Starting on 7 February 2022, the archives of the Monte di Pietà di Ferrara is available for consultation at the Archivio di Stato di Ferrara. The Monte was founded in 1508 and, despite several suppressions, was active until 1929, when it was absorbed by the Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara, in accordance with government directives aimed at eliminating small institutions operating in the same centres where there were similar larger institutions. The archives, declared of particularly important historical interest by the Soprintendenza Archivistica e Bibliografica dell’Emilia Romagna in 1994, was acquired in 2017 by BPER Banca following a procedure of incorporation and fusion of the Nuova CARIFE.
The fonds, despite rather troubled archival history that has caused several dispersions and documentary gaps, are particularly rich: indeed, the documentation covering four centuries, from 1530 to 1929, is divided into 50 units and conveys memories of the activities of the Monte in modern and post-unification periods. The recent deposit of the archives of Monte di Pietà di Ferrara now makes the documents of an institution that played a fundamental role in the economic and social history of the territory more easily accessible to scholars.
The updated record about the Monte di Pietà di Ferrara, published in the database available on this site, can be reached at this link.
Photo: Palazzo della Borsa, former location of the Monte di Pietà in Ferrara - © Baraldi