Healing the body and saving the soul: Hospitals in renaissance Florence

Renaissance Studies

Volumn 15, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 188-216

  Henderson, John ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0344216218     PISSN: 02691213     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1477-4658.2001.tb00116.x     Document Type: Article

References (88)

1. On this theme in relation to charity in Florence, see J. Henderson, Piety and Charity in Late Medieval Florence (Oxford, 1994, Chicago, 1997), ch. 1.
2. Antonio Averlino detto il Filarete. Trattato di Architetlura, ed. A. M. Finoli and L. Grassi (Milan, 1972), 298.
3. L. B. Alberti, L'Architettura (De Re Aedificatoria), eds G. Orlandi and P. Portoghesi (Milan, 1966), I, 367-8.
4. The most recent studies of the architectural development of these two hospitals are R. A. Goldthwaite and W. R. Rearick, 'Michelozzo and the Ospedale di San Paolo in Florence', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz (cited as MKIF), XXI (1977), 221-306;
5. and A. Rensi, 'L'Ospedale di San Matteo a Firenze: un cantiere della fine del Trecento', Rivista d'Arte, 39 (1987), 83-145.
6. B. Varchi, Storia fiorentina, ed. L. Arbib (Florence, 1839-41), vol. 2, IX, 100-101; his statistics may have been based on the 1527 census of the city of Florence in Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, NA 987.
7. On the history of Florentine hospitals in this period, see J. Henderson, 'The hospitals of late medieval Florence: a preliminary survey', in L. Granshaw and R. Porter (eds), The Hospital in History (London, 1989), 63-92;
8. L. Sandri, 'Aspetti dell'assistenza ospedaliera a Firenze nel XV secolo', in Città e servizi nell'Italia dei secoli XII-XV (Pistoia, 1990), 237-57;
9. K. Park, 'Healing the poor: hospitals and medical assistance in Renaissance Florence', in J. Barry and C. Jones (eds), Medicine and Charity Before to Welfare State (London, 1991), 26-45;
10. and J. Henderson, '"Splendide case di cura". Spedali, medicina ed assistanza a Firenze nel Trecento', in A. J. Grieco and L. Sandri (eds), Ospedali e città'. L'Italia del centro-Noni, XIII-XVI secolo (Florence, 1997), 15-50.
11. For an overall survey of poor relief in Florence in this period and especially of the the charity provided by confraternities, see Henderson, Piety and Charity in Late Medieval Florence.
12. L. Sandri, 'Ospedali e utenti dell'assistenza nella Firenze del Quattrocento', in G. Pinto (ed.), La società del bisogno. Povertà e assistenza nella Toscana medievale (Florence, 1989), 61-100;
13. Park, 'Healing the poor';
14. and J. Henderson, '"Antechambers of death"? Poverty and sickness in the hospitals of Renaissance Florence', in V. Zamagna (ed.), Forme di povertà e innovazioni istituzionali in Italia dal Medioevo ad oggi (Bologna, 2000), 111-29.
15. R. Arbesmann, 'The concept of "Christus Medicus" in St Augustine', Traditio, X (1954), 19-20, 26.
16. See also the discussion of this theme by C. Rawcliffe, 'Medicine for the soul: the medieval English hospital and the quest for spiritual health', in J. Hinnells and R. Porter (eds), Religion, Health and Suffering (London, 1999), 321-3.
17. Also useful in this context are A. Hayum, The Eisenheim Allarpiece. God's Medicine and the Painter's Vision (Princeton, 1989);
18. and Rawcliffe, 'Medicine for the soul', 316-37,
19. See M. Holmes, Fra Filippo Lippi. The Carmelite Painter (New Haven and London, 1999), 44-5, 253 note 74;
20. B. Buhler Walsh, 'The fresco painting of Bicci di Lorenzo', Ph.D. thesis, Indiana University (1981), 21ff
