A tragedy of the great plague of Milan in 1630 / by Robert Fletcher.

  • Fletcher, Robert, 1823-1912.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A tragedy of the great plague of Milan in 1630 / by Robert Fletcher. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of the skeleton is an altar with a crucifix, to which a woman, seated, with the usual naked boy attending her, points with a sword. Two hundred years later, in 1841, this work was translated into Italian by Francesco Cusani, who has added many valu- able notes in an appendix. In 1839 the full official account of the trials of the “Auoint- ers ” was published in Milan.* It is in Italian, but all that relates to the application of the torture is discreetly veiled in the less familiar Latin, which, however, the modern editor has translated into Italian. From these sources the facts have been obtained, now to be briefly presented. Early in the morning of the 21st of June, 1630, during the prevalence of the plague in Milan, a woman of the lower classes saw from her window a man going down the street who was writing on a paper. He wiped his fingers on the wall of a house, probably to get rid of ink-stains, but with the readiness of ignorance and fear, she was sure that he Avas smearing deadly ointments to promote the spread of the pestilence. A crowd of excited women invaded the Council-chamber, and the Senate was informed of the occurrence. Orders were imme- diately given to trace out and arrest the guilty man. It must seem strange to us that the rulers of a great city, even at that time, could have been so ignorant as to believe that such means could be productive of the pestilence, or that any man or men could desire to destroy their fellow'-citizens, and risk their own lives besides. But extraordinary occur- rences demanded extraordinary causes to account for them. The plague Avas attributed to hail, to the poisoning of the fountains by the Jews—to deadly ointments so placed that passers-by Avould touch them. It became dangerous for any one to touch Avails or buildings. Ripamonti relates that three French travelers admiring the fa9ade of a building, one of them touched the marble, and Avas immediately set upon by the mob and dragged half dead to the prison. An old man, 80 years of age, about to sit doAvn on a bench in the church of San Antonio, Aviped off the dust Avith his cloak. A Avoman *Proces80 originale degli Untori nella peste del 1630. Milan, 1839. 8°.