Church and finance in modern Italy: some historiographical comments

The essay deals with the relationship between the Church and the Italian financial world during the period comprising the nineteenth and twentieth century, referring to the national historiography published in the last fifteen years. After noting how this is a topic worthy of economically significant and progressive insights, it has been offered a detailed analysis of the latest studies on different areas. First are considered the experiences of development of the cooperative credit nationally, as well as the difficult story of the Banco Ambrosiano in Milan. Secondly it analyzes the complex functionality of charities and religious orders distributed over the entire peninsula, including canteens bishop. Finally it recovers the prospect of research on asset management and then financial administration of the Church as it has otherwise made in Italian dioceses. From discussion comes greatly highlighted the role of the territories, of relational networks that feed into them, of the local development that is so generated, of the care services guaranteed in each community from different ecclesiastical bodies considered financially: this essay therefore proposes an increasingly complex and varied way to describe the role of the Church in the face of economic and social modernity.