Historical Archives of the Biomedical Library

The archive, awaiting reorganisation, contains documents regarding the management and the regulations of the Arcispedale di Santa Maria Nuova's library, plus papers on various topics and correspondence. Studies on Physical education.

• Descripion in Chartae Ottavio Andreucci

The archive, pending reorganization, consists of various correspondence, including five letters of G.G. Escudier and G. Webb (1820-1838), a letter of the Rector of the Academy of Pisa, Prof. Sproni (1812), notes Tuscan history of the eighteenth century, medicine, surgery, history of medicine, philosophy, literature and physics (cc. 1000 approx); a repertoire of miscellaneous sheets partially arranged in alphabetical order (information taken from newspapers of the early nineteenth century such as the "Journal of Florence" and old books, cc. 500 approximately), notes of biblical genealogies, reports on examined medical cases (cc. 500 approximately), index of Giuseppe Bertini's books divided by subject, sonnets by various authors. The archive contains writings on medicine by Anton Francesco Bertini, Giuseppe Saverio Bertini and Giuseppe Bertini. Belonging to the latter there are preserved lecture notes, public readings, memories and notes about the history of medicine, as well as literature records, history and science.

Giuseppe (Florence 1772-1845) is perhaps the best known personality of the Bertini family. He graduated in Pisa in 1794, and two years later he obtained the professional abilitation as MD. In 1804, Giuseppe was sent to Livorno from the Regency Council as a medical doctor, in occasion of the epidemic of yellow fever. The following year, in recognition of services rendered, he was assigned the chair of Philosophical History of Medicine, newly established in the Florentine Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. In 1812 Giuseppe promoted the foundation of Florentine Philoiatric Society. He also distinguished himself in charitable deeds, among which the establishment of a fund for the maintenance of MDs in need.

Catalogued on card record and in a book. In the process of being reorganised. Not accessible for consultation.

Bibliography
E. Guarnieri, M.A. Mannelli, La cultura medica ed i suoi esponenti nella Firenze del primo Ottocento, Milano, Episteme, 1968, p. 60-61.

• Description in Chartae Giuseppe Bertini

The archive which was reorganized in 2008, consists essentially of letter directed at Betti by various senders, including Antonio Michelacci, Ubaldino Peruzzi, Ferdinando Zannetti and Zanobi Pecchioli; there are also notes relating to visits to different anatomical and pathological Italian and German museums, medical and surgical pathology notes, minutes and notes relating to reform and reorganization of the studies in the Specialisation School of Medicine and Surgery in Santa Maria Nuova, surgical and medical histories compiled by several doctors, colleagues and students.

Pietro Betti, with his holograph testament of 1854, donated his library to the Arcispedale of S. Maria Nuova, and left his handwritten papers to Ferdinando Zannetti. It is highly likely that the latter ones were added to the Arcispedale's holdings in 1881 along with the legacy of Zannetti's heirs.

The manuscripts mainly contain letters, including those addressed to Antonio Michelacci, Ubaldino Peruzzi, Ferdinando Zannetti and Zanobi Pecchioli. In the archive there are also memoirs and notes of visits to major pathology museums in northern Italy and Germany, pathological reports, notes on medicine and pathology, reports directed to the Office for the Infirmary Service (years 1836-1839) and the internal service of the hospitals of Santa Maria Nuova and Bonifazio (1840).

In good conservation state. Catalogue available as handwritten card record and in book format. Accessible for consultation. Reproduction allowed (by photography only).

Pietro Betti, native of Mugello (Mangona 1784-Florence 1863), obtained in 1809 in Florence his MD abilitation. In 1824 he was called on to take on the teaching of surgical institutions in the florentine Arcispedale of Santa Maria Nuova, then in 1828 that of Comparative Anatomy. In 1836 he was appointed professor of physiology and pathology. He was also appointed Superintendent of the Arcispedale and planned a reorganization of the medical practices. During cholera epidemics of 1834 and 1854 he became responsible for all the infirmaries of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. He established the Philoiatric Society of Florence as well as the Physical-medical Society.

Bibliography

Medicina, chirurgia e sanità in Toscana tra '700 e '800. Gli archivi inediti di Pietro Betti, Carlo Burci e Vincenzo Chiarugi, edited by Donatella Lippi; inventory by Beatrice Biagioli, Firenze, Firenze University Press, 2008, pp. 11-21.

