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Country
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IT
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Name of institution (English)
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State Archives of Pisa
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Language of name of institution
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ita
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Contact information: postal address
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Lungarno Mediceo 17, 56100 Pisa
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Contact information: phone number
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0039 050542698
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0039 050542784
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Contact information: email
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as-pi@beniculturali.it
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Reference number
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Ordine di Santo Stefano
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (English)
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Order of Saint Stephen
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Title (official language of the state)
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Ordine dei cavalieri di Santo Stefano
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Language of title
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ita
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Creator / accumulator
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Ordine dei cavalieri di Santo Stefano
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Date(s)
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1562/1859
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Language(s)
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ita
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lat
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Extent
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8,216 storage units
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Scope and content
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This fonds comprises a vast amount of documentation produced by or related to the religious-military order of Santo Stefano. The records are organised in several series and subseries related to the broad activity of the order, the management of its properties and its relation with other institutions. The typology of the documents comprised in this fond is diverse: letters, deeds and contracts, ledgers, proofs of nobility, judicial cases, inventories, accounting records, etc. At the end of the fonds (8085-8087), there are three files with repertoires of documentation.
The Contratti della Religione (1563-1810) series, which contains copies of contracts between the Order and private individuals, includes a file (3410 / "schedatura" 1310) with information on houses belonging to the Ordine di Santo Stefano located in the Via della Sinagoga in Livorno. that were leased to Jews in the early 1602s. Frattareli Fischer analysed this documentation in her article “Tipologia abitativa degli ebrei a Livorno nel Seicento” (1984).
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Archival history
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The Ordine dei cavalieri di Santo Stefano fonds was incorporated into the Archivio di Stato di Pisa at the time of its opening on June 4, 1865, together with the archives of the Comune di Pisa, the Ufficio Fiumi e Fossi, the Commissario di Pisa, the Auditore di Governo di Pisa, the Opera della Primaziale, the Spedali Riuniti di S. Chiara, the Gabella dei Contratti, the Università di Pisa, the Pia Casa di Misericordia and other minor fonds. The Archivio was originally located above the Loggia dei Banchi, where remains at present a branch office of the archive. In the early 20th century, the Archivio was transferred to the Palazzo Toscanelli.
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The Ordine dei cavalieri di Santo Stefano (Order of Saint Stephen) emerged by virtue of Cosimo I de Medici's plan to create a religious-military order akin to others existing in Spain and Portugal, in particular the Order of St John. On February 1, 1562, Pius IV issued the bull "His quae Pro Religionis Propagatione", in which he approved the statutes of the new order. On March 15, the pope consecrated the order under the Benedictine rule and the protection of Santo Stefano, Pope and Martyr, and gave Cosimo I and his descendants the title of Grand Master. Although the order was formally constituted as autonomous from the State, as Grand Master, the sovereign had the right to exercise over the daily life of the order and supervise its statutes.
By assuming the protection of the Catholic faith as its primary design, the Ordine di Santo Stefano found its first mission by participating in the defence of Malta, besieged by the Turks, in 1565. Noble youth from all over Tuscany and abroad were welcome to join the order headquartered in Pisa.
Soon, the Grand Duke extended his control over the order, by placing a high official appointed by himself at the top of the institution, the Auditore Presidente della Religione, endowed with extensive and indefinite powers. Through the Auditore, the Grand Master could dispose of the order as he pleased. Therefore, the Ordine di Santo Stefano ended up being identified with one of the structures of the State.
The order was soon endowed with a substantial land patrimony throughout Tuscany. The choice of Pisa as its headquarter would be due to the city's maritime dimension and Cosimo I's policy in the Mediterranean area.
Abolished in 1809, the Ordine di Santo Stefano was restored in 1817 by Grand Duke Ferdinando II. It was definitively suppressed in 1859 by the provisional government of Tuscany.
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(source: Guida generale degli Archivi di Stato italiani)
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System of arrangement
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The fonds is divided into numerous series and subseries, whose records tend to be arranged chronologically.
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2021
