Reverse Emigration. From Lake Como to Sicily

Many testimonials in the churches of the north end of Lake Como - frescoes, silver items, furnishings, etc. - record a large emigration to Sicily, in particular Palermo, between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, during a period of serious economic and social crisis for the region. By working on the existing documentation, the author more closely looks at the emigres' organisation into confraternities and 'scholae' in Sicily, at their statutes, their activities and their contribution to the development of the cities of origin.