BESTA, Giacomo Filippo.

by Giacomo Filippo Besta

£2,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

.A very good copy of the first edition of this detailed account of the plague that hit Milan in 1576 a wonderful early witness to disaster management - with, appended at rear, a collection of poems on the same subject. Giacomo Filippo Besta, of whom little is known, was a notary and gate guard during the plague of 1576. His account attributed far more to the secular arm of the state than to Cardinal Borromeo s spiritual and secular initiatives, and examined in greater detail and with more documentation events within the city walls as well as showing greater concern for the plague s spread within Lombardy. [It] devoted attention to the communication between the various city-states and Milan and compared Milan s reactions and solutions with measures taken in Verona and Venice (Cohn, p.106). The account begins with Besta s hypothesis on the contagion: the plague was supposedly brought from Trento in 1575, despite the use of city guards (whose names are listed) and health passes ( bollette ) in Milan. There follows an account of the early stages, with the identification of potential patients zero - i.e., people who were clearly ill but managed to escape isolation - as well as the decision to lock down inns and stop all commercial activities involving gatherings for over a year. Besta traces the spread of the plague within Milan, and provides incredibly detailed descriptions of processions and ceremonies made to protect the city, various strategies to manage the sick (e.g., the is

• Binding: Hardcover

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