Fonti documentarie e testimonianze manoscritte per lo studio di due ospedali di Sciacca (secoli XIV-XV)

The essay aims to highlight the usefulness that a specific type of source, the will, can play for the history of welfare agencies, analyzing the case study of Sciacca for which there is a particular wealth of evidence. The two wills with which the merchant Antonio Pardo established the foundation of the hospital of Santa Margherita and the miles Ferrerio Ferreri the foundation of the hospital of Santa Maria della Misericordia exist in several transumpts due to the complex events experienced by the two structures, whose history is also reported in eighteenth-century manuscripts.The comparison and integration of the data offered by the various testimonies allow us to provide essential elements for the reconstruction of the history of the two longest-lived welfare institutions in Sciacca.