Stefano D'Amico. Spanish Milan: A City within the Empire, 1535–1706.

Abstract

A growing number of recent studies have dealt with the long-debated legacy of Spain in its various territories across the globe. Stefano D'Amico's book fills a gap within this literature by offering a much-needed revisionist account of Milan in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when it was regarded as one of Spain's most cherished possessions. Indeed, D'Amico's study successfully debunks Milan's decadent and abject image, following the alleged ruthless exploitation of the rapacious and corrupt Spaniards, as it was depicted by the Black Legend publicists and regurgitated by the Italian Risorgimento writers. D'Amico's comprehensive “biography” of Milan traces the demographic, economic, social, religious, and political development of the city, suggesting that in spite of great challenges such as recurrent waves of plague, warfare, and economic crisis, it was able “to maintain a leading economic and political role, at least until the last decades of the seventeenth century” (p. 6). For this purpose, the author skilfully employs an impressive variety of original documents, both archival and in print, including parish family books, censuses, death records, acts of notaries, commercial records, ecclesiastical records, diplomatic and private correspondence, and travel guides preserved in various archives and libraries in Italy, Spain, England, and the United States. His careful handling of the secondary literature, in several European languages, is equally impressive.