Pastore di anime, precettore di uomini. Un parroco modenese nella prima meta del Settecento: Ludovico Antonio Muratori (Shepherd of souls, preceptor of men. A Modenese parish priest in the first half of the Eighteenth century: Ludovico Antonio Muratori)

The more lively period of the Reforms during late eighteenth century is preceded by a significant transition in search of new equilibria, historical phase in which stands the figure of Ludovico Antonio Muratori. Not only passionate historian and great scholar, the Vignolese is also a keen observer of the economic and social issues. From 1716 parish priest of Santa Maria Pomposa – one of the populous and poorest parishes of Modena – he is in daily contact with the masses of the destitute, the afflicted, the foundling, the sick. Wearing uncomfortable clothes of «Poor Lawyer», he attempts to alleviate the plight of uncontrollably begging. To this end, in February 1720, he founded in his parish the Society of Charity («Compagnia della Carità»), «Opera pia laicale» that, in the course of a couple of decades, attains a result of the primary objectives relief, including the project for the new hospital for the disabled and the foundation of the new pawnshop. In the wake of the Muratori’s insights, in the following decades it will be up to the «enlightened reformers’» the task of carrying out the reforms conceived and initiated by the same Muratori.