For a few decades now, historiographic research, at first focused on the systematic study of official sources produced by courts, parishes and finance offices, has been prompted, thanks to the contribution of the micro-historical current, to question issues not so much related to major events and the most prominent figures of the past, but rather to problematise and attempt to reconstruct, as far as possible, life choices and social variables relating to artisans, merchants and the poor. This has been made possible on the one hand thanks to the methodological imprint offered by such cornerstones of historiographic literature as Carlo Ginzburg's Il formaggio e i vermi, Giovanni Levi's L'eredità immateriale and, in particular for the Turin case, Simona Cerutti's Mestieri e privilegi, and on the other hand by the reappraisal of the important notarial fonds preserved in Italian archives. This contribution aims to highlight the great potential of the study of the post-mortem inventories and wills kept in the 'Insinuazione' fund of the Turin State Archives. Such documents are indeed capable of greatly enriching the socio-economic analysis of ancien régime society through the filter of material culture. The Turin documentation is able to provide the scholar with a wide range of information thanks to the obsessive recording by notaries and surveyors not only of the type, quality, quantity and price of objects in houses and shops, but also of debts, credits and liquid assets, as well as legacies, the creation of dowries and indications for the management of the family economy. By selecting inventories produced on the occasion of the death of craftsmen employed in the silk industry, the objective is to investigate living and working conditions, family dynamics, religious and corporate identity ties, economic prospects, social expectations, neighbourhood and power relations in ancien régime society.
“Nulla sendovi più certo che la morte”. Lettura e interpretazione della vita artigianale nella Torino d’ancien régime attraverso i documenti del fondo Insinuazione
Mario Grassi
2023
Abstract
For a few decades now, historiographic research, at first focused on the systematic study of official sources produced by courts, parishes and finance offices, has been prompted, thanks to the contribution of the micro-historical current, to question issues not so much related to major events and the most prominent figures of the past, but rather to problematise and attempt to reconstruct, as far as possible, life choices and social variables relating to artisans, merchants and the poor. This has been made possible on the one hand thanks to the methodological imprint offered by such cornerstones of historiographic literature as Carlo Ginzburg's Il formaggio e i vermi, Giovanni Levi's L'eredità immateriale and, in particular for the Turin case, Simona Cerutti's Mestieri e privilegi, and on the other hand by the reappraisal of the important notarial fonds preserved in Italian archives. This contribution aims to highlight the great potential of the study of the post-mortem inventories and wills kept in the 'Insinuazione' fund of the Turin State Archives. Such documents are indeed capable of greatly enriching the socio-economic analysis of ancien régime society through the filter of material culture. The Turin documentation is able to provide the scholar with a wide range of information thanks to the obsessive recording by notaries and surveyors not only of the type, quality, quantity and price of objects in houses and shops, but also of debts, credits and liquid assets, as well as legacies, the creation of dowries and indications for the management of the family economy. By selecting inventories produced on the occasion of the death of craftsmen employed in the silk industry, the objective is to investigate living and working conditions, family dynamics, religious and corporate identity ties, economic prospects, social expectations, neighbourhood and power relations in ancien régime society.
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