Cittadinanza e appartenenze. Prerogative e partecipazione nelle comunità della Monarchia spagnola. Palermo e Cagliari

La nobiltà senatoria a Palermo tra Cinquecento e Seicento, 2005

Most of the italian cities in the old régime closed the access to the government positions to anybody but a restricted group of listed families, with regard to their antiquity, nobility, prestige. The access criteria to the senate of Palermo was different: the city was open to newcomers (foreign merchants, small landowners, jurists, professional men), and no formal rule - except being a citizen - checked for the nobility of the city governors. The members of the senate were considered “nobles” due to their money, power and, most of all, to their way of living, that imitated the style of the ancient noble families.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche, n. 31, 2014, 2014

This essay is an analysis, over the long period, of the integration process, and its main features, which affected a very high number of foreign merchants in the Kingdom of Sicily. Its aim is to shed light on some of the social and political conditions that made this integration possible and eventually successful. In all the major Sicilian cities, there were permanent colonies of merchants, living there «cum domo et familia»; quite a few, among those merchants, could eventually get the title of citizens, with all the relevant privileges, especially thanks to the marriage to local women of the upper class. Thus, many of them could climb the social ladder and place themselves within the local urban ruling classes, and obtain high offices. This was the preliminary step, which enabled a number of them to obtain a fief, and a title of nobility in a short time, especially when favorable political events and economic opportunities arose, paving them the way to nobility, wealth, and power. It was also frequent that some of them occupied very high positions in the most prestigious political authorities and bodies of the Kingdom: in most cases, they could occupy these high offices thanks to their financial strength. Theirs sons, if born in Sicily, were immediately granted the status of citizens. In many cases, their assimilation and integration in the Kingdom was such, that, over some generations, their very “foreign” origins and the memory thereof, went completely lost.

Mediterranea Ricerche Storiche, 2010

The grain provisioning system was a central problem for the cities of the old régime. Compared with other cities, the capitals had privileges and took priority for their food provisioning. Palermo was not the official capital of the Kingdom of Sicily, but the city administrators used specific strategies and privileges in order to buy grain stocks for the city warehouses.

2007

The budget of the city. The archive of the accountant in Palermo (XVI-XIX century) The archive of the city's accountants during the early modern period is of great interest. Palermo was one of the most populated cities of the Sicilian Kingdom, and the main fiscal contributor of the Spanish Monarchy; from the second half of the XVI century the Monarchy tried to improve its control of the administration of the city's patrimony, through the reformation of the accountant's office and the book-keeping (double entry) system. By the study of these books it is possible to shape and understand the administration system of the city's properties. The main income was formed by indirect taxation, and the expenses by salaries, services, but mainly by the food provisioning system. Buying the food for the city increased an enormous public debt and the city's administrators (merchants and noble landowners) mixed their private business with the public provisioning system and the public debt bonds market.

Pur essendo presenti in Sardegna forme avanzate di signoria fondiaria fin dall'età giudicale e pisano-genovese, l'isola sperimentò il vero feudalesimo solo dopo la conquista aragonese (1323). Esso fu brutalmente imposto manu militari ad una società che si andava aprendo al libero movimento di cose e uomini. Fino alla definitiva sconfitta del giudicato di Arborea (1410) le ricorrenti ribellioni e la resistenza delle popolazioni impedirono a tale sistema (fondato su una miriade di micro feudi concessi iuxta morem italicum) di consolidarsi. Dopo tale fallimentare esperienza la monarchia aragonese affidò in allodio il governo del territorio a feudatari che estesero il loro potere su decine di villaggi. Esercitando funzioni statuali proprie del princeps, coinvolgendo le élites locali e contrattando con le comunità franchigie e esenzioni essi diedero avvio a un sistema feudale tipico dell'area mediterranea-basato sul reciproco interesse e su periodici aggiustamenti e compromessi con gli altri attori sociali-che diede vitalità e forza al feudalesimo sardo fino alla sua abolizione (1838).

2005

Sui segni esterni di riconoscimento imposti agli ahl al-dhimma nella società islamica, introdotti in Oriente da un decreto del califfo abbaside Mutawakkil (233/848) e che probabilmente servirono da prototipo all'Europa cristiana, cfr. I. Lichtenstaedter, The distinctive dress of non-Muslims in Islamic countries,

Capitali senza re nella Monarchia spagnola. Identità, relazioni, immagini (secc. XVI-XVIII), 2 voll., 2020

The essay deals with the theme of the rivalry between Palermo and Messina for the role of capital city of the Kingdom of Sicily, and proposes a re-reading of the propaganda sources produced by both sides during the seventeenth century, under Philip IV. New interesting elements of reflection emerge on the political role of the viceroy; on the question of the Courts - real centers of power, with strong links to the world of finance and politics - and on the hegemony of the “togated” class; on the characteristics of the function of capital of the kingdom, on the different ways of participating in the Monarchy and of representing oneself.

2019

Questo libro, che nasce dallo studio dei verbali del parlamento sardo presieduto dal viceré Michele di Moncada nel 1583 a Cagliari, consente di osservare da una distanza ravvicinata le lotte di potere, gli equilibri di forza, le urgenze sociali e le paure individuali che agitano la società sarda nella seconda metà del XVI secolo. Lo studio svela il profilo di un mondo segnato dall’emergere di nuovi protagonismi urbani; dalla stretta esercitata da un ceto feudale geloso dei suoi privilegi e determinato ad ampliarne la portata; dal dinamismo di élite rurali impegnate nel conseguimento di nuove e più mature libertà. Il Parlamento Moncada è anche lo specchio di una società insulare aperta all’esterno e che dunque si trasforma per effetto della corsa barbaresca, del conflitto tra cristianità e mondo arabo-ottomano e delle pulsioni assolutistiche e riformatrici della Monarchia spagnola retta da Filippo II d’Asburgo.