A nineteenth-century manuscript by a village priest from the Valtellina, Nicola Paravicini De Lunghi (1820-1900), contains a series of considerations on its author’s personal life, his activity as village priest, the social conditions of the area, and the burning political issues of the period in terms of church-state relations (such as Rome being the capital city, the suppression of religious orders and so forth). The text discussed in this article provides an example of the richness of primary written sources, analysing in particular the role and cultural preparation of curate clergy in the nineteenth century. Biographical details Leonardo Della Ferrera was born in 1965, and graduated in architecture at the Milan Politecnico in 1989 and history at the University of Milan in 2009. He currently teaches technical drawing at a senior school. E-mail: leonardo.dellaferrera@fastwebnet.it
Keywords: Memoirs, Valtellina, curate clergy, conciliarist clergy, farming world