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Recensioni e schede 721

sues related to the history of public mo, and other contributors, also
health in general are dealt with in make clear that defining the “perma-
these essays as they engage with de- nence” of such public health estab-
bates found in the growing literature lishments as a feature of modernity
on the subject. One principal argu- is, to say the least, very problematic.
ment which runs across a number This problem deepens when his-
of articles deals with the model of torians who regard the non-perma-
historical development taken by public nency of the sanitary authorities as
health institutions – the Magistrature a symptom of the pre-modern state
di Sanità or the Deputazioni or Con- of “backwardness” of the South, con-
gregazioni di Sanita` – in the various clude that these public health entities
Italian states, from the sixteenth to were much less efficacious and ef-
the early 1800s. Various authors fective in controlling the spread of
point to the historical thesis on the epidemics. Fresh research presented
transition of public health from ad in this volume clearly challenges this
hoc emergency set ups (usually during view. For one, Renato Sansa, honing
epidemic outbreaks) to more perma- his analysis on the papal sanitary
nent sanitary institutions fully inte- policies of the late 1570s, immediately
grated within the state power struc- problematizes the direct connotations
tures. Refreshingly, authors in this usually made, or implied, in the his-
volume offer a rethinking of this his- torical literature between: «the per-
torical view, especially as it associates manent character of the sanitary in-
the permanence of public health in- stitutions and “modernity” of the
stitutions with state modernity. This state in the Public Health sector».
“transition to modernity” model can Based on extensive research in the
be easily interpreted as being framed Vatican archives, Sansa illustrates
within the North-South model of de- how the Stato Pontificio was «not in-
velopment which relegates the Italian sensible to the risks of epidemics in
south as “pre-modern” and “unde- Rome» (p. 28). On the contrary, it
veloped”. Actually, both Daniele Paler- sought to prevent outbreaks and to
mo and Idamaria Fusco’s studies in control and alleviate the transmission
this volume illustrate how permanent of disease by instituting sanitary au-
state sanitary institutions were set thority, passing and implementing
up much later in the southern Italian hygienic practices which though can-
cities and in Sicily, when compared not be taken as permanent, nonethe-
to those in the centre-north of the less operated efficiently and with
peninsula. Yet, while acknowledging good measures of success. The author
that when it comes to the Kingdom shows how the Papal bandi (regula-
of Naples and Sicily, the institution- tions) of 1576 reveal “traces of moder-
alisation of a Magistratura sanitaria nity”, in some instances even pre-
came later in mid-18 th century – in ceding sanitary ideas and practices
contrast to the more ‘stable institu- implemented later on by other states.
tions’ in the Settentrione (in place as In any case, the emerging knowledge
from the XVI century) – Daniele Paler- – reconstructed on solid archival ev-

n.41 Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XIV - Dicembre 2017
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)