Accessible also online: http://digital.casalini.it/9788884537881

L.F. Signorini, Pietro Betti, innovatore in sanità pubblica, e il colera in Toscana alla metà del XIX secolo, in Pietro Cipriani e la medicina del suo tempo, edited by M. Aliverti, Firenze, Polistampa, 2004, pp. 131-159.

• Description in Chartae Pietro Betti

This archive, yet to be organised, contains the general correspondence of the Medical Library of the Royal Institute of Higher Studies of Florence.

• Description in Chartae Biblioteca Medica

The archive consists mainly of manuscripts and notes relating to the activity carried out by Carlo Burci as a surgeon and professor in Florence and Pisa, as well as papers relating to the drafting of a new Health Code of the Kingdom of Italy and fragments of his translation of the work by Antonio Benivieni on the causes and remedies for some diseases. The correspondence, for the most part mixed with other documentation, is not present in significant quantities. The booklet 6 of the envelope 9 (V.N. Folder IX: R. 208.9) contains a document dated 10 July 1437. In the archive there are also legal and medical reports; news about cholera in Pisa in 1854; lessons on cystotomy; pathological anatomy studies; biographical praises of various doctors; readings for the Accademia dei Georgofili; writings on surgery; manuscript of the Treaty on Hernias; letters and writings of medical, physical and philosophical topics; registry of patients admitted in the surgical clinic of the University of Pisa (1850-1851; 1862-1863).

In good conservation state. Catalogue available as handwritten card record and in book format. Accessible for consultation. Reproduction allowed exclusively by photographic means.

Carlo Burci (Florence 1813-1875) studied medicine at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Florence with Ferdinando Zannetti as his maestro. In 1836 he obtained the abilitation as a surgeon in Bologna and was called by Pietro Betti, Superintendent of the Hospital of St. Maria Nuova, as a repeater of surgical operations. In 1840 Burci became deputy chair of Pathology and the following year he was appointed professor and became part of the Florentine College of Physicians. In 1846 he taught at the University of Pisa as a professor of surgery and surgical clinic. In 1848 he participated in the first war of Independence. Since 1848 he worked as a clinical surgeon at the Florentine School, but in 1868 was forced to leave his post because of a hand injury. He was appointed senator in 1865 and in 1871 he became president of the Higher Health Council of the Kingdom and worked with passion to the Health Code reform.

Bibliography

Medicina, chirurgia e sanità in Toscana tra '700 e '800. Gli archivi inediti di Pietro Betti, Carlo Burci e Vincenzo Chiarugi, edited by Donatella Lippi; inventory by Beatrice Biagioli, Firenze, Firenze University Press, 2008, pp. 25-94.

Accessible also online: http://digital.casalini.it/9788884537881

• Description in Chartae Carlo Burci

The archive, which was reorganized in 2008 in four envelopes divided by subject, consists mainly of notes and drafts related to lectures and treatises on medicine and surgery, notes on the history of medicine and lectures on mental illnesses.

To date we have no precise information on the acquisition of these documents, presumably arrived at the Arcispedale by donation and from there they reached their present location together with the rest of the materials preserved in Santa Maria Nuova in the late 1930s. As reported in the holograph testament of Vincenzo Chiarugi, drawn up in the presence of the notary Vincenzo Rigoli on April 8,1820, all the assets of the testator passed to his wife, Migliorotta Ricci, and children Antonio, giuseppe, Lorenzo, Margherita, Luisa and Eleonora, but there is no specific mention of the papers kept in archives.

In good conservation state. Catalogue available as handwritten card record and in book format. Accessible for consultation. Reproduction allowed exclusively by photographic means

Vincenzo Chiarugi (Empoli 1759-Florence 1820), famous doctor and psychiatrist, he graduated in medicine in Pisa in 1779. He carried out the training required for certification at the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence, where he began working as a doctor. He carried out remarkable work in the study and treatment of the mentally ill at the hospital of Santa Dorotea first and then at that of Bonifazio, renovated with the primary purpose of accommodating the insane. Appointed Head of Nurses of Bonifazio and Santa Maria Nuova Hospitals, Chiarugi approached mental illness in an innovative and enlightened fashion. He authored the Regulations of the Royal Hospitals, and in 1793 he published an essay titled On Madness in General and in Particular. In 1799 he wrote an essay on skin diseases. In 1805, in Florence, he was assigned the teaching of skin diseases and intellectual disturbances. In 1817 he was appointed Doctor of epidemics and the following year Superintendent of Nursing and Studies at the Arcispedale of Santa Maria Nuova.

