COVONI GIROLAMI, Marco

Regulations for the Hospital Santa Maria Nuova issued by Count Covoni-Girolami. The book is dedicated to Peter Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The Duke was an enlightened absolute monarch, who shared the eighteenth century zeal for reform and who was responsible for extensive social changes in his kingdom. He provided for land development, cared for delinquents, and abolished the death penalty. It was to the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova that the Duke directed his attention in an attempt to introduce radical improvements for mentally ill. On January 23, 1774 the ‘legge sui pazzi’ (law on the insane) was established, the first of its kind to be introduced in all Europe. Vincenzo Chiarugi, then senior physician at the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, recommended the Duke that the insane be relocated to the old Bonifazio Hospital, which would be renovated for the purpose. It was officially opened in 1788, and dedicated to care of insane, incurable, invalid and dermatologic patients. Chiarugi was named physician-in-chief and most of the credit for the success of the project goes to him. His humane administration with regard to the insane marked the first application of the principles of treatment that form the basis of modern psychiatry. When it came time to reprint the regulations of the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, the Grand Duke encouraged Chiarugi to add a section on the rules and regulations of the Bonifazio Hospital (Regolamento dei Regi Spedali di Santa Maria Nuova e di Bonifazio, Firenze, 1789).

Collation: Engraved frontispiece with portrait of Peter Leopold, pp xiv, 313, (1) blank, one folding engraved plate; Spiegazione delle tavole, e delle figure: pp (6), with 3 folding engraved plates; Analisi dell´acqua: pp (5), (1) blank; one folding engraved plate, 22 letterpress tables, partly folding. Engraver: Cecchi.

Binding: Laced-case parchment binding, the endband cores laced through. Sewn on four supports. Brown and beige endbands, mottled edges, red morocco spine label. Wide margin copy, printed on thick paper.

References: Garrison-Morton 4920.2 (ed. of 1789); Norman, 474 (ed. of 1789); Alexander & Selesnick, The History of Psychiatry: An evaluation of psychiatric thought and practice from prehistoric times to the present, 1956, pp. 117-18; Gilman, Seeing the Insane. A cultural history of madness and art in the Western World, 1982, pp. 153-54; Schneck, A history of psychiatry, 1960, p. 77-78.