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If you have never entered an archive, here is a unique opportunity (archives are usually only accessible to a specialized audience) to learn how to read documents and papers that allow us to browse the distant past, otherwise difficult to imagine. If you think that history is "dull and dusty"... this is an opportunity to undertake a surprising hunt in search of a hidden treasure. You don’t need any special equipment, if not a little patience and a lot of curiosity.

The Pietro Pensa archive is preserved in Villa Clotilde or Villa Cazzaniga, a municipally owned building in the center of Esino Lario. The villa is the official hearquarter of the Ecomuseum of the Grigne, home to the tourist office and the Public Library and it is becoming one of the offices of the Regional Park of the northern Grigne. The new home of the Museum of the Grigne and the Giovannimaria Pensa playground are located in the villa's garden.

PietroPensa was born in Esino and died in Bellano in 1996, at the age of 90. He was an engineer and an industrialist in the field of machines for moving the ground; he was a mountaineer as well as the mayor of Esino Lario and the president of the mountain community of Valsassina, Valvarrone, Val d'Esino and Riviera. He was an enthusiastic scholar who eagerly studied our territory, publishing his research. The Pietro Pensa Archive is a private one managed by the association “Amici del museo delle grigne”; it is based in Esino Lario and is part of the cultural heritage of the Ecomuseum of the Grigne. It is an interesting and large collection of documents relating to Lombardy dated from the fourteenth to the twentieth century. The preserved papers are linked to several generations of the Pensa family and, in accordance with Pietro Pensa’s will, they have been merged into a single storage place, precisely this archive. The papers were complemented by a documentary collection of Pietro Pensa linked to his personal, cultural and professional interests. The documentation includes a hundred parchments, ancient documents, photographs, microfilms and a library containing books on local history as well as some publications of Pietro Pensa himself.

We have news of the Pensa family starting from the fourteenth century. Originally from Esino, they spread in different places, including Como, Milan and Aosta. The noble family in its main strain gave birth to illustrious men who held important positions: notaries, priests and politicians. The coat of arms of the Pensa family is quartered by a silver cross of St. Andrew: the top quarter shows a black crowned eagle; the second and the third are blue; the fourth is red and shows a three towered castle, accompanied by the letters "PSA." More recently two silver cockerels were added to the second and third quarter , as shown by two coats of arms preserved in the archive papers: the first is a loose sheet of the Pensas of Como, dating back to the first half of the eighteenth century, while the second is a watercolor pen drawing taken from a small parchment book.

Among the various documents let’s start examining two that tell us about the daily life of men in the eighteenth century. The first concerns the Brotherhood of Ss. Sacramento of Perledo near Esino Lario, who asked and obtained from Pope Benedict XIV the permission to celebrate mass in their oratory: this proves the vitality of this pious association that was in past centuries the only organized social experience beyond the family one accessible to great masses of people. The second document tells us of a merchant from Introbio, Giovanni Pietro Casanova, who made his fortune in Mantua at the end of the eighteenth century: it is a ledger that records the proceeds and expenses of the business activity of Casanova.

Parchment 1, 39[edit]

For G .mm. 430x250, rr. 19 It is the latest of the parchments preserved in the archive of Pietro Pensa: it is dated May 10, 1757 and comes from the Papal Office in Rome. It is a “breve”, a papal document, with which Pope Benedict XIV grants the brotherhood of Ss. Sacramento, erected in the provost church of Perledo, the celebration of Masses in their oratory. The members of the Ss. Sacramento brotherhood animated the religious life of the community of Perledo from 1582 to the end of the eighteenth century when the Brotherhood itself was suppressed. Their chapel (now used as a warehouse) is located above the sacristy with entrance on the side of the apse of the church of St. Martin.

Introbio: private acts, parish, settlement, historical memories, 1.26[edit]

This is a T-account, a revenue and expenditure registry, former property of Giovanni Pietro Casanova from the village of Introbio, a merchant in Mantova at the end of the eighteenth century (1785-1799). The last sheet shows the stamp of the owner (see picture), and we can read about it "L'inventario delle cose che ho a Mantova" (in the inventory of the things I have in Mantova): a brass seal with the coat of arms of the Casanova family. It is important to notice the pocket-size of the registry, so the owner could always carry it with himself as if it was a personal organiser or a modern smartphone. The registry is contained by two cardboard sheets covered with parchment to protect it from wear. The content of the register is interesting: in addition to the revenue and expenditure, that provide evidence of Casanova's business activities, we can also find several curiosities, like the reports of trips and a handbook for first aid (remedies against worms and dropsy).

Parchment, Valtellina 4 / 1[edit]

Parch. mm. 420x310, rr.26 Let's now focus on the oldest parchment preserved in the archive. It is about a feudal investiture dated 16th May 1324. It is historically very important because as far as we know it is the oldest parchment in the Valtellina area we know of. The protagonists are the Vicedomini, and ancient and powerful family from Como, owners of two castles in lower Valtellina (in Domofole and Cosio) as well as of major estates. A curiosity: the document shows for the first time the name "Valgerolle" (=vallisgerolle, Val Gerola) instead of the more usual "Vallis Bitti" (Bitto valley). The marquis Vicedomini's house of Cosio of Valtellina, an ancient and powerful family of Como, entitles Giovanni, Andrico De Pino's son from Varenna, to the tithe rights on Limonta, Civenna and Agrario in Bellagio's church. The document, notarised by Giacomino Mazza of Varenna, begins with an "invocation" (In the name of Christ) followed by the apprecatio expressed with just “Amen”. The date, the text of the investiture itself, the list of the texts introduced by the expression Interfuerunt ibi testes vocati et rogati et noti (they attend here as testes called and recalled and noted) (see picture) and the witnesses’ names follow. The notary signing appears at the bottom, together with the signum tabellionis, that is the actual seal of the act.