«Non est noster amicus qui nostra bona tollit». Relazioni, patrimonio e cultura economica dei Mandelli di Caorso (secc. XIV-XVI)

The project aims to investigate the relational and economic-heritage space of the Mandelli, one of the most prominent late medieval Milanese noble families, in line with recent research into rural lordship in Lombardy. In recent decades, numerous studies have been devoted to the urban and rural aristocracy of the Visconti-Sforza state (e.g. Arcangeli, Covini, Della Misericordia, Del Tredici, Gentile, Gamberini), examining the distinctive social, political, and economic features of this fundamental and multifaceted component of the late medieval world. The Mandelli, a distinguished Milanese family both as urban aristocrats (Grillo) and as rural lords (Canobbio, Cengarle, Cordani), have also been addressed in recent research due to their undeniable significance. However, a focused study specifically highlighting their seigneurial economic culture in relation to the ownership and use of movable and immovable, tangible and intangible assets is still lacking. Such a study would help clarify how these lords sought—and sometimes managed—to integrate themselves, both practically and culturally, into the economic circuits of the local and supra-local markets, the exploitation of resources and peasants, and the transformation of the environment, in alignment, opposition, or competition with other active actors in the region. The Mandelli were a particularly wealthy, widespread, and dynamic lineage, with scattered political and economic interests across a vast area, including the cities and territories of Como, Milan, Pavia, Cremona, Alessandria, and Piacenza. The research focuses on the period roughly between 1382, the year of the feudal investiture of Caorso granted to miles Ottone Mandelli by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and 1537, the year of death of Bernardino Mandelli, who led the family’s urban settlement in Piacenza. This research has been made possible thanks to a substantial body of largely unpublished archival material preserved in various Italian public and private archives (State Archives of Milan, Pavia, Piacenza, Parma; Diocesan Historical Archives of Como and Piacenza; Borromeo Archive at Isola Bella; Doria Pamphilj Archive; Palazzo d’Arco Archive). This material allows us to explore how the family’s aristocratic patrimony was formed and structured, including both allodial and feudal, tangible and intangible assets such as everyday objects; horizontal and vertical relational networks; the political and social impact of this patrimony, especially at the local level; the family’s representation and self-representation, and the value of the vocabulary used regarding property and its exploitation; the evolution of the patrimony due to internal and external events (marriages, wills, trials, disputes, divisions); the material life of the family; the impact that aristocratic landholding could have on the environment and the landscape.