Museo storico nazionale dell'arte sanitaria

History

The museum originates from a former anatomical museum, increased with the collections of Giovanni Carbonelli and Pietro Capparoni. The collections of the early museum, having educational purposes, are still in place.

The idea for the creation of the current museum came from the International Exhibition of Retrospective Art, held in Rome in 1911. The Institute for the Historic Museum of Healthcare Art (ISIDAS) was founded in 1920 and in 1934 turned into the Academy of History of Healthcare Art (ASAS), having the foundation of the museum among its goals. In 1929 the Institute of Santo Spirito granted a wing of the hospital, located in the former Corsia Alessandrina.

The museum included historical collections, which were joined to the former collection from the 1911 Exhibition; in 1931 the collection of Giovanni Carbonelli was added, in 1939 that of the General A. Cavalli Mulinelli and later the ones of Giuseppe and Orlando Solinas.

Description

The museum is located in a wing of the Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia. It includes a well-provided library, with books dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries. The volumes include books printed in the 16th century by Aldo Manuzio and his son (cinquecentine), as well as recipe books, manuscripts dating back to the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, anthologies, diplomas, rules, etchings and anatomical tables. The library also houses four 18th-century oil paintings portraying doctors, among which Giuseppe Flajani and his son Gaetano. A walnut shelf, coming from a monastic chapter archive, is placed along the walls.

The museum is divided into the following rooms:

Portico

This room belongs to the Sala Alessandrina, built among 1665 and 1667 by Pope Alexander VII. The left wall is decorated with the coat of arms of Pope Pius IX, with a marble plaque dating back to 1896. Under the coat of arms is a marble mortar with angels at its sides. Another plaque commemorates the restoration carried out in 1797, when the tutor of the hospital was Giovanni Castiglioni; the room also houses some travertine emblems of the hospital itself. In a corner on the right there is a 1902 walled-in monument portraying doctor Enrico Biondi, killed by a crazy man.

Sala Alessandrina

The room is perpendicular to the sixtine rooms that are the main body of the hospital. It is called Ospedaletto (English: "Little hospital"), because it was used as a shelter for wounded soldiers. The room is 108 ft 7 in long, 35 ft 4 in wide and 35 ft 8 in high. It could house 64 beds. Presently it serves as a conference hall. The walls are decorated by 19 anatomical tables dating back to the beginning of the 19th century, created by Antonio Serantony and Paolo Mascagni and belonged to the surgeon Guglielmo Riva. The room also houses a plaster statue with pedestal portraying Aesculapius.

Grand staircase …