Chapter La mobilità sociale a Bergamo tra tardo Medioevo ed Età Moderna: fonti e metodi d’indagine

Overview & Synopsis

This article discusses sources and methods to analyze the dynamics of social mobility in the ancient régime, focusing on the case of Bergamo between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. After a brief methodological reflection, the evolution of Bergamo’s economic and demographic context over the centuries examined is outlined. Thanks to the analysis of fiscal sources (tax-land registers) and the registers of municipal deliberations, two indicators are then proposed to measure social mobility in relation to the distribution of wealth and to the access to local political institutions. Finally, by selecting some exemplary cases among the local kinships, the possible relationship between the two mobility dynamics examined is considered.