The story of a blood transfusion to a Pope / G.A. Lindeboom.

  • Gerrit Arie Lindeboom
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The story of a blood transfusion to a Pope / G.A. Lindeboom. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/8 page 457
    And Leo7 referred to the attempt of transfusion in a footnote in Geschichte der Italienische Staaten. Still, both Gregorovius and Leo, apart from mentioning the older writers Infessura and Ray- naldus whom we shall discuss later, refer to Sismondi. Simonde de Sismondi8 was a famous historian who wrote many volumes on the history of the Italian States in the Middle Ages. In the seventh volume, first published in 1809, a vivid description of the story can be found: Dans sa derniere maladie, Innocent VIII se laissa persuader par un medecin juif de tenter le remede de la transfusion de sang, souvent propose par des charlatans, mais qu’on n’avait jusqu’alors jamais eprouve que sur des animaux. Trois jeunes gar^ons, ages de dix ans, furent successivement, moyennant une recompense donnee a leurs parents, soumis a l’appareil qui devait faire passer le sang de leurs veines dans celles du vieillard et le remplacer par le sien. Tous trois moururent des le commencement de l’operation, probablement par l’introduction de quelque bulle d’air dans leurs veines, et le medecin juif prit la fuite plutot que de s’essayer sur de nouvelles victimes. Sismondi tells us (i) of an instrument by which the blood of the boys had to be conveyed into the old man, and his blood back into the boys’ veins; and (ii) that the boys’ death was probably due to air embolism (as Villari says also) . Apparently it was Sismondi who introduced the story in its present version. It turns out that his vivid imagination framed unhistoric hypotheses. The original data are to be found in the works of Infessura and Raynaldus. Stephanus Infessura wrote a diary on the city of Rome.9 His German translator Hefele10 regards him as a reliable author. Infessura wrote as follows: Interea in urbe nunquam cessarunt tribulationes et mortes. Nam primo tres pueri decern annorum e venis quorum Judaeus quidem medicus, qui Papam sanum reddere promiserat, sanguinem extraxit, incontinenti mortui sunt. Dixerat namque illis Judaeus se velle sanare Pontificem, dummodo habere certam quantitatem sanguinis humani, et quidam juvenis, quern propterea extrahi jussit a tribus pueris, quibus post phlebotomiam unam ducatum pro quolibet donavit, et paulo post mortui sunt. Judaeus quidtm fugit et Papa sanatus non est. This could be translated as follows: Meanwhile disasters and deaths did not cease in the city. For one thing, three ten-year-old boys died because blood had been taken from their veins 7 Leo, H. Geschichte der Italienischen Staaten. Hamburg, 1830, vol. IV, p. 618. 8 Simonde de Sismondi, J. C. L. Histoire des republiques italiennes du moyen age. Paris, 1840, vol. VII, p. 289. -tap 9 Infessura, Stephanus. Diarium Romanum, to be found in: Muratorius, L. A. I eium italicarum scriptores. Mediol., 1723, vol. Ill, II, p. 1241. T 10 Infessura, Stephanus. Rumisches Tagcbuch. Translated by Hermann Hetele. Jena, 19*3-
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