The Ospedale Maggiore payroll book, 1948

The Ospedale Maggiore of Lodi, founded in the 15th century as the Ospedale di San Bartolomeo, is one of Lombardy's longest-running welfare institutions: its payroll books are a primary source on the wage and social history of 20th-century Italian public-sector work.

In 1948 the average monthly wage of an Italian worker was around 18,000 lire; that of a mid-grade public employee between 25,000 and 35,000 lire. A kg of bread cost 95 lire, a litre of milk 45, a kg of beef around 800.

1948 is the year the Italian Constitution came into force: Article 36 entitles every worker to a wage 'sufficient to ensure for themselves and their family a free and dignified existence'. The payroll books of those years measure the distance between the principle and the reality.

Between 1946 and 1965 over 4 million southerners migrated to northern cities in search of work: the 'Giuseppe born in the province of Lecce' who appears in the Lodi payroll book is a collective figure, even before being an individual.

For those who leave the South, a register page with one's name written on it is the first recognition of one's existence in the State: before that line of figures, there was nothing.