L’Archivio storico di Banca Intesa

A book marking the official launch of Banca Intesa’s Historical Archives (2004), following the banking mergers which took place in Milan between 1998 and 2001. With three illustrious banking models based in Lombardy’s own financial City, all ‘leaders’ in their respective banking segments, it was decided to bring all three documentary legacies under the same patronage, using Comit’s Historical Archives as the operating model.

The three main archives – Cariplo, from 1823, Banco Ambrosiano Veneto from 1892 and Banca Commerciale Italiana from 1894 – were dissimilar not only because of the banks’ diverse nature, but also for the way in which the papers of historic interest were physically stored and managed.
For the first time ever, the public has access to key moments in the history of the three institutions, the steps in their incorporation – carefully illustrated with genealogical tables – and their archive traditions, conveying the first essential steps towards safeguarding and above all illustrating the “specific nature” of their knowledge through a programme of “multiple histories”.