Lucia Dell'Asta

The archives of the Humiliati are here studied as a resource to understand the complex problem of the identity of the Order. Attention is focused on the ways the Order administered its archives and a member of the Order (Giovanni da Marliano of Brera) made use of them, writing the history of the Humiliati. Medieval documents of the Order from the Milan area have been inspected; most of them are now in Milan, Archivio Storico Diocesano and Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense and in the Archive of the Seminario Arcivescovile of Milan (now in Venegono Inferiore). The study of the many endorsements, added on the documents in the late XIVth and XVth century, proves that several persons in charge collected the documents from different Lombard houses of the Order, moved them to the house of Brera, then arranged, classified and had them copied in cartularies, which had to serve as historical sources.