La peste nel 1630 

The plague of 1630 (Enghish) 

La peste del 1630 (Espanol) 

La peste de 1630 (Francois) 

Esegesi dei documenti 

In 1630 the young Duke Francesco I, who was one of the most important of his family, governed the State. 
The capital of the Dukedom was Modena, since 1598, when Duke Caesar I was forced to yield Ferrara and Comacchio to the Church. 
The Estense State comprised the following territories: Modena and Reggio with their counties, the Frignano and Garfagnana, mountainous areas on the border with Tuscany. 
The Estenses governed the State with the help of some officials, who were mostly of noble origin, governors and lower commissioners. 
Modena's community was administered by a General Council, an ancient institution of medieval origins, which was representative of the citizenship. 
The magistrature of the preservers of the health was very important, it took care of everything concerning public hygiene and health. 

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In 1629, after the war for the succession of the dukedoms of Mantova and Monferrato, the imperial army, formed by the terrible "Lanzichenecchi", brought to Lombardy and the Mantova area, the plague which then also extended to the Modena area. 
Modena was still and industrious city, nevertheless not as it had been in the 1500's; it felt the effect of the general economic decline which hit Italy in 1600. 
Textile and typographic activities were the only manufacturing activities which resisted; the silkworm trade also survived. 
The main activity was agriculture, that was however not flourishing: at the end of the 1500's there had been several years of famine, in which the population was compelled to eat whatever they found, and many people starved to death. 
At the beginning of the century, the wars with Lucca, which wanted to appropriate Garfagnana, made the country's economy worse; the inhabitants were therefore physically weakened by the bad nourishment, moreover they had to live in worrying hygienic conditions (the roads were full of rubbish; animals, like pigs, could freely walk around the streets), so the plague spread easily. 
At the beginning nobody wanted to believe it, either because men usually refuse anything which frightens them or because trade and business would have been interrupted, bringing damage to several people. 
When the death rate rose, people had to accept reality. 
Some measures had to be taken: 
- trade was interrupted and all the mountain passes were closed; 
- anybody who had contracted a disease was forbidden to move around frely; 
- the houses where there had been deaths, caused by the plague, were marked with a red cross, and it was forbidden to go into or come out of them; 
- the inhabitants were forced to keep roads and public places clean; 
- three "Lazareths" were opened to cure and isolate the sick people; 
- the "monatti" from the Promessi Sposi were recruited among the prisoners; they were men without any scruples, and they often took advantage of sick people. 
People didn't know much about the origins of the plague: they thought it was spread by cruel people, the "untori", or by unfavourable alignments of the stars. 
Doctors thought that the plague could be spread not only by direct contact, but the medicines of the time were totally inadequate. 
While the Duke was far from the city, doctors and the clergy did all they could to help the sufferes, often losing their lives for their pains. 
In October 1630 the Community was desperate because half of the inhabitants had died, and they made a vow, to Mary of the Ghiara of Reggio, to build a church if the plague were defeated. 
Finally on the 13th of November, S. Omobono, nobody died. 
Still today the Church of the vow witnesses the suffering of the population of Modena caused by this terrible event.