[By Marta L. Mangini and Rita Pezzola]

The archive of mensa vescovile – all of the ecclesiastical assets that supported the bishop and his family – preserves the documents produced over the centuries by the notaries of the Episcopal revenue of Como to sanction and certify rights and relationships of a legal or even political nature. It mostly contains legal or conditional feudal investiture contracts, feudal recognitions, concessions, sales, confessions as well as documents of a legal nature, such as arbitration and sentences.
The archive is currently divided – according to an erroneous but consolidated practice – into an ancient part – also called "Investiture feudali" – comprised exclusively of bound material (volumes) and a modern part, made up of loose papers (envelopes).
This division does not correspond with the chronological division of the material, but was historically determined by the different transmission history of the two sections.