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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![A [From Bi’Li.ETiN of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Augvst, I89S.] TR.UiKDY OF THE (illE MILAN IN Hi. BY ROBEKT FLETCHER, In early Bible history there are records of the utter de- struction of temples or even cities, the removal of every stone which marked their existence, ami the sowing of the ground with salt, so that it might ever after be sterile. Of the effi- cacy of the latter part of the jiroceediug, some doubts might be entertained. In more modern times the residence of some notorious criminal has, in like manner, been destroyed and removed with the solemn declaration by the State that the ground upon which it had stood should be held as accursed, and that no building should ever be erected upon it. There are two noteworthy instances in which, in addition, a stone column with au inscription describing the crime and its punishment was erected upon the site of the dwelling of the criminal. The first in order of date is still in existence in Genoa. A certain Julius Ca>sar Vacchero, known as the “richest merchant of Genoa,” entered into a conspiracy in 1628 to destroy the republican government of Genoa and to deliver the State to the Duke of Savoy. He avus beheaded with many of his fellow conspirators, his Avife and children were banished, and by a decree of the Senate his palace was razed to the ground, every stone removed, and a pillar with an inscription deA'oting him to “eternal infamy” Avas erected on its site. A naval officer* Avho visited the spot a few years •Captain Greer, now Rear Admiral Greer, U. S. N. (Retired). He copied the inscription, which corresponds exactly with that given in the account of Vacchero’s conspiracy in the Archivio atorico d’Italia, an important collection of public documents pub- lished by the Italian Government, and amounting to nearly a hundred volumes.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22330100_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
