Accounting, Charities and local government in modern Italy: the case of the Congrega della carità apostolica in Brescia

Journal title CONTABILITÀ E CULTURA AZIENDALE
Author/s Giovanni Gregorini
Publishing Year 2017 Issue 2016/2
Language English Pages 37 P. 7-43 File size 702 KB
DOI 10.3280/CCA2016-002002
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Within the framework of the social charity systems born in Italy during the modern age, the case of Brescia stands out because of its complexity and of the presence of a significant charitable organization denominated Congrega della carità apostolica (CCA). Initially aimed at addressing the needs of the shamefaced poor - i.e. of those impoverished people who could no longer preserve the lifestyle of the social status they had previously enjoyed - in the early 20th century, this organization was the largest urban charity institution in the Kingdom of Italy. This paper aims to outline its institutional profile, the organizational and governance forms adopted and - especially - the accounting and internal and external control practices used in both ordinary and extraordinary administration, with reference to the years between the 19th and the 20th centuries - a period in the history of Italy that was crucial, due to the great economic, social and political transformation it brought about. This research has been supported by an extensive historical archive, which offers valid opportunities for deeper investigation in the future.

Keywords: Accounting, Charities, Local government, Poor relief, Italy

  1. Chiarini R. (1996). Brescia borghese e liberale. In: Rumi G., Mezzanotte G. and Cova A. a cura di, Brescia e il suo territorio. Milano: Cariplo, 105-128.
  2. Hautcoeur P.C. (2003). Cash or account? A plea for a european comparative history of financial systems. Contemporary european history, 3: 1-14,
  3. Jones G., Van Leeuwen M.H.D. e Broadberry S. (2012). The future of economic, business, and social history. Scandinavian economic history review, 60(3): 225-253,
  4. Chianale A. (1935). Il patrimonio degli enti pubblici nei conti e nei bilanci. Note introduttive allo studio della Contabilità di Stato. Torino: Giappichelli.
  5. Abernethy M.A. e Chua WF (1996). A Field Study of Control System ‘Redesign’: The Impact of Institutional Processes on Strategic Choice. Contemporary Accounting Research, 13(2): 569-606,
  6. Anselmi L., Capocchi A. e Ponzo S. (2005). The Evolution of the Public Accounting System in Italy in the 19th and the 20th Centuries. International Workshop on Accounting History in Italy. Pisa: RIREA.
  7. Antonelli V. e D’Alessio R. (2011). Summa DB: A Research Note About an Italian Accounting History Data Base. Accounting History, 12(4): 459-473, DOI: 10.1177/1032373211418198
  8. Battilani P. and Benassi C., a cura di (2013). Consumare il welfare. L’esperienza italiana del secondo Novecento. Bologna: il Mulino.
  9. Boyns T. e Edwards J.R. (1995). Accounting Systems and Decision-Making in the Mid-Victorian Period: The Case of the Consett Iron Company. Business History, 37(3): 28-51, DOI: 10.1080/00076799500000089
  10. Boyns T. e Edwards J.R. (1996). The Development of Accounting in Mid-Nineteenth Century Britain: A Non-Disciplinary View. Accounting, Auditing, & Accountability Journal, 9(3): 40-60, DOI: 10.1108/09513579610121974
  11. Bracci E., Maran L. e Vagnoni E. (2010). Saint Anna’s Hospital in Ferrara, Italy: Accounting and organizational change during the devolution. Accounting History, 15(4): 463-504,
  12. Bressan E. (1998). Carità e riforme sociali nella Lombardia moderna e contemporanea. Storia e problemi. Milano: Ned.
  13. Bressan E. (2012). Carità e assistenza, pubblico e privato: una riflessione storiografica. In: Taccolini M. a cura di, Dalla beneficenza alla cultura del dono. Studi in memoria del conte Gaetano Bonoris. Brescia: Gam, 93-110.
  14. Burchell S., Clubb C., Hopwood A., Hughes J. e Nahapiet J. (1980). The Roles of Accounting in Organizations and Society. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 5(1): 5-27, DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(80)90017-3
  15. Carboni M. and Muzzarelli M.G., a cura di (2008). I conti dei Monti: teoria e pratica amministrativa nei Monti di Pietà fra Medioevo ed Età Moderna. Venezia: Marsilio.
