RESEARCH ACTIVITIES AND DOCUMENTARY

Michela D’Angelo, Prof. of Modern History, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Messina,

2008

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES AND DOCUMENTARY SOURCES 1) BRITISH TRADE AND BRITISH MERCHANTS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA IN MODERN AGE. Research activities were carried out mainly at the Public Record Office (now The National Archive) as well as in the Italian and Maltese Archives. They focussed on trade relations between Great Britain and the Mediterranean Sea in Modern Age. Besides the general essays on the English presence in the Mediterranean (“In the ‘English’ Mediterranean (1511-1815)”, “British Trade and Merchants in the Mid-Mediterranean: an Alternative Market during the Napoleonic Wars”), special attention was devoted to the presence, the identification and the activities of the English merchants at Leghorn since the XVIth century and in Sicily and Malta during the Napoleonic War period and the Continental Blockade. In particular, I have carried research on these sources: Public Record Office (Kew, Surrey, UK): State Papers (SP 93: Sicily & Naples; SP 98: Tuscany); Foreign Office (FO 49: Malta; FO 70, FO 165, FO 166, FO 653: Sicily & Naples; FO 79: Tuscany); Board of Trade (BT 1, BT 3, BT 5, BT 6); Colonial Office (CO 158, CO 159, CO 163, CO 323); Customs (CUST 4, CUST 8, CUST 10, CUST 17); Privy Council (PC 2). British Library (London) Manuscripts Department (various mms) Malta Chamber of Commerce (Valletta, Malta) Public Proceedings of Merchants’ Committee and Meetings National Archives of Malta (Rabat, Malta) Government Chief Secretary, Gran Corte della Valletta, Public Works, etc National Library of Malta (Valletta, Malta) Manuscripts Treasury, etc. Archivio di Stato in Florence, Archivio Mediceo del Principato Archivio di Stato in Livorno, Sanità, Governatore, Notarial deeds, etc. Archivio di Stato in Messina, Notarial Archives, Tribunale di commercio, Consolato del mare, etc. Archivio di Stato in Naples, Archivio Borbone, etc. Archivio di Stato in Palermo Real Segreteria, Segrezia di Palermo, Tribunale del Real Patrimonio, etc.

2) FOREIGN MERCHANTS IN SICILY. Further research focussed on foreign communities in Sicily between the XVIIIth and the XIXth centuries. The settlement and activities carried out by

Michela D’Angelo, Prof. of Modern History, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Messina,

2008

foreigners in Messina were considered as a premise to a wider research on foreign communities in different Sicilian locations. The sources of the Archivio di Stato di Messina, particularly the Notarial deeds, Tribunale di commercio and the Registers of births, marriages and deaths were used. 3) PORTS, TRADE AND MARITIME HISTORY. The sources of the Archivio di Stato di Palermo (Segrezia di palermo) and Archivio di Stato di Reggio Calabria (notarial deeds) highlighted the activities of the Florios. Moreover, research on Sicilian economy and maritime trade in the Mediterranean area in the Modern Age was carried on notarial sources at the Archivio di Stato di Messina. 4) MESSINA IN THE MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY AGES. Further research concerned some aspects of the economic and social history of Messina in the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries, and were carried on mainly at the Archivio di Stato di Messina (Notarial Archives, Tribunale di commercio, Consolato del mare, etc.) and Archivio Centrale dello Stato di Roma (Ministro dell’Interno, etc.).