Completando colle sue forze ciò che manca alle altre iniziative pubbliche e private : alle origini della Commissione centrale di beneficenza (1816-2016)

2016 marks the bicentennial of the Central Charity Commission (Com-missione centrale di beneficenza, CCB), a body founded by the Austrian government in 1816 - known as "The Year Without a Summer" because of the disastrous climate abnormalities that characterized it - in an at-tempt to tackle the dire economic and social crisis that had befallen Eu-rope, including the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. This essay focuses on the origins of the CCB, which in 1823 became the deliberative body of the Savings Bank of the Lombard Provinces (Cassa di risparmio delle Provincie lombarde, CARIPLO), and in particular on the principles that guided the activities of the bank's regional and local management: social solidarity, public-private subsidiarity, and independent decision-making. Indeed, the approach taken to "overcome the crisis" at the time might provoke reflections on present-day issues and concerns.

The final part of the essay provides a brief overview of the main archives related to CARIPLO's philanthropic activities between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which are now conserved, inventoried and available for consultation at the Intesa Sanpaolo Group Historical Archives (Archivio storico di Intesa Sanpaolo). [Publisher's Text].