ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on the hospitals of Marseilles between 1380 and 1430 as a space of representation for the urban elites, which allowed them to piously exercise their charitable responsability and fufill their social and political ambitions. In this context, charity was very important for the urban elites because it clearly showed them caring for the public good. The religious brothers' (particularly the Franciscans) encouragement towards charitable giving is evident through the wills of the Marseilles population at this time. Thanks to serial studies led on testaments from Marseilles (1350-1430), we can assert that the population was commited to helping fund the hospitals until the 15th century, in particular to the Saint-Esprit and the Saint-Jacques-de-Galice. Focusing on private foundations, hospitals concrete actions and political role, I would like to demonstrate that merchants identities were forged through their commercial activities and their actions in public affairs, in order to clarify the role of the hospitals, which were closely interlinked by relationships, business, politics and neighbourhood networks, in the social strategies of urban elites of Marseilles.