Journal articles by Stefano Tomassetti
Histoire, médecine et santé, 25, 2024
This article analyses a manuscript collection of recipes (ca. 1590-1643) and its context of produ... more This article analyses a manuscript collection of recipes (ca. 1590-1643) and its context of production and use: the Oratory of Santa Maria in Vallicella in Rome. This book is at once a text, a paratext, and a notebook, and its material analysis attests to the ways in which it was produced, noting the use of manuscript sources and printed books kept in the Oratorian library, and the combination of writing and reading practices. The essay also aims to highlight the role of informal and oral routes in the dissemination of medical knowledge at the Vallicella, even emphasising the way in which care practices took place there through professional carers and the sharing of knowledge and therapeutic know-how between Oratorian priests. The aim is to assess their contribution to the formation of the collection and, ultimately, to show that the compilation of recipes was part of a wider process of circulation of medical knowledge, to be situated in a specific social and cultural milieu.
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Storica, 74, 2019
Inside and outside the early modern hospital. Ideas, practices, contexts
The essay reflects o... more Inside and outside the early modern hospital. Ideas, practices, contexts
The essay reflects on some questions raised by recent studies on early modern hospitals, underlining the research potentials of this historiographical object. The first part reveals the different disciplines, methodologies and perspectives that can be used to study hospitals or assistance networks by discussing two books focused on charitable institutions of Venice (C. Giron-Panel, Musique et musiciennes à Venise. Histoire sociale des ospedali, École française de Rome, Roma 2015; La chiesa e l’ospedale di San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti. Arte, beneficenza, cura, devozione, educazione, eds. A. Bamji, L. Borean, L. Moretti, Marcianum Press, Venezia 2015). The second part connects some of the themes that emerged from the reading of this new works to wider trends in the research on early modern assistance and poor relief. The focus is on the evolution of the ideas on pauperism, with particular attention to the pedagogic function of the charitable institutions and the need to connect theory and practices. Finally, the analysis broadens to include the connections between the history of hospitals and the history of medicine. This approach can allow us to detect multiple research paths, shedding light on the various actors and places devoted to healthcare and the entanglement of spiritual and physical therapies.
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Chapters in edited volumes by Stefano Tomassetti
Focusing on the Roman plague of 1656–1657, this chapter analyses the ways in which the Congregati... more Focusing on the Roman plague of 1656–1657, this chapter analyses the ways in which the Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri coped with the epidemic outbreak and its development, aiming at underlining their fragile and ambiguous balance between charity and self-preservation. In their house and church, the daily life was reshaped to harmonize the prevention of infection and the continuation of religious activities, implementing prophylactic measures, intensifying the devotional life, and redefining the functions of spaces and people according to healthcare needs. In the city, some Oratorians committed themselves in the urban management of the plague, serving the infected people and administering a lazaretto. Each Oratorian was left free to decide whether and how to be involved, but the fear for its own survival made the congregation highly attentive in avoiding excesses in self-sacrifice.
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Attraverso la storia. Nuove ricerche sull'età moderna in Italia, 2020
The paper deals with the charitable activities promoted by Filippo Neri’s Oratorio in the Roman h... more The paper deals with the charitable activities promoted by Filippo Neri’s Oratorio in the Roman hospital of Santo Spirito during the XVIth and XVIIth centuries. It aims at underlining the entanglement of spiritual and bodily care in the patients’ daily relief, focusing on the mutual spiritual benefit experienced by the sick and their souls’ healers, in order to emphasize the complex dynamics tooking place in an early modern hospital, and the necessity to analyze them integrating different perspectives.
