L’Archivio di Stato di Avellino was established in execution of the law of November 12, 1818 (Collection Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, 1818, No. 1379), but in fact it began to operate with the first deposits only in 1820. Following the royal decree of September 22, 1932, No. 1391, it became the Provincial State Archive along with all the former Provincial Archives of the south. With the law of December 22, 1939, No. 2006, it took the name of State Archive Section and then with the presidential decree of September 30, 1963, No. 1409, that of State Archive. The province of Avellino or, as it was named until almost the end of the nineteenth century, Principato Ulteriore, underwent fairly complex events; it embraced until the unification of Italy almost the entire current province of Benevento and part of the province of Foggia: for this reason, it is possible to find in the Archive documents that refer to locations currently included in the aforementioned provinces. The archives preserved here do not naturally exhaust the documentation relating to Avellino and other locations of the current province: one will have to look in particular in the collections preserved at the State Archive of Naples. The headquarters of the Archive has been located, since August 2007, in the monumental complex of the former “Bourbon prison”, designed by the architect Giuliano De Fazio and completed after the Unification of Italy. The archive occupies the pavilion intended for female detention, built in 1832 and subject to laborious and complex restoration works. The State Archive of Avellino preserves approximately 65,000 files covering a period from 1423 to 1960. The documentary material is divided by historical periods: • Ancient regimes 1423 – 1814; • Napoleonic period 1806 – 1814; • Bourbon restoration 1815 – 1860; • Unification of Italy 1861 – 1944; • Republic 1945 – 1960. The preserved collections are: Royal Provincial Court of Montefusco, Grand Criminal Court, Municipalities, Intendency of P.U. and Prefecture, Magistracies and Courts, Military District of Avellino, Civil status, Religious corporations, Family and personal archives (Mazas, Grassi, Cicarelli, Iandoli, Grimaldi and Sanseverini). Important for the economic history of the province are the Land Registries, the Municipal State Acts (Commissioner for civic uses for Campania) and the documents of the Royal Economic Society. Of some importance are the parchments related to suppressed religious entities (1423-1882) and a miscellany of parchments (1454-1757) consisting of ecclesiastical bulls and privileges dating back to the Aragonese period and to the time of the Spanish viceroyalty. One of the most substantial collections is certainly the Notarial Archive 1494 – 1899, a source of great interest for the study of social phenomena. Prepared by the State Archivists, there exist guides, repertories, lists, summary and analytical inventories, indexes, abstracts, transcriptions and electronic database.
Information on State Archive of Avellino
Via G. Verdi, 15/17
83100 Avellino (Avellino)
0825.779111 – 0825.779502 – 0825.779516
as-av@beniculturali.it
https://www.archivi.beniculturali.it/ASAV/
Source: MIBACT
