Storia economica del clero in Europa: Secoli XV-XIX (review)

When a title promises four hundred years of economic history one is tempted to put the book down and steal away quietly. But Fiorenzo Landi has prepared a relatively short overview to the economic framework of religious life in the modern era. It has the flavor of an introductory course, acquainting the reader with the basic structures of religious life and the broad trends regarding their economic survival in Europe. In order to accomplish this task, Landi must provide sufficient background to religious life in general to acquaint those more familiar with economic history while spending the bulk of his attention on the broad sweeps of the economies of diverse religious orders. The task is made difficult by his treating every type of religious order, from monk to clerk regular, over a period that includes the Protestant Reformation with its dissolution of religious orders; the various reform governments in the age of Absolutism that appropriated the wealth of many of the orders for their own purposes; the liberal revolutions which proposed to replace religious social institutions with government sponsored care; and finally, the Napoleonic period, determined to accomplish all of the above and more.

One of the principal sources for Landi's work is the Dizionario degli Istituti di Perfezione Religiosa, which he cites frequently in the preface and introduction in outlining the structures of the religious orders. While this can be seen as a weakness, it underlines the value of this multi-volume work as the most comprehensive resource for the history of religious life. In such a brief overview as Landi gives, some inaccuracies are bound to creep in. In figure I (p. 16) chierici regolari are portrayed as both masculine and feminine, when the word "cleric" would indicate that branch of religious life as exclusively male. The line in the same figure connecting the Franciscans and Dominicans should be eliminated so as to indicate that they are two distinct mendicant foundations. More appropriate would be a line between the Dominicans and Augustinians to show the formers' adoption of the Augustinian Rule.

Landi's overview covers the British Isles, Portugal, Spain, Benelux, France, the imperial territories, Switzerland, the Baltic countries, Poland, and Italy. In Italy, where he gives the most complete development through all four centuries, he further divides his study into political regions: Milan, Venice, Calabria, and Sicily. Here he has a much better command of the primary sources available, indicating the area with which he is most familiar. In each of these chapters he identifies the key local elements of religious life and how they are treated by the state. In France, for example, he identifies the issue of Gallican autonomy in church affairs as the perennial factor in each distinct period.

In the end, 200 pages of economic history only whet the appetite. Early on (p. 24) Landi teases the reader with the assertion that religious orders had a strong impact on the development of accounting. Perhaps because this section is aimed more at economic historians who might already know the details (he cites three accounting innovators), he ends there. Later (p. 42) he introduces the compatibility of Protestantism with capitalism (via Max Weber), leaving the question of how this might relate to religious orders unanswered. Nevertheless, his bibliography is strong, indicating further directions for research. But this introduction to the economic history of religious orders in the modern era is by no means comprehensive. It acquaints and orients rather than exhausts.