Des familles aux institutions d’assistance médicale : parcours volontaires, parcours obligés (Gênes, XVIIIe siècle)

Abstract

This article aims to identify some of the reasons that led governments to favour hospital facilities at the expense of other forms of social assistance in the eighteenth century. I examined the records of criminal cases heard at the Pammatone Hospital and the Albergo dei Poveri of Genoa to investigate the links tying the hospitals to the people who used their resources in order to gain greater understanding of why the general public was so well disposed towards these structures. By analysing the actions of certain individuals within these institutions, I was also able to establish an idea of how the beneficiaries of the system built up an awareness of it. This in turn led to the spread of information on the healthcare provided by the hospitals, forming the basis of a medical culture of the beneficiaries which enabled a relationship of trust to be set up between the hospital and the patients.

Keywords

• system of social assistance
• confinement
• hospitals
• strategies
• patronage