signs of crisis. In 1754, the new Concordat compelled the Florentine tribunal to adopt the model of the Venetian Inquisition by introducing three secular assistants, and deprived it of the management of its own prisons in the convent of Santa Croce. On July 5, 1782, Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo abolished the Inquisition of Florence. Its archive was transferred to the custody of the Archbishopric of Florence.
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Existence and location of copies
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Copies of some of the documents have been found in Biblioteca Labronica, Livorno
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Author of the description
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Kevin Soares, 2022
