Uno spazio di confronto delle aristocrazie civiche lombarde. La Congregazione dello Stato di Milano vista da Cremona

The chapter investigates the features and the activity of a peculiar representative assembly born in Spanish Lombardy in mid-Sixteenth Century and abolished after the French invasion in 1796, the so-called Congregazione dello Stato. It offers a new perspective, that of Cremona, one of the most important lombard cities, that led a long and tenacious opposition to Milan, the head of the Congregation and most powerful actor in the region's political arena. Cremona' s point of view, expressed by a rich and little known archival series, is loyal to the Spanish Monarchy and at the same time upholds a sort of republican principle according to which all the cities must be treated on an equal basis and be supportive to one another, as requested by the rules of distributive and commutative justice.