Escritura y praxis documental para la gestión de enfermos en la hospitalidad hispalense (siglos XV-XVIII)

Abstract

The proliferation of hospitals in the city of Seville throughout the Modern Age improved the existing health care network. The newly created establishments, be it by private initiative or by public institutions, specialized in the care of specific social groups and in different diseases. They stipulated diverse admission procedures and patient care that were captured in the statutes and constitutions, marking the guidelines of the sanitary circuit within the establishment. Diagnosis and prescription marked the two milestones of the health activity that materialized through the admission and the medical visit. As a result, hospitals created documentary and librarian instruments in order to control and manage the mourners during the Modern Age. Through the analysis of documentary and bibliographic sources, this article attempts to identify the different admission processes, as well as the characteristics of the medical visit and the participation of different actors in the care of the patients in Modern Age Seville, pointing out the defining elements of the books and documents that officials, priests, doctors or apothecaries created to exercise an effective control over patients