But how, precisely, did theNeapolitan banks operate? How could a paper document, a certificate of credit or policy, effectively replace the traditional circulation of metallic coins?The banks' customers who deposited money in their coffers received, upon request, a certificate of credit attesting to the payment.
This sheet of paper could be 'passed on' to a third party, through an instruction signed by the customer. So one could pay someone simply by 'passing on' the certificate of credit without physically handing over the metal money.This prototype of monetary circulation was governed by an accounting system based on three types of books.
DocumentiilCartastorie | Museo dell'Archivio Storico del Banco di Napoli
Client list (2016) by Damiano Falanga - ilCartastorie foundation ©ilCartastorie | Museo dell'Archivio Storico del Banco di Napoli
The first of these was called a "pandetta". This was a large book in which the names of all the bank's customers were recorded for a given business period (usually half-yearly). The names were arranged alphabetically, by first name then surname, according to the practice imported from the Spanish.
large ledger (2012) by Damiano Falanga - ilCartastorie foundation ©ilCartastorie | Museo dell'Archivio Storico del Banco di Napoli
The second type of document is the "libro maggiore", the real book of numbers. Here, in a double-entry system, each bank customer's income and expenses were recorded.
pagamentoilCartastorie | Museo dell'Archivio Storico del Banco di Napoli
The third type of document, perhaps the most relevant for the information reported, is the "giornale copiapolizze", in which the employee in charge (the so-called"giornalista") transcribed the "causali" (reasons) noted on the pallets. The significance of the "causali", the true cultural heritage of the Banco di Napoli Historical Archive, is the extremely descriptive specification of the reason for payment. An infinite number of different reasons can be found. Some resemble detailed shopping lists, where food suppliers were paid for each type of food provided to the buyer who used their services. In this way, for example, it is possible to reconstruct the eating habits of the southern Italians over a period of about three centuries. But that's not all. There is boundless richness to be found in the causali documenting artistic events throughout Southern Italy. Commissions of all kinds, from paintings, to buildings up to jewellers' minute instructions, fill numerous pages of the copiapolizze, alternating between names of famous artists (Caravaggio, Velazquez, Luca Giordano) and lesser-known, but highly-admired, signatures of painters, artisans and art dealers.
The Radolovich Altarpiece (1606) by Damiano Falanga - ilCartastorie foundation ©ilCartastorie | Museo dell'Archivio Storico del Banco di Napoli
One of the most important payments contained in the Banco di Napoli Historical Archive is the one found within the pages of a copiapolizze from 1606, belonging to the Banco di Sant'Eligio. The so-called Pala Radolovich, from the name of the merchant who commissioned it, is so precisely described in the relevant "reason for payment" that one can imagine it.
Palazzo Reale
A payment reason which reports news about work in thePalazzo Reale in Naples; it is specifically a payment for the delivery of some bricks.
Teatro San Carlo - Palco Reale
From a giornale copiapolizze, the payment made byAngelo Carasale, impresario of the Teatro San Carlo, for works at the Palco Reale at the well known opera house in Naples.
We have Arturo Muselli to thank for the document's entry on Pala Radolovich.
