A tragedy of the great plague of Milan in 1630 / by Robert Fletcher.
- Robert Fletcher
- Date:
- 1898
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A tragedy of the great plague of Milan in 1630 / by Robert Fletcher. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![tide of hair was shaved off, and a purgative was given him, so that he might be effectually deprived of all diabolic aid. Piazza was thus prepared every time that he was tortured,* The belief in this protective power was of ancient date. A distinguished Italian magistrate,! in a work on criminal law published in 1532, states that an accused man revealed the secret of his ability to resist torture and refrain from cries or disclosures. He confessed that one of his relatives had pre- pared for him a cake of wheat flour, to which was added the mixed milk of a mother and daughter. Every day he was to swallow some crumbs of this cake, and as long as it lasted it insured his insensibility to torment. On the other hand, there were certain liquids and greases which, when rubbed into the body of an accused person, counteracted all his protective charms, and, says Marsiliis, with cynical exultation, “when that was done one could hear the joints crack and the bones sing,” M. Le Blancj; s.ays that these counter-charms were known in England in the 12th century, in Italy in the 14th century, and in China to quite recent days.§ The original account of the proceedings which led to the tragic end of Piazza and Mora is that of the Canon Kipamonti. He was born in 1577, and was historiographer of !Milan. He published the first ten volumes of the Ecclesiastical History of Milan, in 1617, and by request of the Decurions wrote an account of the plague which devasted the city in 1030. This latter is a quarto book of 410 pages, written in Latin, and pub- lished at Milan in 1641. The title-page is a copper-plate en- graving, curiously emblematic. There is a gigantic skeleton filling the entire page; his hands hold weapons, armor, and books of devotion; his bony feet protrude from under a car- pet on which lies a man, the victim of the plague. In front * “ Abraso prius dicto Gulielmo, et vestibus Curise induto, propi- nata etiam potione ea purgante.” (Processo [etc.], p. 41.) t Hippolytus de Marsiliis. Practica criminalis [etc.], fob, Vene- tiis, 1532, fob 12. t Le Blanc, ( Edmond). De I’ancient croyance i des moyens se- crets de defier la torture. Paris, 1892, p. 14. I Bodin states that magic words conferring immunity under tor- ture were sometimes written on the scalp of sorcerers, where it was concealed by the hair. (De la demonomanie des sorciiires, 1587.)](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22330100_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
