|
Darrera modificació: 2022-01-18
Bases de dades: Sciència.cat
Abreu, Laurinda, "The city in times of plague: preventive and eradication measures against epidemic outbreaks in Évora between 1579 and 1637", Popolazione e Storia, 7/2 (2006), 109-125.
- Resum
- The political and economic context of Portugal of the beginning of the Early Modern Period and the absence of intermediary powers between the Crown and the municipalities facilitated a direct intervention of the central power on the poor relief, health care and public health mechanisms. Since the end of the 15th century, a set of social policies, with a national scope, came up from the emergent Early Modern State with the objective to uniform charitable practices and to endow the country with the same assistance institutions. The reform of the hospitals and the creation of a net of royal confraternities (the confraternities of Misericórdia – more than 300 spread throughout Portugal and its colonies in 1640), based on the same rules and with the same competences – to care for the poor, the prisoners, the sick, among other mercy works – are the most known actions of these centralized policies. This paper demonstrates that the Portuguese Crown also wanted to control the epidemics policies, making the municipalities totally dependent on the kings' orientations. The results of such an attitude are quite obvious: when the central political power was strong, it was able to impose its authority over the cities, compelling them to protect the population according to the Lisbon rules. On the contrary, whenever the royal power was weak and more fragile, the plagues spread without any control. The case of Évora presented here is an example that illustrates both situations.
- Matèries
- Història de la medicina
Medicina - Pesta i altres malalties
- URL
- https://popolazioneestoria.it/article/view/121
|