IN HISTORY

If according to the tradition the first Misericordia (Mercy), the Florence's one, was created in 1244, the first document who testifies it, is from 1321, and it refers to buying a house which is in front of the Baptistery. (National bibliotheque of Florence - Magliabechiano's Fund)

Again from 1321 there's a note referring to the "Messa per la Pace" ("Homely for Peace") between Guelphs and Ghibellines organised by the Captains of the Company of the Misericordia together with the ones of the Company of the Bigallo.

There are also several deeds and documents from 1330 on, in which the Company of the Misericordia is said to be the addressee of donations and legacy.

Four registers from 1361 list the names of the ascribed people subdivided in neighbourhoods (National bibliotheque of Florence - Magliabechiano's Fund).

In that period the Company was headed by eight Captains, two for each neighbourhood, six chosen among the people of the Arti Maggiori, and two among the Arti Minori.

In the mid 1300s the institution of the Municipality, at the same rate as the other countries in Europe, began to pay more attention to the Confraternities, with the (not declared) aim of handling its estate and its social policy. ("Piety and Charity in Late Medieval Florence", John Henderson, Oxford University Press 1994)

This politic strategy was helped by the behaviour of the Captains of the various Companies, constantly searching for "political protection" and "opportunities" for their union.

A significant example is the question of the legacies.
The companies were frequently benefited of legacies and inheritances by rich citizens, but the opposition of the natural heirs complicated the situations, and made it more difficult for the Companies to acquire their estate, so that the Captains were obliged to ask, several times, for some special laws, who allowed them create their brotherhood.

In 1363 the Republic enforced a law which could gather the demands of the Captains, but at the same time which provided for the right of preemtion of the State, as a Government loan, on the value of the goods inherited by the Companies.

After a while, in 1366, the Company of Orsammichele, which was far richer than the other Companies of Florence at that time, was forced to accept the appointment of its own "camarlinghi" (estate's administrators) made by the Republic.

This is a universal phenomenon: in 1374 the Brotherhood of the Misericordia of Arezzo, for the same reasons, had lost its independence and it became a public entity, because their bosses were appointed by the Municipality.

The 1361's reform of the Statutes, and the good economical management allowed the Misericordia of Florence to delay the effects of this policy, but in 1424 it was obliged to unite itself together with the Company of the Bigallo and in 1440 the new brotherhood, created by the fusion started to be headed by a new camarlingo: the one of the Company of Orsanmichele, in which administrators were appointed by the Municipality.

Basically in the mid 1400s in Florence (as in the rest of Europe), all the Companies dedicated to charity and to the social intervention found their selves controlled (either directly or indirectly) by the Government, who handled and organised them according to its aims of social policy.

In Florence, the Misericordia have been re-created as an independent organisation in 1490, with new Statutes, which modified deeply its social structure, so that it became very different from the old brotherhood, providing it with few and selected members, whereas before there where a lot of members coming from all ordinary people. ("Ritual Brotherhood in Renaissance Florence", R.F.E. Weissman, New York 1982)

Actually, in Florence, as anywhere else, in the XVI century the Companies could express them selves only in the parishes as "Sacramental Brotherhood", or as exclusive societies of assistance, however too distant from the people, to structuralize them selves as independent politic entities.("Italian Confraternities in the Sixteenth Century", C.F. Black, Cambridge 1989)

This explains why, even though there were a lot of Companies and Confraternities, there haven't been for centuries relationships among them, and why, each has continued to live focused on its particular devotion form or its service to the community.

The only sort of connection which seemed to survive, in those centuries, is the devotion occasions and the Jubilee Pilgrimages.
On this side, starting from the XVI century, the various Confraternities began to create forms of reciprocal associations, in order to "gain indulgences", of which they were respectively beneficiaries ("Le più antiche Misericordie"- “The oldest Mercies”, Don Foresto Niccolai, Firenze- Florence, 1996).

IIn Tuscany, the policy of the Medici's family, inaugurated in 1490 with the re-creation of the Misericordia of Florence, produced the progressive transformation of the old brotherhood into "new" Brotherhood of Misericordia.

This process of changing was suddenly interrupted the 21st of March 1785 from the Decree of suppression of the Lay Confraternities promulgated by Peter Leopold I of Lorena, inspirited by Scipione de'Ricci from Pistoia, Bishop, Schismatic and Jansenist.

From 1790 on, once that Ferdinand III was elected grand duke, the Confraternities were authorised to re-begin their activity, but in a conditioned way.

Since the Misericordia of Florence, thanks to the good impressions it made to the grand duke, had been excluded from the effect of the 1785's Decree, several Confraternities, re-created after 1790, decided to start the "Affiliation" of their brotherhood to the Misericordia of Florence.

Besides the phenomenon of the reciprocal Affiliation for devotion reasons, which had developed in the previous centuries, the phenomenon of the Affiliation to the Misericordia of Florence had taken place during the whole XIX century, being promoted by political aims: basically during the whole XIX century, for a lot of Confraternities, the Misericordia of Florence has taken on the role of the most important organising point. ("Le più antiche Misericordie"- "The oldest Mercies", Don Foresto Niccolai, Firenze- Florence 1996).

The risings of the 1821 and, the following proclamation of the Union of Italy modified the politic reference structure and the capital, which was settled in Rome, made the Government of the Kingdom be more distant from the Tuscany's events.

Among the Misericordie most involved in politics, the idea of creating a superior association came up: the aim was to represent the local associations and the traditions of the whole entity, and also to give it the task to carry on the dialogue with the central Government. (Acts of the Pistoia's Congress)

In 1899 the representants of 40 Confraternities got together and created the "Federation" transformed then, in "Confederation" in 1947.