Infirmeria Świętego Ducha w Rzymie w XVII-XVIII wielu. Perspektywy badawcze
The Holy Spirit Infirmary in Rome in the 17th-18th centuries – research prospects

Summary/Abstract: The Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome, founded in 1198 by Pope Innocent III and managed by the Hospitallers of the Holy Spirit was the biggest charity in medieval and modern Europe. Until the unification of Italy, it had two functions: an orphanage for foundlings (brefotrofium) and a hospital for the ill (infirmary). The Holy Spirit Hospital as an orphanage for abandoned children has already been thoroughly studied by the author of this article (The Children Abandoned in the Holy Spirit Hospital in Rome in the 18th century, Lublin 1998; Il brefotrofio dell’Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Roma nel XVIII secolo, Conferenze 115, Varsavia - Roma 2002). The current literature lacks not only detailed studies but also contributory articles devoted to the Holy Spirit Infirmary in Rome in any period (contrary to brefotrofium). Therefore it is worth studying the other function of the Roman hospital, namely the infirmary for ill people. And the author of the following article intends to do this task.The Holy Spirit Hospital was an infirmary with a number of wards and functions adapted for the treatment of various diseases, which was an exceptional phenomenon at the time. The aim of the research is to show to what extent the Roman infirmary, using innovative and pioneering treatments of the ill, influenced the development of medicine and the shape of the modern European hospital. The monograph about the Holy Spirit Hospital would be a pioneering achievement and the hospital would have an integral, two-part study of the two separate institutions functioning in the same buildings. The research intends to present the Holy Spirit Infirmary in the context of the changes in medical and social care against a background of the scientific ‘revolutions’ of the 17th and 18th centuries and changing Europe at the turn of the 19th century.

• Details
• Contents