Details

Subjects:

Palermo (Italy). Senato.
Taxation -- Italy -- Sicily -- Early works to 1800.
Taxation.
Sicily (Italy) -- History -- 15th-18th centuries.
Sicily (Italy) -- Economic conditions -- 18th century.
Sicily (Italy) -- Social conditions -- 18th century.
Italy -- Sicily.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Financial records.
Manuscripts, Italian.
Manuscripts, European.

Language:

Italian.

Summary:

Financial report, addressed to the King of Spain, Charles III, describing the circumstances that lead the Senate of Palermo to incur a significant decrease of revenues and a sharp increase of expenses, as well as recommended measures to improve such an unstable economic situation. According to the commission of experts (that included the Princes of Camporeale, Cattolica, Pantelleria, Campofranco, Partanna, Iaci and Belmonte, the Dukes of Pratoameno, Cefalà, and Sinagra, and the Marquis of Francofonte) who convened in Naples in June 1774 and drafted the document, the recession reached its peak in the first few years of the 1770s, but had its roots in the previous century. In the 17th century costs associated with hosting popular celebrations (such as the procession for Saint Rosalia) and with maintaining a sumptuous court began an upward spiral, while taxes on consumer goods decreased exponentially, under pressure from the lower middle class, whose representatives had allegedly bribed or coerced senators to pass such laws. Poor harvests and the resulting shortage of produce also contributed to insufficient revenues for the Sicilian government. The report concludes with an angry, disenchanted request to the king to enforce his authority and reverse the destructive financial policies of the Senate. The volume contains a detailed table of contents (f. i-v).

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from caption title (f. i recto).
Pagination: Paper, 40; [i-vi], 1-73, [74], contemporary pagination in ink, modern pagination in pencil, upper outer corners.
Layout: Written in 2 columns with vertical bounding lines in blind; the larger column on the right, of 25 lines, and the smaller, on the left, containing a brief description of the topics dealt with on the larger column.
Script: Written in a cursive script.
Binding: Contemporary colored paste paper boards.
Origin: Probably written in Naples in 1774 (f. i recto).
Forms part of: Villafiorita Ducal Records.
19th century paper wrapper from the Luigi Burgio Naselli archives with notes on contents and originally enclosing the manuscript is shelved with the manuscript.

Penn Provenance:

Sold by Kurt L. Schwarz (Beverly Hills, Calif.).

Cited in:

Separated from collection described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 226 (Ms. Lea 397, Nos. 1-16).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1576

Contributor:

Charles III, King of Spain, 1716-1788, addressee.

OCLC:

671484765