Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Piety and Pawnbroking: Decorated Account Books.

By |2021-05-18T11:31:30+00:00May 18th, 2021|Visual Reflections|

The first Monti di Pietà or mounts of piety, public banks that provided solidaristic credit, date from the 1460s. It is generally thought that the first was founded in Perugia in 1462, while the Monte di Bologna opened its doors about a decade later, in 1473. The service offered was similar to that of the loan bank-pawnbrokers mainly managed by Jewish bankers that had been present in almost all towns in Italy since the 13th century. The Monti differed from this previous institution in a significant  way. First of all, from the outset they were public institutions whose aim was to meet citizens’ economic needs by offering a service that could be classed as providing a form of welfare. Another significant difference lay in their target of customers, the so-called pauperes pinguiores (the least poor of the poor), to whom they granted small loans at favourable conditions requiring the sole reimbursement of 5% per annum in management fees, with the aim to help the clients to get through periods of misfortune. But the key novelty of the Monte’s service was [...]

Newsletter May 2021

By |2021-05-12T09:03:01+00:00May 12th, 2021|PIMo Newsletters|

PIMo wishes you a safe, restful and productive summer Dear colleagues, After what has been an incredibly challenging academic year for us all the summer is finally in sight. We are immensely proud here in PIMo of how we have managed to continue to facilitate new and exciting forms of knowledge production and exchange on the history of displacement in the Mediterranean despite all of the obstacles the pandemic has put in our way. We are also particularly excited to share our various plans for the coming months, including funding opportunities to facilitate research and the sharing of knowledge as travel gradually opens up in some places, as well as a range of online and hybrid events that will facilitate the excellent work that has defined our network from the beginning. We hope that as many of you as possible will engage with our planned events, follow our outputs through our website and share the various funding opportunities we are making available widely. As always, we are grateful for your support and are available to answer your questions and facilitate [...]