Bibliography

Medicina, chirurgia e sanità in Toscana tra '700 e '800. Gli archivi inediti di Pietro Betti, Carlo Burci e Vincenzo Chiarugi, edited by Donatella Lippi; inventory by Beatrice Biagioli, Firenze, Firenze University Press, 2008, pp. 95-103.

Available also online: http://digital.casalini.it/9788884537881

• Description in Chartae Vincenzo Chiarugi

The inventory of Cocchi's papers was prepared in 1990 by Anna Maria Megale Valenti, but given the complexity of the collection some of the material currently requires a deeper examination. The most interesting section of the archives consists of 103 notebooks called Ephemeris that are nothing more than a private diary that Antonio Cocchi wrote out in great detail from May 1722 to December 1757 in several ancient and modern languages; they include original documents and informal notes on different topics. Part of the archive are also 6 boxes containing loose papers with notes of medicine, science, mathematics, botany, numismatics, bibliography, philology, history, drawings and correspondence; other notes relating to the same matters are collected in 40 other notebooks.

The archive is made up of about 150 volumes, plus a hundred among papers, documents, loose notes. It includes printed and handwritten works by Cocchi, mainly of medical subject (observations of patients, anatomical and medical records of autopsies, consultations, studies on ancient medicine), but there are also notes on natural sciences, studies on ancient and modern languages as well as drafts of correnspondence.

In good conservation state. Partially catalogued, on card and book format. Accessible for consultation. Reproduction allowed exclusively by photographic means.

Bibliography:

Le carte di Antonio Cocchi, edited by A. M. Megale Valenti, Milano, Bibliografica, 1990.

• Description in Chartae Antonio Cocchi

The archive which was reorganized in 2009, essentially consists of documentation relating to the activity carried out by Giovanni Battista Coletti as an official of the Health Department of Livorno.

Coletti was a scholar, and administrative officer expert in law and archival studies. There are documents pertaining to the Department of Health of Livorno from 1820 onwards, health regulations, including that of Marseille of 1797, and notes for the compilation of a health bibliography.

Also included are news about the plague that in 1630 and in 1633 hit some villages around Pisa and remarks about safety measures to implement in port areas and controls to prevent infections; medical police reports, in particular pertaining the port of Livorno.

In good conservation state. Catalogued in card and book format. Accessible for consultation. Reproduction allowed exclusively by photographic means.

• Description in Chartae Giovan Battista Coletti

The archive, undergoing reorganization, collects documents relating to the various activities of the Florentine Medical College that had been issuing the necessary license to officially exercise the health professions in Tuscany since the thirteenth century. The material is very heterogeneous. It can be divided into five sections: the first, with the "Registers of the Medical College" (1560-1809) is the most ancient and is composed of thirteen folders with documents relative to the authorizations to practice as an MD by the consuls of the doctors and chemists corporation; the second part consists of 121 folders relating to "Affairs of the Medical College" (1781-1867); the third section includes 13 folders entitled "Journal of the examinations decrees of the Medical College" and 28 alphabetic index registers (1814-1867); the fourth section contains four folders related to the general correspondence of the College entitled "Business carried out" (1850-1875) and the last section groups together 19 untitled items that have to do with health administration.

• Description in Chartae Collegio Medico Fiorentino

The archive, in the process of being sorted, includes the papers of the pharmacist Andrea Francesco Cozzi and his son Antonio. The writings of Andrea relate to chemistry notes, drafts of letters, reports of chemical experiments, studies on the analysis of water, conservation of edible meat, on the analysis of land and minerals. Those of Antonio are notes about the life of his father, research on suicide and on apparent death, pellagra, peritonitis and other diseases; medical studies and toxicological research on Paracelsus; preparatory studies for the work "Fundamental Maxims of Pathology and Surgical Therapy on Firearm Wounds".

We do not know how the Library of the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova has received Cozzi's material, although it is very likely by donation, as was the case with most of the other collections of the library. Most of the writings dating back to the 1860s.

In good conservation state. Catalogue available as handwritten card record and in book format. In the process of beign sorted. Not accessible for consultation.