  16. Carmona S. (2004). Accounting History Research and Its Diffusion in an International Context. Accounting History, 9(3): 7-23, DOI: 10.1177/103237320400900302
  17. Carnegie G.D. e Napier C.J. (2002). Exploring Comparative International Accounting History. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 15(5): 689-718, DOI: 10.1108/09513570210448966
  18. Carnegie G.D. e Napier C.J. (1996). Critical and interpretive histories: insights into accounting’s present and future through its past. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 9(3): 7-39, DOI: 10.1108/09513579610121956
  19. Carnegie G.D. e Napier C.J. (2012). Accounting’s past, present and future: the unifying power of history. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 25(2): 328-369, DOI: 10.1108/09513571211198782
  20. Cassese S. (2014). Governare gli italiani. Storia dello Stato. Bologna: il Mulino.
  21. Cerutti S. (2007). La cittadinanza in età moderna: istituzioni e costruzione della fiducia. In: Prodi P., a cura di, La fiducia secondo i linguaggi del potere. Bologna: il Mulino, 255-274.
  22. Cerutti S. (2012). Etrangers. Etude d’une condition d’incertitude dans une société de l’époque moderne. Montruge: Bayard.
  23. Cinquini L. e Marelli A. (2007). Accounting History Research in Italy, 1990-2004: An Introduction. Accounting, Business & Financial History, 17(1): 1-9, DOI: 10.1080/09585200601127509
  24. Cinquini L., Marelli A. e Tenucci A. (2005). Patterns in Accounting History Research in Italy, 1990-2004. Paper presented at the 4thWorkshop on Management & Accounting in Historical Perspective, Bologna, Italy.
  25. Cipolla C.M. (1988). Introduzione alla storia economica. Bologna: il Mulino.
  26. Conti F. e Silei G. (2005). Breve storia dello stato sociale. Roma: Carocci.
  27. Coronella S., Lombrano A. e Zanin L. (2013), State accounting innovations in pre unifications Italy. Accounting History Review, 23(1): 1-21, DOI: 10.1080/21552851.2013.773641
  28. Dean M. (1991). The constitution of Poverty: Toward a Genealogy of Liberal Governance. London: Routledge Dean M. (1992). A genealogy of government of poverty. Economy and Society, 21(3): 215-251, DOI: 10.1080/03085149200000012
  29. Dean M. (2010). Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society. London: Sage.
  30. Dotti M. (2010). Relazioni e istituzioni nella Brescia barocca. Il network finanziario della Congrega della carità apostolica. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  31. Dotti M. (2014). La Congrega Apostolica tra pratiche creditizie e governo dell’incertezza (secc. XVII-XVIII). In: Pegrari M. a cura di, Moneta, credito e finanza a Brescia dal Medioevo all’Età contemporanea. Brescia: Morcelliana, 189-232.
  32. Ferrera M. (2005). Welfare State Reform in Southern Europe: Fighting Poverty and Social Exclusion in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. London: Routledge.
  33. Fontaine L. (2008). L’économie morale. Pauvreté, crédit et confiance dans l’Europe préindustrielle. Paris: Gallimard.
  34. Fouarge D. (2004). Poverty and Subsidiarity in Europe: Minimum Protection from an Economic Perspective. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
  35. Foucault M. (1982). The subject and power. In: Dreyfus HL and Rabinow P (eds.) Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. Brighton: Harvester Press, 208-226
  36. Foucault M. (1991). Governmentality. In: Burchell G., Gordon C. and Miller P. editor, The Foucault Effects: Studies in Governmentality. Wheatsheaf: Hemel Hempstead, 87-104.
  37. Foucault M. (2002). The Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Routledge.
  38. Foucault M. (2009). Security, Territory, Population. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
  39. Godbout J. (1992). L’esprit du don. Paris: La découverte.
  40. Godbout, J. 2007. Ce qui circule entre nous. Donner, recevoir, rendre. Paris: Edition du Seuil.
  41. Gomes D. (2008). The interplay of conceptions of accounting and schools of thought in accounting history. Accounting history, 13(4): 479-509, DOI: 10.1177/1032373208095480
  42. Gomes D. e Sargiacomo M. (2013). Accounting and accountability in local government: An introduction. Accounting history, 18(4): 439-446, DOI: 10.1177/1032373213510074
  43. Gregorini G. (2013). Anziani e assistenza nel Bresciano in età contemporanea: note e documenti per una storia. Società e storia, 139: 113-137.
