Fevers in the Archive: Medicine and Historical Practice in Enlightenment Italy

Abstract

Physicians in eighteenth-century Italy recast the frontlines of their profession’s perennial war against disease: from focusing on individuals, they shifted to considering the health of society as a whole. Combating epidemic diseases became central to physicians’ efforts to improve the population’s health, and one of the most significant practices they developed to do so was the study of history. As part of their work, these doctors conducted research in archives and libraries to find documents that shed light on the history of diseases such as plague, malaria, venereal disease, and other fevers. This historical practice enabled them to uncover connections between historical change and disease patterns and provided them with a powerful instrument of policymaking, thereby positioning them as public health experts. Physicians’ historical epidemiology, as I call it, drew its force from broader intellectual trends. Enlightenment Italy saw the emergence of a new relationship between historical thinking and politics. During this period, the Italian states experienced dramatic political upheavals, marked by the disappearance of old political powers and the rise of new ones. In response to this instability, Italian intellectuals turned to historical studies, employing the authority of the past to imagine, justify, and advance vast reforms in pursuit of social progress. 'Fevers in the Archive' shows that physicians used history in a similar way. In their hands, history became not only a scientific method but also a powerful political tool through which they sought to reform medical knowledge, health institutions, and the environment. Historical epidemiology was, in other words, an epistemic practice heavily shaped by politics and wholly directed toward the political sphere. By practicing it, physicians voiced not only their scientific convictions but also their political concerns and, at times, their political allegiances. Historical studies in Enlightenment Italy revolved around uncovering and analyzing archival and manuscript sources. Likewise, physicians who studied the history of epidemics showed a strong interest in, if not an outright obsession with, unedited historical documents. Their historical practice led them to rely on these records for their epidemiological work and to grant them a distinct authoritative voice. In their view, this kind of evidence often offered better insights into diseases than scientific methods grounded in direct observation. Nevertheless, the eighteenth century saw persistent tensions between firsthand and historical evidence. 'Fevers in the Archive' therefore concludes by showing how these tensions gradually eroded the basis of historical epidemiology and contributed to the onset of a separation of medicine and historical erudition.