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Encyclopedia entries by Stefano Tomassetti
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Book Reviews by Stefano Tomassetti
Nuncius, 37.1, 2022
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Storica, 2020
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Nuncius, 35.2, 2020
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Seminars and Conference presentations by Stefano Tomassetti
Séminaire Renaissances. Laboratoire d'expérimentation historiographique (IHRIM, LARHRA, Triangle)... more Séminaire Renaissances. Laboratoire d'expérimentation historiographique (IHRIM, LARHRA, Triangle), Lyon, 9 décembre 2021
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Hospitales durante la Edad Moderna. Instituciones benéfico-asistenciales, pobreza y marginalidad, 22 abril 2021, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid e Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (online), 2021
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IX Abrils de l'Hospital, Alimentació, salut i assistència/Alimentación, salud y assistencia/Food, Health & Assistance, Gandia, 7-8 september 2020
During the XVIth and XVIIth centuries in the papal hospital of Santo Spirito the provision of the... more During the XVIth and XVIIth centuries in the papal hospital of Santo Spirito the provision of the daily food to the patients was committed to the charitable activities of different brotherhoods and religious orders: among these, there was the Congregation of the Oratorio. The analysis of rules, diaries, receipts and inventories confirms the thorough organization of the visits of the caritatanti – as the servants were also called – both for their regulation and the material tools used.
At mealtime, while consoling the patients’ souls, urging them to repentance, the caritatanti cleansed the lanes, the beds and the sick themselves, to whom they served the extraordinary food specifically bought from outside as the ordinary one prescribed by the physicians of the hospital, which was tailored to the specific health conditions of the sick. Food prescriptions were an essential part of the daily patients’ care, and it is useful to connect their analysis to that of some Early Modern dietary books, in order to verify the relationship between preventive medical theory and hospital practices.
The intention of this proposal is to look at the mealtime in the hospital integrating the perspectives of the servants and of the sick. Firstly, I would underline the meanings of the act of feeding the patients by the Oratorio’s caritatanti: it was obviously a way to help the daily hospital management, but, by doing this humble activity, they took care of their own spiritual health too, as – according to the catholic postridentine theology – every charitable act was praised by God. On the other hand, the importance given to food prescriptions and their connections with the ongoing medical literature should be emphasised, but it is nonetheless remarkable the link of spiritual and bodily care at mealtime, when the sick were nourished with the food as well as the consoling words of their servants.
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Attraverso la storia. Seminario di giovani studiose e studiosi di Storia dell'età moderna, Padova, 20-22 febbraio 2019. Panel: Medici physici, chirurghi e «caritatanti» Teorie e pratiche della cura del corpo e dell’anima tra XVI e XVII secolo
Nel Seicento agli infermi dell’ospedale papale di Santo Spirito si dispensava quotidianamente la ... more Nel Seicento agli infermi dell’ospedale papale di Santo Spirito si dispensava quotidianamente la cura del corpo e dell'anima: accanto all’organico sanitario e religioso, a contribuirvi sul piano pratico erano anche i novizi e i fratelli laici dell’Oratorio di Filippo Neri.
Regole, diari, ricevute e inventari conservati nell’Archivio Storico dell’Oratorio di Roma e nella Biblioteca Vallicelliana testimoniano che costoro svolsero attività caritative nell’ospedale per tutto il XVII secolo, ereditando un impegno caratteristico del primo nucleo filippino di metà Cinquecento. I «caritatanti», seguendo turni e regole precise, si recavano nei giorni festivi al Santo Spirito, dove pulivano le stanze e i letti dei degenti, ai quali portavano cibi extra e servivano il vitto ordinario prescritto dai medici; inoltre, sulla base di linee guida manoscritte, si occupavano del conforto delle anime degli infermi, che venivano consolati e invitati all’esame di coscienza.
Nell’ottica oratoriana queste attività, al crocevia tra la cura spirituale e l’assistenza corporale, erano soprattutto intese come opere di umiliazione ai fini del perfezionamento spirituale dei «caritatanti». In tal modo il Santo Spirito, del quale recentemente si è sottolineata, accanto alla funzione curativa, quella di formazione dei professionisti sanitari, si dimostra anche come una palestra di formazione religiosa per probandi e laici, a beneficio delle stesse esigenze politico-religiose del papato della Controriforma, intenzionato a presentare la carità - sua, del suo ospedale, della sua capitale e dei cattolici - come un segno distintivo rispetto al mondo della Riforma. Le attività dei fratelli filippini si iscrivono poi in un contesto ospedaliero che vede una pluralità di attori coinvolti nelle pratiche curative (professionisti e volontari, laici e chierici), la loro quotidiana collaborazione, dunque la compresenza di molteplici forme di cura e assistenza dei malati, di medicina del corpo e dell'anima, di approcci diversi alla malattia, alla spiegazione delle sue cause e all'indicazione dei rimedi
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ATELIER DOCTORAL INTERDISCIPLINAIRE Sciences et savoirs de la Méditerranée au monde, Rome, École française de Rome, 22-26 octobre 2018
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Dissertations by Stefano Tomassetti
The thesis is focused on the relationship between a male religious community – the Congregation o... more The thesis is focused on the relationship between a male religious community – the Congregation of the Oratory of Rome of the 16th and 17th centuries – and healthcare, connecting social history, religious history and history of medicine.