21. ; and J. H. Beck, 'Masaccio's early career as a sculptor', Art Bulletin, 53/2 (1971), 177-95 at 181.
22. On the ceremony see the communal decree of 16 October 1420 in G. Richa, Notizie dette chiese fiorentine (Florence, 1754-62), VIII, 198.
23. Holmes, Fra Filippo Lippi, 44-6.
24. U. Middeldorf, 'Dello Delli and The Man of Sorrows in the Victoria and Albert Museum', Burlington Magazine, 456, lxxviii (March 1941), 77-8. Beck, 'Masaccio's early career', maintains that Masaccio was the author of this piece.
25. J. Pope-Hennessey, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 1964), I, 64-5;
26. S. Avery-Quash's catalogue entry no. 68 in G. Finaldi, The Image of Christ. The Catalogue of the Exhibition Seeing Salvation (London, 2000), 176-7, convincingly throws doubt on this attribution.
27. Pope-Hennessey, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture, I, 64-5.
28. Cf. Avery-Quash, catalogue entry no. 68 in Finaldi, The Image of Christ, 176;
29. M. Meiss, Painting in Florence and Siena After to Black Death (New York and London, 1973), 123-4.
30. Domenico Cavalca, Lo Specchio della Croce, ed. Tito Sante Centi (Bologna, 1992), 288-97.
31. Cf. Rawcliffe, 'Medicine for the soul', 123-4;
32. M. Warner, Alone of All Her Sex. The Myth and Cult of to Virgin Mary (London, 1978), 192-205. Mary's healing powers continued to be transmitted for centuries after her death through contact with her surviving possessions and the miraculous appearance of her milk.
33. Cf. the discussion of the theme of the Coronation of to Virgin in relation to Fra Filippo Lippi's picture of the same subject in E. Borsook, 'Cults and imagery at Sant'Ambrogio in Florence', MKIF, XXV (1981), 167-70.
34. Beck, 'Masaccio's early career', 190.
35. See Paatz, Die Kirchen, IV, 49 note 92,
36. and J. Pope-Hennessey, Fra Angelico (London, 1974), 18, 195 gives c. 1435;
37. S. Orlandi, Fra Angelico (Florence, 1964), 30-1 gives 1441-3;
38. see also J. T. Spike, Fra Angelico (New York and London, 1997), 235-6, cat. nos. 79A-C.
39. Pope Hennessey, Fra Angelico, 195, bases his statement (that it was 'Painted for the nuns' choir in S. Egidio') on Vasari-Milanesi, II, 516.
40. V: L. Chiappelli and A. Corsini, 'Un antico inventario dello Spedale di Santa Maria Nuova in Firenze (a.1376)', Rivista delle Biblioteche e degli Archivi, XXXII (1921), 7.
41. H. Wohl, The Paintings of Domenico Veneziano, ca. 1410-1461. A Study of Florentine Art of the Early Renaissance (Oxford, 1980), 200-7;
42. M. Horster, Andrea del Castagno (Oxford, 1980), 13-14, 37, 47.
43. (as in H. Wohl, Paintings, 341-3);
44. (as in Horster, Castagno, 205).
45. A. Padoa Rizzo, 'Luca della Robbia e Verrocchio. Un nuovo documento e una nuova interpretazione iconografica del tabernacolo di Peretola', MKIF, XXXVIII (1994), 4-50.
46. B. Hatfeld Strens, 'L'arrivo del trittico Portinari a Firenze', Commentari. Rivista di critica e storia dell'arte, XIX (1969), 315-19.
47. Cf. M. Eisenberg, Lorenzo Monaco (Princeteon, 1989), 214-215; docs. 16A-16G.
48. E. Dhanens, Hugo Van der Goes (Antwerp, 1998), 257, 263.
49. J. I. Miller, 'Miraculous childbirth and the Portinari altarpiece', Art Bulletin, 77/2 (1995), 257-8.
50. For a detailed discussion of this altarpiece see Dhanens, Hugo Van der Goes, 250-301.
51. Miller, 'Miraculous childbirth', 258-9.
52. Cf. Miller, 'Miraculous childbirth', 258, who is uncertain about the existence of this chapel.
53. E. Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), 333-4;
54. See also: G. Cora, Storia della maiolica di Firenze e del contado: secoli XIV e XV (Florence, 1973), I, 273, 231;
