Finding Aid for the Marseilles Plague Public Health Measures Documents Biomed.0325

Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections

Title: Marseilles Plague public health measures documents

Identifier/Call Number: Biomed.0325

Physical Description: 1 unknown (88 items)

Date (inclusive): 1720-1723

Language of Material: Italian .

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UCLA Catalog Record ID: 6018245 

"The manuscript material here consists chiefly of letters and reports from the Carlo Cellio, the Chatelain of the Anzio tower, the site of the suspected outbreak, to Cardinal Paulucci. Some of these, obviously written in great haste, convey the urgency of the earliest days of the crisis and, in some cases, such as Item 31, the reply from Cellio has been penned on the same bifolium as the original query from Rome. There are occasional occurrences of emotionally toned language 'cosi orribil flagello' and Item 19, the copy of a reply from a doctor, describes the symptoms: carbuncles, fever and somnolence, as well as epidemiological information: e.g., most of the afflicted are of the 'most ordinary condition, ' the exception being cited of a Sig. P. Gou. Additional reference is made to the communicable nature of the malady, to treatments, and the opening of cadavers is prohibited. Item 20 contains an additional response from a surgeon discussing a visit to a hospital, describing the successful cure of one Domenico Bartolini by the application of an onion 'Cipolla' and the treatment of a poor boy 'certo ragazzo miserabile' by scarification and the application of an unguent. The surgeon believed that the plague was not terribly contagious, citing the case of the father of a large family who was stricken while the rest of the family remained well. The later documents reflect an easing of the crisis and increasingly consist of secretarial reports from the Anzio gate."--Antiquarian bookseller's description.