Des mémoires pour réformer la police : le cas du duché de Milan au 18. siècle

This essay examines three Relations, written in XVIIIth century Lombardy, and presenting proposals for the reform of the Police: their authors are the Marquis Francesco Carpani, the Captain Francesco Molina and Vincenzo Ristori. These three texts are then examined in comparison with the Relation or “consulta” presented to the Government by the Fiscal Advocate Francesco Fenaroli in the year 1760: the comparison suggests that just a man as Fenaroli, very expert in the service of the State, presented the most practical and efficient proposals for ther modernization of the armed corps whose task was the maintenance of police and publice order, whereas the three relations presented by the first three external experts were still much more connected to the more traditional ways of conceiving the functions and tasks of the police.