Between the Middle Ages and the modern age, the Italian contribution to European reflection on epidemics: did jurists advise governments?

Mario Ascheri

doi:10.54103/2464-8914/16881

Abstract

This work aims to present what some Italian jurists at the beginning of 16th century, during a new series of epidemics, thought useful to prevent and preserve from epidemics. Their tracts, in Latin language, were widespread all over Europe since they summarized the experience of many centuries. Their advices were given governments to show how many possibilities were open to deliberate according to the European common law and therefore they are useful tools to judge the enacted local provisions.

Highlights

English: This work aims to present what some Italian jurists at the beginning of 16th century, during a new series of epidemics, thought useful to prevent and preserve from epidemics
In 1825 a French doctor who became famous for having faced the epidemic that exploded among the Napoleonic militias in Egypt, Renè-Nicolas Dufriche Desgenettes, published in a professional magazine an essay on a rare treatise on the plague which he boasted of the discovery
In particular, created a unitary law, starting from the legislation of Roman origin partly inherited from canon law, to be applied in the absence of local regulations

Summary

Many diverse studies for a single threat

In 1825 a French doctor who became famous for having faced the epidemic that exploded among the Napoleonic militias in Egypt, Renè-Nicolas Dufriche Desgenettes, published in a professional magazine an essay on a rare treatise on the plague which he boasted of the discovery. Nothing will be the same again, I rightly fear, and the emergency could / should be overcome within the year with vaccines, even if the hypothesis of a virus capable of surviving under changing guises is faced more and more— often upsets our wish to control despair. In particular, created a unitary law, starting from the legislation of Roman origin partly inherited from canon law, to be applied in the absence of local regulations They knew that their teaching would reach institutions and political powers, which would certainly have taken it into account (to a greater or lesser extent) given that their advisers had had a university education. We shall only offer a summary of the problems that emerged; we intend to clarify how this culture of normative precepts was elaborated in a future contribution

Summary of the Legal Opinions

Regulations of Direct Interest to Individuals

The Treaties on the Remedies Outlined Above

The Context