Tag: Italy
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TRAVEL AND MEDICINE Published in December, 2019 H E K T O R A M A . DOCTOR MOORE IN ITALY Moore, a practicing physician in Glasgow with a good reputation, was offered an opportunity to travel. Like other prominent noblemen of his day, the young Duke of Hamilton was…
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Maria Lorenza Longo and the birth of the “Incurabili” Hospital in Naples
Marco LuchettiMilano, Italy In the Middle Ages hospitals were charitable institutions that took care of those that could not afford a doctor at home, such as the poor, elderly, orphans, and single mothers. In Naples there was an urgent need for a large facility with many doctors where “incurable” people could be treated for free.…
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“Our daily bread”—The scourge of pellagra
Meera LadwaLondon, England, United Kingdom In the northern Italian town of Ferrara hangs a little-known painting by Giuseppe Mentessi (1857–1931). Surrounded by a field of maize, a woman carries her exhausted child in her arms, her eyes downcast with suffering. Behind this painting lies a story of medicine, food, economics, and culture—the story of pellagra,…
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The midwives of San Gimignano, 1336
Mary A. Osborne Chicago, Illinois, United States Before the story line for Alchemy’s Daughter flew into my imagination, the idea of writing historical fiction had not occurred to me. I had penned a number of short stories, often inspired by my experiences as a home care nurse, and two semiautobiographical novels that no publisher wanted.…
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The Bonifacio Hospital: reforming psychiatric hospital care
Panagiota Kitsantas Fairfax, Virginia, United States The Bonifacio Hospital, Florence, Italy In 1369-1377 Bonifacio Lupi, mayor of Florence and Captain of the People, founded the Bonifacio Hospital (Ospedale di Bonifacio) dedicated to St. John the Baptist. In the sixteenth century, the hospital admitted patients suffering from syphilis, known as the “French disease,” spread by troops…
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The Spedale of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence
Donatella Lippi Luigi Padeletti Florence, Italy The spedale of Santa Maria Nuova was founded in June 1288 by Folco di Ricovero dei Portinari, father of Dante’s Beatrice, who bought some houses in the centre of Florence to receive poor people who needed help. At first the hospital could only accept men from the large…