Ordine e Sanità. Gli ospedali mauriziani tra XVIII e XX secolo: storia e tutela (original) (raw)

La storia, plurisecolare, degli ospedali mauriziani, ossia gestiti dalla Sacra Religione dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro, è puntualmente indagata in questo volume quale esempio di un sistema complesso di gestione in grado di coinvolgere forze e interessi di larghissimo respiro. Solidamente fondato su una ricca messe di materiale archivistico, in gran parte inedito, ma anche su di un’attenta analisi della natura materiale delle fabbriche, il volume nasce come prodotto dichiaratamente interdisciplinare e come strumento per la comprensione anche della attuale condizione del patrimonio di memoria e di cultura rappresentato dal sistema dei nosocomi appartenuti storicamente all’ordine. Con il patrocinio morale della Fondazione Ordine Mauriziano, il lavoro rappresenta un aggiornamento critico e documentario dovuto a un brano imprescindibile di storia architettonica, urbana, ma anche sociale. L’histoire, qui occupe plusieurs siècles, des hôpitaux mauriciens, à savoir gérés par la Sacrée Religion des Saints Maurice et Lazare (Ordre Mauricien) est l’objet de ce livre qui en même temps analyse l’origine et le développement d’un système voué à l’assistance devenu un véritable acteur de la santé sociale. L’exposée repose sur un immense travail d’archive, dont certaines données demeuraient inconnues, mais aussi bien sur une analyse ponctuelle et systématique des immeubles eux mêmes, vouée à reconstruire les liens entre patrimoine et mémoire, architecturelle, mais aussi sociale et civile. Le livre jouit du soutien moral de la Fondazione Ordine Mauriziano. The Order of Saint Maurice and Lazarus (Ordine Mauriziano) being essentially chivalrous and of assistance and having great relief (which the duke, then sovereign of Savoy, is by right Grand Master), has, over the centuries, managed an impressive heritage, com- posed by land possessions and hospitals, with very large extension from Piedmont to Valley of Aosta, Liguria, Sardinia. Born from the union between the military order (or militia) of St. Maurice and the order of St. Lazarus, founded during the Crusades and dedicated to the care of the lepers, following the desires of Duke Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, and ratified by the pope in 1572, the Order will grow in importance with the sovereign role assumed by the Savoy dynasty. Under King Vittorio Amedeo II it will assume a key role in the mana- gement of the financial resources of the kingdom and a new excellence in assistance. If the aspects more strictly related to the administra- tion of this imposing heritage have been investigated several times with considerable wealth, hospitals knew less success and have been addressed primarily as episodes unconnected with each other, not adequately reduced to a serial heritage. Apart from the now very old, but unavoidable, work by Paolo Boselli, dating back to 1917, and some very important, but sectional, surveys by Tirsi Mario Caffaratto (1979 and 1983) or the remarkable synthesis by Giorgio Rigotti (1951) it appears that the system formed by the hospitals belonging to the Order as been barely investigated systematically. Especially it has to be analysed in light of some new documentary acquisitions (including the series of drawings for a long time missed and now again available) and considering that it was the primary actor in the management of public health in extremely varied contexts. During the Eighteenth century, in fact, the Holy Religion (as usually defined in documents), following a process of reorganization of ecclesiastical benefits (including in 1752 the passage to the Order of all the properties anciently belonging to Casa e Prevostura dei Santi Nicolao e Bernardo, and then of the lands belonging to the Ordine di Sant’Antonio, firstly conferred to the Order of Malta in 1776 and then passed to the same “militia” of sovereign right) and a general revision of the State by Savoy, is to acquire, in addition to that already possessed, vast estates and set up gradually as the main sanitary operator in main areas. Early machines à guérir, in the familiar and highly successful expression by Michel Foucault (1979) – and not just forms of segregation of the sick and the beggar or even antechamber of death, which was the current perception of hospitals – hospitals depending on the Order are surely placed into the best European context. Here, indeed, as in places of much greater value, such as the Parisian Hôtel Royal des Invalides, attention to hygiene dictates and the specification of the precise roles of each official, or the richness of the regulations, show a medical organization based on what Elisabeth Belmas (2010, now appearing) defines as “trilogies des officiers en medicine” [the trilogy of medical officers], namely the physician, the surgeon and pharmacist as pillars of assistance. If the doctor-patient relationship will have a long way to go, often uphill, to assert interactions based on mutual respect, as emphasized by recent studies by Serenella Nonnis Vigilante (2010, now appearing), it is indisputable that the hospitals controlled by the Order often touched real leadership and that the increased role of the Order is accompanied by a process of development and organization of its hospitals, starting with the choice of location in the cities, already established in their logical urban solutions. The four hospital foundations that are consolidated in the Eighteenth century (Turin, Aosta, Valenza and Lanzo), which will be added in the next century by the Hospital of Luserna San Giovanni (1854) and the leper colony of San Remo – then sold in 1882 to the Municipality to become civil hospital – are behind the principle of reception in urban areas, but with influence that extends to the terri- torial scale and with considerable assistance modernity. In parallel and in close integration with the historical analysis, the study also wants to deepen construction techniques used in the hospital yard and the management of the site, belonging to the theme of “rules of the art” for historical buildings. The knowledge of the different ways of building, of the construction processes, is essential to understand the tangible value of this complexes, and to propose an integrated conservation and sustainable architecture. The understanding of such building richness is the base for their special conserva- tion, managing with their “historical dimension” and their true condition as “system” of elements in the territory, allowing them to arise the rank of “heritage”. If we accept such an account, it becomes a duty to invoke this collective heritage being part of cultural value and memory, having the dignity for constant care operations, protection and conservation. The reasons for the protection and conservation, which in mature and very broad disciplinary debate is now increasingly turning to new “categories” of goods, however, pose the particular problem here of the use of these architectures, which have strong connotations since their origin and even today may preserve their origi- nal building characters, always offering hospital assistance. The research has also the aim of documenting, through a survey on different histories and fortunes of the hospitals, the present preservation of those who live in constant dichotomy between their character of historic monuments and the condition of structures at the service of human quality life. The book is also composed by a wide selection of historical illustrations and archive documents, largely unpublished, critically recomposed according the rank order of importance as identified by Boselli, and some of them can testimony the role of some old buildings, now lost. A catalogue – certainly far from exhaustive, but still significant – of the architects and engineers working for the Order is also provided.