Sudden Death: Medicine and Religion in Eighteenth-Century Rome

240 Pages·2014·1.211 MB·English

by  Maria Pia Donato, Valentina Mazzei

Sudden death: Medicine and Religion in
eighteenth-centuRy RoMe
The history of Medicine in context
Series editors: andrew cunningham and ole Peter grell
department of history and Philosophy of Science
university of cambridge
department of history
open university
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Paula J. Martin
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edited by anne Kirkham and cordelia Warr
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Ritual and Conflict: The Social Relations of Childbirth in
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adrian Wilson
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Robert Weston
Sudden death: Medicine and
Religion in eighteenth-century
Rome
MaRia Pia donato
C.N.R.S. Institut d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, Paris, France
and University of Cagliari, Italy
translated by Valentina Mazzei
© Maria Pia donato 2014
© 2010 by carocci editore S.p.a., Roma
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Maria Pia donato has asserted her right under the copyright, designs and Patents act,
1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing company
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union Road Suite 3-1
Farnham Burlington, Vt 05401-3818
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
donato, Maria Pia.
[Morti improvvise. english]
Sudden death : medicine and religion in eighteenth-century Rome / by Maria Pia donato.
pages cm. – (The history of medicine in context)
Revised translation of: Morti improvvise / Maria Pia donato. Roma : carocci, c2010.
includes bibliographical references and index.
iSBn 978-1-4724-1873-9 (hardcover) – iSBn 978-1-4724-1874-6 (ebook)
– iSBn 978-1-4724-1875-3 (epub) 1. Sudden death–history–18th century. 2.
death–Religious aspects–catholic church–history of doctrines–18th century. 3.
Medicine–Religious aspects–history–18th century. 4. Medicine–italy–Rome–
history–18th century. 5. lancisi, giovanni Maria, 1654-1720. de subitaneis mortibus. i. title.
RB150.S84d6613 2014
618.92'026–dc23
2014012045
iSBn 9781472418739 (hbk)
iSBn 9781472418746 (ebk – PdF)
iSBn 9781472418753 (ebk _ eVPuB)
Printed in the united Kingdom by henry ling limited,
at the dorset Press, dorchester, dt1 1hd
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Abbreviations and Translator’s Notes ix
Introduction 1
PART I: Sudden deATh And The PhySIcIAn’S Role
In SocIeTy
1 Fears 13
2 The Medico-legal Enquiry on Sudden Death, or:
The Truth of the Body and the Public Role of Physicians 41
3 From the Dead to the Living: Medicine and Public Health
in the Early Eighteenth Century 67
PART II: Sudden deATh In MedIcAl TheoRy And
PRAcTIce
4 A New Stance on Death: The Mechanical Medicine of
Lancisi’s De subitaneis mortibus (1707) 87
5 The Pathological Gaze: The Problematic Status of Post-mortem
Evidence in Early Eighteenth-Century Medicine 111
PART III: The loST And The SAved: Sudden deATh
AS An eThIcAl And RelIgIouS ISSue
6 Death and the Doctors: Scientific Queries and
Ethical Dilemmas 143
7 In the Hour of Death 167
8 Looking for a Heavenly Protector: Saint Andrew Avellino,
the ‘Apoplectic Saint’ 187
vi Sudden Death: Medicine and Religion in Eighteenth-Century Rome
Epilogue: Was there Ever a Sudden Death ‘Epidemic’ in Rome? 209
Index 217
Acknowledgements
I have contracted many debts of gratitude in the course of research for this book,
which I am now glad to pay back. First of all, I thank Massimo Bucciantini, who
gave me the idea for this volume during a joint seminar in early modern history
and history of science at the University of Cagliari in 2007. I also would like to
thank Michele Camerota, the best scholar, colleague and friend I have had the
pleasure to work with at the University of Cagliari.
Alessandro Pastore, Biagio Salvemini, Marcello Verga and Maria Antonietta
Visceglia read the final draft and gave me valuable suggestions, for which I am
grateful. I am indebted to the many scholars and friends who offered advice and
help: Federico Barbierato and Erminia Irace first of all, Elisa Andretta, David
Armando, Elena Brambilla, Marina Caffiero, Giovanna Capitelli, Massimo
Cattaneo, Sandra Cavallo, Harold J. Cook, Filippo de Vivo, Guido Giglioni,
Ottavia Niccoli, Marilyn Nicoud, Domenico Rocciolo. My gratitude also goes
to Bradford Bouley, Jill Kraye, Robert Sayre and Tessa Storey for their invaluable
help with the English translation.
I would like to thank, in addition, colleagues and friends at the Warburg
Institute and the former Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine
at UCL in London for assisting me with their knowledge and kindness over
the years, especially Anita Pollard and Natalie Clarke. The Wellcome Library
for the History and Understanding of Medicine proved an invaluable resource,
and I am grateful to the Library staff. I would also like to thank the Organisers
Committee of the History of Pre-modern Medicine seminars at the Wellcome
Library for inviting me to discuss my research in March 2014. The research for
this book has benefited from the support of several institutions – the University
of Cagliari, the University of Milan, École française de Rome – which all deserve
a mention. I am, moreover, grateful to Andrew Cunningham and Ole P. Grell
for agreeing to publish the English translation in the ‘History of Medicine in
Context’ series, which they edit, to Emily Yates, of Ashgate, who supervised
the publication, and to Tricia Craggs and Lindsey Brake for their help with the
copy-editing. Finally, as always, I wish to thank my family and, especially, Luc
Berlivet, if only for the happy days we spent in the libraries of London, Paris
and Rome and for all the cups of coffee (a great cephalic, as Lancisi and Baglivi
would have said) he made me.
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Abbreviations and Translator’s Notes
ACDF Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, Vatican City
ASR Archivio di Stato, Rome
ASV Archivio Segreto Vaticano
ASVR Archivio Storico del Vicariato, Rome
BLR Biblioteca Lancisiana, Rome
BNF Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
BNR Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II, Rome
DBI Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Rome, 1961–
Diario di Clemente XI Ms ASV, Archivio Borghese I 578, Diario del
pontificato di Clemente XI
SM G.M. Lancisi, De subitaneis mortibus, Rome, 1707
Valesio F. Valesio, Diario di Roma, ed. G. Scano, Milan
1977–79
VL Vatican Library
Translations are the translator’s unless stated otherwise.
Quotations from Lancisi’s De subitaneis mortibus refer to the first Roman edition
of 1707 by Buagni. A modern English translation of the book is also available,
namely Translation of De subitaneis mortibus (On Sudden Death), trans. P.D.
White and A.V. Boursy, New York, 1971.