Episodes in the plague in Rome in 1656-1657. Etching.

[Rome] : [Gio. Giacomo De Rossi], [between 1656 and 1659?]

1 print : etching, with engraving ; platemark 41.4 x 51.7 cm

Extensive engraved annotations in Italian

Top row (episodes 1-7): the lazaretti of San Pancratio, de'Spagnoli, San Eusebio, San Giuliano and San Vito

Second row (episodes 8-19): fumigating books and rescuing of valuables; the lazaretto dei Portoghesi near Saint John Lateran; Saint John Lateran itself and nearby buildings; the Ospedale di Santo Spirito with dogs and cats taken to be thrown into the river; the Salita San Onofrio and another Ospedale di Santo Spirito at its foot

Third row (episodes 20-26): the Sannesio vineyard outside the city where property is cleaned or burned; a lazaretto in the Casaletto di Pio V; the Antoniana (ancient ruins) where wool was dried

Fourth row (episodes 27-35): places outside the city where cloth was taken to be cleaned

Bottom row (episodes 36-43 and A-G): beheading, hanging, flogging etc. of people who had disobeyed the health edicts; the Porta Portese and the river Tiber with guards preventing unlicensed boats from entering on the river; the river at Fiumicino where ships entering the river from the sea are controlled, in order to allow necessary goods to enter Rome

Wellcome Collection 10133i

One of three such sheets of etchings recording sanitary measures taken under Girolamo Gastaldi (1616-1685), from 1657 Commissario Generale per la Salute in the city of Rome, subsequently a cardinal and archbishop of Benevento. One of the sheets is headed: "Ordini diligenze e ripari fatti con universal beneficio dalla paterna pietà di N.S.PP. Alesandro VII et emin.mi SS. Card.li della S. Congr.ne della sanità per liberare la città di Roma dal contagio. Inventati e date in luce da Gio. Giacomo De Rossi in Roma alla Pace"