Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1824 - 1860 con documentazione fino al 1873 (Creation)
Level of description
Archive
Extent and medium
32 folders containing 1333 items (files and volumes)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
In 1825 the consular district of Constantinople extends throughout the entire Turkish territory in Asia, starting from Cape Baba, and including the islands of Tenedos and Lemnos, and throughout the entire Turkish territory in Europe up to Kavala, including the island of Thasos. It has as its dependents the vice-consulates of the Dardanelles and Edirne.
In 1835 the consular Division of Constantinople included the districts of Smyrna and Larnaca.
In 1842 the vice-consulate of Bayrouth and the Consulate of Jerusalem became part of the Division of the Consulate General of Constantinople as did the island of Crete.
During the long terms the office was entrusted to:
- Gaetano Truqui, Consul (1825-1833)
- Luigi Filippi, Chargé d'affairs (1834)
- Federico Montiglio di Montiglio, Chargé d'affairs (1835-1837)
- Domenico Pareto, Chargé d'affairs (1838-1846)
- Romauldo Tecco, Chargé d'affairs (1846- 1856)
Since 1856 the office was entrusted to a ruling vice-consul
Repository
Archival history
ASTo, Sezione Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all'estero, Consolati Nazionali, Costantinopoli
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
The current arrangement dates back to 1932 when the papers were transmitted from the State Archives of Naples to the State Archives of Turin.
The papers have been cited by many scholars over time. It was therefore considered appropriate to proceed with a virtual arrangement, leaving the documentation in the historical locations.
The virtual reordering we present take advantage of the ancient lists of the documentations transmitted by the consuls in Constantinople in the 1880s to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of the numerous ancient reference numbers/codes. The reordering had as its aim the reconstruction of the last organization of the papers.
According to the new arrangement the archive consists on eight nucleus of papers with extremely variable consistency, sometimes divided into sub-series or groups of files
i) Laws and regulations
ii) Correspondence (forwarded letter books; received letters)
iii) A small number of files certifying the protection and assistance offered to Nationals
iv) A register compiled in order to supervise the Merchant navy
v) Two registers compiled in order to control passports and attesting the civil services
vi) Consular affairs, mainly contentious. The series includes registers aimed at managing protests and successions
vii) The papers produced during the Regency of the Consulate of Gran-Duchy of Tuscany in Constantinople (1859-1862)
viii) Miscellaneous
In drawing up the inventory it was deemed appropriate to give a single string numbering per archival unit, i.e. per file /register. This numbering makes it possible to quantify the consistency of the archive and to describe the files regardless of their physical location.
Inside the quotation marks are reported the original reference codes (numbers and/or dates) which made the reordering possible.
Between 1857 and 1858 there is a change in the ordering method of the 'consular affairs' papers. They are no longer folded in files. The documentation is collected in protocol order. Today, in the absence of the registers that served as a guide to finding the subjects of the papers, the only way to know the content of the documentation is reading them.
Subsequently (1859-), the filing system of folding the documentation was established again, without reporting the contents on the front of the folder. The filing, in this case, involved a complete, albeit quick, reading of the papers.
The Diplomatic Historical Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs preserves at least two registers which were started in the 1850s and continued during the subsequent management of the Italian Consulate. I thank Dr. Claudio Maria Mancini who pointed out to me those documents. They are described in this inventory (nn. 41 and 44 ) as well as the register (n.15) preserved in SALT Research Archives in Istanbul (https://archives.saltresearch.org/handle/123456789/1581?locale=en)
Considering the numerous gaps, it cannot be excluded that part of the documentation may still be preserved in Istanbul at the producing office (now the Italian Consulate).
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
A brief introduction to the papers in https://consoli.hypotheses.org/1987
The papers produced by the Sardinian Consulate in Constantinople are preserved in the Archivio di Stato di Torino (Italy) in the fond Materie politiche per rapporto all'estero, Consolati Nazionali, Costantinopoli, folders 7-34. The folders 1-6 contain the letters sent by the consuls of Constantinople to the Sardinian Secretary of State in Turin.
A list of the papers was drawn up in 1933, edited by Carmelo Tranelli (n. 181 of the inventories of the Turin State Archive)
The Italian Embassy in Istanbul Archival Fond, preserved in Salt (1847-1925) and containing part of the papers of the Italian Consulate in Constantinople is described and digitalised in https://archives.saltresearch.org/handle/123456789/1581?locale=en. An analytic inventory - cur. Martino Oppizzi, Lorans Tanatar Baruh and Claudio Maria Mancini - has been published at the address: https://consoli.hypotheses.org/files/2022//03/Inv_ambIT_Istanbul_1847-1925.pdf
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Montiglio di Montiglio, Federico (Subject)
- Filippi, Luigi (Subject)
- Pareto, Domenico (Subject)
- Tecco, Romualdo (Subject)
- Truqui, Gaetano (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Virtual arrangement and inventory by Costanza Lisi