Andrea Francesco Cozzi (Florence 1796-1856), chemist and pharmacologist, was trained at the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence where he studied under Paolo Mascagni and Ottaviano Targioni Tozzetti. In 1816 he was awarded the licence to be a pharmacist. Since 1826, having become manager of the pharmacy, he devoted himself to applied chemistry research and in 1839 he received his doctorate degree in Natural Sciences. The following year, having been appointed professor of pharmacology at Santa Maria Nuova, he developed the laboratory of pharmaceutical chemistry, of which he became director. In 1849 he obtained the chair of General Chemistry, and later became an honorary professor of the University of Pisa. He was a member of the Medical-physical Society of Florence and a member of many academies, like that of the Georgofili, the Valdarnese and Colombaria.

Bibliography

Sulla vita scientifica del frof. Andrea Cozzi. Discorso letto dal prof. Leonardo Doveri all'I. e R. Accademia di Arti e Manifatture nella Tornata del dì 30 agosto 1857, estratto dal 'Tempo', fasc. 1, marzo, Firenze 1858.

B. Biagioli, [ad vocem], in Archivi di personalità. Censimento dei fondi toscani fra '800 e '900, http://siusa.archivi.beniculturali.it/cgi-bin/pagina.pl?RicProgetto=personalita

• Description in Chartae Andrea Francesco e Antonio Cozzi

The archive, pending reorganization, includes medical writings, memories and study notes. It also contains the chemistry lecture notes of prof. Giuseppe Branchi of Pisa.

• Description in Chartae Angiolo Del Lungo

The fund, pending reorganization, consists of loose sheets of surgery lecture notes, a registry of clinical cases treated by Luigi Giuntini and notes on the female genital organs of prof. Luigi Giuntini accompanied by three plates drawn by Clemente Susini and carved by Antonio Serantoni.

• Description in Chartae Luigi Giuntini

The archive, still to be sorted, includes studies on cholera, pellagra, medical lectures, notes and memories related to the activity of Augusto as a dermatologist; there are about 40 letters sent to him by various correspondents. Part of the archive are also some of Pietro Cipriani's papers relating to medical notes and studies concerning the Arcispedale of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence.

There are also letters addressed to Giuseppe Michelacci, Augusto's father, related to public works, in particular hydraulics, dating to the first half of the nineteenth century. Letters from various senders dated to the second half of the 19th century addressed to Augusto and the latter's notes on his medical studies.

In good conservation state. Catalogued in book format. Accessible for consultation. Reproduction allowed exclusively by photographic means.

• Description in Chartae Augusto Michelacci

The archive, pending reorganisation, includes correnspondence between 1838 and 1844.

• Description in Chartae Pubblica Istruzione

The archive, to be completely re-sorted, includes acts, memoirs, regulations, the statute, correspondence, minutes of meetings, administrative documents and membership lists of the Society.

• Description in Chartae Società Medico Fisica Fiorentina

The archive is in the process of being reorganized and includes notes of medicine and the correspondence of Pietro Vannoni from 1830 to 1870. It also contains a catalogue of books and booklets donated by Vannoni in 1876 to the library of the Arcispedale di Santa Maria Nuova in Florence.

There are also notes on dating back to the late eighteenth century by Lorenzo Vannoni, speeches which he has given on various occasions, the project on the establishment of medical-surgical academy in the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova and correspondence. Letters to Pietro Vannoni from various senders, his notes on obstetrics and maternity hospital registers from 1940.

In good conservation state. Catalogued in book format and partially on card records. Accessible for consultation. Reproduction allowed exclusively by photographic means.

• Description in Chartae Pietro Vannoni

The archive, pending sorting, consists of handwritten and printed documentation (about 300 c.) on health authority regulations of various towns along the Ligurian and French coasts; comparison tables between the French and Tuscan rates, description of the plague hospital of Marseille. The name of Giuseppe Vivoli is not mentioned.

• Description in Chartae Giuseppe Vivoli

The archive was reorganized in 2003 and the same year was published by Firenze University Press its inventory, prepared by the archivist Beatrice Biagioli. In Zannetti's papers two distinct sections have been identified: one related to the activity carried out as a doctor, surgeon and university professor and the other as a patriot and politician, witnessing his dual commitment throught the course of his life.

There are about 300 loose sheets, received as a donation and including also correspondence, medical reports and various documents.

In good conservation state. Catalogue available as handwritten card record and in book format. Accessible for consultation. Reproduction allowed exclusively by photographic means.

• Description in Chartae Ferdinando Zannetti