Pandemics in the Past. The Plague of 1656 in Naples Through a Particular Source: The Accounting Documents of the Ancient Public Banks
Études Balkaniques (Sofia), 2023, N 1
Paola AVALLONE
Italian National Council of Research – CNR, Institute of Studies on the Mediterranean – ISMed, Napoli, Italy
Raffaella SALVEMINI
Italian National Council of Research – CNR, Institute of Studies on the Mediterranean – ISMed, Napoli, Italy
Andrea ZAPPULLI
Museum of Historical Archive of Banco di Napoli, Italy
Abstract: Through the “fedi di credito” and “polizze” (credit instruments) of the ancient Neapolitan public banks we will trace a story map of the most significant places of the plague, from the streets infested with corpses to the closed houses of the nobles to avoid contagion, to the lazarettos of land and sea, to the hospitals transformed to accommodate the plague victims, to the cemeteries/mass graves to collect the hundreds of thousands of lifeless bodies, to the fire lit to purify and destroy the bodies and all their contaminated land, to the borders of land and sea, with the guards controlling the gates of the city and the beaches and marinas.
Keywords: plague, epidemic, history, Kingdom of Naples, public banks