Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/y6zolb6wrm
Ospedale delle partorienti– An Unknown Dubrovnik Lying-In Hospital in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century
Rina Kralj-Brassard
orcid.org/0000-0003-0312-6875
; Institute for historical sciences of CASA in Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Abstract
The article examines the expenditure records in the volume Beneficiati e capellani di Tesoreria 1624–1646regarding the Ospedale delle partorienti, Lying-In Hospital in Dubrovnik, on the basis of which the operation of this institution is being placed within a broader context of Dubrovnik hospitals, particularly that of the Hospitale Misericordiae, originally indented for the admission of abandoned illegitimate children only. The mentioned hospital later also acquired the role of a lying-in home and is considered to be the oldest hospital of this kind on Croatian territory. The analysis of data concerning the operation of the Ospedale delle partorientiin the volume Beneficiati e capellani di Tesoreria 1624–1646 in the archive of the Opera piahas confirmed the activity of this hospital from 1627 to at least 1650. The hospital was probably founded after 1574, as it was not mentioned in the visitation of the apostolic visitor Giovanni Francesco Sormani.
Ospedale delle partorienti was located within the city walls, near St. Domino Church. The hospital was staffed by midwives, who received a regular, though a modest monthly salary. That is the earliest dateable information on midwives in permanent service in Croatia. The hospital was equipped with a birthing stool, which is the first mention of specialised lying-in equipment on Croatian territory. The building of the Ospedale delle partorienti was damaged in the 1639 earthquake, and most probably was totally destroyed in the disastrous earthquake of 1667.
The hospital was to provide medical care to poor parturient maids, and as such may be included among women’s hospitals. Unlike other hospitals intended for women, the accommodation at the Ospedale delle partorientiwas, in all likelihood, short, not longer than several months. The hospital offered medical assistance in childbirth, but of greater importance was its charitable dimension, as a shelter for parturients. Ospedale delle partorientipreceded the lying-in ward within the Hospitale Misericordiae, and is the earliest specialised maternity hospital in Croatia.
Keywords
Dubrovnik; lying-in hospital; midwives; maidservants; 17th century
Hrčak ID:
288088
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2022.
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