The first part centers on the involvement of the Oratorians in the urban charitable network, underlining their contribution in the development and the administration of a series of hospitals, but also their practical commitment in the spiritual and bodily care of the sick. The second part concentrates on the health professionals who attended the Oratory, framing their relationship with the fathers within a broader network of social and political connections in the Papal Rome. Also, stressing the differences between apothecaries, barber-surgeons and physicians, the analysis considers their involvement in the religious life of the community and the exploitation of their humanistic and anatomical expertise.
The third part studies the complex relationship of the priests with their own bodies and healthcare. It highlights the weight of bodily conditions for the acceptance of new members in the Oratory, and the links between aesthetics, social identity and medicine, but it takes into account also the ambiguous functions of food – intended as a tool both for asceticism and healthcare – and the concrete functioning of the medical organization of the community. Moreover, a chapter analyses the circulation of medical knowledge, highlighting the role of the library, the collection and exchange of medical recipes and the importance of the Oratorian apothecary shop, while another chapter concentrates upon the therapeutic voyages and the practice of thermalism. The last part, focusing on the Roman plague of 1656-57, analyses how the Congregation coped with the epidemic outbreak and development, both in the house and in the city, in order to underline their fragile and ambiguous balance between charity and health protection.
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Journal articles by Stefano Tomassetti
The essay reflects on some questions raised by recent studies on early modern hospitals, underlining the research potentials of this historiographical object. The first part reveals the different disciplines, methodologies and perspectives that can be used to study hospitals or assistance networks by discussing two books focused on charitable institutions of Venice (C. Giron-Panel, Musique et musiciennes à Venise. Histoire sociale des ospedali, École française de Rome, Roma 2015; La chiesa e l’ospedale di San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti. Arte, beneficenza, cura, devozione, educazione, eds. A. Bamji, L. Borean, L. Moretti, Marcianum Press, Venezia 2015). The second part connects some of the themes that emerged from the reading of this new works to wider trends in the research on early modern assistance and poor relief. The focus is on the evolution of the ideas on pauperism, with particular attention to the pedagogic function of the charitable institutions and the need to connect theory and practices. Finally, the analysis broadens to include the connections between the history of hospitals and the history of medicine. This approach can allow us to detect multiple research paths, shedding light on the various actors and places devoted to healthcare and the entanglement of spiritual and physical therapies.
Chapters in edited volumes by Stefano Tomassetti
Encyclopedia entries by Stefano Tomassetti
Book Reviews by Stefano Tomassetti
Seminars and Conference presentations by Stefano Tomassetti
At mealtime, while consoling the patients’ souls, urging them to repentance, the caritatanti cleansed the lanes, the beds and the sick themselves, to whom they served the extraordinary food specifically bought from outside as the ordinary one prescribed by the physicians of the hospital, which was tailored to the specific health conditions of the sick. Food prescriptions were an essential part of the daily patients’ care, and it is useful to connect their analysis to that of some Early Modern dietary books, in order to verify the relationship between preventive medical theory and hospital practices.
The intention of this proposal is to look at the mealtime in the hospital integrating the perspectives of the servants and of the sick. Firstly, I would underline the meanings of the act of feeding the patients by the Oratorio’s caritatanti: it was obviously a way to help the daily hospital management, but, by doing this humble activity, they took care of their own spiritual health too, as – according to the catholic postridentine theology – every charitable act was praised by God. On the other hand, the importance given to food prescriptions and their connections with the ongoing medical literature should be emphasised, but it is nonetheless remarkable the link of spiritual and bodily care at mealtime, when the sick were nourished with the food as well as the consoling words of their servants.
