It was time to fill an undeniable gap: the lack of a reasoned guide to the Mauritian Archive funds – so precious as a support on each research on nature, institution, organization and decadence – of that extraordinary form of asset...
moreIt was time to fill an undeniable gap: the lack of a reasoned guide to the Mauritian Archive funds – so precious as a support on each research on nature, institution, organization and decadence – of that extraordinary form of asset management, with substantial territorial repercussions which, initially known as the "Sacred Religion of Saints Maurice and Lazarus", continued under the abbreviated diction of Mauritian Order. An order, half religious and half chivalrous, the second most important after the Order of the Holy Annunciation, which represented not only the pride of the House of Savoy, but an undoubted economic calmier for the family and its relations with the administration of the State.
Land management system and hospital service, for many aspects at the forefront, leave a rich testimony of their organization, a varied documentation, interrelated, valuable, that includes reports, inspections, deeds and also rich maps, called «cabrei», reconnaissance, projects and representations (mainly conserved in the homonymous fonds "Mappe e cabrei", but also bound in large volumes of the magisterial provisions or in the registers of the Council Sessions) of great iconographic value. On the healthcare side, in addition, hospital regulations, inpatient lists, their diet, up to minute observations and requests from staff show an active, up-to-date context and open up numerous possible research trails.
Furthermore, there is obviously an aspect maybe more minute but fundamental, linked to the life of the Order itself, represented by the sessions of its Council (available continuously in the series 1604-1800 and 1814-2002), by the deliberations, by the acts linked to its multiple functions, military and knightly, until the bestowaling of the Mauritian cross and – much later – of the decoration of the Corona d’Italia. The decorated lists (with the relative fonds "Decorazioni e onorificenze", which covers the conspicuous period 1573-1946) are among the most consulted, but to these are connected the rich, very ornate, widely symbolic, «prove di nobiltà» (proof of nobility). At the same time, since the Order owes its foundation not only to the sovereign disposition, but also to the constant support by the Holy See, the Archive preserves authorizations, benefits (among which we can not forget those, very rich, who constitute the fonds called "Benefici ecclesiastici secolarizzati nel 1604 e conferiti all’Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro"), dispensations, protections, in the form of Papal Bulls and Pontifical Briefs, ordered and recorded with scruple equal to their importance.
Similarly, to reorganization processes, mainly monastic and with consequent redefinition of assets (the cross-border Order of Great St. Bernard, with the relative fonds named "Prevostura e casa dei Santi Nicolao e Bernardo", with estates, houses and hospitals; the Order of Saint Anthony of Vienne, with the consistent fonds of "Sant’Antonio di Ranverso", the Cistercian abbey of Staffarda), different papal dispositions are linked – mainly during the Eighteenth century, but also in the second half of the next as is the case of the Constantinian Order of San Giorgio di Parma with the church named “La Steccata” or the church of Sant’Antioco in Sardinia – flow large amounts of resources into the coffers of the Order, but they also add several papers to the documentation of its archive, bringing allochthonous materials of great value, which are grafted onto other archival series and fonds. New possible research scenarios therefore open up: papers of a different nature, starting from the precious “Carte Augustane”, scrolls, seals, less usual iconographies or, viceversa, using the same technical competences in service for the Order, surveys and projects for newly acquired mamors, reconnaissance in previously unknown territories, contact with other realities, compose an impressive documentation of maximum interest.
It is still worth pointing out the presence of a rich photographic fond, which documents the significant assets and the varied activities of the Order, including inaugurations, visits by the Grand Master and the royal family, religious blessings, with particular attention to the Mauritian hospitals, but the documentation do not forget those sites characterized by a deep-rooted historical and artistic value (from Stupinigi hunting pavillon to the Abbey of Santa Maria di Staffarda, to the Preceptory of Sant’Antonio di Ranverso) and leave important evidence of other possessions (lands, churches, schools, urban and rural, of Stupinigi, Torre Pellice, Staffarda, Scarnafigi and Luserna San Giovanni, up to the same archival heritage, reproduced at the request of scholars and researchers). On very varied support, from glass to film to emulsified paper, this documentation opens up new work tracks, which we have experienced, at least as a fleeting taste, in the context of conferences and exhibitions dedicated to Twentieth century photography and its protagonists.
After a few years of studying the papers stored in this extraordinary memory tank (at least for two of the authors) and a dive-shipwreck, which ended with a very happy swim for the third, it is with devotion and affection that we offer to archive users this little reasoned guide (not only a list of fonds, but a vademecum designed to facilitate the research work, to offer a comfort in moments of bewilderment, becoming a friendly compass), certain of the benevolent look of the great Mauritian archivist who in the Nineteenth century was the first systematic unscrambler of the Order papers, Pietro Blanchetti, sure that they will love, as we love it, this sea of papers.