55. T. Wilson, Ceramic Art of to Italian Renaissance (London, 1987), 32.
56. R. A. Koch, 'Flower symbolism in the Portinari altarpiece', Art Bulletin, 46 (1964), 76-7.
57. Hatfield Strens, 'L'arrivo del trittico Portinari a Firenze', 316.
58. See Henderson, '"Antechambers of Death"?'
59. See the unpublished paper by Christina Knorr, 'The coming of the sheperds: on Hugo Van der Goes's Portinari Altarpiece'; I am grateful to her for permission to cite this piece.
60. D. Gallavotti Cavallero, Lo Spedale di Santa Maria della Scala in Siena. Vicenda di una committenza artistica (Siena, 1985), 153-65.
61. See the statutes of S. Maria Nuova from 1374 published in Il Regio Arcispedale di Santa Maria Nuova. I suoi benefattori e le sue antiche memorie (Florence, 1888), 63.
62. F. Gurrieri, 'L'architettura dello "Spedale di S. Maria Nuova", 1288-1988', in Lo Spedale di Santa Maria Nuova, 1288-1988 (Florence, n.d.), 29-46;
63. and in addition on the later sixteenth century, see: L. Ciuccetti, 'Profilo architettonico del complesso di Santa Maria Nuova', in F. Brasioli and L. Ciuccetti, Santa Maria Nuova. Il tesoro nell'antico ospedale fiorentino (Florence, 1989), 9-17.
64. Pampaloni, Lo Spedale di S. Maria Nuova, based in part on Richa, Notizie, VIII, 175-233,
65. and Del Migliore, Firenze. Città nobilissima illustrata, 342-59.
66. L. Passerini, Storia degli stabilmenti di beneficenza e d'istruzione elementare della città di Firenze (Florence, 1853), 354;
67. Pampaloni, Lo Spedale di S. Maria Nuova, 19-20 states 'si sa, comunque, che negli anni 1313-1315 fu sistemato il corpo dello spedale', without providing any source.
68. See J. Henderson, 'Peste, Mal Francese e gli Ospedali di Firenze nel Rinascimento', in L'Ospedale e la città, ed. Fondazione Giovanni Michelucci (Florence, 2000), 16-27.
69. Printed in Z. Wazbinski, L'Accademia Medicea del Disegno a Firenze nel Cinquecento. Idea e istituzione [Florence, 1987], II, 424). Assuming this record is correct, this means that the cross of the male ward was completed before 1515.
70. Del Migliore, Firenze, 349. The length of 163 metres included the Buontalenti chapel.
71. See Paatz, Die Kirchen,
72. and Ciuccetti, Profilo architettonico, 10-17.
73. O. Siren, 'Opere sconosciute di Lorenzo Monaco', Rassegna d'Arte, IX (1909), 333-6, esp. 33.
74. K. P. Park and J. Henderson, '"The first hospital among Christians": The Ospedale di Santa Maria Nuova in early sixteenth-century Florence', Medical History, 35 (1991), 186.
75. Del Migliore, Firenze, 345, 349,
76. and Richa, Notizie, VIII, 208, 211, agree on these figures.
77. M. Ficino, Consilio contro la pestilentia, ed. M. Musacchio (Bologna, 1983), 63.
78. Del Migliore, Firenze, 350.
79. On the frescoes, see P. De Angelis, L'Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Saxia. II: Dal 1301 al 1500 (Rome, 1962), 368-516;
80. A. Palma, L'Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Saxia (Padua, 1994), 12.
81. Palma, L'Ospedale di Santo Spirito, 20.
82. These extracts from the hospital's records were published (with some errors of transcription) by G. Poggi, 'Il ciborio di Bernardino Rossellino nella chiesa di S. Egidio', Miscellanea d'arte, I (1903), 105-7.
83. Cf. also R. Krautheimer, Lorenzo Ghiberti (Princeton, 1982), 204, 207;
84. and A. Markham Schulz, The Sculpture of Bernardino Rossellino and his Workshop (Princeton, 1977), 52-8, 160-1.
85. For the tabernacle in the male word, see Padoa Rizzo, 'Luca della Robbia e Verrocchio', 48-68.
86. Markham Schulz, The Sculpture, 106.
87. Horster, Andrea del Castagno, 189.
88. See Park and Henderson, '"The first hospital among Christians", 183.