Regole, diari, ricevute e inventari conservati nell’Archivio Storico dell’Oratorio di Roma e nella Biblioteca Vallicelliana testimoniano che costoro svolsero attività caritative nell’ospedale per tutto il XVII secolo, ereditando un impegno caratteristico del primo nucleo filippino di metà Cinquecento. I «caritatanti», seguendo turni e regole precise, si recavano nei giorni festivi al Santo Spirito, dove pulivano le stanze e i letti dei degenti, ai quali portavano cibi extra e servivano il vitto ordinario prescritto dai medici; inoltre, sulla base di linee guida manoscritte, si occupavano del conforto delle anime degli infermi, che venivano consolati e invitati all’esame di coscienza.
Nell’ottica oratoriana queste attività, al crocevia tra la cura spirituale e l’assistenza corporale, erano soprattutto intese come opere di umiliazione ai fini del perfezionamento spirituale dei «caritatanti». In tal modo il Santo Spirito, del quale recentemente si è sottolineata, accanto alla funzione curativa, quella di formazione dei professionisti sanitari, si dimostra anche come una palestra di formazione religiosa per probandi e laici, a beneficio delle stesse esigenze politico-religiose del papato della Controriforma, intenzionato a presentare la carità - sua, del suo ospedale, della sua capitale e dei cattolici - come un segno distintivo rispetto al mondo della Riforma. Le attività dei fratelli filippini si iscrivono poi in un contesto ospedaliero che vede una pluralità di attori coinvolti nelle pratiche curative (professionisti e volontari, laici e chierici), la loro quotidiana collaborazione, dunque la compresenza di molteplici forme di cura e assistenza dei malati, di medicina del corpo e dell'anima, di approcci diversi alla malattia, alla spiegazione delle sue cause e all'indicazione dei rimedi
Dissertations by Stefano Tomassetti
The first part centers on the involvement of the Oratorians in the urban charitable network, underlining their contribution in the development and the administration of a series of hospitals, but also their practical commitment in the spiritual and bodily care of the sick. The second part concentrates on the health professionals who attended the Oratory, framing their relationship with the fathers within a broader network of social and political connections in the Papal Rome. Also, stressing the differences between apothecaries, barber-surgeons and physicians, the analysis considers their involvement in the religious life of the community and the exploitation of their humanistic and anatomical expertise.
The third part studies the complex relationship of the priests with their own bodies and healthcare. It highlights the weight of bodily conditions for the acceptance of new members in the Oratory, and the links between aesthetics, social identity and medicine, but it takes into account also the ambiguous functions of food – intended as a tool both for asceticism and healthcare – and the concrete functioning of the medical organization of the community. Moreover, a chapter analyses the circulation of medical knowledge, highlighting the role of the library, the collection and exchange of medical recipes and the importance of the Oratorian apothecary shop, while another chapter concentrates upon the therapeutic voyages and the practice of thermalism. The last part, focusing on the Roman plague of 1656-57, analyses how the Congregation coped with the epidemic outbreak and development, both in the house and in the city, in order to underline their fragile and ambiguous balance between charity and health protection.
The essay reflects on some questions raised by recent studies on early modern hospitals, underlining the research potentials of this historiographical object. The first part reveals the different disciplines, methodologies and perspectives that can be used to study hospitals or assistance networks by discussing two books focused on charitable institutions of Venice (C. Giron-Panel, Musique et musiciennes à Venise. Histoire sociale des ospedali, École française de Rome, Roma 2015; La chiesa e l’ospedale di San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti. Arte, beneficenza, cura, devozione, educazione, eds. A. Bamji, L. Borean, L. Moretti, Marcianum Press, Venezia 2015). The second part connects some of the themes that emerged from the reading of this new works to wider trends in the research on early modern assistance and poor relief. The focus is on the evolution of the ideas on pauperism, with particular attention to the pedagogic function of the charitable institutions and the need to connect theory and practices. Finally, the analysis broadens to include the connections between the history of hospitals and the history of medicine. This approach can allow us to detect multiple research paths, shedding light on the various actors and places devoted to healthcare and the entanglement of spiritual and physical therapies.
