The management of the plague in Florence at the beginning of the Renaissance: The role of the partnership between the Republic and the Confraternita of Misericordia

Abstract

The role of charities in the administration of health care and poverty, and the use of accounting in their control mechanisms, is a relatively unexplored topic in the accounting history literature. This study aims to enrich the literature by studying how accounting systems were used in the management of the plague by a charity organisation -the Confraternita of Misericordia -during the first decades of the Renaissance in Florence, focusing on the role of the partnership between the Republic of Florence and the Misericordia. This research is the result of the analysis of rare documents, statutes and account books concerning the administration of the Misericordia from 1490 to 1530. Our analysis employs Foucault's theories on the 'government of the poor' and Dean's thoughts on 'technologies of government' and 'policing the poor' to highlight the link between religious values, political power and the accountability practices of the Misericordia.

Governance and accounting practices in hybrid organizations: Insights from a sixteenth-century charity in Venice

“…For example, Orelli et al (2013) studied the role of accounting and internal control practices in a credit institution in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, namely, the Monte di Pietà in Bologna, and showed how accounting played a central role in the management of this complex charity. Manetti et al (2017) documented the specific systems of accountability adopted in the fifteenth century by a charity organization, namely, the Confraternita della Misericordia , to ensure transparency in the management of offerings and donations for a plague emergency. Servalli (2013) reconstructed the case of Misericordia Maggiore (MIA), which was the largest charitable institution in the city of Bergamo under the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century domination of the Republic of Venice.…”

The construction of Brunelleschi’s dome in Florence in the fifteenth century: between accountability and technologies of government

“…The interpretation of our sources suggests that the specific nature of the religious belief systems surrounding the construction could represent one of the explanatory factors in the definition of the bureaucratic systems put in place by the Opera. The role played by religious entities and quasi-public institutions in this historical context highlights the need for further historical investigation in this field to better understand the characteristics of partnership with local authorities (Manetti, Bellucci, and Bagnoli 2017). However, it must be considered how these principles of ethics and good governance, coherent with a religious belief system but also consistent with the secular republican system, reflected the administrative processes of the entire Florentine municipality.…”

“…A blurred boundary often existed between adherence to religious values and the search for productivity. Therefore, accountability practices should be carefully investigated in both the context of quasi-public administrations and local public authorities to highlight their role as a technology of government (Manetti, Bellucci, and Bagnoli 2017).…”

“…What the Municipality of Florence was looking for and needed were managerial skills to manage public money in the most efficient and transparent way possible and to ensure that construction could be completed. The search for technical competencies in the private sector would be repeated years later, in the period from 1490 to 1530, with the partnership between the Republic of Florence and the Misericordia for managing the plague (Manetti, Bellucci, and Bagnoli 2017).…”

Poor government and work organisation in the real albergo dei poveri of palermo

“…The idea of being part of a closed community is strengthened by the collective practice of the compulsory and collective service De Computis, Revista Española de Historia de la Contabilidad 15 (1), junio 2018, 51-73 ISSN: 1886-1881 -doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26784/issn.1886-1881.v15i1.325 ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ and prayers. Following Foucault's ideas, we could consider this as a sort of pastoral power led by the Catholic Church, which in this sense acted as a tool for social control, using the ideas of individual salvation (Manetti, Bellucci and Bagnoli, 2017). During the Modern Age, the idea of social control and, among this, of poor control was left to diverse actors, even charities, hospices and hospitals (Dean, 1992).…”