Introduction
The archive of Vignola Hospital is extremely complex. It houses documents dating back chiefly through the last two centuries and reflects the activities of the various institutes which, without interruption, governed and managed health services and public charity in Vignola: the Charity Congregation, established by Royal Decree on 21 December 1807, reconfirmed in 1862 and, subsequently, by law 6972 dated 17 July 1890, (among other things, this institute administered the ancient charitable institutions of Vignola, maintaining the assets of each separate, and documents of such administration exist starting from 1586); the Council Aid Institute, established to replace the Charity Congregation by law no. 847 dated 3 June 1937; the Hospital-Old People’s Home Charity Institute, established by Presidential Decree on 19 January 1957 (and in operation since 27 March 1957), following separation of the assets and administration of the E.C.A. and the Hospital Charity Institute; the Vignola Civic Hospital, created after the separation of the two institutes (Hospital and Old People’s Home) in 1968 (law no. 132 dated 12 February, 1968) and, finally, the General Area Hospital Institute, established in 1971, following the Decree of the Chairman of the Emilia Romagna Regional Council (no. 7 dated 11 February 1971). The bad state of repair, and above all, of organisation of the archive at the time of its being moved to the Council historical archive of Vignola, made reorganisation and, consequently inventory taking very difficult. Above all, the different institutes succeeded one another without any substantial break in the performance of the various administrative duties and each institute took over from the other without any interruption in the documentation (making use of the same registers and files). This prevented any chronological-institutional division during archive re-organisation which would have immediately made it possible to identify both the institute and relevant production of documents in a given period of time. Meanwhile, it hardly seemed right, considering the institute continues to perform its duties, to close the various archive series with a single number. These were therefore arranged with their own numbers in order to permit, in future, any inclusion of archive material from the current Hospital archive. Now the work is over, the historical archive of Vignola Hospital consists of 805 archive units (envelopes and registers), split chiefly into seven sections, which in turn are split into funds: I. Deeds of foundation, statutes and resolutions; II Charitable institutions administered by the Congregation of Charity; III General activity documents; IV Finances; V Hospital: assistance, diagnosis and cure; VI Military hospital; VII Old People’s Home.. The chronological period of the archive starts essentially in 1808 (together with the founding of the Congregation of Charity) and ends in 1971, the year Vignola Hospital was appointed “Area Hospital Institute”; several documents are nevertheless kept in the archive that date further back than the 19th century (from 1586) and refer above all to the foundation and correspondence of the Vignola Charitable Institutions, as well as papers dated after 1971 concerning files closed in later years. For each archive unit, the new number is shown, followed, wherever present, by the original title of the envelope or register (in italics) and the real chronological details, determined by examining the documentation contained inside. Next comes the indication of quantity and description of contents, with mention of elements of specific interest and of any maps and printed papers. Finally, the inventory was completed by an analytical index of a prevalently onomastic and toponymic nature in order to make consultation easier; in compiling the index, the items relating to Vignola and Vignola Hospital were omitted, due to their recurring in virtually all the archive units. In the appendix, the most significant documents have been listed relating to the centuries-old history of Vignola Hospital and which are kept in the archive itself.

Summary:
- Congregation of Charity (1808-1937, with deeds dating from 1586)
- Council Institute for Public Relief (1937-1957)
- Hospitable-Old People’s Home Charity Institute (1957-1968)
- Vignola Civic Hospital (1968-1972, with deeds up to 1979)

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