Ateneo - UPO

The seminar aims to investigate, with particular reference to the subalpine area (and with a dual focus on eastern Piedmont and the Novara area), the establishment and evolution of monti di pietà and monti frumentari as instruments of access to credit for the poorest over a long period of time, from the end of the late Middle Ages to the dawn of the new millennium.

ATTENDING STUDENTS

Attending students will be permitted to prepare for the exam using their lecture notes and the slides uploaded to the DIR platform.

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

Non-attending students, however, will need to prepare for the exam using:

1. Giuliana Albini, Il denaro e i poveri. L’istituzione dei Monti di Pietà alla fine del Quattrocento, in Carità e governo delle povertà (secoli XII-XV), Milano 2002, (disponibile in formato digitale pp. 1-8).
2. Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Angelo da Chivasso e i Monti di Pietà, in Frate Angelo Carletti osservante nel V centenario della morte (1495-1995). Atti del Convegno: Cuneo, 7 dicembre 1996 – Chivasso, 8 dicembre 1996, a cura di Ovidio Capitani, Rinaldo Comba, Maria Consiglia De Matteis, Grado G. Merlo, Cuneo 1998, pp. 169-184.
3. Paola Massa, Il Monte di Pietà di Savona. Caratteristiche organizzative e sistema gestionale (secoli XV-XVIII), in I conti dei Monti. Teoria e pratica amministrativa nei Monti di Pietà fra Medioevo ed Età Moderna, a cura di Mauro Carboni e Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Venezia 2008, pp. 93-109.
4. Matteo Moro, Primi tentativi di fondazione di Monti di Pietà e frumentari tra Piemonte e Lombardia, in Tra beneficenza e mercato: attività assistenziale e creditizia nel Piemonte Orientale dei secoli XV-XVII, tesi di dottorato, a.a. 2021-2022, pp. 79-93.
5. Matteo Moro, Nel solco della pastorale tridentina: le grandi fondazioni del post Cateau-Cambrésis, in Tra beneficenza e mercato: attività assistenziale e creditizia nel Piemonte Orientale dei secoli XV-XVII, tesi di dottorato, a.a. 2021-2022, pp. 116-126.
6. Matteo Moro, Da Lione (1601) a Utrecht (1713): sviluppo ed evoluzione dei Monti di Pietà e frumentari tra Piemonte Orientale, Canavese e Lomellina in un contesto di guerra, in Tra beneficenza e mercato: attività assistenziale e creditizia nel Piemonte Orientale dei secoli XV-XVII, tesi di dottorato, a.a. 2021-2022, pp. 201-212.
7. Nicola Vassallo, Dai monti di pietà alle casse di risparmio nel Piemonte sabaudo, in Banche e sviluppo economico nel Piemonte meridionale in epoca contemporanea. Dallo Statuto albertino alla caduta del fascismo 1848-1943, a cura di Claudio Bermond, Torino 2001, pp. 133-146.

The material freely available online will be made available on DIR.

The lecturer will provide instructions on how to find the remaining material.

Acquire historical knowledge to understand the evolution and important economic and social role played by monti di pietà and monti frumentari in urban and rural Piedmontese society between the 15th and 20th centuries, as well as to understand the legal instruments used to carry out their work in favour of the poor.

None is required. Nevertheless, a solid understanding of fundamental history would be beneficial for better comprehension during the lessons.

The course will mainly consist of lectures, with the use of PowerPoint slides illustrating the various topics covered in class, which will be uploaded to the DIR platform.

For attending students, the possibility of organising a visit to an archive in Novara during class hours will be evaluated, with the aim of examining a series of documents and legal acts related to the activities of monti di pietà and monti frumentari

Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti, consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/servicesstudents-physical-or-learning-disabilities Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, can refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination modalities, concerning academic aspects.

ATTENDING STUDENTS

Final oral examination with 3 questions, reduced to 2 for students who will participate in the archive visit.

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

Final oral examination with 3 questions.

The seminar aims to investigate, with particular reference to the subalpine area (and with a dual focus on eastern Piedmont and the Novara area), the establishment and evolution of monti di pietà and monti frumentari as instruments of access to credit for the poorest over a long period of time, from the end of the late Middle Ages to the dawn of the new millennium.

The following topics will be covered during the lectures:

1) The origin of monti di pietà between theological and legal debate: the role played by Franciscan preachers in promoting monti di pietà in Piedmont and Lombardy during the second half of the 15th century; the issue of usury; relations between monti di pietà and Jewish moneylenders.

2) The statutes of the monti di pietà: drafting, imitation, characteristics and internal structure.

3) Monti di pietà and their organisational structure and governance: officers and officials, decision-making bodies and procedures (composition of assemblies, formation of quorums and voting procedures, types of interventions, etc.), good governance practices.

4) Pawnbroking: characteristics and operation; clients; forms of privacy protection; interest rates; pawning; lawful and prohibited items; pawn custody practices and related critical issues; procedures for auctioning pawned items; accounting.

5) Other activities of monti di pietà: bank deposits, distribution of dowries, education, etc.

6) Financing and self-financing of moneylending societies: inheritances and bequests; real estate assets and related income; ground rent contracts.

7) Forms of control over the activities of monti di pietà:

a) monti di pietà and canon law. The impact of Counter-Reformation legislation on the life of the monti di pietà

b) Monti di Pietà and state control. Eighteenth-century investigations into the activities of the Monti in the Kingdom of Sardinia

8) Monti di pietà in the courts: liability of officials for fraud and embezzlement; insolvency proceedings and attempts at corporate restructuring.

9) Monti di pietà and their evolution in the contemporary age: legislation, establishment of savings banks, crisis and gradual dismantling of the Monti.

Students should acquire the ability to describe the development of monti di pietà and monti frumentari in terms of credit and solidarity within the geographical area under investigation. They should be familiar with the administrative and accounting practices relating to the management of such institutions, the sources of law relevant to their existence, and the impact of canon law and state law on such institutions.