San Giacomo degli Incurabili


The hospital of San Giacomo in Augusta, also known as San Giacomo degli Incurabili is an historical building located in the city center of Rome.

History

Built for the first time in 1349 by the Colonna family for the will of the cardinal Pietro Colonna in honour of his uncle Giacomo Colonna, as stated in a memorial stone in one of the cortili. Leo X expressed in three apostolic letters between 1515 and 1516 the will to rebuild the hospital to help the pilgrims, the poor and especially the "incurables" not accepted from the other hospitals. Leo X mentioned in particoular the fight against syphilis as a priority to be set on the hospital's activity. That was a new illness that spread to Europe from the Americas at the end of XV century and that was taken to Italy from the troups of the french king Charles VIII of France. In those same years, Girolamo Fracastoro, a pioneer of the modern pathology, proposed a cure for syphilis, the expensive Lignum vitae, that was soon offered to the patients of San Giacomo for free. In fact, the Statuta of San Giacomo was towards receiving patients of all economic conditions of both sexes for free, even for this very expensive cure.

The hospital was rebuilt in the second half of XVI century mainly by the activity of cardinal Antonio Maria Salviati, with the Church San Giacomo in Augusta, ended in the year 1600. The hospital was starting to be funded by a little percentage from the public fundings, but for the major part from donations by privates: in XVI century the major donations came from the Pope Paul IV, from cardinal Bartolomé de la Cueva y Toledo with the giant expense of 80.000 scudi and Clemente d'Olera with his entire heritage.

During the XVI century was active also Camillus de Lellis. After his conversion to christianity, he reformed the rules of the Hospital and established a religious-nurse system. Afer his death, he was considered Saint by the Catholics and protector of hospitality.

During the XVII century in this hospital was active the surgeon Bernardino Genga.

In 1815, Pius VII set here the new chair of Chirurgy of Università La Sapienza, whose first director was the surgeon Giuseppe Sisco. At his death in 1830, Sisco donated to the hospital his books, his surgeon instruments and instituted a prize for students[1].

In the mid-XIX century the Pope Gregory XVI made some major rebuilding work on the hospital structure[2], with the help of both public and personal economic funding.

In the XX century the hospital was still in full activity. At the end of the century, the building included the biggest Emergency department in the city center of Rome, that server an area of 400.000 residents - but also a large amount of tourists would be taken in account.

In 2008 was abruptly closed by a regional law where the president Piero Marrazzo was serving as Commissario ad acta, after 680 years of continuous activity in hospedality. The region Lazio, the new owner of the palace, is now discussing to open commercial activity in place of public hospitality[3]. The noblewoman Oliva Salviati, descendant of the founder, since 2008 claims to enforce the testament of his ancestor cardinal Anton Maria Salviati, who donated the building to the city under the condition of its use as hospital: followed a petition of 60.000 subscribers to keep active the hospital[4].

References

Bibliography

  • Papa Leone X, Bolla Pontificia Salvatoris Nostri, 19 luglio 1515.
  • Statuti del venerabile archiospidale di San Giacomo in Augusta nominato dell’Incurabili di Roma, Roma, 1659.
  • Stefano Ciccolini, Le nuove opere dell'archiospedale di S. Giacomo in Augusta: descritte, Tipografia dell Rev. Cam. Apostolica, 1864.
  • Carlo Luigi Morichini, Degl'istituti di pubblica carità ed istruzione primaria e delle prigioni in Roma, Volume 1, Marini, 1842 .
  • Lia Bonella, Franca Fedeli Bernardini, L'ospedale dei pazzi di Roma dai papi al '900. Volume II, Bari, Edizioni Dedalo, 1994.
  • Padre Sanzio Cicatelli, Vita del P. Camillo de Lellis, a cura di P. Piero Sannazzaro, Roma, Curia Generalizia Camilliani, 1980.
  • Enrico Fedele, L'Ospedale San Giacomo in Augusta tra storia, assistenza e cultura, in «Bollettino della scuola medica ospedaliera di Roma e della Regione Lazio», anno IV, numero 9, luglio/settembre 1998.
  • Fabio Robotti, Le medaglie pontificie dedicate agli ospedali nella Roma del Papa Re. L'Arciospedale di San Giacomo in Augusta detto anche degli Incurabili, in «Panorama numismatico» n. 260, aprile 2011.
  • Mario Massani, L'arcispedale di San Giacomo in Augusta dalle origini ai nostri giorni, Roma, Ed. Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, 1983.
  • Anna Lio, La chiesa di Santa Maria in Porta Paradisi ed il complesso Ospedaliero del San Giacomo, Roma, Ed. Palombi, 2000.
  • Padre Mario Vanti, San Giacomo degl'Incurabili di Roma nel Cinquecento - dalle Compagnie del Divin Amore a S. Camillo de Lellis, Roma, Tip. Rotatori, 1991.
  • Pietro De Angelis, L' arcispedale di San Giacomo in Augusta, Tipogr. Ed. Italia, 1955
  • Alessandra Cavaterra, L’ospedalità a Roma nell’età moderna: il caso del San Giacomo (1585-1605), Sanità, scienza e storia 2 (1986): 87-123.
  • M. Valli, San Giacomo degli incurabili di Roma nel '500, Roma, 1938.
  • John Henderson, The mal francese in sixteenth-century Rome: the ospedale di San Giacomo in Augusta and the "incurabili", (1998): 483-523., In: Sonnino, E. (ed.) Popolazione e società a Roma dal medioevo all'età contemporanea. Rome, Italy: Il Calamo, pp. 483-523. ISBN 9788886148498.
  • M. Heinz, Das Hospital S. Giacomo in Augusta in Rom: Peruzzi und Antonio da Sangallo i. G. Zum Hospitalbau der Hochrenaissance, in: Storia dell'arte, 1981, n. 41, p. 31-48
  • Angela Groppi, I conservatori della virtù: donne recluse nella Roma dei papi, Vol. 2. Laterza, 1994.
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