  44. Gregorini G. (2014). Spedalità e sviluppo locale: il caso di Brescia tra XIX e XX secolo. Studi storici Luigi Simeoni, 64: 109-121.
  45. Gregorini G. (2014). Assistenza e controllo sociale a Brescia tra Settecento e Ottocento: il caso della Congrega della carità apostolica. Proposte e ricerche, 37(73): 49-66.
  46. Gregorini G., Il merito della povertà. La Congrega della carità apostolica di Brescia in età contemporanea tra spazi sussidiari, nuove marginalità e culture sociali. Forthcoming.
  47. Maran L. e Vagnoni E. (2011). Physiognomy of a Corte organization: How power shaped management and accounting at the Estense Corte in Ferrara, Italy, from 1385 to 1471. Accounting History, 16(1): 55-85, DOI: 10.1177/1032373210390195
  48. Maternini Zotta M.F. (1979). La veneranda Congrega apostolica di Brescia. Contributo allo studio delle associazioni di fedeli. Brescia: Ateneo di Brescia.
  49. Miller P. e O’Leary T. (1987). Accounting and the construction of governable person. Accounting, Organization and Society, 12(3): 235-265, DOI: 10.1016/0361-3682(87)90039-0
  50. Miller P. e Rose N. (1990). Governing economic life. Economy and Society, 19(1): 1-31, DOI: 10.1080/03085149000000001
  51. Miller P. and Rose N. (2008). Governing the Present: Administering Economic, Social and Personal Life. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  52. Navarrini R. (1988). L’archivio della Congrega della Carità apostolica di Brescia: serie eredità e annali. Brescia: Ateneo di Brescia, Accademia di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti.
  53. Onger S. (1993). La città dolente. Povertà e assistenza a Brescia durante la Restaurazione. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  54. Onger S. (2004). Carità, assistenza, beneficenza. In: Taccolini M. a cura di, A servizio del Vangelo. Il cammino storico dell’evangelizzazione a Brescia. 3. L’età contemporanea. Brescia: La scuola, 275-291.
  55. Orelli R.L., Del Sordo C. e Fornasari M. (2013). Credit and accounting in early modern Italy: the case of the Monte di pietà in Bologna. Accounting history review, 23(3): 273-293, DOI: 10.1080/21552851.2013.850925
  56. Pegrari M. (2014) La città e il credito. Attori e credito relazionale a Brescia in età moderna e contemporanea. In: Carboni M. and Muzzarelli M.G. a cura di, Reti di credito. Circuiti informali, impropri, nascosti (secoli XIII-XIX). Bologna: il Mulino, 195-220.
  57. Pierucci P. (2009). Storia della contabilità. In: Taccolini M. a cura di, Nuovi percorsi della Storia economica. Milano: Vita e pensiero, 185-197.
  58. Piketty T. (2013). Le capital au XXe siècle. Paris: Editions du Seuil.
  59. Powell W.W. (1991). Expanding the Scope of Institutional Analysis. In: Powell W.W. and Di Maggio P.J. editor, The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 183-203.
  60. Pridgen A. e Flesher D.L. (2013). Improving accounting and accountability in local governments: The case of the Tennessee Taxpayers Association. Accounting History, 18(4): 507-528, DOI: 10.1177/1032373213505167
  61. Procacci G. (1991). Social economy and the government of poverty. In: Burchell G., Gordon C. and Miller P. editor, The Foucault Effects: Studies in Governmentality. Hemel Hempstead: Wheatsheaf, 151-168.
  62. Prodi P., a cura di (2007). La fiducia secondo i linguaggi del potere. Bologna: il Mulino.
  63. Pullan S. (2000). New approaches to poverty anda new forms of institutional charity in latte medieval and Renaissance Italy. In: Zamagni V. a cura di, Povertà e innovazione istituzionale in Italia. Dal Medioevo ad oggi. Bologna: il Mulino, 17-43.
