Critical and Positive Issues of Some Italian Sources for the History of Family in the Past (17th-19th Cc.).

Maria Federighi, CIRPAS- University of Bari
Giovanna Da Molin, CIRPAS- University of Bari

Italy has a richness of sources from the 15th century for the study of family history and demographic aspects. These are civil and religious sources that still exist: preserved and available for study. In this paper we explore merits and limits of two sources: the status animarum (religious source) and the catasto onciario census (civil source), useful for the study of family patterns in past Italy. The status animarum is a source of situation; filled once a year by each parish priest before Easter. The purpose is religious, later it also had administrative purpose. Population is clustered by family. It mentions those who are excluded, they had already received the communion, other signs for the excluded. The compilation method is different from place to place and is driven by the sensitivity of the parish priest. It emphasizes some aspects, in a different way, from place to place, period to period, considers one side of population (Catholics) and excludes all other communities (Protestants, Jewis). The second source is the onciario census for the Kingdom of Naples. It "takes a picture" of the economic and social situation although it is not completed. It contains information about the person, family, social class and also occupation, goods. The onciario is compiled just on time in the whole Kingdom but excludes Naples and all people not mentioning the taxes and goods of parishes and all feudal properties. Another limit is the lack of a general map of the territory. The analyzed onciario are reliable: they list non taxable people; still preserved in the Archives and contains many socio-economic info on the population of almost the entire Kingdom. Despite the level of reliability and completeness, the two sources still exist, still speak, endless sources of data, and can still be accessed in several archives of Italy

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 Presented in Session 9. Evaluating Data Quality I