Il San Giacomo degli Spagnoli di Napoli: storia di una holding economico- assistenziale tra integrazione e isolamento (XVI-XVII secolo)

Since its founding, in 1540, the pious institution of 'San Giacomo degli Spagnoli' of Naples was realized to represent the economic-military power of Spain. Conceived as a multi-activity system, it was established as a social shock absorber to meet the needs of the Castilian and Catalan residents or travelers (military, poor and pilgrims), and as a financial operator sensitive to investment opportunities offered by the securities and real estate market. But it is its insertion in 1597 in the credit and banking circuits that really underlines its importance and specificity compared to what was done by other foreign communities such as the wealthy Genoese merchants and bankers who, in addition to their lodge, a symbol of business and of economic-financial interests, built chapels, churches and monasteries, or the merchants of Lucca, Florence, Greece, Albania and Lombardy, who had also provided for the creation of organizations for the protection of fellow citizens. Through the iconography and the accounting documents kept in the Historical Archives of the Banco di Napoli between the end of the sixteenth and the early seventeenth centuries, we intend to give voice to that Hispanic community that benefited from the pious institution.