  64. Quattrone P. (2004). Accounting for God: Accounting andAccountability Practices in the Society of Jesus (Italy, XVI-XVII Centuries). Accounting, Organizations and Society, 29(7): 647-683,
  65. Rose N. e Miller P. (1992). Political power beyond the state: problematic of government. The British Journal of Sociology, 43(2): 174-205, DOI: 10.2307/591464
  66. Sànchez-Matamoros J.B., Lòpez-Manjòn J.D., Carrasco-Fenech F. e Funnell W. (2013). Symbolic capital, accounting and caciques in local political life: The charity of Mr Rafael Tenorio (1909-20). Accounting history, 18(4): 491-506, DOI: 10.1177/1032373213505741
  67. Sargiacomo M. e Gomes D. (2011). Accounting and accountability in local government: Contributions form accounting history research. Accounting history, 16(3): 253-290, DOI: 10.1177/1032373211407043
  68. Sargiacomo M., Servalli S. e Carnegie G. (2012). Accounting for killing: Accounting for death. Accounting History, 17(3-4): 393-413, DOI: 10.1177/1032373212443536
  69. Servalli S. (2013). The interface of power and charity in the government of poor: a case from the Italian context in the 16th-17th centuries. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 26(8): 1306-1341,
  70. Snower D.J. (1993). The future of the welfare state. The Economic Journal, 103(18): 700-717, DOI: 10.2307/2234543
  71. Società Italiana di Storia della Ragioneria (2010). Contabilità e bilanci per l’amministrazione economica: stato e istituzioni di interesse pubblico in Italia dal XVI al XX secolo. Roma: Rirea.
  72. Sori E., a cura di (1982). Città e controllo sociale in Italia tra XVIII e XIX secolo. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  73. Stiglitz J.E. (2012). The price of inequality. How today’s divided society endangers our future. Penguin: Norton & company.
  74. Taccolini M. (1998). Attività assistenziale ed iniziativa economica della Congrega della carità apostolica di Brescia tra Settecento ed Ottocento. Cheiron, 27-28(14): 339-402.
  75. Taccolini M. e Gregorini G. (2013). La ricerca storica bresciana sull’età contemporanea. In: Onger S. a cura di, Brescia nella storiografia degli ultimi quarant’anni. Brescia: Morcelliana, 381-423.
  76. Toniolo G., a cura di (2013). The Oxford handbook of the italian economy since unification. Oxford: Oxford university press.
  77. Thuillier G. (2005). L’histoire de la protection sociale: orientation de la recherche sur la pauvretè et la souffrance. Paris: Association pour l’étude de l’histoire de la securité sociale.
  78. Tosh J. (1984). Introduzione alla ricerca storica. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.
  79. Van Dijck M., De Maeyer J., Tyssens J. and Koppen J. editors (2012). The economics of providence/L’economie de la providence. Management, finances and patrimony of religious orders and congregations in Europe, 1773-ca.1930/Gestion, finances et patrimoine des orders et congregations en Europe, 1773-ca. 1930. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
  80. Van Leeuwen M. (1994). Logic of charity: poor relief in preindustrial Europe. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 24(4): 589-613, DOI: 10.2307/205627
  81. Woolf S.J. (1986). The poor in Western Europe in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. London: Methuen Zamagni V. (2003). Dalla periferia al centro. La seconda rinascita economica dell’Italia (1861-1990). Bologna: il Mulino.
  82. Zamagni V., a cura di (2000). Povertà e innovazione istituzionale in Italia. Dal Medioevo ad oggi. Bologna: il Mulino.
  83. Zambon S. e Zan L. (2007). Controlling Expenditure, or the Slow Emergence of Costing at the Venice Arsenal, 1586-1633. Accounting, Business & Financial History, 17(1): 105-128, DOI: 10.1080/09585200601127731
  84. Zan L. (1994). Toward a History of Accounting Histories: Perspectives from the Italian Tradition. European Accounting Review, 3(2): 255-307, DOI: 10.1080/09638189400000021
  85. Zan L. (2004). Accounting and Management Discourse in Protoindustrial Settings: The Venice Arsenal in the Turn of the XVI Century. Accounting and Business Research, 32(2): 145-175, DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2004.9729958
  86. Zaninelli S. (1999). L’economia nella storia d’Italia del secolo XIX. Torino: Giappichelli.

  • Accounting and work in the charities: The case of an Italian institution in the nineteenth century Mario Nicoliello, Farzaneh Jalali Aliabadi, in Accounting History /2022 pp.215
    DOI: 10.1177/10323732221086973

Giovanni Gregorini, Accounting, Charities and local government in modern Italy: the case of the Congrega della carità apostolica in Brescia in "CONTABILITÀ E CULTURA AZIENDALE" 2/2016, pp 7-43, DOI: 10.3280/CCA2016-002002