Hospitals and Charity

Abstract

Medieval hospitals in Italy, originally intended to house pilgrims and comfort the dying, evolved from religious institutions reflecting communal and personal piety to civic facilities intended to provide a comprehensive social welfare and medical service to the urban community. The founding and management of hospitals provided a means for the acquisition of political power and social status for the new urban elites. Brasher’s study provides the first comprehensive examination of the foundation of small independent hospitals throughout the region beginning in the twelfth century and then considers the challenges to establishing and managing these institutions in the face of ecclesiastical and political interference over the succeeding three centuries. The resulting charitable institutions reflected a nexus of lay initiative, religious culture, and civic political life. The independent nature of the individual hospitals has made generalization difficult, yet through a comprehensive examination of evidence from over 175 hospitals, the volume covers a wide geographic and chronological expanse to create a picture of the internal life of the institutions and their place within the urban community. The rise of the central, civic hospital of the fifteenth century, generally seen as a particular phenomenon of the Renaissance, is placed in the context of its earlier origins. The book will be of interest to students and researchers of medieval social, religious, or urban history.