La Fonte Visitale e i Montes de Piedad : le respuestas al questionario del 1761 del vescovo di Ales Giuseppe Maria Pilo

Abstract

Pastoral visits and, in particular, visit questionnaires of the 18th century, are useful sources to research the Monti di Pietà (Mounts of Piety) or "grain banks", organisations which emerged from the heart of the Sardinian church in the 17th century, initially in the diocese of Ales- Terralba, and which later on, by the end of the 18th century, remained under the command of the State Church. The essay provides an analysis of the questionnaire or interrogatorio consisting of 24 questions which was sent by Mgr Giuseppe Maria Pilo in the summer of 1761 to the parish churches of the diocese of Ales-Terralba, including an unpublished transcription of the respuestas given by the parish priests to the questions the bishop had posed to them in order to find out some details of the situation of the Mounts of Piety, such as their size and organisation, in every single village within the di ocesan territory.