This book examines the development of social support systems in the Modern age in the rural areas of the city-states of Northern Italy. This investigation achieves two main purposes: first, it allows researchers to understand the role occupied concretely by welfare and micro-credit activities in the political and socio-economic panorama of rural Northern Italy; secondly, it verifies to what extent the formation of a more or less structured support system influenced the establishment of local identity and the rooting of individuals. The complexity of the different perspectives, which bring together different fields of research ranging from economic and political history to the study of the history of ecclesiastical institutions, and the most recent research on the anthropological value of welfare actions, involves the use of multiple historical sources. since the development of social support systems in Northern Italy during the Modern age is not strictly related to the concept of poverty, the multiple perspectives adopted in the volume allow for an in-depth investigation of the theme of social support systems which have not received due attention by historiography. Although history cannot be considered magistra vitae, it is at the same time true that the study of the past can help to better understand the evolution of the current socio-economic situation. The retreat of the welfare activity of the State, associated with a depopulation of the rural areas of the peninsula and a steady increase in poverty that is currently extending to social fringes that until a few years ago were not affected by economic problems, pushes us to investigate more carefully the dynamics that in the Ancien Regime gave shape to the support activities against indigence and poverty.