At mealtime, while consoling the patients’ souls, urging them to repentance, the caritatanti cleansed the lanes, the beds and the sick themselves, to whom they served the extraordinary food specifically bought from outside as the ordinary one prescribed by the physicians of the hospital, which was tailored to the specific health conditions of the sick. Food prescriptions were an essential part of the daily patients’ care, and it is useful to connect their analysis to that of some Early Modern dietary books, in order to verify the relationship between preventive medical theory and hospital practices.
The intention of this proposal is to look at the mealtime in the hospital integrating the perspectives of the servants and of the sick. Firstly, I would underline the meanings of the act of feeding the patients by the Oratorio’s caritatanti: it was obviously a way to help the daily hospital management, but, by doing this humble activity, they took care of their own spiritual health too, as – according to the catholic postridentine theology – every charitable act was praised by God. On the other hand, the importance given to food prescriptions and their connections with the ongoing medical literature should be emphasised, but it is nonetheless remarkable the link of spiritual and bodily care at mealtime, when the sick were nourished with the food as well as the consoling words of their servants.
Regole, diari, ricevute e inventari conservati nell’Archivio Storico dell’Oratorio di Roma e nella Biblioteca Vallicelliana testimoniano che costoro svolsero attività caritative nell’ospedale per tutto il XVII secolo, ereditando un impegno caratteristico del primo nucleo filippino di metà Cinquecento. I «caritatanti», seguendo turni e regole precise, si recavano nei giorni festivi al Santo Spirito, dove pulivano le stanze e i letti dei degenti, ai quali portavano cibi extra e servivano il vitto ordinario prescritto dai medici; inoltre, sulla base di linee guida manoscritte, si occupavano del conforto delle anime degli infermi, che venivano consolati e invitati all’esame di coscienza.
Nell’ottica oratoriana queste attività, al crocevia tra la cura spirituale e l’assistenza corporale, erano soprattutto intese come opere di umiliazione ai fini del perfezionamento spirituale dei «caritatanti». In tal modo il Santo Spirito, del quale recentemente si è sottolineata, accanto alla funzione curativa, quella di formazione dei professionisti sanitari, si dimostra anche come una palestra di formazione religiosa per probandi e laici, a beneficio delle stesse esigenze politico-religiose del papato della Controriforma, intenzionato a presentare la carità - sua, del suo ospedale, della sua capitale e dei cattolici - come un segno distintivo rispetto al mondo della Riforma. Le attività dei fratelli filippini si iscrivono poi in un contesto ospedaliero che vede una pluralità di attori coinvolti nelle pratiche curative (professionisti e volontari, laici e chierici), la loro quotidiana collaborazione, dunque la compresenza di molteplici forme di cura e assistenza dei malati, di medicina del corpo e dell'anima, di approcci diversi alla malattia, alla spiegazione delle sue cause e all'indicazione dei rimedi
The first part centers on the involvement of the Oratorians in the urban charitable network, underlining their contribution in the development and the administration of a series of hospitals, but also their practical commitment in the spiritual and bodily care of the sick. The second part concentrates on the health professionals who attended the Oratory, framing their relationship with the fathers within a broader network of social and political connections in the Papal Rome. Also, stressing the differences between apothecaries, barber-surgeons and physicians, the analysis considers their involvement in the religious life of the community and the exploitation of their humanistic and anatomical expertise.
The third part studies the complex relationship of the priests with their own bodies and healthcare. It highlights the weight of bodily conditions for the acceptance of new members in the Oratory, and the links between aesthetics, social identity and medicine, but it takes into account also the ambiguous functions of food – intended as a tool both for asceticism and healthcare – and the concrete functioning of the medical organization of the community. Moreover, a chapter analyses the circulation of medical knowledge, highlighting the role of the library, the collection and exchange of medical recipes and the importance of the Oratorian apothecary shop, while another chapter concentrates upon the therapeutic voyages and the practice of thermalism. The last part, focusing on the Roman plague of 1656-57, analyses how the Congregation coped with the epidemic outbreak and development, both in the house and in the city, in order to underline their fragile and ambiguous balance between charity and health protection.